Princeton, August 23, 2010 – Releasing his third positive, issue-based cable television commercial this summer, businessman Scott Sipprelle (NJ-12) chided career politicians in Washington, DC, telling them “It’s time to put that credit card away,” while touching upon his plans to cut reckless spending and rein in out-of-control debt.

“Credit Card”
:30 TV Spot

Washington politicians think of us as one giant credit card. They spend, and we get the bill. Help me stop the reckless spending that’s mortgaging our country’s future. My Blueprint for Renewal controls spending, creates jobs and reforms a broken system. Let us return to the principles that made America the land of opportunity. I’m Scott Sipprelle and I approved this message because it’s time to take that credit card away!”

“At $13.3 trillion and counting, our national debt represents $120,000 owed by every single taxpayer and a staggering $43,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States – that is unconscionable and Congress needs to take action to fix it now,” said Sipprelle. “Instead of the typical Washington, DC response of kicking-the-can-down-the-road and saddling future generations with debts they will never be able to repay, my ‘Blueprint for Renewal’ outlines a series of solutions that, if implemented, would save our country from the fate of Greece and other European nations currently drowning in debt.”

“America’s balance sheet is on a collision course with disaster, as the cumulative effects of demographics, legislative ineptitude, and financial recklessness by both political parties combine to push America’s creditworthiness to a tipping point, or beyond,” said Sipprelle. “
“With the national debt now over $13 trillion, the annual interest costs for servicing the debt swallows up nearly 10% of federal revenues. This cost will increase by $500 billion over the next decade, even in the highly unlikely event that annual deficits shrink dramatically. To put this in perspective, $500 billion is greater than the combined annual federal spending on our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, homeland security, energy, and education.”

Sipprelle said unchecked entitlements were a major driver of the problem, and assailed Washington politicians for not having the courage to deal with them.

“For the first time ever, the unfunded projected costs for Social Security and Medicare exceed household net worth in the United States and combine to consume 57% of federal tax receipts,” said Sipprelle. “The system is crying out for thoughtful, bipartisan reform. Yet, how does my opponent respond to this crisis? By falsely claiming I want to privatize the system in a cynical attempt to hold onto power by scaring senior citizens dependent on Social Security for their retirements. That’s not leadership; its cowardice.”

“In short, our present trends are unsustainable,” said Sipprelle. “If we do not address the enormous and growing gap between our federal spending and our federal revenues, we will one day wake up to the realization that the credit of America, once the world’s gold standard, will have become junk.”

The damage, said Sipprelle, would be catastrophic.

“What follows then is a catastrophic adjustment process that would necessitate dramatic cuts in federal programs, outsized tax increases, and a default on many unfunded future liabilities. The retirement security of our seniors would be destroyed and our children would become de-facto wards of a bankrupt state that drains their earnings to pay for past mistakes,” said Sipprelle. “We cannot allow that to happen.”

The Solution: Honesty, Integrity & Tough Choices
The path to fiscal recovery will require honesty about the scope of our imbalances, integrity to stop deferring the problem onto our younger generations, and leadership to make the tough choices which will be necessary. Any government program worth spending money on must also be worth paying for in advance. There can be no compromise on this fundamental premise. If we are not successful in restraining our federal spending, we will be unable to provide the most critical ingredient necessary for a recovery in private sector job creation: a reduced tax burden on businesses and individuals.

Take Our Entitlement Programs Off of Autopilot
The costs of our three large entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) rise without any discussion, analysis, or approval merely because the number of participants rises or the cost per covered person increases. As these programs approach 50% of total federal spending and beyond, this uncontrolled expense has to be brought under direct Congressional budget authority if we are to have any hope of repairing our fiscal imbalances and preventing a default on these obligations.

While we must honor the commitments made to our seniors, the bias which favors entitlement spending for current recipients at the expense of future recipients or other federal programs should be transparent and decided by direct action, not as the result of automatic spending mechanisms. The total costs of entitlement programs for individual recipients should be transparent in the appropriations process and should also be placed on explicit long-term budgets that guarantee sustainability.

The costs of the programs should be reviewed regularly and significant deviations from projected budgets should trigger automatic adjustments to restore fiscal balance.

