Michele Bachmann/presidential candidate

Michele Bachmann
           House of Representatives for Minnesota since 2007. First woman Republican to be elected in the House from Minnesota.  Former Minnesota State Senate member.
               Family
Born Michele Maria Amble on April 6, 1956 in Waterloo, Iowa to parents David John and Jean Ample. After parents divorce was raised my her mother, A bank employee, in Anoka, Minnesota. She married husband Marcus Bachmann in 1978 and they h ave five children and have fostered 23.
               Education
Bachmann graduated in 1978 from Winona State University with her B.A. .           She went on to receive her J.D. degree from oral Roberts University and then her LL.M. degree in tax law from William & Mary Law School. 
               Career
Bachmann spent five years as a federal tax litigation attorney, working on civil and criminal cases for the IRS. She started her own charter school in Minnesota as well as her own mental Health practice office. 
               Political Background
When she started her charter school she found herself plunged into politics through her strong convictions and beliefs in Minnesota's  education system. She had prior worked on Jimmy Carter's campaign, along with her husband, in 1976. In a short period after, she changed her views and worked on Ronald Reagan's campaign. Bachmann was elected Minnesota State Senator in 2000.  In 2006 she was elected into the U.S. House of representatives where she as served since.
              Issues
Bachmann is a huge supporter of keeping and following the constitution as written.  She Strongly opposes ObamaCare.  She is anti-abortion. Bachmann is against raises college tuition. She supports drilling in Alaska. She opposed the financial bail out of of financial institutions. She is against same-sex marriage.

Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum
         Former Senator of Pennsylvania.  Running for the republican nomination for President.
                  Family
Richard John Santorum was born May 10th 1958 in Winchester, Virginia to parents Aldo Santorum  and Catherine Dughi Santorum. Both his father and his grandfather were immigrants of Italy in the 1920's. His parents both worked at the VA Hospital.  He and his wife, Karen Garver, have seven children in which she homeschools.
                  Eduction
Santorum received his B.A. degree in political science from Pennsylvania State University in 1980. He then earned his M.A. degree in business administration from University of Pittsburgh.  In 1986 he earned his Juris Doctor from Dickinson School of Law. 
                   Career
Santorum was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar after graduating in 1986. He began practicing Law in Pittsburgh where he joined the law firm of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. 
                   Political background
Santorum started off in politics when he became director of the Pennsylvania Senate's local government committee in the early 1980's and director of the Pennsylvania Senate's Transportation Committe. He was also an adminisrative assistant to Republican State Senator Doyle Corman.  In 1990 Santorum was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.  He was then elected to the Senate in 1994. In 2007 Santorum joined the law firm of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC where he provided counseling services for the firm's clients.                 
                  Issues
He is a conservative whom is against abortion. Strongly supports protecting our borders and not allowing government support to undocumented immigrants.  Supports intelligent design being taught in schools.  Strong believer in animal rights. Against same-sex marriage. Is in favor of enlarging NATO. Supports free trade with overseas countries. He supports the right to bear arms. 

Presidential Candidates/ Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney
      The former governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007.  Running for the Republican nomination for President.

          Family 
 He was Born Willard Mitt Romney, named after hotel magnate J. Willard Marriott,  his father's best friend, March 12^th 1947, in Detroit, Michigan of Parents Lenore Lafaunt Romney & George W. Romney, a 1970 Michigan Senate candidate and Three-term Michigan Govenor. He was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan( a Detroit suburb).  Mitt is the youngest of four children. In 1969 Romney married Ann Davis. The Romneys' first son,Tagg, was born in 1970 while both were undergraduates at Brigham Young and living in a basement apartment.  They later moved and had Matt in 1971, Josh in 1975 , Ben in 1978, and Craig in 1981.

         Education
 Mitt Romney received his undergraduate degree and graduated from Brigham Young University in 1971 and earned a Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration degrees from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School in 1975 as valedictorian earning BA in English.     
        Career
 Romney started out at a management consulting company, Boston Consulting Group, which led him to CEO at Bain & Co. leading them out of crisis. He was also co-founder and head of the spin-off company Bain Capitol, a private equity investment firm, which accumulated Romney an abundance of wealth and funds. Romney also served as CEO of Olympic games organizing committee in Salt lake City, UT from 1999-2002. Before Romney came on, the event was running $379 million short of its revenue benchmarks and despite the initial fiscal shortfall, the Games ended up clearing a profit of $100 million.  In 2002, Romney was elected Govenor of Massachusetts were he remained until 2007. He ran for the Repulican nomination in 2008 for the Presidental Bid, but was won out by John mcCain, in which he later endorsed.   As a result of his business career, by 2007 Mitt Romney and his wife had a net worth of between $190 and $250 million, most of it held in blind trusts.

