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Griffin Nearing $1M Mark

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Mitchell Lowe, (501) 607-0239
press@timgriffinforcongress.com

Griffin Nearing $1M Mark
Nearly $500k cash-on-hand to begin 2012

LITTLE ROCK – Second District Congressman Tim Griffin today announced his year-end fundraising totals, collecting $180,855.04 in receipts for the fourth quarter of 2011 and bringing his total raised to $921,799.41 with $479,591.02 cash-on-hand for his 2012 re-election bid.

“I am very grateful for the generous support of Arkansans who want me to continue fighting for hard working Arkansas taxpayers by encouraging private sector job growth and making our federal government live within its means,” Griffin said. “I will continue to be a common sense voice to fight for private sector jobs like Arkansas’s Keystone pipeline jobs currently under attack by President Obama.”

For the fourth quarter, 77% of Griffin’s donations came from Arkansans.

About Congressman Tim Griffin

Congressman Tim Griffin was elected the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District on November 2, 2010. For the 112th Congress, he is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as an Assistant Whip for the majority.

Griffin is a graduate of Hendrix College in Conway and Tulane Law School in New Orleans, and attended graduate school at Oxford University. He has served in the U.S. Army Reserve for 14 years, was deployed to Iraq and holds the rank of Major. He also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush. Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife Elizabeth and their two children.

For more information about the campaign, please visit www.TimGriffinforCongress.com. Griffin supporters can also follow the campaign on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/GriffinCongress and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TimGriffinforCongress.

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In the News: Tim: My Top Priority is Jobs--Senate and President Should Join Effort

TIM: MY TOP PRIORITY IS JOBS--SENATE AND PRESIDENT SHOULD JOIN EFFORT

Note: This was published in the Saline Courier.

Solutions to our economy are not along the edges

by Rep. Tim Griffin

My top priority is fighting for policies that encourage private sector job creation in Arkansas, and the over 900 votes I’ve cast this year reflect that focus. I have hosted over 25 town halls as well as a “Jobs Conference” that brought together Arkansas job creators to discuss the challenges they face. Their message is crystal clear: Uncertainty kills job creation by discouraging risk taking and investment. What’s causing this confidence-crushing uncertainty? (1) Our overly-complicated tax code; (2) Government overregulation of job creators; and (3) A ballooning national debt. The U.S. House of Representatives has enacted its jobs plan by passing bills to reduce uncertainty, but these bills are stacking up like cord wood in the Senate. The House has led. President Obama and the Senate should join us.

President Obama talks about closing loopholes, but months ago the House acted. We are fighting for comprehensive tax reform to close loopholes, and consolidate and reduce rates for Arkansans and job creators to make the tax code simpler, fairer, and flatter. We need tax reform to grow the economy and create jobs. The House has led by including sweeping, bold tax reform in its budget in April. The President and Senate should join us.

The President talks about regulatory reform, but it’s just talk. Reasonable regulation is necessary, but the Obama Administration continues to overregulate job creators. The House has acted by pushing for common-sense regulatory reform. For example, I introduced H.R. 3194, the Job Creation and Regulatory Freeze Act, which would put a moratorium on all new major federal regulations until January 20, 2013 and give job creators the certainty they need to begin creating jobs again. The House is pushing to put some reason into regulation. The President and Senate should join us.

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What’s the President’s plan for the economy? Spend hundreds of billions more dollars, full speed ahead toward bankruptcy. The President has tried record spending for three years with little to show for it: the unemployment rate has gone up since his “stimulus” was passed and paid for entirely with borrowed money, much of it from China. And each job “created” cost taxpayers $300,000. More spending won’t work. The House is fighting for fiscal sanity. The President and the Senate should join us.

America can rise to meet the great economic challenge facing us. But tinkering around the edges won’t do. We need big, bold solutions to get our economy back on track. As I tell my colleagues, go bold or go home.

To read the full story, click here.

Now Is the Time to Prepare for the Long Campaign Ahead

Dear Friend,

The bottom line is the end of the year fundraising deadline is approaching in 3 days, and I again need your help.

It is an honor to serve the Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. But we have only just begun. We have lots of work to do and a long, long fight ahead.

I am preparing for what will surely be a tough re-election fight because Nancy Pelosi and her allies want her to be Speaker again. Her handpicked candidate is just days away from announcing their challenge, and they believe winning the Second District is critical to returning her to power.

That is why I am writing you today. Will you please stand with us with a generous contribution today?

