Gillespie banks on
SUPPORT
WASHINGTON: He believes India is right to be concerned about US plans for Afghanistan, supports immigration reforms that don’t hurt India, and backs a nonprofit that promotes basketball in India.
Ed Gillespie could be running for office in India. But the Republican is in the race for senate from Virginia, hoping to unseat Mark Warner, a Democrat who co-chairs the senate’s India caucus, in November elections.
“I would be on the same caucus, if elected” Gillespie said in an interview. “I would make sure I was active on that front. It is of importance to a very important part of our electorate here.”
Gillespie is a former chairman of the Republican Party, White House counsel to president George W Bush and Mitt Romney’s top strategist for his White House run in 2012.
And, he said, is concerned about the state of ties with India, which he said “were never better before or after” Bush, whom he served during the India-US nuclear deal.
The problem, now? “I think when the United States recedes from a leadership role in the world, the world becomes a more In 1984, Ireland joined the Republican Party. He then worked as a telephone solicitor for the Republican National Committee in 1985. In 1997, Gillespie formed Policy Impact Communications, a public affairs communications firm, with
Barbour. In February
2009, Virginia attorney general Bob McDonnell announced that Gillespie will serve as general chairman of his campaign for governor. Gillespie has served as an adviser to American Crossroads dangerous place. I believe that the lack of prioritisation for this president, his administration, of playing a leadership role is reflected in US-India relations as well.”
There are about 120,000 Indian-Americans in Virginia, In 1999, Gillespie worked as the press secretary for the presidential campaign of John Kasich until his withdrawal from the race.
In 2000, Gillespie served as senior communications advisor for the presidential campaign of George W Bush, organising the party convention programme in Philadelphia for Bush’s nomination and Bush’s inauguration ceremony.
Gillespie served as chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia from December 2006 to June 2007. He played a visible role in 2006 Virginia Senate elections as a spokesman for defeated Virginia mostly prosperous and acutely conscious of their growing political clout stemming from their numbers and checkbooks.
They have tended to vote for Democrats, as Indian-Americans in other states — the only member of the House of Representatives On immigration reforms While taking the steps needed to keep out people “we don’t want”, we must allow people we want such as my father (his family came from Ireland) and engineers”. “I believe we do need immigration reforms, that include visa reforms” Battle for Silicon Valley: IndianAmerican Ro Khanna, a Democrat, is running against incumbent Mike Honda, a fellow Democrat, in an electoral battle that turned really nasty lately, with racist overtones Seeks second term: Sole Indian-American in House of Representatives, Ami Bera, a Democrat, is seeking a second term from voters of
California’s District 7. He is likely to win from the community is a Democrat, from California.
Republicans have struggled to connect with ethnic minorities such as Asian Americans, that include those of Indian descent, Americans of Hispanic origin and African-Americans. On Afghanistan
“If you set an arbitrary deadline, politically motivated deadline in terms of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan before we know that it’s in a position to have a stable government of its own. It’s a legitimate concern and I think India should be concerned” Trying, harder than before: Democrat Manan Trivedi, a US military physician, is running for the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania’s congressional District 6, for the third time
It hasn’t helped that only Indian-Americans ever elected governors in the US are both Republican — Nikki Haley in South Carolina and Bobby Jindal in Louisiana.
Gillespie knows all that well, having seen from close quarters