John Ellinwood, the director of communications for Jesse Kelly’s congressional campaign, responded to a few questions about his candidate’s opinions on bicycles.
Ellinwood would not schedule an interview with Kelly and Tucson Velo, nor would he forward the questions on to the candidate.
Ellinwood did say that Kelly likes bikes and thinks for some people they can be a form of transportation. He said Kelly’s son is nearing the age where he will begin riding a bike.
When asked about the candidate’s opinion on federal spending for bicycle infrastructure, Ellinwood said Kelly believes it is important to weigh the value of grant money doled out to transportation projects against the $13 trillion deficit that he says Gabrielle Giffords is partly responsible for.
Check out Gabrielle Giffords’ take on bikes.
Nice job by Jesse Kelly NOT to be interviewed. If he took 5 minutes to talk with you, the article may have been better but sending someone else and not having access to Jesse Kelly shows that cycling is NOT important to him.
That guy’s a jerk. (Allegedly)
Kelly will be getting my vote because I believe this country has been on a spending spree at every level. The message from the Kelly camp is in line with my own beliefs that polititians need to put a higher value on the money that they extract from us citizens. With that said, it’s clear that Kelly’s people, and probably Kelly himself, messed up by not having the candidate take a few minutes to talk to Michael.
I doubt the Giffords’ campaign would have set anything up either. I just happened to run into her at a coffee shop after a bike ride.
Wow, I guess the biking community now knows where we sit with Jesse…not even worth an interview.
Fair and balanced! Thanks for the equal time!
I’m going to vote for Jesse Kelly…If hell freezes over….
What about the billions that we spend elsewhere? I would rather see it here in the USA than somewhere else, at least some Americans will benefit.
Nothing to see here…., Kelly probably only cares about the relative sizes of pickup trucks fueled by imported oil. And his campaign made fun of Giffords who was trying to get DoD to do something to reduce the need for fuel convoys to Afghanistan. Enough said, Raul got my vote !
It almost seems like Ellinwood viewed Mike’s interview request as a trap to be avoided. Illuminating.
Anyone who rides a bike knows saving money and cycling go hand in hand. Spend a few bucks on bicycles and get a whole bunch back.
Oh and by the way does this moron even remember 1997 the last year fuel taxes went to paying off the deficit?
Moron alert.
Mike, At least she took the 5 minutes to chat. More than Kelly did.