Burghard: Opportunity present to defeat Republican Hulshof
By DANNY HENLEY
of the Courier-Post
Web Posted on March 29, 2006

"This is the year."

Duane Burghard of Columbia believes the opportunity has arrived for Democrats to wrestle the Ninth Congressional District seat away from Republican Kenny Hulshof.

"I tell everybody around the district to have a sense of urgency about this," said Burghard, during a visit to Hannibal and New London on Tuesday.

Burghard cites Hulshof's close association to the White House with making the Republican vulnerable.

"He's chained to the ship of the Bush-Cheney administration because of how strongly he has aligned himself with that administration over the years," he said. "Unlike other Republicans, who seem to be running around today as if they've never heard of the president, Congressman Hulshof is going to have a much harder time doing that because he chaired the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004 and because he spent so much of his time voting basically in lockstep with the administration."

Hulshof has voted with the Bush Administration 93 percent of the time overall, according to Burghard.

"That's not representing anybody in the Ninth District. That's serving as a rubber stamp for the Bush Administration," he said.

One of Burghard's campaign issues is legislative oversight.

"Our Congress and congressmen have done a miserable job at their Constitutionally-mandated task of serving as a check and balance for the executive branch of government," he said.

Fiscal responsibility is another of Burghard's concerns.

"The last two presidents to balance the budget were Clinton and Kennedy. They're Democrats," he said. "Somehow Republicans managed to steal this message of fiscal responsibility. The Republicans gained fame (saying) that the government is too big, it spends too much and it's too much a part of our lives. Today it's those same Republicans who are leading the largest, the most expensive, the most expansive, the most intrusive government of our lifetime."

Burghard accuses the GOP of letting the nation down because of its "borrow-and-spend economics" policy.

"This debt that we're building up is very different from the debt we were building up in the 1980s, which was largely financed by U.S. banks," he said. "The overwhelming majority of the $1.8 trillion that we're in the process of piling up under President George W. Bush is being financed by banks in Japan, and more importantly and ominously in communist China."

This is not Burghard's first run for Congress.

"When I left the Navy I did run for this office in 1992," he said. "I walked through three pairs of shoes, 14 hours a day, seven days a week for six months, so I know this district and I know what it takes to run."

To devote more time to his campaign, earlier this month Burghard left his job as CEO of Mac Experts Network in Columbia.

"This district, in order for me to win, needs a full-time candidate," he said. "It needs somebody who is out there pushing every day and in every county, so that's what I've been doing."

Challenging an entrenched Congressman does not overwhelm Burghard.

"We are dealing with a five-term incumbent who is well financed and has a lot of really powerful special interests behind him at this point because he's been around for 10 years. However, we feel our chances are really good," said the Democrat. "I think I am the better candidate when you look at my opponent's record over the last 10 years."

This story can be found online at The Hannibal Courier Post
(Registration Required).