Thank you for your supportI just came home from hitting a few golf balls. Some went straight, some didn’t. That’s the way it is with most things in life. Our shot at sending Ron Wyden into retirement was on target, but came up short. We gave it a good effort, against big odds, thanks to you and many others who supported the campaign in so many ways. It looks like we’ve also fallen short in the other Congressional races, but things are looking brighter for the Oregon Legislature, and Chris Dudley is in the jump ball he often said he looked forward to. Notwithstanding the determination of a majority of Oregon voters to stay the course on big spending, national health care and the culture of wealth redistribution, Oregon will benefit from the fresh air coming to Washington thanks to conservative victories across much of the country. The tidal wave of common sense may have stopped at the Cascades and Sierras, but that only means that we must renew our efforts going forward. In speaking to the big crowd at Victoria Taft’s Rock the Republic event last night, I quoted two American patriots. Benjamin Franklin warned in 1759 that: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” And to avoid giving up those essential liberties, as Wendell Phillips told the Massachusetts Antislavery Society in 1852: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Our campaign was one of vigilance. I ran for the U.S. Senate not to be a Senator or advance my career, but to do what I could for freedom, the rule of law and constitutional government. Working together in that effort, we were simply doing our part to pay the “price of liberty.” We will never finish securing liberty. As Phillips said, the payments must go on forever. So I hope you will stick with me, and I will stick with you, in the struggle we have pursued together over the past many months. To paraphrase another American patriot, John Paul Jones, we have only begun to fight. Respectfully yours,
Jim Huffman |
