John Lerew, CMC '81, Can Win Congress on Energy

I wrote an article, "John Lerew CMC '81 Can Win on Energy," for the Claremont Independent about John Lerew, CMC '81, who is running for Congress. Please let me know what you think.

It's looking to be a tough year for Republicans. Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College, recently told The San Diego Union Tribune that the "the only question is how many seats the Republicans are going to lose."

"If they're really, really lucky, it will be single digits or low double digits in the House and maybe three or four in the Senate," Pitney said.

Things look especially tough for Republican challengers going up against Democrat incumbents, but, John Lerew CMC '81 assures us Colorado's 7th congressional district is different: "Energy is a wedge issue for Colorado voters."

John Lerew is running for congress. If elected, he'll be the second Claremont student to win national office. The first is David Dreier who has served California's 26th district -- which includes Claremont -- since 1980. The Claremont Independent interviewed Lerew over the summer.

When it comes to energy issues, Mr. Lerew knows his stuff. Before coming to Claremont McKenna, Lerew worked in Prudhoe Bay oil field for ten months. (He arrived on campus in January, a full semester into the year). At CMC, Mr. Lerew majored in government, writing his thesis on the legislative process that established the Alaskan pipeline. "How apropos is that?" he asks rhetorically. His father was an oil man - a petroleum engineer - and he grew up in the industry. In the oil industry, he understands why prices rise and why they fall. His advice to Congress? "Drill and drill now."

Ever the CMC entrepreneur, Lerew started a contracting business and later, after he became a certified financial planner, started his own financial planning business, FP2000, in Aurora, CO. In 2000, he started his own company, J.W. Lerew & Co., Centre for Financial Planning.

Though he calls himself a new Republican, Lerew has always had an interest in politics, interning in Washington for Rep. Millicent Fenwick, a Republican from New Jersey, working on the Jack Swigert 6th Congressional District campaign in Colorado, and volunteering for many others including State Attorney General Gail Norton and Bob Fitzgerald of the Aurora City Council.

Community involvement is a big part of Lerew's life. He is currently the Treasurer of the Cherry Creek Academy Charter School. He has been a member of the Aurora Business Council, the Cherry Creek Legislative Network, and past president of the Dam West Homeowners Association.

His opponent, Congressman Ed Perlmutter, has only been in Colorado for two years -- one congressional term -- but already Lerew is turning up the heat. "He votes with Nancy Pelosi straight down the line," says Lerew.

While the name Perlmutter is famous in Colorado, Lerew points out that few of the people he's spoken with on the campaign trail know who Perlmutter is. "When you're going door-to-door, nobody knows their congressmen. If they did, they probably wouldn't like what they see," Lerew notes.
"Ed Perlmutter supports abortion-on-demand and Nancy Pelosi's energy policies. Perlmutter doesn't understand the working class, 18-hour an hour men here who are hit hard by rising fuel prices."

Claremont years

When he first arrived at Claremont McKenna in January, Lerew couldn't find any of the classes he wanted and so he enrolled in "Ancient Philosophy," where he was the only freshman. He also took classes at Scripps with Professor Brodderick, who taught a seminar on World War II and the French revolution.

In later years, Lerew lived in Fawcett, which he calls "a premium place to live." "If you got in Fawcett, you were living pretty high on the hog," he remembers. After classes, Lerew played football with coach John Zinda, or he would go to a burger joint where he would meet professors over beers. "I'm sure I was a senior and of age," he jokes.

Lerew credits Claremont for turning him onto politics and for encouraging him to be a leader in his community."I wasn't very politically astute. I became politically astute hanging around Claremont. Claremont opened my eyes to the political process. It really did."

"Claremont teaches you to be a leader, to set yourself above the standard. 'Be a leader, not a follower.' They are very good at bestowing that on you. You leave there with a pretty good level of confidence and practical insights into the way the world works. The world is your oyster, and you know it. Though the competition level is enormous, you make dear friends." Lerew says that he had a "heck of a great time."

At Claremont, Lerew worked for John Anderson, an independent running for president. He manned the table to hand out campaign literature when Anderson came to speak at the Athenaeum. "He was a hot topic and commodity. You always go with the person who promises all, but he faded quickly from the scene."

Even though Anderson never got much traction in the election of 1980, Lerew was "hooked on politics."

