BETHEL, NC (June 10, 2010) -- When Keith Olbermann showcased Rep. Virginia Foxx in his "Worst Person in the World" segment on his Wednesday night program, he wasn't the only one taking notice of Foxx's phone-in town hall meeting, an event sponsored by a partisan political organization.
On Thursday Billy Kennedy, the Democratic nominee for Congress in North Carolina's 5th district, weighed in as well. "I thought the caller Mary was right on," said Kennedy. "She said she felt politicians were making a career and a killing off their Washington careers and that 'They should go up there to serve and then go back to their regular jobs.'"
"Virginia Foxx has had her chance to make things better for the people of the 5th district, and she has failed," continued Kennedy. "While she has used her Washington connections to pad her campaign coffers and her personal fortunes, the people back home get nothing but meaningless sound bites from her. We still have no jobs and few prospects. It's time to replace the professional politicians in Washington with real working people who understand and will pay attention to the needs of their constituents instead of using the public trust for personal gain."
Foxx is seeking a fourth term in the House of Representatives. "The people of North Carolina's fifth district really have a very simple choice to make this November. They can re-elect an incumbent professional politician who has done nothing whatsoever for them or they can send a regular working man to Washington who'll spend his time doing everything in his power to bring good-paying jobs back to our communities."
Some of the callers expressed their frustrations with federal immigration policy. Foxx agreed with those frustrations, but offered no solutions. "I'm as frustrated as anyone with Washington's apparent unwillingness to tackle this issue. But Rep. Foxx is as guilty as the rest of them up there in Washington for stoking the issue but doing nothing at all to address it," said Kennedy.
"As an independent contractor, I am well aware of how it feels to have to compete against cheap labor. More than once, I have come out on the short end of that stick." Kennedy continued, "We must find a way to hold employers fully accountable for hiring illegal workers, and we must strictly enforce the current immigration laws."
Kennedy says Foxx is using this issue to fuel fears and turn workers against each other while her votes indicate she's clearly on the side of those looking to make money by paying low wages to illegal immigrants. "Foxx has repeatedly sponsored bills to make it easier for employers to hire illegal laborers, including voting against funding a program to deny driver's licenses to illegal aliens," said Kennedy. "She's all talk and no action."
"Let's face it. Employers who break the law by hiring illegal workers are taking advantage of a broken system. These practices hurt all working people. As long as we, the working people of Western North Carolina, don't address the issue of low wages and too few jobs, we are just bickering about the issue instead of finding solutions to solve it."