          Political Background
  Romney had his eye on the politics scene for awhile and in 1994 he finally decided to try his hand in it and he ran for State Senate of Massachusetts and lost to Ted Kennnedy.  He later decided to try again and ran 2002 for Governor of Massachusetts and won. Upon entering office in the middle of a fiscal year, Romney faced an immediate $650 million shortfall and a projected $3 billion deficit for the next year. Unexpected revenue of $1.0–1.3 billion from a previously enacted capital gains tax increase and $500 million in unanticipated federal grants decrease the deficit to $1.2–1.5 billion. By 2006, the state had a $600–700 million surplus. Romney did this by raising various fees by more than $300 million, including those for driver's licenses, marriage licenses, and gun licenses, He increased the state gasoline fee by 2 cents per gallon, generating about $60 million per year in additional revenue without borrowing or raising taxes.  The state legislature also cut spending by $1.6 billion, including reductions in state aid to cities and towns and reductions in state funding for higher education. Romney signed the  Massachusetts health Reform Law,  which requires nearly all Massachusetts residents to buy health insurance coverage or face escalating tax penalties such as the loss of their personal income tax exemption.

        The Issues 
  Romney is a Pro-life supporter.  He Supports Capital Punishment. Romney supports increasing standards for education and quality based incentives for teachers, supports No child left behind and the Department of Education. He supports teaching abstinence in school and is against Pray in schools. As Govenor, Romney signed a 2004 measure instituting a permanent Massachusetts ban on Military style assualt weapons, but supports the right to bear arms.   Romney supports anti-discrimination laws to protect gays and lesbians in the workplace, but not same-sex marriage or cival unions.  He supported Don't ask, Don't Tell.  He is a strong opponent in medical Cannabis. Romney has campaigned in support of free trade especially with China.  Romney has since stated that he favors eliminating any taxes related to capital gains or other investments on all individuals or families who make less than $200,000 per year and also the Death Tax.

Romney wants to become independent of foreign sources of oil. Romney has supported a $20 billion package for energy research & new car technology. Romney had vetoed eight sections of the health care legislation, including a $295 per person fee on businesses with 11 employees or more that do not provide health insurance. Romney favors increased immigration to the United States and opposes illegal immigration. He is against amnesty for illegal aliens.  In his last month as Governor of Massachusetts, Romney signed an executive order that would have allowed state police officers to make arrests for immigration violations. He supports the invasion of Iraq. He however has criticized mismanagement of Iraq post invasion. Romney has expressed support for an eventual reduction in military presence in Iraq but has strongly opposed a timetable for withdrawal. Romney supported the war in Afghanistan. He also wishes to increase the size of the military by at least 100,000 troops.

Presidential Candidate/ Herman Cain

Herman Cain

                 Businessman from Goergia. Running for the Republican nomination for President.
               Family
Herman Cain Was born on December 13th 1945 in Memphis, Tennessee to parents Lenora  and Luther Cain, Jr. His father worked three jobs including a chauffeur, and his mother worked as a maid.  Cain, and his younger brother, grew up in Atlanta, Georgia under years of segregation and hatred towards his heritage. In 1968, he married his wife Gloria. They have two grown children.
                    Education
After graduating high school at the top of his class, Cain went on to Morehouse College where he graduated in 1967 with a degree in mathematics.  He then went on to earn a Masters Degree in computer science from Perdue University.
               Career
While working on his master's degree from Purdue, Cain worked for the Navy as a mathematician. He left after graduating to work for Coca Cola Company as a business analyst. In the late 70's he landed a job with Pillsbury Holding company as a executive where he rose, in a few short years, to corporate Vice-President. He then decided to branch off into a company subsidiary, that at the time need help financially, Burger King, where he was Regional Manager
and ran over 400 stores in the Philadelphia area and brought them to set record numbers. Under Cain's leadership, his region went from the least profitable for Burger King to the most profitable in three years.  After the success with Burger King, Pillsbury appointed Cain to President CEO of another troubled subsidiary, Godfather's Pizza, Inc. based out of Omaha, Nebraska. Cain also within a short time frame turned the company around to make profiting numbers. Cain eventually bought out the company and remained CEO until 1996.  During this time, Cain was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Restaurant Association (NRA) in 1988 and later served as chairman and elected CEO and president. He was also later appointed to serve on the Economic Growth and Tax Reform Commission. He became a Keynote speaker and founded a leadership firm and he has authored three books on topics ranging from leadership to self-empowerment. Cain became a member of the board of directors to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1992 and served as its chairman from January 1995 to August 1996. He became CEO and president of RetailDNA, a software technology company, in 1999. In 2002, he became an Executive Lecturer for the Gallup Organization, a world leader
performance management consulting firm. He is currently an associate minister at Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta, which he joined at the age of 10. Cain also serves as a commentator for Fox Business and sits on th board for Hallmark, AGCO, whirlpool.          
    Political Background
In 1996, Cain was a senior economic adviser in the Dole/Kemp presidential campaign. Cain ran for candidacy for the Republican nomination for United States Senate from Georgia in 2003, losing badly.
             The Issues
Herman cain is against Abortion. He supports the right to bear arms. He is against same sex marrige. Cain favors offshore drilling and supports drilling in Alaska.  Cain favors allowing consumers to choose alternative energy sources such as solar and wind through the private market instead of the government providing funding and incentives to particular corporations and industries. He believes in economic growth by implementing policies that emphasize less legislation, less regulation, lower taxes, and business friendly policies. Cain supports the Gold standard, saying that abandoning it "allowed Congress to inflate our currency whenever they overspent." Cain is for vanishing the Welfare System.  Cain supports lowering the corporate tax rates from 35 to 25 %, eliminating the capital gains tax, and suspending taxes on repatriated foreign profits. He favors small governments and free enterprise. ..