After Claremont, Lerew served as the driver and personal assistant to Jack L. Swigert of NASA's ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. Swigert ran for Congress in 1982 from Colorado's then newly created 6th congressional district. He won, but died of bone cancer before he could take the oath of office.

Swigert's decision to stay in the race had a powerful influence on Lerew who "was there when he went to chemotherapy and at every moment of the campaign."

On the issues

Little did Lerew know that he too would one day run for Congress, but he's glad he decided to run. "It's a good opportunity to jump in because I'm on the right side of the issues."

"Some in the Republican Party have gotten off base," Lerew says. "They lack fiscal responsibility. [There will be] no pork barrel spending coming out of the 7th congressional district when I'm in there. I became a fiscal conservative by being at Claremont and I intend to stay that way."

Lerew sees energy as being the most important issue of this election and predicts that a lot of voters hitherto disaffected will turn out to vote. "When you hit the American consumers in their pocket books, in their day-to-day lifestyles, you can't just tell them to change the lives they've led. They are feeling the pinch."

Lerew dislikes the "increasing, enormous regulatory rules from Washington" which need to be "loosened up." Some of the most egregious laws include Sarbanes-Oxley and Davis-Bacon, which tie up American companies with higher compliance costs for businesses and construction. "You can't tell me needlessly paying more for construction is a good idea when we've got a deficit. You should be able to work with the lowest bid on a federal project. Now we had 20 to 30 percent more for every job just complying with Davis-Bacon."

He admits that it's going to be a tough fight against Davis-Bacon, which has been around since the turn of the century. Lerew's disdain for regulations stems from his years as a financial planner and as a small business owner. "Business owners just want to be left alone. Laws like Sarbanes-Oxley make that difficult," he says. "For the environmentalist in all of us, the reams of paper we use complying with the regulatory environment, well that should be the end of the discussion."

Lerew turns the discussion to the environmentalists. He says they mean well, but often end up hurting the very things they love. "Who doesn't love the environment and being in nature?" Lerew asks, but he adds that the environmentalists "are missing that if you let America drill or mine in America's land you'll be able to effectively monitor what's going on in a way you couldn't do with energy pulled out of the ground in Venezuela or Nigeria." Tragically, he says the environmental movement has "gone too far to the left" and "needs to be back to more of the center."

Lerew disputes Democrats' numbers that it's going to take ten years to get oil out of the inter-continental shelf. "It's not a ten-year proposition. When the executive branch said that they were going to lift the moratorium, you had almost a 20 percent correction of the market. Don't tell me drilling now doesn't affect the price at the pump. Nancy Pelosi is dead wrong."

But Lerew also criticizes the 300 million dollar prize that fellow Republican and presidential candidate John McCain is offering in government money. "That doesn't interest me. Private industry will go after what is economically viable. If it can make a profit, they'll find it."

"I like to get practical things done"

Lerew moved on to what he considers the other essential issues of this campaign. He opposes tax increases, which he calls "the bread and butter of the Republican party" and wants to see "government run more like a business." He opposes increases in the capital gains taxes and the death taxes. He doesn't think it's right to tax money that comes out of 401 K plans.

Lerew remarks that "it's interesting that wealth creates guilt. You cannot be proud. I don't buy that. The money I make is mine to put where I want." Lerew jokes that if you die and want to voluntarily give your money to the federal government, "go for it, but he has better places to put his money."

On spending, Lerew finds the growth of government relative to GNP "embarrassing." He's in favor of harder laws against illegal immigration, including automatic deportation if for illegal immigrants convicted of felonies, but he likes the idea of a guest worker program where "you don't bring your whole family with you." He supports easier immigration for high-skilled workers, but wants to see our education system drastically reformed. He hasn't made up his mind on a flatter income tax because he finds it "impossible to implement" where you have "so many special interests pulling at the coat tails of the federal government."

We wrapped up our conversation turning things back to CMC. John Lerew has some advice for current students:

"When you graduate from CMC, get some real hands on experience, working in the real world. Create a business, raise a family, make payroll, then enter the political arena. Nobody likes a career politician or a policy wonk," Lerew says. "The last guy to run for the seat was a policy guy. He could not walk door to door and shake hands with some guy who was making 25 bucks an hour."

Lerew hopes Claremont McKenna's alumni and students will help get him elected to Congress. "Any financial help would go along way to putting another Claremont alum in the Congress. So let's do it."