Thursday, September 26, 2013

Libertarian Party of Illinois holds annual state convention

By Krzysztof Lesiak
Published on IPR on September 23, 2013

Convention logo
Convention floor during Robert Murphy’s speech
From Facebook:
LP Illinois members chose our slate of 2014 state-wide candidates at the state convention’s annual business meeting yesterday. They are: Chad Grimm for Governor, Alex Cummings for Lt. Governor, Sharon Hansen for U.S. Senate, Chris Michaels for Secretary of State, Julie Fox for Comptroller, and Matt Skopek for Treasurer. We expect to have a candidate selected soon for the Attorney General position. Thanks to all our state-wide candidates for stepping up!
On Saturday, September 21st, 2013, I arrived at the Libertarian Party of Illinois annual state convention at the Holiday Inn in Bolingbrook, Illinois at 1:40 PM CST. Several Ron Paul 2012 and 2008 bumper stickers greeted me in the hotel’s parking lot, as well as an array of LP stickers.  (The convention had begun at 9 AM, and three individuals: longtime LP activist Mary Ruwart (topic – “health care”), Reason magazine writer Radley Bradko (“Police -State America?”) and Libertarian National Committee (LNC) represenative Dianna Visek (“Dealing with Drones”) spoke beforehand.). The present speaker at that time was Dr. Robert Murphy, an Austrian School economist and self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist who has challenged Paul Krugman to an economic debate that has collected over $100,000 in pledged donations to a charity organization. Krugman has refused to debate. Murphy hosted a a “Liberty Karaoke” with several “freedom songs” on Friday night.
At that time, the crowd estimate I gathered was about 58-60 people.
Afterwards, former LP presidential candidate Lee Wrights and his campaign manager for that run Thomas Hill screened a portion of their documentary on nullification that was produced in conjunction with the Tenth Amendment Center. The film featured many clips of Tom Woods speaking and received a warm reception from the convention audience.
Next up was a debate over foreign policy. Lee Wrights and LP Illinois vice-chair and 2013 convention chair Ken Prazak debated on the side of a non-interventionist foreign policy against lawyers Bruno Behrend and David Applegate. At the beginning, only two people were undecided as to a non-interventionist foreign policy in an informal raised hand poll. After the debate there were more undecideds but also several people switched from supporting only a non-interventionist foreign policy to a course of affairs that would include other options as well, including those that may be contrary to the classical libertarian position.
Around 8 PM, Tom Woods (historian and author of sucks books as The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History and Meltdown) commenced his speech in the banquet hall. He drew an enthusiastic and very positive reaction from the audience. (His speech will be uploaded to YouTube very soon).  Woods’s booming voice, gesticulation, audience participation encouragement and ripe sense of humor captivated the attendees, and reiterated the reasons why he was considered the highlight of the convention. After the raucous applause at the speech’s end, Woods took questions from the LP attendees. Hill incorporated a line about Woods running for president in 2016 that left the latter speechless and an ear-to-ear smile, as well as an extremely positive audience reaction. I saw that a few new people came just to hear Woods speak and the crowd size was at least 70 people.
I got to talk to Woods a while before his speech on a few topics.  Woods stated that Calvin Coolidge wasn’t a great president due to his support of the Federal Reserve and also added that Robert Taft, a popular former senator figure among Ron Paul supporters, did not have a good voting record and was terrible on domestic and monetary issues. Woods added that JFK, per G. Edward Griffin’s book The Creature from Jekyll Island and several other sources paid lip service at best to any kind of meaningful action against the Fed and defended his staunch criticism of the 35th U.S. president. Woods also said that he wasn’t sold on a Rand Paul presidential campaign and did not commit to voting for him in 2016, saying that “Rand wants to be president more than anything else,” making a reference to long-standing questions about Paul’s commitment to libertarianism. Finally, Woods added that he did not know if pure libertarianism would be successful if implemented in its precise form.
On Sunday, I arrived at 10:28 AM for the tail end of the LP Illinois business meeting that began at 9 AM. Before I got to the meeting candidates for various statewide offices were formally nominated (see Facebook status at the top of the article). Around 40 people were in attendance at this point in the proceedings. Matt Erwin, the Illinois LP state chair and campaign manager for Lex Green’s 2010 run for governor, addressed the delegates and announced that he was stepping down from his role, saying that “I’m not the right person for the job to take it down to the next leg.” Per the party bylaws, vice-chair Ken Prazak would now become the chair but Prazak declined to serve. Therefore, the floor was open for nominations. Current LP Illinois treasurer Matt Skopek was the only candidate nominated and won with a 100% acclimation by voice vote. Now, since the treasurer spot had been vacated, Josh Hanson  was nominated for state treasurer by Diana Visek. (Hanson had been the 2010 LP candidate for Secretary of State). Hanson was also elected unopposed. Also, Daniel Banna was nominated for the LP’s nomination in the 53rd state house of representative district (my home district -KL).
At 10:51 AM, Henryk A. Kowalczyk, a Polish immigrant to the United States, addressed the body about his “freedom immigration proposal” as well as his “life cycle health insurance plan.” These two proposals were ones that Kowalczyk is suggesting to be included in the next Libertarian Party platform (to be decided at the 2014 LP national convention in Columbus, Ohio).
Lastly, before final speaker of the convention took the microphone, ballot access was discussed. It was mentioned that 25, 000 signatures were needed for a full slate of statewide candidates to get on the ballot (this would mean that the number to shoot for would be 50,000 signatures). Monetarily speaking, Visek said that each signature would roughly cost $2.50, leading to a final pricetag that neither the LP Illinois or LP National could afford, so the signatures would have to be collected on a volunteer basis. Visek, a resident of Champaign County, pledged to collect at least 500 signatures herself, and her pledge was matched by at least three other people in the room. Visek also mentioned an ungoing court case by the LP Illinois that aimed to strike down Illinois’s full slate requirement.
The convention’s last highlight was Austrian economist Steve Horwitz, who addressed the crowd  a little after 11 AM on a topic entitled “Engaging Proggressives with Libertarian Solutions.” Horwitz was very well received he also answered audience questions. After his final thoughts, Prazak, smilling widely, took to the floor to announce that all the business had concluded for the state convnetion, thanked all those who came out, and after applause the 2013 Libertarian Party of Illinois state convention was formally adjourned.
Videos and more Pictures COMING SOON!

