Republican Joseph Arminio intends to run for Congress
By STEVE NERY
Staff Writer
August 3, 2007

ARNOLD — A third Republican, Joseph Arminio, has announced his intention to run for the U.S. Congress in Maryland’s 1st District in the 2008 election.

So far, U.S. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest-R-Md.-1st, State Sen. Andrew Harris, R-7-Baltimore County, and Arminio will vie for the Republican nomination next year. Queen Anne’s County State’s Attorney Frank Kratovil and Cambridge attorney Christopher Robinson have announced their intention to pursue the Democratic nomination.

Arminio, who lives in Arnold, formerly published The Citizens’ Monitor newspaper and also worked in national defense policy.

He co-founded The National Coalition for Defense, an advocacy group, and recently wrote The Decline and Fall of the American Way, a book which hits shelves this month.

Arminio said he is concerned about the future of the economy and the dollar, labeled the country’s immigration policy “bankrupt” and believes America should not force democracy on Iraq.

The economy, he said, is at a dangerous point.

“For one thing, the sum of the government and private sector debt, as a share of gross domestic product, is far, far larger than the debt that brought on the Great Depression,” Arminio said in a statement.

The answer, he believes, lies in reducing spending and borrowing and replacing free trade with other countries with “fair trade,” such as charging high tariffs to low-wage-paying countries like China.

Arminio said he’s concerned with the possibility of Muslim powers dumping the dollar and using the euro as reserve currency instead.

Iraq made this move a few years before America invaded, he noted.

America could better preserve the power of the dollar by not forcing democracy on Iraq, he said.

With no end in sight with the current war policy, Arminio favors shaping Iraq into three zones — a Kurd zone in the north, a Shiite sector in the south and a Sunni region in the center. He would like to see America disengage troops from combat but keep them in bases for the time being. Most would later be removed from Iraq, with some troops staying among the Kurds.

America would provide whatever assistance necessary for a transition, such as lending money and helping Sunni and Shiites relocate, he said.

It’s also important to maintain a balance of power between Iraq, Syria and Iran, he said.

When it comes to immigration, Arminio doesn’t view illegals as the only problem. America has been absorbing too many legal immigrants as well, he said — at a ratio about three times higher than he would like. He would like to see to figures closer to those of 1925 to 1965 rather than those over the last 40 years.

As well as lowering the allowed numbers on a reasonable schedule, Arminio said he favors conducting random searches on businesses for illegal immigrants. Those caught would be deported.

While America now contains an estimated 12 to 13 million illegals, Arminio doesn’t think mass deportation is hopeless.

He points to 1954, when Gen. Joseph Swing, the commissioner of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services (now Immigration and Customs Enforcement), led a purge of tens of thousands of illegal immigrants.

They were shipped hundreds of miles south, and INS claimed that more than half a million others left voluntarily.

Arminio also supports increasing military power as a whole, especially when it comes to missile defense systems.

He admires U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Col., and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas. His upcoming book has three heroes — presidents Ronald Reagan, Thomas Jefferson and John F. Kennedy.

Other issues of importance in the 1st District include the health of the Bay, a decline in traditional family values, too much debt, too many taxes, inadequate schools and too few jobs, Arminio said.

“I believe my campaign will show the incumbent, in spite of his good intentions, has succumbed to some of the more misguided ideas of the right and left, and has been supporting policies that have done more to hurt the country, the district and the party than to help,” Arminio said.

Arminio received has bachelors’ degree in political science from Johns Hopkins University and his doctorate in national defense policy and international relations from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. More than $60,000 has been pledged for his campaign, he said.

He has posted position pieces on his Web site, www.joearminioforcongress.org.