Gilchrest shows he can play Republican
Yesterday I got this press release from Wayne Gilchrest’s camp:
GILCHREST VOTES FOR BAN ON TAXING THE INTERNET
U.S. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest (R-Maryland-1st) voted in favor of legislation Tuesday that extends the ban on taxing the Internet for another 4 years.
H.R. 3678, called The Internet Tax Freedom Act Amendments of 2007, passed by a vote of 405 to 2.
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“This extension is important because it was due to expire on November 1st,” Gilchrest said. “But I’ve cosponsored legislation that would permanently prohibit taxing the Internet and I hope this Congress acts on that legislation.”
Gilchrest is a cosponsor of H.R. 743, which permanently bans Internet taxes and has 238 cosponsors in the House.
The legislation passed Tuesday extends the moratorium on certain state and local taxation of online services and electronic commerce until November 1, 2011.
Congress first banned Internet taxes in 1998. Over the last decade, Gilchrest has voted to make the Internet tax ban permanent, but those bills died in the Senate. Temporary bans have passed instead, the most recent passing in 2004.
“With an emerging industry like the Internet Congress should be doing everything to encourage its growth, not tax it. Economic growth is the key to our strong economy, and this measure should help promote growth in one of our most promising fields,” Gilchrest said.
What Gilchrest doesn’t note is that he signed on as a cosponsor just a few days ago, on October 3rd. By the way, the two who voted no on are Rep. Michael Turner (OH-3) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (CA-14). Eshoo is the lead sponsor of the bill to make the moratorium permanent so I’m guessing she voted as she did to encourage a vote to perpetuate the exemption. Not sure what led Turner to vote against the continuation. The bill in question, HR 3678, is here.
Also, for the third day in a row the Daily Times weighed in on the race (this time with an AP story written by Kristen Wyatt.) Again they use another in-your-face style quote from the Gilchrest camp:
Gilchrest planned a few small house parties in coming weeks to raise money for his campaign, Caligiuri said. He’s also got a bigger Republican gun than Ehrlich coming to the Eastern Shore. Gilchrest plans to attend a Talbot County event, but not a fundraiser, with President Bush on Saturday, Caligiuri said.
Doesn’t that go under the advantages of incumbency? I would think that the local GOP officials would be invited to the event simply because they’re elected officials. It doesn’t mean Bush is weighing into the race – in truth, he’ll be in Talbot County because several Bush Administration officials maintain second homes there.
Besides, given Bush’s low approval ratings derived in part by the perceived unpopularity of the war in Iraq, would Gilchrest want to be seen with him anyway?
Crossposted on monoblogue.
