Category: Sean Bielat

EXCLUSIVE: Sean Bielat Sends Fundraising E-Mail for 2012 Campaign

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Sean Bielat, the Marine veteran who mounted a surprisingly strong Republican challenge to Barney Frank in the 2010 mid-term election, has sent a fundraising e-mail to his supporters, seeking contributions for his planned 2012 campaign for the Massachusetts 4th District seat.

In the e-mail, obtained exclusively by The Other McCain, Bielat seeks donations in the amount of $17 for his campaign, which he plans to announce officially Tuesday, Jan. 17.

Bielat’s likely Democrat opponent for the newly redistricted MA-4 seat will be Joseph Kennedy III.

“The Massachusetts Democrats are desperate to reclaim Barney Frank’s district and re-brand it as yet another ‘Kennedy Seat,'” Bielat wrote in the e-mail. “We can’t let this happen! Putting someone into office simply because of his family is bad for Massachusetts, and it’s bad for the nation.”

Strong online fundraising helped turn Bielat’s 2010 campaign against Frank into a race that garnered nationwide attention. After MA-4 was re-districted to include more Republican voters, Frank announced he would retire rather than seek re-election, a decision many attributed to the expectation that Bielat would once against run for the seat.

* * FULL TEXT OF BIELAT E-MAIL * *

January 12, 2012

Dear —-,
In 2010, I made it my goal to retire Barney Frank. With the help of thousands of people in Massachusetts and across the country, against all odds, we ran a highly competitive campaign against a 16 term incumbent in a gerrymandered district designed to protect him. We gave Barney Frank quite a scare and many pundits have suggested that our efforts played a significant role in his recent retirement announcement. While we fell a bit short on Election Day, we built a network of people who cared enough about tomorrow to get involved today.
2010 was also an amazing year for me personally. My wife Hope and I were blessed with our first child, Theodore. In 2011, were blessed once again, with the birth of our daughter, Seraphina. As all parents know, having a child changes your view of the world and gives you a new sense of purpose. Suddenly, changing this country’s course to build an America with even more promise became less of an abstraction.
Many people have asked if would consider another run for Congress. Running for office isn’t a decision to be taken lightly, and Hope and I weighed the pros and cons of another run. After much consideration, it all came down to this–We looked into our kids’ eyes and asked ourselves:
“What can we do to provide the best possible future for our children?”
The answer was clear. Simply resting on past accomplishments, and patting ourselves on the back for whatever role we played in Barney Frank’s decision to retire, wouldn’t be enough. In order to create the right future for our kids and our country, we must continue to work. For this reason, I’m happy to say that I will be a candidate for Congress once again in 2012.
Recently I sent a tweet regarding my plans for 2012.
@SeanBielat I have made a decision re: another run for Congress. Save the date: January 17th. #tcot #mapoli #MA04

This simple tweet appears to have helped launch a campaign…not mine, mind you, but that of Joe Kennedy III, the grandson of Robert Kennedy and son of Citizens Energy Director Joe Kennedy II. The Massachusetts Democrats are desperate to reclaim Barney Frank’s district and re-brand it as yet another “Kennedy Seat”. We can’t let this happen! Putting someone into office simply because of his family is bad for Massachusetts, and it’s bad for the nation. Sending more people to Washington spouting the same tired rhetoric is perhaps worse.
Wasn’t 30 years of Barney Frank enough? Wasn’t 64 consecutive years of Kennedys in Congress enough? Now Democratic Party insiders think that they can replace Barney with yet another Kennedy, a young man who has never lived in the district, but has a famous last name, to secure a seat for another several decades.
That’s why I need your immediate support. My formal announcement is on January 17th, but we are at work already. My goal is to raise $25,000 by the time I announce–that gives us just over 4 days.
Please consider donating $17 to commemorate January 17th, the date we officially begin the effort to elect a new voice for Massachusetts. The Kennedy family will be able to raise huge amounts of money without difficulty; however, ours is a grassroots campaign and we will only win with your help. Please contribute if you’re able to.
The people of Massachusetts deserve better. The country deserves better. Our kids deserve better. We need to stop the runaway progressive train and put America back on the right track. Your donation will go a long way toward restoring jobs, preserving our liberty and security, and bringing about some “change” that actually makes sense. It’s time to restore America’s greatness. Can you help us? Donate today!
Thanks for taking the time to read this note and thanks for being willing to get involved in shaping this country’s future!

