Letter to the Editor - Why I support Art Moore for Congress by Congressman George Radanovich

        After the redistricting process of 2012, Tom McClintock became the congressman of the newly redrawn Fourth Congressional District of California.  The 4th Congressional District is a vast and sweeping district that includes all of the Sierra Nevada from Lake Tahoe to Auberry.   I know Tom McClintock because I served with him in Congress, and today Tom represents me in Congress.  Tom talks conservative principles, the same ones that I supported in Congress for sixteen years, and I still believe that these principles reflect the majority view of the voters in the 4th Congressional district.

 

        However, performance is as important as words, and that’s why I am supporting Republican Art Moore to represent me in Washington. There are three reasons that have shaped my decision:

 

        First, Agriculture is the largest industry in California and the largest drought in decades has put a spotlight on the industry’s dwindling water supplies. Despite Tom McClintock’s Chairmanship of the Water and Power Subcommittee in Congress, McClintock has contributed nothing to the debate.  He has been virtually “non-existent” when it comes to water and agriculture issues for California farmers.  That is why the Farm Bureau, The Grape and Tree Fruit League, California Citrus Mutual, Sunkist, US Ag Bank, California Canning Peach Association and other farm organizations have endorsed Art.

 

        Second, Art Moore is one of us. He grew up in Auburn, not Southern California.  He lives in the district.  He attended St. Joseph’s Catholic School and graduated from Placer High School.  His parents live in Lincoln, Placer County.  After high school he attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a field of study in Environmental Engineering. Commissioned as an infantry officer.  Art has a combined fourteen years of Active Duty and National Guard service, including thirty months deployed overseas. Art is currently a Major in the Army National Guard and has pending orders to advance to the rank of Lt. Colonel this year.

 

        Following 9/11, Art deployed to the Haifa Street section of Baghdad, where he was second in command of a 200-Soldier infantry company, and was awarded the Bronze Star. Two years later he deployed as chief of logistics of an 800-Soldier light infantry battalion in support of the Iraq War Surge.

 

        Art is a conservative Republican, a businessman, military officer and a proven leader who believes in individual liberty, limited government and personal responsibility.  He is a man after my own heart.

   

        Third, because the time has passed for conservatives who do nothing more than “hold the line” on conservative issues.  The growing cancer of progressivism that is destroying the fabric of our nation calls for new men and women with vision and a viable plan to mainstream conservatism and restore America.

 

        If asked how he might accomplish this, Tom would hope that more conservatives would be elected to the House, Senate and the White House.  Then Washington could solve the problems with Republican majorities.  I can tell you from experience that that won’t yield anything but disappointment if action does not accompany talk. 

 

        Even though Tom McClintock can articulate conservative views, he is not capable of steering America away from liberal progressivism and toward Ronald Reagan’s “shining City on the Hill” without sinking the ship of State.

 

        In his book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg explained how Martin Luther King cast the civil rights movement in a “new and different light…” Further, “King said the pursuit of civil rights was part of God’s plan; the same destiny that had ended British colonialism in India and slavery in the United States, and that had caused Christ to die on the cross so that he could take away our sins.  It was the newest stage in a movement that had started centuries earlier.  And as such, this new light required new responses, different strategies and behaviors.”  Martin Luther King provided a new approach to the civil rights movement.

 

        Washington needs a leader who can cast the conservative movement in a new and different light, not by compromising with liberal progressives, but by providing new responses, different strategies and behaviors.

 

        Art Moore is the best hope for the future, Tom McClintock’s time has passed. We need conservatives who will fight for our district and move the conservative vision forward.  That is why I am voting for Art Moore.