Put Government Spending on a Forced Diet
Every enterprise in the world will find new efficiencies and realize ways to enhance productivity when forced to the wall by a shortfall in available funds. The problem is that our Federal government has never been forced to deal with the brutal realities that companies in the private sector face every day. Incredibly, Congress increased the annual budget for its own operations by $245 million for 2010.

My plan would mandate a zero percent annual increase in the federal budget until such time as the federal deficit falls below 3% of GDP, including the fully-loaded costs of unfunded future entitlement programs. This restriction would force a real debate about our national priorities and the efficacy of all of our federal programs, while also beginning the long and arduous process of repairing our financial condition. This restriction could be overridden by an explicit vote of the Congress and approval by the President to deal with national emergencies.

Congress should freeze federal non-military employment and start to roll it back as a part of the proposed spending plan. The average federal non-military employee earned, including benefits, $120,000 in 2008 while average private sector compensation was roughly $60,000.

Initiate a Rigid Legislative Process for Culling Waste and Redundancy
Congress should direct the Government Accountability Office, or another objective designated authority, to identify annually all federal programs with duplicative goals, programs, activities, and offices and to estimate the savings that might result from consolidation or elimination. Present the program savings for an up-or-down vote in Congress annually.

Weed Out Costs and Ineffective Programs through Competition
Congress should direct the Government Accountability Office, or another objective designated authority, to undertake an annual performance review of all discretionary spending programs based on a tangible audit, evaluation of costs and performance relative to goals. The bottom-rated 10% of programs should have spending reduced by 10% in each annual budget year.

Reform the Crooked Earmarks Process
Since 1998, the number of annual earmarks has jumped from 2,000 to 11,000 at a cost to taxpayers of $23 billion. A large percentage of these funds reflect political payoffs to fund special pet projects. Congress should require that each of these special appropriations requests be accompanied by a written statement from the sponsoring legislator clearly identifying the reason supporting the funding.

Additionally, Congress should establish a transparent audit process for evaluating spending requests while agreeing to reduce earmark spending by 20% per year, thereby creating a competitive debate over the worthiness of each project. Earmark appropriations should not be a function of Congressional clout, prestige, or deal-making savvy.

3. Scott Sipprelle vs. Rush Holt, New Jersey’s 12th District.

Reasons the challenger should have no chance: Holt, elected in 1998, won 62 percent of the vote in 2008 and usually performs around that level.

Reasons the challenger has a chance: For some reason, the DNC felt the need to run ads defending Holt’s vote for the health-care bill. Sipprelle — a Princeton-based venture capitalist — had $490,000 in cash on hand as of June 30 and has committed to match at least the first $1 million in donations to his campaign. New Jersey was a reliably Democratic state until Chris Christie’s win last year; now Obama’s approval rating is even with his disapproval rating — 47–47 in Quinnipiac — and Holt remains one of the most liberal members of Congress. Christie won four of the five counties whose parts make up Holt’s district.

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Tucked into the corner of the more than 260,000 mailers sent out by Rep. Rush Holt’s (D-Hopewell) Washington, D.C., office between the beginning of January and the end of March of this year is a postmark, written in fine print.

“Official Business,” it reads. “This mailing was prepared, published, and mailed at taxpayer expense.”

Called “franked mail,” it’s a perfectly legal means for members of the U.S. House of Representatives to reach out to their constituents, keeping them in the know as to what their elected officials are up to.

But Holt’s Republican challenger, Princeton Borough hedge fund manager Scott Sipprelle, sees it as a form of taxpayer subsidized campaigning.

“Our country is facing record budget deficits, businesses cannot find loans, and jobs are nowhere to be found, but entrenched incumbents like Rush Holt think it’s perfectly acceptable to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money promoting their re-election under the guise of “keeping constituents informed,’ Sipprelle said. “This is just a glaring example of a broken political system in dire need of comprehensive, bold reform.”

Holt’s office, which was granted an administrative allowance of $1.46 million last year, spent just over $221,000 on mass mailings and communications between July 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010.

According to officials with Holt’s office in Washington and public records, much of that money was not spent on franked mail but rather on town hall meetings conducted with constituents over conference calls.

