Stone Calls for Moratorium on Donations to NRCC until New Leadership in Place

(Augusta, GA) - Congressional Candidate John Stone (R-GA12) today called for the National Republican Congressional Committee to install a new team of senior leadership in the wake of this week's devastating loss at the polls for conservative candidates.

"A primary factor behind the loss we suffered in Georgia's 12th District was political missteps by NRCC senior leadership" Stone says, who lost to Democrat incumbent John Barrow 66-34% with 95% of precincts reporting. "NRCC learned nothing from 2006, and this year continued their failed strategy of favoring incumbents over challengers, and basing their support strictly on dollars raised, undermining dozens of competitive campaigns like ours across the country."

Stone says that last spring, in the middle of an extremely tough year for fundraising for Republicans, NRCC publicly discouraged major donors from contributing to the GA12 race in order to funnel money into NRCC-favored races, leaving the GA12 campaign financially hamstrung for the remainder of the campaign. Stone raised around $400,000 for the campaign, compared to Barrow's $2.2 million.

NRCC then spread the message to Washington conservative groups that the GA12 race was "not winnable," leading to many formerly Republican-friendly organizations' endorsement of liberal Democrat John Barrow, in an effort to curry favor from Democrats in the belief the endorsement was a cost-free political giveaway.

Barrow ended his campaign with a week-long DCCC media blitz of ads featuring an endorsement by NRA President Chris Cox. NRCC provided no support for Stone, leading to the large loss margin that will continue to mislead donors as to whether the 12th District seat is winnable in the future. Stone has already announced for the 2010 contest.

"This was a seat that could have been won this year, even without financial support from NRCC, if they had just not directly undermined our campaign," Stone says. "Their actions constitute gross political incompetence, and are a primary cause behind conservative losses nationwide. The ultimate insult is that in the middle of our fighting as hard as we could to raise dollars and win this race, NRCC asked our major donors to give to the national party to help other congressional candidates, while denying us any help and denigrating our race to prospective supporters."

"I urge Republican supporters across our district, state, and nation to withhold all financial aid to the NRCC until they have swept the decks clean of those responsible for this debacle," Stone says. "In the meantime, give generously to candidates of your choice, where 100% of your donation will be used locally to advance the conservative cause."