FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
To our Commentary and News Release List™
Thursday, December 04, 1997
For Immediate Release;
Contact Robert Colaco at (818)757-1776
Assemblyman Tom Bordonaro is endorsed for the 22nd Congressional District by Citizens For A Better America ®.
Van Nuys, California - Citizens For A Better America ®. announces its endorsement today of Assemblyman Tom J. Bordonaro, Jr. for the congressional seat vacated by the death of Rep. Walter Capps.
“Citizens For A Better America ® faxed a candidate questionnaire to all the potential candidates for this seat. Today we received a candidate questionnaire from Assemblyman Tom J. Bordonaro Jr., and we are proud to announce our endorsement of his
candidacy,” said Robert Colaco, national chairman of Citizens For A Better America ®.
“Potential candidates, were faxed a candidate questionnaire. The questionnaire includes 19 different questions about very difficult issues facing America today. We are very excited that Assemblyman Tom J. Bordonaro, Jr. qualified for a Citizens For A
Better America ® endorsement,” said Colaco.
“It is very special to receive an endorsement from Citizens For A Better America ® as was evidenced by what took place for the November 4th, 1997 California elections. In that election 810 candidates in 17 counties were called. Of those candidates 258
supplied fax numbers or e-mail addresses and were faxed or e-mailed our candidate questionnaires; of those we received 40 back. We ended up endorsing 8 candidates. Of those 8 candidates, 4 of them won their seats,” said Colaco.
“Mr. Bordonaro is an inspiration to both young and old alike because despite his paralysis which confines him to a wheelchair he continues in his pursuit to make America a better place for this generation and those to come. Mr. Bordonaro did not get our
endorsement because he is handicapped. Our questionnaire did not take into consideration a person’s race, gender, their political party affiliation, nor their physical condition. Mr. Bordonaro would be an inspiration even if he wasn’t in a wheelchair but
his wheelchair rather than limiting him demonstrates to all that the pioneering spirit is still alive in America,” said Mr. Colaco.
A December 4, 1997 Los Angeles Times article entitled “Renegade GOP Candidate Has Beaten Bigger Odds” by Capitol Journal correspondent George Skelton, tells a little of the story.
“Every candidate has a basic stump speech, but I’d never heard one quite like Assemblyman Tom Bordonaro’s: His father’s family migrated to California from Italy, his mother’s from East Texas during the Dust Bowl - ‘took them seven years, working on odd
jobs and fixing the truck to get another 200 miles.”
Skelton goes on later in his article: “Then-and here’s the unique part-there’s ‘the accident.’ Bordonaro inserts the story almost as an aside into the litany about ‘Who I am.’ The subject is almost unavoidable, inasmuch as he’s sitting alongside the
lectern in an electric wheelchair, obviously a quadriplegic with paralyzed legs and only limited use of his arms. He pauses and the audience listens up. The day before my first midterm at Cal Poly, I was in my auto accident,” the 38-year-old 6-footer
says. ‘I was thrown into a life confined to a wheelchair. I was six months in a hospital...’
In a speech, the candidate quickly satisfies the curious, then jumps to the point. ‘But because of my faith and my family and my perseverance and a lot of good people, I was able to get a hold of myself and get on with my life, to move forward. And that
has a lot to do with who I am.
Near the end of the article George Skelton says: “But his main message? ‘You can still do it in this country. It doesn’t matter even if you’re disabled, or a man or a woman or black or white. The opportunities are there if you have the courage to reach
out and take them. But we’ve gotten away from inspiring people and that’s what we have to get back to.”
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© copyright 1997 Citizens For A Better America ® (CFABA.org)
Publisher of the Have You Been Lied To? ™ Flyer
Robert Colaco, National Chairman, Founder.
F.E.C. ID #C00278333
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