Regardless of the political party you identify yourself with, it is incumbent upon each of us to ask ourselves what we want government to do with our hard earned tax dollars. This is, for the most part, determined by who we vote for. In past elections, it didnt matter much whether a Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian was elected because the policy differences were relatively minor or inconsequential. This year is different. Very different! The top issues as I have heard people talk about are:

" TAX CHANGES

" HEALTH CARE INSURANCE

" ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL RULES

" IMMIGRATION & EMPLOYMENT REGULATIONS

" ENERGY REGULATIONS

" UNEMPLOYMENT AND WELFARE COSTS

All of us need to become as knowledgeable as possible about each of the candidates we intend to vote for to make sure the rhetoric matches their voting record. Believe it not, some politicians will say anything to get elected. And once in office, many vote with the party machine instead of representing the wishes of the people who elected them.

It is not the Chamber of Commerce role to endorse a specific candidate. However, our bylaws call for the Chamber to . . . procure laws and regulations desirable for the benefit of business & (Article II, Section1). Because of our relationships with business owners, we have a pretty good idea of what helps make them successful enough to expand and add new jobs.

With this in mind, we will be forwarding or re-printing articles from a variety of sources to remind you of some of the political and/or economic issues that could impact your business, positively or negatively. Please dont relegate these to your junk email folder. We wont abuse the frequency of these e-mails and after the election we will only send alerts when a specific bill is being considered. We will have a format that makes it easy for you to decide how deep you want to get into each issue. In other words, we will have a Headline, an executive summary, and then a link to the entire article.

Remember the Chambers position is nearly always going to favor business and the articles will reflect that position. If you see an article that you believe other business people could benefit from, please forward it to me and I will see that it gets sent to the Chamber membership.

Make October the month you get informed, get involved, then VOTE!