Friday, August 9, 2013

Two American Freedom Party Leaders Speak Out About Their Party

Originally published on IPR on August 9, 2013. 
William Daniel Johnson
  
American Freedom Party logo
  Capture dddddddd
                                                                  Jamie Kelso
By Krzysztof Lesiak
In January of this year, I had the opportunity to interview William Daniel Johnson, the national chairman of the American Freedom Party (at that time it was called the American 3rd Position). The American Freedom Party is one of the few white nationalist political parties in the United States. The name change to American Freedom Party was made official February 1st. Johnson is also a high profile international attorney who holds a J.D. from Columbia University. In the interview, he talked about his authorship of the Pace Amendment, which wants to ban non-white immigrants from coming into the United States. Johnson also declared his unequivocal support for a “separate ethno-state” for whites in America. He explained that this ethno-state would allow white people to “influence world politics free from some of the difficulties of multiculturalism.”
 Regarding all sorts of subgroups of individuals not viewed very favorably by society in general, such as members of the now essentially archaic Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi skinheads, among others, Johnson said that his party welcomes all people “whether their heads are shaved or whether their heads are nappy.”
 Johnson has never talked to perhaps the most well known white nationalist on the planet, David Duke, about the latter joining the party. Duke is a former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan who served one term in the Louisiana House of Representatives in addition to being a perennial candidate for public office and who is the author of several books translated into several languages and videos widely circulated across the globe. Many sources in the mainstream media label him as a “white supremacist”.  Johnson stated that he and Duke “don’t cross spheres” or attend the same events.
 Johnson also briefly mentioned that he really liked Virgil Goode, a former Virginia congressman who was the Constitution Party’s 2012 presidential candidate. He said that he met Goode previously at a conservative GOP event in 2008.
 The AFP’s chairman said he founded the American Third Position Party to promote the views that were dear to him in January 2010. He said that he hopes to work with “all groups” to gain momentum for his organization. Johnson has made four runs for political office. Three of those were for Congress in various states (most recently in 2012 under the Natural Law Party label, he received 0.9%) and one was for a seat on the Los Angeles Superior Court. Initially, Ron Paul endorsed him in that race, but promptly retracted his statement of support after Johnson’s views on racial relations came into the limelight.
 Johnson decried the label of “white supremacist” that the mainstream media usually assigns to him and his party, instead insisting that he is a white nationalist. He reiterated that he and supporters of his party want a separate white ethnostate.  He said that he would even welcome collaboration between nationalistic non-white groups who share concern for their own people.
After my phone conversation with Johnson, I conducted a lengthy in-depth interview with Jamie Kelso. Kelso, a North Dakotan,  is currently serving on the AFP Board of Directors as the Membership Coordinator. Kelso was referred to as a “neo-fascist” in the Wikipedia entry about him, and despite Kelso changing this because the label to be false, a Wikipedia editor reverted back to the original. Kelso made a big point about historical precedent for AFP’s views, saying that in America the positions the party espouses were once common place among Americans. He alluded emphatically to Charles Lindbergh, the famed pilot and “America First” activist.
 Kelso said that in November 1939, the most widely read magazine in the world with a readership of 12 million published a centerfold article written by Lindbergh. Lindbergh had written in the article that “We must band together to preserve that most priceless possession, our European American inheritance.” Kelso regards this as one of his favorite quotes.
 Kelso, a big Ron Paul supporter who met the former Texas congressman at the 2011 Ames, Iowa staw poll, also talked about how he met the Constitution Party’s 2008 presidential candidate, Chuck Baldwin, in July 2008 at the Ron Paul Revolution March in Washington, D.C. He said that Baldwin was one of the speakers who addressed at least 10,000 people on the west lawn of the Capitol. He said Baldwin introduced Ron Paul, after a very brief introduction in which Kelso loosely paraphrased  him as saying “I’m gonna shut up, here’s Ron Paul”. Kelso also met the Constitution Party’s 2012 presidential nominee Virgil Goode at one CPAC event along with Chairman Bill Johnson. He was very impressed by the organization Youth for Western Civilization, active in the widely covered protests in Hazleton, Pennsylvania against illegal immigration. Kelso also met Bay Buchanan, sister of famed author and three-time presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, as well as the president of the John Birch Society, John McManus. According to Kelso, these individuals “know the truth” about racial issues.
