Andy Marlette and GOP Congressional field

Last Friday’s GOP Congressional debate lasted two hours. Each of the candidates was given two minutes to close:

Rebekah Bydlak: Thank you so much for coming out here tonight. You’ve got a lot of things you could be doing on a Friday night other than listening to all of us and I really appreciate you all coming out and caring about the future of your country and thank you to the party for hosting.

Now more than many other years in the past this election presents a time for choosing. Will we continue down the path of more government, bigger spending, politics as usual and less freedom or will we take a different path? I’m running for congress because we have a problem in this country. Whether we’re talking about federal involvement in education or healthcare or your gun rights, WWashington must be opposed.

I’m running for congress because I’m a political outsider. I’m a Pensacola native and I’m the right person to take them on. I hope during your support on August 30th. Please visit my website Rebekah2016.com. Thank you so much for coming out there and hope to earn your support.

Greg Evers: You’ve heard tonight all the candidates up here and they’re pretty much the same thing. You know, repel Obama Care, strengthen our military, our veterans administration’s broke, fix it. We all sport second amendment. We all support bringing education back locally. We all support building walls, stopping immigration, whatever. Everybody’s the same on that.

Let me tell you there’s a little difference. I’ve said up here tonight and in my opening statement I gave you my cell number. I gave your that number for a reason. On Friday afternoon or on Saturday morning when you needed somebody to be your representative to cut through the red tape of government, you have the ability to make that phone call. You don’t know how many calls I get on the weekend. You know what? I accept the responsibility because it’s my job. I stood up for it. I asked for it. I ask you, each one of you, to vote for Greg Evers and my cell number, 850-240-0646. God bless and thank you for coming tonight.

Brian Frazier: Thanks for the forum and thanks for everybody for coming tonight. It’s nice to see a decent turnout of citizens who care about what’s going to happen with our country. I’m uniquely qualified in that I’m the only military retiree on this panel.

Like I said, I spent 25 years in the Armed Forces defending our country. Moved all over the world as a child. I’ve flown the border, walked the border, conducted anti-terrorism operations all over the globe and domestically. I understand the problems that face America today. It’s a globe Jihad. It’s all over the world. It doesn’t matter where you go. It needs to be stopped.

I understand what needs to be done for our families both active duty and their families and the veterans. I understand what needs to be done for our retirees, what happens with their calls and their pay because I am a retired service member, like I said. I spent the last four and a half years in Washington. I’ve led large complex agencies with hundreds of millions of dollars of budgets. I’ve had every kind of government employee, army, navy, air force, marine working for me. Government service. Some of then unionized.

I know how to deal with those people. I’ve had every kind of contract that the US Government has to offer under my purview at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in Washington DC. I worked in and out of all the agencies, well not all the agencies, but many agencies in Washington DC. They all operate about the same. I ask for your vote on August the 30th. I’m Brian Frazier. I’m uniquely qualified to represent you in this unique time in our nation’s history. Thank you.

Mark Wichern: I’ve a plan to restore the republic. It beings with a grassroots movement. It’s going to have to be based upon knowledge, jobs and local control of government and education. I have abrother recently deceased … veteran that died because of the VA. I’m going to make sure that I honor our promises to our veterans and I want to make sure they get the care they deserve.

My professional background is in small business development. What I want to see done is to take the programs that we’ve already developed and used over the last 8 years to help 50 other companies build multimillion dollar businesses. I want to take the budget that is giving to each congressman and use that money to be able to invest it back into our economy here locally. Because let’s face it, you can’t get pass page 5 reading a bill without finding something unconstitutional. I don’t believe I’m going to need a full staff in Washington to read bills.

We have a couple other issues and over the past 10 years, I have studied Austrian economics, US and world history. As such, I have a thorough understanding of the two source problems that are causing all of these we’ve been discussing today on the stage. One of them is jurisdiction which is a non-constitutional expansion of the federal government and it’s regulations over the US citizens in the states. The second thing is the private reserve or the Federal Reserve Bank. It’s a private bank. I don’t know how we’ve allowed this to happen for the last 100 years but we need to fix it.