“I can’t believe that anyone would raise questions about Rep. Holt communicating with his constituents,” said Zach Goldberg, communications director for Holt’s Washington office. “A major part of what Rep. Holt was sent to Congress to do is (to) provide constituent service and maintain a dialogue with central New Jersey residents. He regularly hears from constituents who moved from different parts of the country, and they tell him that they’ve never had a member of Congress work as hard as he does to stay in touch with them and to address their individual concerns.”

One recent event brought over 100 central New Jersey veterans together over a conference call for a meeting to discuss what services the government was providing to soldiers. The call featured not only Rep. Holt but also officials from the U.S. Department of veterans Affairs and the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

“Holt answered concerns from participants, including about health care, the GI Bill, veterans employment, and other issues,” Goldberg said. “The feedback was great, with many urging him to hold similar teleforums and to continue to provide information and pass along resources.”

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Princeton, August 16, 2010 – Businessman Scott Sipprelle challenged career politician Rush Holt to stop hiding in his internet bunker and publicly defend the negative personal attacks and fabricated issues stands attributed to Sipprelle on Holt’s remade web site.

“Sadly, after 12 years in Washington, DC, this is what Rush Holt has become,” said Sipprelle.  “Our Congressman is so desperate to cling to power that he intends to resort to cynical gutter campaigning, while attributing to me completely fabricated issue stands in an attempt to mislead voters and distract them from his failed record in Congress.”

Sipprelle, who issued his first debate challenge to Holt 135 days ago, said democracy thrives on informed and honest discussion of the important issues affecting the nation.

“While my website issues page is comprised of in-depth proposals to address America’s ills, Mr. Holt’s issues page amounts to little more than an attack ad against me. What greater evidence could there be that Mr. Holt has no plan? I challenge Mr. Holt to come out of hiding and have the courage to defend his own voting record, while sharing a stage with me in public,” added Sipprelle.  “If debates were good enough for Lincoln and Douglas, they should be good enough for Rush Holt.”

A new page on Holt’s web site (www.rushholt.com/issues) personally attacks Sipprelle for being a self-made businessman, a financial expert, and a product of the private sector, while attributing issue positions to Sipprelle that are completely fabricated.  Holt even goes so

far as to attack Sipprelle for investing in a list comprised of 790 American companies that have purportedly exported jobs overseas, while failing to reveal that Holt himself has raked in nearly $200,000 in campaign contributions from that very same list of companies.

“This is hypocrisy in the extreme.  If he honestly thinks these American corporations are so evil, then why is he asking them to fund his re-election campaigns year after year?  His tired class warfare rhetoric is dividing our country, and his vilification of American companies is contributing to the downfall of our economy.  Mr. Holt simply does not understand that you cannot create jobs by destroying job creators,” added Sipprelle.

Sipprelle said the issue positions Holt attributes to him are largely concocted out of thin air.

“I have never opposed equal pay for equal work for women nor have I ever proposed privatizing Social Security,” said Sipprelle.  “I challenge Mr. Holt to provide any evidence, of any kind, that I have staked out those positions. The fact of the matter is that he can’t do it, because he fabricated the story.”

“My campaign is all about demanding integrity and accountability for the expenditure of the taxpayers’ money and an end to the job destruction and reckless financial management of the Pelosi Congress. Rush Holt’s smear tactics will not deter me from this mission, because the stakes for America are too high. It is truly time for change,” concluded Sipprelle.

Princeton, August 12, 2010 – Saying it underscores how completely out-of-touch Rush Holt (NJ-12) is with growing concerns about wasteful federal spending and government transparency, businessman Scott Sipprelle today criticized Holt for spending large amounts of taxpayer money to boost his re-election campaign and called on him to release up-to-date reports of his spending totals on so-called “constituent outreach.”

According to official government records, Congressman Holt spent $221,211 on largely unsolicited mass mailings, phone calls and emails between July 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010 in an effort to boost his favorable ratings with 12^th District voters.  The practice, while legal, raises ethical red flags and is in dire need of reform, said Sipprelle.

“Our country is facing record budget deficits, businesses cannot find loans, and jobs are nowhere to be found, but entrenched incumbents like Rush Holt think it’s perfectly acceptable to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money promoting their re-election under the guise of ‘keeping constituents informed,’ said Sipprelle.  “This is just glaring example of a broken political system in dire need of comprehensive, bold reform.”

Additionally, Sipprelle called on Holt to publicly release how much taxpayer money he spent on “Mass Media” between April 1, 2010 and the beginning of the blackout period that prevents this type of activity 90 days before an election, which began last week.

