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John Shadegg, US Representative from Arizona Congressional District 3, was the featured speaker tonight at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition Arizona Chapter at the Jewish Community Center in Scottsdale, AZ. Rep. Shadegg spoke for about 20 minutes and took questions during the rest of the meeting which started at 7pm and ended after 9:30 pm. He was speaking about rebuilding the Republican Party.

Shadegg talked about a wide range of issues that include encouraging other members of Congress not to interact with CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations) which he distributed handouts about, challenges of keeping up with all of the bills going through Congress, lack of commitment by many Republicans in Congress to freedom and free market principles, the Republican Party, and the role Republicans in Congress can most effectively play while in the minority.

According to Shadegg, the problems Republicans have is due to their failure to live up to what they promised with the Contract with America. He said that once Republicans took control of Congress, many were corrupted by their power as members of the majority. This led to excess government spending, increased use of earmarks, and more corruption. He said that the new Republican members of Congress elected in 1994 were enthusiastic in their support of liberty and free markets. Unfortunately, they were vastly outnumbered by other Republicans in Congress who had been in Congress previously. Many of those people did not have any strong ideological commitment to any political belief since, as members of the minority (Republicans were the minority for 40 years), they never had to seriously think of any principles relating to the proper role of government. However, as the representatives with the most seniority, they took many leadership positions. Many of those leaders started using their leadership positions much as the Democrats had. Shadegg said that the real election calling for change was in 2006 when Democrats were elected to majorities in Congress. Poor Republican performance running the Federal government made voters want a change. He said the Republicans in Congress failed to change. They elected the same leaders and pursued the same failed approaches. This contributed to the even greater losses in 2008 as Republicans had lost credibility as proponents of limited government.

Rep. Shadegg did say, though, that there was hope for Republicans retaking Congress in 2010 ever since Obama was inaugurated as President. The transformation Obama wants to make to America will reduce freedom for all Americans, and Shadegg thinks that American voters, once they get a clear picture of what the Democrats want to do to their country, will reject that approach by voting Republican.

In response to a question about getting involved in political organizations, Rep. Shadegg encouraged Conservatives to get involved in grassroots organizations such as the Republican Jewish Coalition, contact their elected officials, and talk to people about issues in order to present a Conservative view for others to consider. He said that getting involved in the Arizona State Republican Party or the Maricopa County Republican Party was a bad idea because they were being poorly led and were at the lowest level since Ev Mecham was governor of Arizona. He said that the Arizona and Maricopa County Republican leaders used the illegal immigration issue to create conflicts in the Republican Party. Instead, he said the Republican Party leaders should focus on having a big tent to welcome many people into the Republican Party. He gave as examples those who favored strict enforcement of illegal immigration laws and those favoring giving citizenship to illegal aliens as well as both pro-choice and pro-life Republicans. He said that he personally did not support giving illegal aliens citizenship as does Jeff Flake, but that he is definitely not supportive of people like Russell Pearce who want to arrest and deport illegal immigrants on a huge scale. He did not say what approach he does support, though.

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