Spirit of '94!

Thank you for your reconsideration, Rep. Shadegg:

Politics is so full of stories of pressure groups tearing elected officials down or trying to defeat an idea or bill, it's noteworthy when a large group of activists spontaneously join to try to keep a good person in the public arena. It's even more noteworthy when they succeed.

That's what happened last week when Rep. John Shadegg, a noted conservative from Arizona, reversed his decision of ten days ago to retire from Congress. Instead, he announced he will stand for re-election.

Instrumental in his decision was a letter from 146 of his GOP House colleagues urging him to stay, along with a similar letter from the heads of 33 conservative organizations echoing the need for him to continue to provide a voice for smaller government and individual empowerment. As we noted in PD last Tuesday, his friends in the House especially look to him for leadership on entitlement reform.

But Mr. Shadegg said there other voices that meant as much in his rethinking. Literally thousands of conservative voters contacted his office urging him to stay and fight for their cause. When he arrived at the Phoenix airport at 5:30 one morning last week, a security guard suddenly turned to him and simply said: "Run again." A shocked Mr. Shadegg could only respond: "Thanks."

One advantage of having Mr. Shadegg remain in Congress is his expertise on health care, where he is the lead author of a bill to allow people to purchase individual health care policies across state lines, opening that market to needed competition. Should either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton end up in the White House, you can bet that those fighting a government takeover of health care will be glad to have the Arizonan on their side in that debate. -- John Fund, Political Diary

Spirit of '94 Posted by jk at February 26, 2008 5:06 PM