We need to raise another $25,000 to reach our goal and show Nancy Pelosi, President Obama, Big Labor, and other allies that Arkansas’s Second Congressional District belongs to you and your common sense ideals. It is not theirs for the taking.

Your financial help is not a luxury; it is essential to my re-election. Will you help us prepare for 2012 by making a generous contribution today?

Thank you so very much,

Tim Griffin

P.S. Nothing is more valuable than the recommendation of a friend. Will you please forward this message on to ten other people?

Merry Christmas!

Dear Friend,

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Elizabeth, Mary Katherine, John and me! We love this time of year and the opportunity it gives us to spend more time with family and friends. Our family wishes you a blessed and peaceful Christmas.

Thank you for your continued support and kindness! We appreciate your encouragement as I continue to serve you.

During this special time of year, I ask that you also join me to pause and remember the men and women of our military and their families.

God bless you and God bless America.

Sincerely,

Tim Griffin

Will You Help Me Prepare for the Long Fight Ahead?

Dear Friend,

We recently marked the one-year anniversary since the voters of the Second District sent me to Congress. In just a few more days, we will mark the one-year anniversary of my taking the oath of office as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. As we approach another campaign year, my re-election campaign is on solid footing.

We haven't been sitting around waiting for President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and their allies in Washington and Little Rock to settle on an opponent that will support their agenda. Our grassroots support network – critical to our success in 2010 – is growing every day, and we have added new Arkansas donors to our team. And, according to our Attorney General's recent quote in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, it appears that Nancy Pelosi's candidate is waiting in the wings:

The highlight of McDaniel’s speech was his cryptic prediction that U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin’s re-election was not a given. A Republican, Griffin won the state’s 2nd Congressional District seat representing central Arkansas in 2010, beating Joyce Elliott, who was in the audience Saturday on the front row. McDaniel said he was asked “not to name names, because this person is not ready to field questions from the media yet, but Tim Griffin needs to get ready. There are at least one or two really strong Democrats preparing to retake the 2nd Congressional District.”

The Second District has been targeted and Nancy Pelosi, along with her Big Labor allies, have invested in television, radio and mail attacks on me in order to prepare for their unnamed candidate and fulfill their goal of returning her to the Speaker’s Chair. They are coming after me for fulfilling the promises I made to you. Since my swearing in, I have:

Voted to balance the budget and make the federal government live within its means;
Voted to repeal the President's job-killing health care law;
Voted to end overly burdensome regulations that kill job creation;
Voted for reform of the regulatory process; and
Voted for fundamental reform of the tax code for both individuals and businesses.

I have also, as promised, said “no” to my Congressional pension, and have recently introduced legislation to do away with Congressional pensions as a first step toward taking on the bigger issue of addressing federal employee pensions when few in the private sector receive them.

But we have a long way to go because there is only so much the new conservative majority you elected last year can accomplish with control of the House alone. With the end of the year fast approaching, our campaign needs your continued financial assistance, so we can prepare for the long fight ahead and continue to communicate our message of private sector job creation and fiscal responsibility. Will you please stand with us again with a generous contribution today?

We are working hard because we are taking nothing for granted. As you know, the attacks against me by Nancy Pelosi’s friends have been constant for months. Your financial help is not a luxury; it is essential to my re-election. Will you help us prepare for 2012 by making a generous contribution today?

Thank you so very much,

Tim Griffin

P.S. Nothing is more valuable than the recommendation of a friend. Will you please forward this message on to ten other people?

Tim's Effort to End Congressional Pensions Earns National Attention

TIM'S EFFORT TO END CONGRESSIONAL PENSIONS EARNS NATIONAL ATTENTION

Note: This was published in The Hill.

Lawmakers propose end to congressional pensions

By Debbie Siegelbaum

While vast numbers of the private-sector workforce have seen their pensions vanish over recent decades and find themselves with precarious, market-based 401(k) plans, members of Congress receive both a pension and a quality employer-match plan.

According to at least two lawmakers, it’s time for elected officials to join the real world.

“If you compare the private sector to what the folks in the federal government get, in the federal government you not only get healthcare benefits, you get a 401(k) that has a higher match than most private-sector companies,” Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Ark.) told The Hill.

“Then on top of that you get the pension,” Griffin said. “Most private-sector folks don’t get a pension.”

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According to Griffin, his proposal is part of a larger plan to eliminate pension benefits across the federal government.

Cutting member pensions and relying instead on the Thrift Savings Plan represents a savings of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. But, Griffin pointed out, that amount is just a drop in the bucket compared with the hundreds of billions that could be saved by eliminating pension benefits across the federal government.

