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Trey Hollingsworth's taxpayer-funded campaign mailings

By Scott Tibbs, August 23, 2018

This post will cause me to take heat from my fellow conservatives, but if we are going to be credible in calling out poor judgment by the Democrats then we need to call out poor judgment by our own side. Either we believe in conservative principles like limited government and restraining government spending or we do not.

While Liz Watson is completely toxic and I fully intend on voting for Trey Hollingsworth in November, his mailers need to be called out. With that, this is my open letter to Congressman Trey Hollingsworth.

The honorable Congressman Hollingsworth,

I got another mailer from your Congressional office the other day, and I am very disappointed you continue to send these mailers to your constituents. As a conservative who believes in limiting government spending whenever possible, I call on you to stop sending these letters to your constituents.

If this was a text-only an informational mailer, I would question whether the spending is necessary, but would not be objecting as sternly as I am now. However, I need to be brutally honest here: This is a campaign mailer. It is a full-color flyer on glossy card stock featuring photos and promoting you as a person. By sending these mailers to your constituents, you are using the office of Congressman - and taxpayer money - to underwrite your own re-election efforts.

When the American people sent Donald Trump to the White House, one of the reasons for doing so was to "drain the swamp." Career politicians were exploiting the system to entrench their own power and enrich themselves, as well as use crony policies to help politically favored individuals, businesses and/or industries. Using taxpayer money in a way that is obviously deigned to help an incumbent's re-election bid (using resources that are not available to challengers) is one of the things that has defined "the swamp."

I have been pleased with your service to the Ninth District and I hope you remain in office for many years to come. I am pleased that you have an 75% rating from Heritage Action, an 88% rating from the American Conservative Union and an 80% rating from Conservative Review. But on this issue, you are wasting taxpayer money and it needs to stop.