On the front page of our website, Wichernforcongress.com, I have a short 10-minute video that gives you some training on what actually went wrong with the United States. I’m Mark Wichern on behalf of the next generation, I would like to ask for your vote to vote for me on August 30th.

Matt Gaetz: My cellphone is 850-240-3778. If you call me, I’ll be against Obama Care expansion today, tomorrow and forever every single time you call.

I’m glad tonight that the school hosted us. I’m also glad that Escambia County’s outstanding school superintendent, Malcolm Thomas, is here. You know what, Mr. Superintendent? The federal government for too long has created too much paperwork for your teachers. Too many tests for your students. Too many regulations. Guess what? Help is on the way. We are going to abolish the federal department of education.

We also have our sheriff here, David Morgan, and I’m proud to have his endorsement and support in this campaign. You know what? Sheriff Morgan has tried to go onto the Navy Base and try and to make sure that people who are retiring and transitioning into private life might have an opportunity to work alongside some of Escambia’s bravest and finest in our sheriff’s office. He has gotten no help from the bureaucracies in Washington. Mr. Sheriff, you’re doing a great job and help is on the way.

You know what? America’s in trouble. We’ve got deep problems. Illegal immigrants are sucking us dry. Radical Muslim terrorism is on the march and we have a debt that will cripple this country.

Any of those three problems could take us out. I have been conservative in the state legislature and effective. You don’t have to choose one of the other. I will go and fight and win for the conservative causes that are most important to the people of Northwest Florida. Thank you all so much.

James Zumwalt: America’s under attack and it’s no longer an exaggeration to say American’s are dying. I can’t believe that it’s come to this.

Look, these same ISIS thugs, we’re up against an enemy that’s highly complex, rapidly mobile and extremely ruthless. In fact, they’re the same guys that my teams and I fought face-to-face against in Iraq. We even sat across the table with them intelligence personnel and special forces. They smell like Axe body spray and body odor but the thing is they’re so ruthless that we even responded to a call, a mission, where they pud IEDs. They put bombs in girl’s school yards just because they don’t want little girls getting educated.

Look, we don’t have time to elect people to go up to Washington and then get brushed up on the job. The enemy’s in our backyard right now. I’ll tell you what. I mean I’m living on borrowed time. I should have died many times in Iraq. That’s just plain and simple. It changes your perspective on things. It changes how you view the world and what’s important to you and how important freedom is.

When God made me, He didn’t intend for me to have a good hair line like these guys. He didn’t intend for me a good cook but He made me to be a protector of this republic and the constitution and freedom wherever it’s threatened. I just ask, humbly ask, for the opportunity to fight for that freedom for Northwest Florida and the republic in Washington. Thank you.

Cris Dosev: Thank you all for having this event for us tonight. It’s been a heck of a lot of fun here to listen to folks.

We pretty much enumerated all the problems this country’s facing but God bless Britain. Can you feel it, people? Can you feel it? Evolution is starting. The people in Britain, the patriots of Britain have decided to tell the EU we’re sick and tired of the elites telling us how to run our lives.

I’m here to stand with them and let them know that America’s going to be following them shortly. Because we’re going to start sending patriots to Washington and not politicians. We’re going to start defending our rights in Washington especially when you elect me to be your next congressman.

Go to CrisDosev.com. My phone number by the way is 8503245544 but let me leave you with this also. I’ve been endorsed by Phyllis Schlafly, The Eagle Forum. I’ve been also endorsed by General Conley, 34th commandant of the Marin Corps. I’ve been endorsed by combat veterans for congress. I’ve also been endorsed by special operations speaks. Those are the people that made the Benghazi here in … These people vetted me. They know who I am.

I fought for this country. I know what it means to defeat an enemy. My son is a first lieutenant, infantry officer with 3rd battalion 6th marines. We understand what it means the obligation we have to defend our country. I just want to make sure you all know that it means an awful lot to the Dosev family. God bless.

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On Monday, I discussed the debate with PNJ editorial cartoonist Andy Marlette on “Pensacola Speaks:”

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