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Vol. LXIV, No. 27
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Wednesday, July 7, 2010
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Vol. LXIV, No. 27
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Wednesday, July 7, 2010
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Congressional hopeful Scott Sipprelle introduced his television advertisement with a press conference last Thursday at his Alexander Road campaign headquarters. Running for the House of Representatives seat in the 12th District as a Republican, Mr. Sipprelle is challenging incumbent Rush Holt.
The commercial will run on cable systems throughout the district and is paid for by Sipprelle for Congress.
Explaining that his “opponent is a 12-year congressman with 100 percent name recognition,” Mr. Sipprelle said the goal of the commercial is to “present me and my message to the voting public.”
Transparency, openness, and an active dialogue are key facets of Mr. Sipprelle’s political ethos. “I’m a big believer that democracy requires an engaged electorate,” he admitted, characterizing the United States as being at a “turning point in the debate in how we can run this country.”
Mr. Sipprelle seeks to draw on his experience working in the financial services industry and his time on Wall Street to “interject a common sense business sensibility in the way we run our government.”
A staunch supporter of “free and open markets,” Mr. Sipprelle said that innovative solutions to the nation’s problems are more likely to come from the private sector than from the government.
“America is at a dangerous financial crossroads,” he acknowledged, noting that he left Wall Street years prior to the economic collapse, and had spoken out against excess even then. Criticizing the “shortsightedness, recklessness, and greed” that he characterized as creating the current tenuous fiscal environment, Mr. Sipprelle said that supporting fledgling companies and promoting innovation is what Wall Street should be doing.
His plan for “reforming how we spend money in America” is called the Blueprint for Renewal, where attention is paid to controlling debt and spending. Calling it a “commonsense approach to budgeting,” Mr. Sipprelle said that the problem with government spending is that it’s cumulative, and that “we need to do more with less.”
“We as a country are living beyond our means. We can either reform this ourselves, or we can continue to do what politicians do: delay and defer. But the longer you delay addressing a problem, the bigger it gets,” Mr. Sipprelle cautioned.
Regarding the BP oil spill, Mr. Sipprelle noted that it is “obviously an environmental catastrophe,” stemming from “our failure to regulate and control this awesome new technology. The industry has outrun our government regulators.”
In the long term, Mr. Sipprelle would like to see “experts, who live in the real world” become more involved in government, thereby phasing out “career politicians.”
To that end, Mr. Sipprelle has stated that he would apply self-imposed term limits on his Congressional tenure, serving no more than three two-year terms.
Reducing the length of bills and making the language more accessible to the general public are other changes advocated by Mr. Sipprelle, as is disclosing the names of legislators who incorporate particular amendments or adjustments to bills.
A longtime Princeton resident, Mr. Sipprelle plans to spend the summer talking to the voters of the 44 towns that comprise the 12th District, spending time in communities, visiting diners, and attending parades and other neighborhood or municipal events.
More on Mr. Sipprelle’s Blueprint for Renewal, which involves ideas for systemic reforms, cutting taxes, and controlling spending, can be found at www.supportscott2010.com.