“Anyone who lives in the 12^th Congressional District has been on the receiving end of an accelerating barrage of communications from Congressman Holt that seemed to only intensify after I got into the race and he realized there was an obstacle blocking his assured re-election,” said Sipprelle.  “What they probably didn’t know was it was their tax dollars paying for it.  It’s incumbent upon him to release those numbers immediately, so his constituents can see the full impact that his self-promotion campaign has had on their pocketbooks.”

Sipprelle said a common-sense reform he would sponsor upon being sworn-in to Congress in January, is that the amount of money being spent by each Member of Congress on offices, staff, travel and mass media should be prominently listed on the home page of their congressional web site, so constituents could know in real-time the cost of their representative.

“Transparency is a terrific disinfectant,” said Sipprelle.  “And Washington needs a healthy dose of it right away.”

Sipprelle pointed out that even President Obama has called the charges against Rangel “very troubling,” and clearly implied Rangel should resign his seat during an interview with Katie Couric of CBS News.

“A major thrust of my campaign against Congressman Holt is that he tries to pass himself off as a moderate at home, while in reality he has become a hyper-partisan rubber stamp for his party bosses in Washington,” said Sipprelle, referring to a National Journal report that ranks Holt as having the most extreme liberal voting record in all of Congress.

“Sadly, in the wake of his continued silence on the ethics scandal surrounding Congressman Rangel, it appears his partisan streak even extends to looking the other way when a member of his own party has clearly violated the public trust.  This extraordinary lack of leadership is indicative of why the American people have lost faith in our government and their elected officials in Washington,” said Sipprelle.  “Today, I challenge Mr. Holt to speak publicly on this matter and join a growing bipartisan chorus calling for Mr. Rangel’s resignation immediately.”

House investigators accused Rangel of 13 violations of congressional ethics standards, including allegations of failure to report rental income from vacation property in the Dominican Republic, hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income and assets on his financial disclosure statements, questionable use of congressional staff and stationery to raise money for a college center in New York named after him, accepting favors and benefits from the donors that may have influenced his congressional actions, use of a subsidized New York apartment as a campaign office instead of a residence, and misuse of the congressional free mail privilege.

“It is time for Mr. Holt to put service to his constituents ahead of his partisan loyalties,” said Sipprelle, who questioned whether Holt’s hesitancy to speak out on the issue was due to Rangel’s strong financial support – $24,000 in campaign contributions – during Holt’s congressional career.  “His failure to call on Mr. Rangel’s resignation speaks volumes about how out-of-touch Mr. Holt has become in recent years.”  (Source: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/10/charles-rangels-support-wanes.html)

PRINCETON BOROUGH — In front of a crowd of supporters at his campaign headquarters, Scott Sipprelle, the Republican candidate seeking to unseat Democrat Rush Holt in the 12th congressional district election this November, presented his plans to resuscitate the struggling job market.

He also unveiled a new television spot, his second in less than a month, which presented the candidate as a friend of small businesses in the region.

“The concept of focusing on jobs is not just a sound bite or a talking point for me,” Sipprelle said before a standing-room-only crowd at his headquarters yesterday. “This is what I’ve done in the private sector for my entire career.”

Sipprelle, who began his career with Morgan Stanley in the 1990s, is the owner of a small Princeton Borough venture-capital firm.

The candidate’s plan for job creation, just one section of the larger “Blueprint for Renewal” featured on his website, calls broadly for the simplification of the federal tax code, cutting government spending, and stemming the tide of illegal immigration.

He said that the amorphous nature of the tax code, which is often changed and amended from year to year, had created an unstable environment for business growth.

“In the absence of certainty, businesses will hoard cash,” Sipprelle said, “and that’s what businesses in America are doing today.”

More specifically, he has called for the elimination of the capital gains tax for investment in new companies, establishing a minimum holding period of five years.

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New Jersey is also famous for its contributions to American politics; after-all, it is one of the original thirteen colonies. And like them or not, Presidents Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson both hailed from the Garden State.

Thus, it is fitting that Scott Sipprelle, who may very well be District Twelve’s next congressman, has been busy crafting his political future in diners across the state.

The 47 year old Princeton businessman has been on the campaign trail for several months, but has only recently begun touring diners as a means of reaching voters.