He is optimistic that AFP will be on “a lot” of ballots in 2016. Talking about the 2012 election and Merlin Miller’s showing of 2,714 votes, he said that the Libertarian Party and Constitution Party had similar records in their first outings. The party currently has at least 500 members. The largest AFP chapters and most active affiliates are in California, Tennessee, New Jersey, West Virginia and Florida.
Kelso stated that AFP has a unified board of directors and a clear program. He went on to say that third parties like the Libertarian Party have internal factions and are plagued by infighting and all sorts of disagreements, something that the AFP lacks according to him. However, this could also be attributed to the fact that the AFP is miniscule in comparison with the LP. Kelso also said the AFP has a clear program. Speaking of famous members, he mentioned that former 1984 Populist Party presidential candidate and Olympic gold medal athlete Bob Richards, a pole vaulter, joined AFP in the summer of 2010.
He called AFP the “top tier of white nationalism” and once again reiterated that his party  “represents a belief system that was once common”. The AFP, according to Kelso is not focused on economics but rather demographics.
Kelso was briefly involved in the Church of Scientology but quickly left when he found out what it was all about. He labeled it as “a dramatized view of occultism”. As a kid living in Los Angeles, Kelso met a sharp looking girl and she in essence “seduced him into it”.  Once he investigated the Church further, he realized it was a “fraud” and left.
Kelso said that the AFP acronym in no way is stepping in to hurt American far right activist Willis Carto and his weekly newspaper, American Free Press, which is based in Washington, D.C.  He said the party is complementary to Carto, adding that the newspaper publicly endorsed Merlin Miller for President in 2012.  He added that the paper’s views are shared by the party.
 The AFP’s membership coordinator then diverged into a discussion of the AFP’s efforts outside the U.S. He said Dr. Tomislav Sunic is an AFP board member  who has spoken at important meetings of the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), a ultra-nationalistic party espousing Germanic imperialism that alludes to former Third Reich leaders like Rudolf Hess, a Hitler protege. Sunic is the AFP’s foreign secretary and ambassador to European nationalist parties. So far, he has given two important speeches in Germany.
At a recent AFP board conference, the AFP endorsed a local school board candidate in Missouri, a candidate in elections this April. The candidate is affiliated with another “pro-white” organization, the  Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC).
Another person involved in the AFP is Bo Gritz, a 1992 presidential candidate. Don Wassall, the former director of the Populist Party in the 1980s is now on the AFP board of directors and publishes the party’s monthly newspaper, The Nationalist Times. California State University professor Kevin MacDonald, known for his outspoken views on race and Jew, is on the board of directors and writes for the white nationalist publication Occidental Quarterly.
Diverging off tangent to deliver some extra trivia, Kelso said the original title of Pat Buchanan’s 2005 book Death of the West was “Death of the White Race”. However, the publisher changed the name.
According to Kelso, David Duke supports the party. In fact, Kelso was Duke’s onetime right-hand man and even lived in his house. He still considers Duke a good friend. Kelso is looking to find a path that will work for average white people and appeal to large numbers of them. Kelso also helped Duke with his radio show, called the “Duke Report”. David Duke ran for president in 1988 as the Populist Party candidate and won 47,004 votes , or 0.05% of the national vote and was on twelve state ballots in that election. The chairman of the Populist Party at that time was Don Wassall, now on AFP’s board of directors. Commenting on why Duke isn’t more involved with the party, Kelso said that “David is his own big franchise, he picks and chooses, while AFP is my thing.” Speaking of Duke’s past jail time and legal troubles, the only thing Duke was ever guilty of according to Kelso was bad bookkeeping and bad banking practices but said he was never guilty of tax evasion. This sentiment echoes Duke’s claim in his 2008 autobiography, My Awakening, that Duke had actually overpaid his taxes to the IRS by several thousand dollars.
Kelso attended Ron Paul’s “Rally for the Republic” in September 2008 in Minneapolis, across the street from the GOP national convention. “We were not even 1% of the crowd,” said Kelso, referring to white nationalists. Merlin Miller and William Daniel Johnson were also there. Kelso said after one GOP presidential debate, he organized a rally for Paul in Boca Raton, Florida, for which 500 people attended. Kelso called Paul’s close friend, Judge Andrew Napolitano, the “Thomas Jefferson of our time.” He added that he loves Ron Paul and that “AFP picks up where Ron Paul leaves off”, specifically on racial issues. According to Kelso, “Ron Paul has started a revolution for whites”. He said that the AFP’s “natural audience” are Ron Paul supporters.
At a the February 2011 CPAC event in Washington, D.C., Kelso spoke about his views to a group of mainly young Ron Paul supporters active with Campaign for Liberty. Here is a video from that event:

