Press Room

(4/30/08) Irving, TX - ARMENPAC, The Armenian-American Political Action Committee, recently issued its 2008 Congressional Candidate Questionnaire to every candidate seeking election to the United States Congress on November 4, 2008. Since initiating this effort in 2006, ARMENPAC continues to be the first and only Armenian advocacy organization to tackle this very important project, and to apprise the Armenian-American community of its local candidates’ positions on Armenian-American issues before Election Day.

“ARMENPAC implemented this daunting research project not just to educate the Armenian-American community, but to also educate the candidates on our issues that they will face if elected to Congress,” said ARMENPAC Co-Chairs Annie Totah and Edgar Hagopian. “By beginning dialogues and building relationships with Congressional hopefuls early on, ARMENPAC is cultivating a bipartisan majority in support of Armenian-American issues.”

The 2008 ARMENPAC Congressional Candidate Questionnaire is comprised of questions that succinctly and objectively apprise candidates of the issues affecting the Republic of Armenia and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. The brief survey broadly addresses, and seeks the candidates’ position on, the following topics: United States Reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide, United States - Armenia Trade Relations, Turkish and Azeri Hostility toward Armenia, the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Peace Process, and the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues.

The 2008 ARMENPAC Congressional Candidate Questionnaire was mailed, during the week of April 28th and sent to all 2,069 candidates running for seats in both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. Each candidate received a unique “username” and “password” granting them access to a secure area of the ARMENPAC website, www.armenpac.org, so that they can submit their responses to the ARMENPAC Congressional Candidate Questionnaire on-line. Once a candidate responds to the Congressional Candidate Questionnaire, his or her answers are posted in real time in the “Candidate Response” section of the ARMENPAC website for all to view and consider before Election Day. The ARMENPAC Board of Directors will issue its list of endorsed candidates before October, 2008 based, in part, on the information collected in response to the Congressional Candidate Questionnaire.