GreekPAC, the first Greek American political action committee, hosted its inaugural event this past June 26 at the Washington’s Capitol Hilton Hotel, with Congress’ rising stars Gus Bilirakis, John Sarbanes and Jack Space among others as guest speakers. They were joined by two very capable Greek American Republicans, Basil Mossaidis from Virginia and Dean Scontras from Maine, who next year will seek their party’s nomination to run for Congress.
By Demetrios Rhompotis
“GreekPAC is a mechanism to provide financial assistance for those politicians who are either in office or running for office and who have a predisposition to assist in Greek American issues,” Nick Larigakis, vicepresident of the group’s founding member advisory board said in an interview with NEO. “We have three members now in the House of Representatives, but I think the numbers could be higher,” added George Sifakis, president of the advisory board. “There’s never been, to our knowledge, a national Greek American political action committee that could make a difference in the number of member of Congress.” Alex Spanos is the honorary founding chairman with George Behrakis as co-chairman.
Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Henry Brown attended and saluted the event as did Greek Americans from all over the US, among them SAE of America (Council of Hellenes Abroad) Coordinator Ted Spyropoulos, WANDTV anchor Patricia Kakridas from Illinois, her father James Kakridas from Sacramento, California, John Politis from North Carolina, Tina Papadopoulos from Boston, James Jatras, Theo Margas and Nick Karambelas from DC, Serbian Unity Congress Director John Bosnitch and Catherine Papathanasiou, representing Republicans from Greece! “Years ago we had eight members in Congress,” she reminded everyone.
Individuals may contribute up to $5,000 per calendar year to the PAC, which can be reached at www.greekamericanpac.com