Sincerely,
Sean Bielat
Candidate for US Congress
Massachusetts-District 4

p.s. In 2010, we showed that we could take on an entrenched incumbent like Barney Frank. Now the 4th District is much more competitive due to redistricting, and since it’s an open seat, we have an excellent chance of winning…but only if we get the support we need.

Sean Bielat (R-MA) is a US Marine, a successful businessman and a proud father. To donate now, visit SeanBielat.org. Please also follow his tweets and posts on Twitter and Facebook and share his updates across your online networks..

INTERVIEW: Sean Bielat Says He’ll Make 2012 Campaign Decision ‘Next Week’

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In 2010, Republican Sean Bielat gave Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank the toughest re-election challenge the Democrat had ever experienced. Although Bielat’s insurgent Tea Party-backed campaign fell short of unseating Frank, it was obviously a factor in the 16-term congressman’s decision this week to retire at the end of his current term, rather than seek re-election in a newly redrawn district. Thursday night, Bielat spoke to me in a brief telephone interview.

Robert Stacy McCain: So, this is the week of ‘Bye Bye Barney.’ How are you feeling right now?
Sean Bielat: [Laughs.] Well, you know, if you would have asked me a year ago at this time, I would have said that this was exactly what was going to happen. And then, you know, when he came out February and said, ‘I’m definitely running . . . definitely going to be back in this thing,’ I took it with a grain of salt, but I believed it. So he definitely caught me off-guard [by announcing his retirement Monday].

RSM: He’s saying that it’s mainly about the re-districting. Have you taken a good look at that map?
BIELAT: Yeah, I have. It is a much better district.
RSM: You mean, for a Republican?
BIELAT: Yeah. It’s still overwhelmingly Democrat, but it’s a much better district than before. But implicit in that comment – ‘it’s because of re-districting’ – is the fact that he thinks he’s going to have a competitive opponent, right? Because he’s been re-districted before and not retired. The difference is, he had a challenge last time. Now it’s a new district and I think he just wasn’t sure he’d make it through and it wasn’t worth the effort.

RSM: OK. And are you taking a victory lap? I mean, do you believe that your challenge last year convinced him that it was time to pack it in?
BIELAT: I’m also taking that with a grain of salt. I don’t think he would have retired if I hadn’t run against him, but I also don’t think he’s retiring because I did.
He, on Election Day [in 2010], thought he was going to lose. We were told that by a number of the reporters who were following him and who were in his van – they thought they were going to lose. And you saw he put a couple hundred thousand dollars of his own money it, you know. I don’t think he enjoyed this experience. He hadn’t really done this since 1982. I don’t think he enjoyed the eight debates. I think he was worn out. And I think he didn’t want to do it again, particularly if the district was going to be more favorable to his opponent.

RSM: And is there a chance that that opponent might be you?
BIELAT: [Laughs.] Well, there’s no chance it will be me against Barney, but there’s definitely a chance that it will be me against whatever Democrat they’re going to put up in the Fourth [District]. I’m looking very hard at it. Poltically, I think it makes a lot of sense. We’re just trying to figure out personally if it’s what we want right now, with the new baby and the other 15-month-old and, you know, the sacrifices involved in running. But I’m definitely very interested in it.

RSM: You’ve got two children?
BIELAT: Yeah, we just had the second one about two-and-a-half weeks ago.
RSM: Wow. And I understand that you were spending some time in Pennsylvania and some people were trying to lay the ‘carpetbagger’ thing on you.
BIELAT: Yeah, I think it’s tough to do when we only came [to Pennysylvania] in September and the reason I came was because we had family in the area and we had some difficulties the last time around, with the last pregnancy. So we wanted to be here in case that happened again. We’re planning to go back [to Massachusetts] after the holidays. Hope is still a student at Boston University. She took the semester off. She’ll be back in the spring semester. . . . It’s just the circumstance – we wanted to be near family because of the baby.

RSM: OK, and last time around, the Internet fundraising and the support of New Media seemed to really kick your campaign into high gear.
BIELAT: Oh, without a doubt. I mean, one of the most important people for me to get back on the team is [New Media consultant] John La Rosa. I mean, our money came from online. Fox News was huge, too. Every time we went on Fox News, the money would come in, too. But it was because the groundwork was there, because went on the blogs. It was all over the Internet – the Tweets were out there, and Facebook was useful as well.
So it was huge, and then there was the ‘Dancing Barney’ video [by filmmaker Ladd Ehlinger Jr.] and the incident with [Barney Frank’s] significant other, where he was heckling me – that was huge. I can’t tell you how many people came up to me about that, or said, ‘I sent you a contribution after I saw that.’ That wouldn’t have gotten out there without the New Media channels.