Presidential Canditates/ Tim Pawlenty

 Tim Pawlenty

                    The Former Governor of Minnesota from 2003-2010.  Former Minnesota House of Representatives from 1993-2002.  Running for the Republican nomination for President.
               Family
Timothy James Pawlenty was the youngest of five children. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota on November 27th 1960 and raised in the small city of South St. Paul by his parents Virginia Frances  and Eugene Joseph Pawlenty, a milk truck driver.  His mother died when he was a teenager of cancer. In the early 1990's Pawlenty married Mary Anderson and moved to Eagan, Minnesota where they have two  teenage daughters Mara and Anna.
             Education
Originally planning to become a dentist, Pawlenty enrolled in the University of Minnesota. Being the only member of his family to due so, he graduated in 1993 with a BA in political science and went on to earn a Juris Doctor from the University of Minnesota law School in 1986 
        Career 
 Pawlenty first worked as a labor law attorney at the firm Rider Bennett.  He  was also the Vice President of the software company Wizmo Inc. www.wizmo.com/.  
        Political Background
Tim Pewlenty started off already interested in politics around 1980 when he interned for two summers in the office of  US Senator Durenberger.  He later was  appointed to the city's Planning Commission and was elected to the Eagan City Council in 1991, at the young age of  just 28. He won a seat as a Minnesota State Representative in 1992, representing District 38B in suburban Dakota County. He was re-elected four terms and was voted majority leader by House Republicans in 1998, in which he held through 2002 when he was elected Governor of Minnesota. During his first year as governor, Pawlenty balanced a deficit of $4.3 billion without raising taxes, mostly by reducing the rate of funding increases for state services, including funding for transportation, social services, and welfare. he then turned around in his second term, and erased a $2.7 billion deficit by cutting spending, shifting payments, and using one-time federal stimulus money. He led worldwide trips for business leaders and trade delegations to explore trade opportunities.  Pawlenty was chairman of the Midwestern Governors Assocation in 2006 and then the chairman of the National Governors assocation from 2007 to 2008.  Pawlenty traveled several times to the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq to visit with commanders and troops in support of their efforts and cause.  In 2008 he joined John McCain's Presidental campaign team as chairman.
                The Issues
Tim Pawlenty believes the government should criminalize abortion, except for cases of rape, incest, and to save a woman's life. He opposes same-sex marriage and civil unions.  He would like to reinstate " Dont Ask Don't Tell".   Pawlenty is for cutting Social Security and Medicare programs in order to balance the federal budget. He supports troops in Afghanistan.  Pawlenty is not a supporter of Government bail outs for companies.  He supports capitol punishment and stricter bordor contol in the form of closed borders.  He is for drilling in Alaska. Pawlenty  was also part of the lawsuit on behalf of his state declaring Obamacare unconstitutional.      

