Printer Friendly Page
VETERANS WORKING TO INCREASE POLITICAL CLOUT --
"We are making a concerted effort to be
part of the political process."
Story here...
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20061127/NEWS01/611270312/1002/NEWS
Story below.
---------------
Veterans working to increase political clout
By Ana Radelat
aradelat@gns.gannett.com
WASHINGTON -- After testing their political clout in this year's
elections, activist veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are
hoping to increase their influence on Capitol Hill.
One new veterans group gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to
political candidates and ran campaign commercials in key races this
year. Another, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, stirred
controversy by grading every member of Congress on dozens of votes cast
since Sept. 11, 2001.
The report card favored Democrats. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-New Orleans,
for example, received a B-plus from IAVA. Sen. David Vitter, R-Metairie,
got an F.
Vitter called the IAVA "a very liberal group aligned with the Democratic
Party."
"This group gave John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Teddy Kennedy high
marks, but I don't know any military folks in Louisiana who hold those
three out as their heroes," Vitter said.
Disabled American Veterans, founded in 1920, also has rated Democrats
better than Republicans. The group graded senators on five key votes
this year. Landrieu's votes won her a score of 80 out of 100 while
Vitter earned only 40 points.
"Charges of bias are not possible," DAV spokesman David Autry said. "We
didn't cherry-pick votes, we picked the legislation that was important
to us."
One reason veteran groups' rankings may have favored Democrats is that
Republicans were less willing to spend money on increasing veterans'
benefits.
The votes the DAV tracked centered on proposals that would improve
veterans' health care and other benefits. The IAVA tracked those votes
and dozens of others.
IAVA spokesman Will Coghlan said there's no partisan slant to the 151
votes the groups studied to grade senators.
"Democrats ranked better. That's just the way the numbers have worked
out," he said.
A lieutenant in the Army National Guard from New York, Paul Rieckhoff
founded the IAVA when he returned from Iraq in the summer of 2004. He
was surprised the lives of most Americans seemed untouched by the Iraq
war and wanted to raise awareness of the day-to-day perils faced by U.S.
troops.
Nathan Gonzales, political editor at the Rothenberg Political Report,
said the new veterans groups didn't play a major role in the Democrats'
takeover of Congress. He attributed the election results to an unpopular
war and an unpopular president, not veterans issues.
But Gonzales said as the number of veterans grows, so will their
political influence.
"They have a potential to mobilize," he said.
Veterans activist Jon Soltz, who was once associated with the IAVA,
founded Vote Vets at the beginning of the year. Within months, the new
group had raised about $2.5 million. It donated most of that money to
Democratic campaigns or spent it on political advertising.
Soltz worked as a volunteer for the 2004 presidential campaign of Sen.
John Kerry, D-Mass. Vote Vets counts another former Democratic White
House hopeful, Gen. Wesley Clark, among its advisers.
While the group has a Democratic slant, spokesman Eric Schmeltzer said
there's no consensus among its 15,000 members on what course the United
States should take in Iraq.
Schmeltzer also said there's a big difference between today's veterans
and the Vietnam vets who became politicized when they returned home.
"They came home and protested," Schmeltzer said. "We are making a
concerted effort to be part of the political process."
Schmeltzer said Vote Vets helped defeat four incumbent Republican
senators, George Allen, of Virginia, Conrad Burns, of Montana, Jim
Talent, of Missouri and Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania. He also said the
group helped elect two veterans "" Patrick Murphy and Joe Sestak "" who
ran as Democrats for House seats in Pennsylvania.
The group plans to continue to lobby for veterans issues and may hire a
Washington lobbyist.
"We have a lot of momentum and a lot of money," Soltz said.
---------------
Larry Scott
