Last week, the Veterans of Foreign War came under scrutiny because their lobbying arm, the VFW PAC, had endorsed a number of candidates without a track record of supporting the military over actual veterans and those who have demonstrated they would be advocates for veterans. Highlights incude Democrat Ron Klein, who is running against Republican challenger Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Allen West Florida 22nd Congressional District in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District and Senator Barbara Boxer over Carly Fiorina for Senate in California. As I pointed out at Blackfive, this is not the first year that the VFW endorsements have angered its membership. This time, when these endorsements were called into question, the VFW-PAC doubled down.
Today we learn, in what is a victory for veterans and those who support them, the Veterans of Foreign Wars commander-in-chief has moved to disband the VFW PAC over these endorsements:
MEMORANDUM
_________________________
National Council of Administration
Richard L. Eubank, Commander-in-Chief
Date:
October 14, 2010
_________________________
I have reviewed the Political Action Committee (PAC) Board of Directors’ response to our request to rescind this year’ s Congressional endorsements. I disagree with their assessment.
It is now evident to most of the VFW leadership, both National and especially the departments, that the VFW has been subjected to extreme negative publicity throughout the nation, and the recent endorsement decisions have, in fact, harmed the VFW’ s reputation and future ability to fulfill our mission.
I cannot let this erosion of public support for our great organization continue. The apparent lack of the committee to address these concerns will lead to a proposal by me, as Commander in-Chief, to amend the by-laws at the 112th National Convention for the purpose of dissolving the PAC. Meanwhile, under the authority granted to me as Commander-in-Chief in section 619 of the VFW National By-Laws and under section 620 of the Manual of Procedure, I am withdrawing all PAC all PAC appointments effective October 15, 2010.
Accordingly, I’ m asking the council for a vote of ” no confidence” in the VFW PAC as indicated on the enclosed ballot.
There you have it. The PAC refused to back down. So, the Commander had no choice but to shut down the PAC. Apparently, behind the scenes, he was not able to get them to rescind the endorsements, thereby necessitating closing it down completely. While I’d like to have seen was the PAC remove the endorsements; maybe, by ‘proxy’, the Commander can now do that. See, hideous candidates who have a long history of NOT supporting those in uniform are trumpeting their VFW endorsement:
Asked after her speech about McCain’s objection, Boxer merely smiled and replied: “I’m so excited to have the VFW endorsement. I couldn’t be more thrilled.”
Late last week, the Ladies Auxiliary pulled all their funding of the PAC- which, I’m told, was a considerable amount of the funds used by the PAC; likely better than 70% of funds raised for it:
October 13, 2010
Dear Sisters,
In light of the VFW’s position on the most recent endorsements by the VFW Political Action Committee, effective this day, October 13, 2010, the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars is suspending all fundraising and promotion of VFW-PAC for the remainder of the year.
Any monies raised for PAC up to this date should be forwarded immediately to PAC for those purposes in accordance with the laws concerning political action committees.
Department Award No. 5 as seen in the 2010-2011 National Program Book on Page 20 is hereby suspended for the remainder of the year, and the program title will hereafter be known as Legislative.
Loyally,
Cortina Barnes
National President
I applaud these motions by the VFW; I am hopeful that this has shed some light on the fact that many groups (not just veteran-oriented) are facing similar troubles- say, like unions? We need to step up more often, and more strongly, to prevent such actions against what we believe- or would ask groups to represent us to put forth.
What next, VFW?
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