“This for me is less about the money you save and it’s more about being credible when we take on the bigger issue of civil service pensions, because that is where the real money is,” Griffin explained.

“We can’t have a credible discussion on that issue of civil service pensions until people in the House and Senate address their own,” Griffin said.

That “credible discussion” is one the nation must have, he said.

“We can’t be paying pensions to the next generation of federal workers when hardly anyone in the private sector gets them,” Griffin said.

Pensions have become less common over the last two decades, as many private companies have turned to employee contribution plans like 401(k)s.

Many Americans who still receive pension benefits have also seen them plummet as failing corporations are forced to raid pension funds to stay afloat.

“The bottom line is we can’t afford to keep doing it this way,” Griffin said. “On Oct. 1 of last year, the civil service trust fund had an unfunded liability of $673 billion, half a trillion dollars … Our current system is unsustainable.”

To read the full story, click here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Friend,

Happy Thanksgiving from Elizabeth, Mary Katherine, John and me!

This is an important and special time of year as we get to spend time with friends and loved ones. My family is thankful for the many blessings God has given us. I am also very thankful for your support and the opportunity you have given me to serve you in Congress.

On this day of thanks, I ask that you also join me in remembering the men and women of our military and their families.

Thank you all for your support. God bless you and God bless America.

Sincerely,

Tim Griffin

Help Us Call The Hogs!

Dear Friend,

Can you believe the season we are having? Like you, I am thrilled to see the Razorbacks take their place among the nation's elite college football teams. I have been looking forward to the weekend when the Hogs return to War Memorial Stadium!

That weekend is finally here! I am inviting you to join us at our tailgate tent at War Memorial Stadium to help us root on the Razorbacks as they host Mississippi State on November 19.

Our tailgate begins at 10:00 a.m. at Spot #H66 along Markham Street.

Make sure to stop by and pick up our new campaign window sticker. Bring your friends - there will be plenty of food and ice cold drinks!

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday as we call the Hogs in Little Rock!

Sincerely,

Tim Griffin

P.S. Let’s make this a huge crowd at the stadium! Please forward this message to ten of your friends!

On This Veterans Day

Dear Friend,

Every November 11, we remember the courage, sacrifice and service of our military veterans. I have a deep appreciation of the gift of freedom veterans have given us. As a member of the Army Reserve and veteran of the Iraq War, I have had the honor to serve with Americans from all walks of life who are committed to the protection of our people and preservation of our country. As a Member of Congress, I am honored to fight for our servicemembers and the families who sacrifice so that we remain free.

On this Veterans Day, I hope you will join me in pausing for a moment of silence and reflection to remember the men and women who have served us in uniform and their families.

Sincerely,

Tim Griffin

Griffin Leads Potential Rivals In New Poll

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Mitchell Lowe, (501) 607-0239
press@timgriffinforcongress.com

Griffin Leads Potential Rivals In New Poll
'Humbled' by support of Second District voters

LITTLE ROCK – Second District Congressman Tim Griffin’s re-election campaign today released the results of an internal poll showing him with sizeable leads over potential 2012 challengers and a strong job approval rating.

The live interview poll was conducted by Alexandria, Va.-based OnMessage, Inc., November 1-2 using a sample of 400 likely voters with a margin of error of +/- 4.9%. The party breakdown of the survey is as follows: 41% Democrat, 26% Independent and 29% Republican. Pulaski County represented 54% of the polling sample.

Among Second District voters, 53% approve of the job Griffin is doing in Congress while 27% disapprove. At the same time, only 38% of voters approve of President Barack Obama’s job performance.

When voters were asked whether they would prefer a generic Republican that would be a check and balance to President Obama or a Democrat that would support his agenda, the voters choose the Republican by a margin of 54% to 32%.

In head-to-head matchups with potential Democratic challengers, Griffin holds sizeable leads. Against former state representative and current Democratic Party of Arkansas Chairman Will Bond, Griffin leads 49%-29% and leads among independent voters 54%-18%. Against former Lt. Governor Bill Halter, Griffin holds a 50%-29% margin with a 55%-18% lead among independents.

"I am humbled and encouraged by the broad support of Second District voters, and I will continue to fight to encourage private-sector job creation, grow our economy, and make the federal government live within its means,” Griffin said.

Griffin, who has raised nearly $800,000 to date, has over $380,000 cash on hand for his bid for re-election in 2012. For the third quarter, 79% of Griffin’s donations came from Arkansans.

To read the campaign memo from OnMessage, click here. To read the topline data of the survey, click here.

About Congressman Tim Griffin

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