Apparently, Rush Holt doesnt ascribe to the belief that voters deserve an event where both candidates can publicly discuss their ideas (just think of how bland the legendary Lincoln-Douglas debates would have been had “Honest Abe” been running against Rush Holt).

Without a public debate, Sipprelle recently released a TV commercial to help him reach a  larger demographic. The ad, which high-lights Sipprelle’s proposed “blueprint for renewal,” also makes it clear that Sipprelle is not a career politician; he made a name for himself in the private sector. That said, he did launch a crusade against the fat-cats on Wallstreet (whom his website condemns for “failures of governance, mismanagement, and cronyism”) when the corporate controlled career politicians (Rush Holt included) turned a blind eye towards their behavior.

While Sipprelle’s commercial is certainly top-notch, Congressman Rush Holt also runs commercials on TV and radio, as do the majority of political candidates.

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Princeton, July 14, 2010 – Since his campaign began earlier this year, businessman Scott Sipprelle (NJ-12) has raised $829,059.99 and, weeks into a substantial cable television buy introducing himself to District 12 voters, he will report $489,785.84 cash-on-hand as of June 30.

Sipprelle, who committed to match at least the first $1 million in donations to his campaign, added $240,474.80 in the 2^nd Quarter, including $119,650 of his own money.

“Our ability to raise and spend the necessary funds to run a winning campaign has never been an issue,” said Sipprelle.  “I am particularly pleased that my fundraising is coming from the personal savings of concerned individuals, as opposed to the corporate, union, and special interest checks that largely finance the campaign of career politician Rush Holt.”

“My focus remains on taking a message of economic renewal and political reform to the voters of the 12^th District and exposing the job-killing, tax-and-spend record of hyper-partisan incumbent Rush Holt – and that is exactly what we are doing every day.  I couldn’t be happier about how the campaign is progressing,” added Sipprelle.

Sipprelle also took the opportunity to chide his opponent for his continued failure to agree to public debates.

“Today marks the 102^nd day since I issued my first debate challenge to Congressman Holt way back on April 3^rd, and more than a month since I sent him a proposed schedule of debates on June 9^th,” said Sipprelle.  “His refusal to share a stage with me can only be viewed as an admission by Mr. Holt and his handlers that he is both out-of-touch with his constituents and incapable of debating the serious issues facing our nation.  I urge him to come out of the shadows and give the people of this district the vigorous, open campaign they deserve.”

The commercial will run on cable systems throughout the district and is paid for by Sipprelle for Congress.

Explaining that his “opponent is a 12-year congressman with 100 percent name recognition,” Mr. Sipprelle said the goal of the commercial is to “present me and my message to the voting public.”

Transparency, openness, and an active dialogue are key facets of Mr. Sipprelle’s political ethos. “I’m a big believer that democracy requires an engaged electorate,” he admitted, characterizing the United States as being at a “turning point in the debate in how we can run this country.”

Mr. Sipprelle seeks to draw on his experience working in the financial services industry and his time on Wall Street to “interject a common sense business sensibility in the way we run our government.”

A staunch supporter of “free and open markets,” Mr. Sipprelle said that innovative solutions to the nation’s problems are more likely to come from the private sector than from the government.

“America is at a dangerous financial crossroads,” he acknowledged, noting that he left Wall Street years prior to the economic collapse, and had spoken out against excess even then. Criticizing the “shortsightedness, recklessness, and greed” that he characterized as creating the current tenuous fiscal environment, Mr. Sipprelle said that supporting fledgling companies and promoting innovation is what Wall Street should be doing.

His plan for “reforming how we spend money in America” is called the Blueprint for Renewal, where attention is paid to controlling debt and spending. Calling it a “commonsense approach to budgeting,” Mr. Sipprelle said that the problem with government spending is that it’s cumulative, and that “we need to do more with less.”

“We as a country are living beyond our means. We can either reform this ourselves, or we can continue to do what politicians do: delay and defer. But the longer you delay addressing a problem, the bigger it gets,” Mr. Sipprelle cautioned.

Regarding the BP oil spill, Mr. Sipprelle noted that it is “obviously an environmental catastrophe,” stemming from “our failure to regulate and control this awesome new technology. The industry has outrun our government regulators.”

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