RSM: So that really made a difference. What would be the timetable, if you did decide to run? When would you be thinking about putting something together again?
BIELAT: I want to make a decision next week. You know there’s a number of other Republicans who are calling me to find out my plans, because if I’m not getting in, they may want to get in. So I certainly don’t want to slow them down and, you know, I don’t want to be in limbo myself. If I end up not doing this, I’m going to be working on the [political action committee] – I’d like to kick that off and start doing some good there.  So I want to make this decision fairly soon.

RSM: OK, so you say, within a week?
BIELAT: Yeah. That’s the plan.

RSM: Wow. OK, then. So if we’re going to be scrambling the jets, we’re going to be scrambling the jets in a pretty quick hurry here.
BIELAT: Yeah. I mean, if I’m going to get in, I want to raise money this quarter. And if I’m going to raise money in December, when the holidays are coming up, I’ve got to do it right at the beginning. So that means making my decision right away.

The Evidently Obligatory ‘How Many House Seats Will the GOP Win?’ Post

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Short answer: A lot fewer than they could have, if the NRCC had a freaking clue.

Really. Ace of Spades interrogates Jay Cost about the likelihood of Republican gains on the high side of 60, which I consider insanely optimistic, given the face-palming incompetence of the NRCC. But first the good news from Jay Cost:

Ohio is all but gone for the Democrats, including the swingiest of swing districts in Columbus. Michigan is a lost cause. So is liberal icon Russ Feingold in Wisconsin. Pennsylvania looks like it will go maybe +4-6 for Toomey and Corbett. All of these places voted for Obama, and all of them are basically gone.

And as Ace points in his inimitable way, there’s a poll showing Sean Bielat in a dead heat with Barney Frank. Yeah, it’s an internal Beilat campaign poll, but still: There’s a chance a Republican could beat Barney Frank, a possibility nobody dared dream of two years ago. There was also good news a couple days ago from The Hill:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is making a last ditch effort to survive a GOP wave by blanketing the airwaves in more than 60 districts in the final week of the campaign.
According to FEC filings late Tuesday, the DCCC purchased $21.6 million worth of air time in 66 districts.
The ad buys represent the breadth of the GOP ‘s momentum. Among those 66 districts, many were once considered safe Democratic seats, including those held by Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) and Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.). Only three of the seats in which Democrats are advertising are held by Republicans.

Good news, yes, but also bad news: That’s $21.6 million of brutal ads accusing Republicans of rape, murder, arson and wanting to give tax cuts to greedy corporations that ship jobs to China.

And the National Republican Congressional Committee? They can’t do shit to reply. The NRCC’s got nothing. The DCCC out-raised the NRCC by $14 million this cycle, because the NRCC is run by clueless dingleberries under the chairmanship of Rep. Pete Sessions.

Pete Sessions should have been stripped of his chairmanship the day after Dede Scozzafava endorsed Bill Owens. If there were still any old-fashioned justice in the world, Pete Sessions would have been horsewhipped and stomped to death by the House Republican Caucus, his head carried through the streets atop a pike, and his mutilated headless corpse fed to dogs.

(Rarest sentence in the English language: “Gee, Stacy, why don’t you tell us how you really feel?”)

Because Pete Sessions was not fired, etc., conservatives with good sense stopped giving to the NRCC, which is staffed by half-wits who got their jobs because their Daddy was good friends with some GOP bigwig. Consider that, in Florida’s 24th District — a key pickup Republican opportunity against an extremely vulnerable Democrat — the primary was complicated by a candidate whose fundraising consultant was the wife of NRCC executive director Guy Harrison. Thankfully, that candidate lost the primary, but not before raising and spending more than $600,000 — Republican money wasted on an “insider” candidate who, had she won the primary, would have been unelectable.

Such stories could be told in district after district across the country. If Republicans gain 5o or 60 House seats on Tuesday, I’ll be happy. But they could have easily won 70 or 80, had the NRCC been run by intelligent and competent people instead of well-connected subnormals.

And please keep in mind the unthinkable: Despite all the encouraging poll numbers, the GOP may yet fall short on Election Day. If so, the public horsewhipping and death-stomping of Pete Sessions and the NRCC staff . . . well, that would make a heck of a story.

Meanwhile, my shot-in-the-dark gut-hunch guess of how many House seats the GOP will win is . . . . consulting the crystal ball here . . . let’s go with 49.

