Democratic candidate Bob Lord is staging a smart campaign to unseat incumbent Republican John Shadegg from his House seat for the 3rd District of Arizona. Lord’s campaign has sent out five blistering news releases asking the boastful Shadegg why he won’t cosponsor H.R. 5740, the 21st Century GI Bill. Here was the first, sent out on April 29, 2008:

PHOENIX — Today Bob Lord endorsed Congressman Harry Mitchell’s 21st Century GI bill and is asking Congressman John Shadegg why he isn’t supporting the bipartisan plan to strengthen education benefits to post-9/11 combat veterans.

The bill would provide military veterans with educational benefits ranging from college tuition to living stipends.

“We have a sacred duty to support our veterans and their families because they have sacrificed for us,” Bob Lord said. “It’s hard to imagine why my opponent isn’t supporting this bill.”

Shadegg represents a district where 56,000 veterans live, but he is not supporting the bill.

The Washington Post reported this morning that veterans returning home from Iraq are finding the current GI Bill has not kept pace with educational costs. (Link to story)

Decades after the first GI Bill, another generation of veterans is returning home — more than 800,000 as of last summer. What the new veterans find is quite different from the comprehensive benefits that once covered all the costs of an education. The current GI benefit covers just half the national average cost for tuition, room and board, according to the Post.

“We must pass the 21st Century GI Bill, which will provide educational and other benefits to all veterans serving since Sept. 11, 2001, through the end of the current campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Lord said.

Now, Mitchell’s 21st Century GI Bill carries 241 co-sponsors, including 71 Republicans. Shadegg is not one of them.

Shadegg’s counterparts, prominent Republicans such as U.S. Sens. John Warner of Virginia and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska are lead sponsors of the Senate version.

Veterans groups such as the American Legion and Military Officers’ Association of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and Vietnam Veterans of America have endorsed the legislation.

“It is baffling to see how out of touch John Shadegg is with his own district and Arizona,” said Andrew Eldredge-Martin, Lord’s campaign manager. “Shadegg just has different priorities than most Arizonans.”

Under this legislation:

* Service members returning from Iraq or Afghanistan, including active-duty National Guard troops and reservists, would receive up to 36 months of education benefits, including stipends for housing and books;

* Veterans would have up to 15 years after they leave active duty to use their education benefits;

* Veterans would have the ability to use their benefits for program fees, tuition, books and housing;

* Veterans would be able to use the Yellow Ribbon G.I. Education Enhancement Program, in which the federal government will match, dollar for dollar, any voluntary additional contributions to veterans from institutions whose tuition is more expensive than the maximum educational assistance provided under the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill.

… and here’s the most recent, sent out on May 1:

Congressman John Shadegg isn’t supporting the 21st Century
GI bill, but he also has consistently failed to support disabled veterans, records show.

Since 1999, Disabled American Veterans has rated Shadegg at an average of 27.6% percent, or an F, and the majority of those years, Shadegg has received a 0 rating from the Disabled American Veterans.

When Shadegg first took office in Congress, he earned $133,600 as a
Congressional salary. Today, Shadegg earns a Congressional salary of $165,200, an
increase of $31,600.

“Our veterans put themselves in harms way to defend this country and John Shadegg doesn’t think they deserve decent pay and a decent education,” said Andrew Eldredge-Martin, Bob Lord’s campaign manager. “You have to remember that Shadegg voted himself pay raises nine times and accepted pay raises in excess of $31,000 – but he voted against giving our men and women in uniform a $1,500 pay raise. Bob Lord will stand up for our troops and veterans in Congress. Shadegg hasn’t.”

I appreciate how Bob Lord has focused the campaign around a concrete policy issue instead of trying to ride his way to Congress on insubstantial issues like hair or lapel pins. This is a consequential issue as well, since no matter how you feel about the war it is a disgrace that American veterans are being dumped by their government without the resources to get their lives moving forward with employment and with their health. It was especially good to see Lord send readers on to solid reporting on the subject carried out by the Washington Post. This is how a good campaign on the issues is run.

Two days after Bob Lord’s latest press release, John Shadegg still isn’t listed as a cosponsor. It’s possible that John Shadegg is too stupid to realize how bad he looks in failing to support American veterans in a war he was so gung-ho to get started. It’s also possible that Shadegg so disregards the veterans he sent off to war that he just doesn’t care.