Presidential Candidates/Ron Paul

              Ron Paul
                   Current Texas House of Representatives.  Running for the Republican nomination for President.
            Family
Ronald Earnest Paul was born August 20, 1935, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to parents Howard and Margaret Paul.  He married his wife to date, high school sweetheart,  Carol Wells in 1957. They have five children, Ronald, Lori, Rand, Robert, and Joy.  Rand is also in politics, following in all his father's footsteps.
                  Education
In 1957, Paul graduated from Gettysburg College with a B.S. degree in Biology.
He then went on to Duke University School of Medicine and graduated with a M.D. degree in 1961 moving shortly after to Detroit, Michigan.  There he completed an internship at The Henry Ford Hospital.
                  Career
After completing his internship in 1963, Paul served as a flight surgeon in the U.S.  Airforce until 1965 and then in the U.S. Air National Guard through 1968. Moving on to Texas, Ron Paul started his medical practice as a specialist in obstetrics/gynecology in the Houston area. Paul is said to have delivered over 4,00 babies from 1968 to 1996. In 1984 He founded Ron Paul & Associates Inc. In 1985 Ron Paul & Associates began publishing The Ron Paul Investment Letter and The Ron Paul Survival Report; it added the Ron Paul Political Report in 1987.             
       Political Background
Ron Paul first ran for political office in 1974 when he lost his run for United States Congress to Robert Casey.  Paul went on to be elected for the same seat in 1976 in a special election when Casey was appointed to another position.  He lost his seat months later only to regain it back in 1978 and held until 1985.  He ran for President in 1988 as a libertarian. In 1992 Paul became campaign adviser for Pat Buchanan for President.  Won the seat back in the House of Representatives in 1996 and still holds the position today.  Ron Paul also ran for the Presidental election in 2008 as a republican.
                    Issues
Paul is Pro-Life. He is against capitol punishment. He is against all three current wars the U.S. is involved in.  Paul doesn't support private enterprise bail outs or government control over them. He is against regulating the internet. He is for smaller government and more border control. Paul is a big supporter of the Tea Party.  He is against nuclear plant funding in China. Paul is also against salary raises in Congress and tax raises. 

Presidential Candidates/ Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich
                Former Georgia House of Representatives from 1979 to 1999. Former Speaker Of the House from 1996 to 1999.  Running for the Republican nomination for President.
                 Family
Gingrich was born June 17^th 1943,  in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to parents Kathleen "Kit"  Daugherty (1925–2003), and father, Newton Searles McPherson, a mechanic.  His parents had wed almost a year earlier, but were divorced shortly after his birth.  His mother later married Army officer Robert Gingrich (1925–1996), in 1946, who adopted Newt. The family resided just outside of Harrisburg, PA.  He has three younger half-sisters. Newt married his high school teacher Jackie Battley in 1962 in which they had two daughters, Kathleen born in 1963, President of Gingrich Communications and Jacqueline Sue born 1966, a published author and political commentator. Gingrich later married in 1981 to his former mistress Marianne Ginther and again in 2000 to Callista Bisek,  yet another mistress of his second marriage.  He and Callista now reside in McLean, Virginia.
                 Education
Gingrich graduated from Emory University in1965 with a B.A. in history.  He then went on to Tulane University, where he earned his M.A. and P.H.D. in modern European history, graduating in 1971.
                 Career
Gingrich taught history at the University of  West Georgia until 1978 also teaching a class at Kennesaw State University called Renewing American Civilization in 1993. He was a News and Political Analyst, FOXChannel, 1999-2011.            
     Political Background
In the years 1974 and 1976, Gingrich made two unsuccessful runs for the House of representatives.  He went on to win the seat in 1978 and held it until 1999. In 1981, Gingrich co-founded the Congressional Military Reform Caucus (MRC) as well as the Congressional Aviation and Space Caucus. In 1983, he founded the Conservative Opportunity Society (COS). In March 1989  he was elected House Minority Whip, succeeded from Dick Cheney.  In the November 1994 Gingrich became the  Speaker of the House. 
In early 1998 increased tax revenues helped reduce the federal budget deficit to below $25 billion. Gingrich then called upon President Clinton to submit a balanced budget for 1999, which was three years ahead of schedule, making it the first time the federal budget had been balanced since 1969. Gingrich has been credited with creating the agenda for the reduction in capital gains tax, which set out to balance the budget and implement decreases in estate and capital gains tax. During Gingrich's term as Speaker, eighty-four ethics charges were filed against him,all were dismissed but one. The remaining charge consisted of two counts "of failure to seek legal advice" and one count of "providing the committee with information which he knew or should have known was inaccurate" concerning the use of a tax exempt college course for political purposes. On January 21, 1997, the House voted to reprimand Gingrich, including a $300,000 cost assessment to recoup money spent on the investigation. This was the first time in the House's history that the Speaker had been disciplined for ethics violations. he announced on November 6, 1998 that he would not only stand down as Speaker, but would leave the House as well. He had been handily reelected to an 11th term in that election, but declined to take his seat.   He was also Southeast Coordinator, Nelson Rockerfeller's Presidential Campaign in 1968.
                The Issues
Gingrich is against abortion. He Supports the war in Afghanistan.  He opposes Unions.  He is for lowing taxes and a balanced budget.  He is for building more prisons and capitol punishment.  Supports prayer back in schools.  He is for oil drilling in Alaska.  Gingrich supports rights to bear guns.  He supports the war in Irag and feels we need to be in Iran and korea as well.  He opposes same sex partnerships rights to benefits, but feels they should have some sort of rights, but they shouldn’t be able to adopt children.  Newt believes orphanages suit children better than welfare and if on welfare it should only be for 2 years at the most. He is against Obamacare and feels the Government should stay out of health care. He thinks we need better programs to allow immigrants to enter the country leagally and guest work programs.