Wendy Long

February 17, 2012 Dear ,

I am writing to tell you that I have just directed my initial papers to be filed with the FEC to run against Kirsten Gillibrand for the United States Senate, and to ask for the chance to show you that I am the most effective advocate to take the fight to Gillibrand on behalf of all of us New York Republicans and Conservatives. As a lawyer and a mother in New York City, where my husband and I are raising our children, I have had the sense over the past few years that the country and the state we love are slipping away from us fast. I know that many other hard-working New Yorkers feel as I do. As a business litigation attorney in private practice in Manhattan, I worked for clients whose businesses were struggling against government overreach and overregulation the things that choke opportunity and entrepreneurship, kill jobs, and undermine our constitutional freedoms. Having served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas and to Judge Ralph Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York, I knew the difference that outstanding judges can make to preserving our liberty and allowing our economy to thrive. For most of the past seven years, my work was focused on building, with a few friends, an organization called the Judicial Confirmation Network (now called the Judicial Crisis Network, since the Obama election in 2008), to help secure U.S. Senate confirmation of Supreme Court Justices and other federal judges who practice judicial restraint and respect the Constitutions limits on government power. I served as chief counsel and national spokesman for this effort for five years, working to confirm Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. I have debated the liberal proponents of the Obama judicial philosophy, and Ive advanced our philosophy of judicial restraint and faithfulness to the Constitution on every major broadcast and cable television network, on radio nationwide, and in the print and internet media.

We engaged a very successful national fundraising effort to take our message about the judiciary to the American public. Now, I look forward to calling on the many friends that I have made in my work in politics and the law at the highest levels, both in New York and nationwide, for their support in my campaign. I have signed on the best talent in the country to run my campaign. I understand the monumental task of running against a Democratic incumbent in the state of New York. We will have to run fast and fight hard, but we can win. We need to use new messages and new strategies to win New Yorkers who are used to voting D over to our side. We will fight with everything weve got against Barack Obama, Kirsten Gillibrand, and the Democratic Establishment in Washington, whom I believe are the real one percent the elite liberals who think they are smarter than the rest of us, who want to take our hard-earned money and tell us how to spend it instead of letting us take care of our own families and communities, who think that government and not private enterprise creates jobs, and who if not stopped will destroy our Constitution and limited selfgovernment. Our fellow New Yorkers are understandably frustrated and angry about a federal government that is rapidly turning from a bad joke to a nightmare. Gillibrand and Obama have given us a massive failed stimulus program, crony capitalism, government bailouts, the most astounding federal government power-grab in American history called Obamacare, reckless spending and crippling debt, and a relentless pursuit to expand the federal government into every facet of our lives, trampling the Constitution, the rule of law, and the freedoms that made America exceptional in the history of the world. When she ran for Congress, Gillibrand claimed to be a conservative Democrat, supportive of limited government and Second Amendment rights. But the moment her Senate job was handed to her by David Patterson, without having to work for it, she marched hard to the left and became an unabashed liberal, supporting higher spending, increased debt, and more taxes. She voted for Obamacare, even when Mayor Bloomberg said it would greatly damage New Yorks economy and health care system. She has supported other job-killing, freedom-robbing, and budget-busting measures from the notorious union card check bill, to the failed $800 billion economic stimulus, to the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, all of which stifle growth and harm New Yorks economy.

I have been a Ronald Reagan Republican for my whole adult life. I believe that the Republican Party of New York must reclaim the Reagan Democrats and ask more of our fellow New Yorkers to vote with us not with Gillibrand to restore limited self-government, for the right of people to keep as much of their hard-earned money as possible, and for government to protect us from real threats and support American interests in the world, but to otherwise get out of the way so we can run our own lives, families, and businesses. Because time is short, I have put together the enclosed package of materials to give you more background on myself. After this, I hope to speak less about myself and more about the task that lies ahead of us, about the commitments I will make to you and to New Yorkers, and about the plans I have to fix what is dreadfully wrong in Washington. I will be packing in as much travel as I can across New York state over the coming weeks before the GOP and Conservative Party Conventions and of course, right up through election day in November. I look forward to meeting you and exchanging ideas about how best to move our state and country forward. I hope and intend to earn your support. For New York and for America, Yours sincerely,

Wendy Long