I’m lowballing it, because I figure there will be at least 10 races where it’s close enough for Democrats to steal.

To Repeat: Beware of Polls!

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Sunday morning, I noted Donald Douglas’s dissection of an L.A. Times poll that appears skewed toward Democrats.  Now, Tina Hemond gets inside the numbers in last week’s poll that showed Barney Frank leading by 12 points over Sean Bielat and argues that, in fact, the race in MA-4 is a statistical dead heat.

Of course, we have obvious incentives to discount polls unfavorable to Republicans, but I would also beware of polls that show Republicans winning. Polls are not campaigns and polls don’t win elections. Any poll can be wrong and, especially in the home stretch of a campaign — eight days to go! — you can’t let polls tell you what to think. To repeat what I said last week:

I only want to see poll numbers if the numbers tell me that a Republican underdog is gaining ground on a supposedly “safe” Democratic incumbent, or if the numbers confirm that a vulnerable Democrat is on his way to well-deserved defeat.
Everything else is just a damned distraction from the fight at this point in the campaign, I’m as tired of overconfident Pollyannas as I am of Eeyore worrywarts.

Stop telling me about damned polls!

Poll: Sean Bielat 63%, Barney Frank 31%

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OK, it’s merely an unscientific online poll at the Web site of the New Bedford Standard-Times, but that won’t reduce the shock factor for Democratic Party operatives when they see the headline via their Google alerts. Sometimes you just want to mess with their minds, for the pure outrageous hell of it.

In more serious news, Fleming and Hayes have photos of Barney Frank’s latest full-color mailer, the sentiment of which they sum up: “Vote for Barney Frank, he picks the nation’s pocket and brings it back to Massachusetts.”

That might actually be a winning argument, if only it were true. But the fact is that rich “blue” states like Massachusetts are net losers in the D.C. pork game, paying more in taxes than they receive in federal benefits. In 2005, Massachusetts got 82 cents in federal spending for every dollar in federal taxes, but Barney’s only interested in what’s good for Barney:

GOP challenger Sean Bielat slammed U.S. Rep. Barney Frank yesterday for grabbing more than $40,000 in campaign cash from banks that received federal bailouts — despite the congressman’s own pledge to refuse that dough.
“The rules never apply to Barney — even Barney’s own rules,” said Bielat, whose surging campaign prompted Frank to pump $200,000 of his own cash into his run.
The Herald reported yesterday that Frank accepted $40,000 from bank executives and other special interests that cashed in on the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Read the whole thing. Barney complains to ABC News that he’s the victim of a “flood of right-wing money“:

If Bielat can beat Barney, there are no safe seats for Democrats.

BYE-BYE, BARNEY!

VIDEO: Do the Barney Shuffle!

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It’s the dance sensation that’s sweeping the nation!

The New York Times did a feature on Ladd Ehlinger Jr. (“a periwinkle gray T-shirt the color of his eyes”? Dude, I told you that chick was hot for you) recognition that is way overdue, as it’s been nearly a year since I declared: “Clearly, this man is destined for greatness.”

Also, I think somebody’s building him a freakin’ robot.

SEAN BIELAT for CONGRESS
Help Him Beat Barney Frank, and Then
Maybe Bristol Palin Will Teach Him to Dance

UPDATE: Da Tech Guy has behind-the-scenes video clips where you can hear Ladd laughing himself silly over the dancer Kira’s brilliant moves. Ace was also on the scene for the shoot, and a big thank-you to Andy at AOSHQ and to John LaRosa for making the Ladd/Bielat connection happen.

Sean Bielat: ‘Hey, Thanks. I Guess You Want Me To Build You a Robot, Too?’

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Barney Frank must be so disappointed. He did his darnedest to try to win Sarah Palin’s endorsement, but . . .

Remember what it was like in January 2010 when Massachusetts shocked the political world?  It’s that time again.  Sean Beilat is running against a Democrat incumbent who has been in government office for over 30 years.  Sean is a businessman, Marine veteran, and young father, and he is running against an ethically-challenged liberal icon who opposed reform of Fannie & Freddie before the meltdown.  That’s right, Sean Bielat is running against Barney Frank, and he needs your help to win.  Please visit Sean’s website at www.seanbielat.org and follow him on Twitter.

And you know what this means. Ace of Spades is going to have to wait until at least Nov. 4 before he gets his robot. Ladies first.

SEAN BIELAT for U.S. CONGRESS
A Marine Who Builds Robots That
Kill Terrorists. And Also Caribou.