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Press Releases:
Former State Rep. running for State Senate wins endorsement of influential electoral group
Small-business group gives nod to Derek Kilmer of Gig Harbor for State Senate
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 14, 2006
OLYMPIA – - The representative group for Washington's biggest job-generator today gave its endorsement to Derek Kilmer of Gig Harbor for State Senate in the 26th Legislative District.
In making its endorsement, NFIB/Washington S.A.F.E. Trust, the political-action arm of NFIB/Washington, the state's largest small-business advocacy organization, praised the challenger for his 70-percent voting record score on the issues vital to the survival of Main Street enterprises.
"Small businesses are not smaller versions of big businesses; they have distinctly different difficulties in remaining solvent, and Derek Kilmer has a first-hand experience into this very vital fact for the state's economy. Small businesses employ the majority of working Washingtonians and generate almost all new jobs, yet legislators can often overlook the damage their proposals could do to them when lumping them in with big businesses and major corporations," said Carolyn Logue, state director for NFIB/Washington.
The political endorsement of small business is no small matter. According to the NFIB National Small Business Poll, Political Participation, 2005:
• 95 percent of small-business owners are registered to vote
• 43 percent have contributed to causes, candidates, or PACs over the past four years
• The most common public affairs and political activities in which small employers engage include initiating discussions with employees regarding the impact of a policy issue on the firm.
The last finding, underscored Logue, is where the real fruit of votes is born at the ballot box. Past surveys and polls have found:
• Voters prefer candidates supported by small business by a margin of 3 to lover those supported by organized labor (Winston Group)
• 75 percent trust small-business owners more than doctors, 66 percent; journalists, 38 percent; or lawyers, 25 percent. (USA Today/CNN/Gallup)
• 68 percent say small-business owners are more honest than labor unions, 7 percent; the federal government, 3 percent; or big business, 3 percent (Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates)
• Almost half (46 percent) of voters casting ballots in a presidential election owned, worked for, or had a member of their household who own or work for a small business (Penn Schoen Associates, 1996)
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The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is the state and nation's largest small-business advocacy group. A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1943, NFIB represents the consensus views of its 600,000 members in Washington and all 50 state capitols. For more information on NFIB/Washington, visit www.NFIB.com/WA.
www.nfib.com
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