Evansville native, John Hostettler, is seeking to have his name put on the Indiana ballot in a campaign against incumbent Senator Evan Bayh. This engineer has been a member of Congress for Indiana, District 8, as a member of the House of Representatives from 1995-2007.
His positions within Congressional committees include: the House Committee on Agriculture (1995-2001), the House Committee on Armed Services (1995-2007) and the House Committee on The Judiciary (2001-2007).
Besides his 4 children, he lists his greatest accomplishments as: Chairman, House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims (2003-2007); Vice-Chairman, various Subcommittees of the House Armed Services Committee (1999-2007); Distinguished Christian Statesman Award presented by the Center for Christian Statesmanship, a ministry of Coral Ridge Ministries and Dr. D. James Kennedy (2004) and Numerous commendations for “Friend of Small Business,” “Friend of the taxpayer,” etc. (1996-2007).
During his six terms in office, Mr. Hostettler has proven himself as a Conservative worth the title. A portion of his record goes as follows:
- In 1995, in his first year in office, John Hostettler successfully amended the District of Columbia Appropriations Bill to eliminate the “Domestic Partnership” policy of the D.C. government
- In 1998, John Hostettler traveled to Moscow as part of a Congressional delegation to discuss U.S. deployment of a national missile defense system with members of the Russian Duma
- In 2002, John Hostettler was one of only six (6) Republican Members of the United States House of Representatives and one of only three (3) “conservative” GOP Members to vote against the House resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to preemptively engage in military conflict with the nation of Iraq. At the time in October 2002 before the vote was cast, John Hostettler said the intelligence supporting the claim of a program of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was “tenuous at best”
- In 2003, as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, John Hostettler successfully amended the Department of State reauthorization bill to require the State Department to regulate the use of consular cards of foreign nations (”matricula consular” for Mexico) in the U.S.
- In 2003, John Hostettler successfully amended the Commerce, State and Justice appropriations bill to disallow funding of the enforcement of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which called for the removal of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama State Supreme Court House placed there by then-Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore
- In 2004, the United States House of Representatives passed John Hostettler’s Marriage Protection Act (MPA) which would disallow federal courts from imposing Massachusetts same-sex marriage licenses on any other state
- In 2006, the United States House of Representatives passed John Hostettler’s Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA) which would disallow federal courts from requiring defendants -such as a Board of County Commissioners – to pay a plaintiff’s lawyers – such as the ACLU – fees after the federal courts order the removal of a religious symbol – such as the Ten Commandments – from the County courthouse lawn. (http://johnhostettler.com/blog/about/)
He is running a grassroots campaign in the form of an internet petition. According to an interview on the 12/14/2009 edition of 'Talking Politics with Gary Snyder' (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gary-l-snyder), a Conservative blog radio program broadcast from Coffee D'Vine in Huntington, when one fills out their information on the petition page (http://www.johnhostettler.com/petition/), a member of his campaign will contact the signer to physically sign the paper version of the petition.
Mr. Hostettler is also the author of 'Nothing For The Nation: Who Got What Out Of Iraq'. While a member of Congress, Mr. Hostettler made an argument against the entry of US troops into the sovereign nation of Iraq. Given 5 minutes on the floor, he said, “We are told that Saddam Hussein might have a nuclear weapon; he might use a weapon of mass destruction against the United States or our interests overseas; or he might give such weapons to al Qaeda or another terrorist organization. But based on the best of our intelligence information, none of these things have happened. The evidence supporting what might be is tenuous, at best.
Accordingly, Mr. Speaker, I must conclude that Iraq indeed poses a threat, but it does not pose an imminent threat that justifies a preemptive military strike at this time.
Voting for this resolution not only would set an ominous precedent for using the administration's parameters to justify war against the remaining partners in the ``Axis of Evil,'' but such a vote for preemption would also set a standard which the rest of the world would seek to hold America to and which the rest of the world could justifiably follow.
War should be waged by necessity, and I do not believe that such necessity is at hand at this time. For these reasons, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to please vote ``no'' on the resolution to approve force at this time.” (http://www.nothingforthenation.com/floorspeechvideo.htm )
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