Taken For Granted
Posted by The Red Pill on July 17, 2007
Charles Jeremy “Jerry” Lewis has represented the people of the 41st district (formerly the 37th district) for more than 25 years. He has won many elections by extremely wide margins, and opponents have been known to report $0 in campaign spending, feeling their efforts to defeat him would be futile.
The constituents of the 41st Congressional District have been taken for granted by our long-time representative. Lewis has become one of the most corrupt politicians in America during his quarter century tenure in Congress. He has habitually used pork barrel earmarks to pay off everyone from family members and friends to campaign contributors and lobbyists. He is the subject of several federal investigations, including one that was headed by former US Attorney Carol Lam, 1 of 8 US Attorneys newly dismissed in a controversial move by Washington.
Lewis recently authored a $500,000 earmark to the FY08 House Financial Services Appropriations Bill. Logic would dictate that this expenditure go toward something in Lewis’s 41st district which has more than 1 depressed area, many with few local social services available. However, logic would be sadly mistaken. Instead, the half million-dollar add-on is to go for decorative flowers in a Washington DC park.
Why would a Congressman from the California desert be interested in acquiring federal taxpayer money for a park thousands of miles from the people who he has been entrusted to represent? Unfortunately, a visit to Lewis’s official website won’t yield an answer, as it has gone without updates for almost a year. But with a little light, the answer becomes painfully clear. Congressman Jerry Lewis owns a $943,000 town home 3 blocks away from that park, and is simply interested in increasing its property value.
How many parks in the 41st district could use a $500,000 facelift? How many schools could use a half million-dollar makeover? How many roads could be repaved? Instead of fighting for the interests of the people he has been elected to represent-us-he is fighting for his own personal interests. What’s worse is that, with earmarks, he doesn’t even have to fight at all. That is because earmarks are added after a bill has been approved.
I invite every registered voter in the 41st Congressional District to personally remind Congressman Lewis that he works for us, and we will no longer be taken for granted. We can do this, first, by contacting him in Washington and demanding that he explain why he is now representing the people of Washington DC rather than the people who have elected him time and time again. The next step will be to remind him in November 2008.
Congressman Lewis can be contacted at:
CONGRESSMAN JERRY LEWIS
2112 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-5861
Fax: (202) 225-6498
http://www.house.gov/jerrylewis/index.html – Official Website