Kelso said he was given a rough time by the group of mostly college students. The next day, Kelso claimed that the same individuals, who were grilling him the previous day, came up to him and said he was right – he said that they said that they were simply playing Devil’s advocate when they were sharply criticizing him.  Kelso also stated that they also apologized to him for “treating him so badly” and said they had been intently listening to him.
Kelso commented on the party name change and explained that the Third Positionism advocated by his party is a concept that the American public simply doesn’t have a clue about. It is a concept that is more familiarized among Europeans. For example, Mussolini’s fascist Italy heavily incorporated third positionism into its state model, especially economic corporatism.
Kelso further commented on the racist newsletter controversy surrounding Ron Paul, saying that Paul fully knew of what was being written in his name in the publication. He was not in Congress at the time and according to Kelso had more leeway to express his “real” views.
Talking about popular coast to coast radio talk show personality, Michael Medved, Jamie Kelso said he personally knew Medved and went to high school with him. Kelso participated on the school debate team and scholastic bowl team with Medved. He quoted Medved as saying that “Jamie Kelso proved to me that a right winger could be a good human being”. Medved was raised in a Marxist family. Medved, in his autobiography Right Turns, calls David Duke despicable and a villain, which is ironic considering Kelso was Duke’s right hand man. Medved was also “foaming in the mouth” against Ron Paul. “Jamie Kelso also had a lot to do with that hatred,” Kelso said. In the book, Medved had recommended Kelso because he had remembered him as a John Birch Society activist. Kelso said that Medved wrote nothing about “Jewish media power” or the demise of the white race.Nothing on Jewish media power Medved said nothing about the demise of the white race. Kelso wondered how Medved had become a “Rush Limbaugh neocon.”
According to Kelso, Medved said that Kelso had convinced him that you can be that a nice person and a right winger. “You’re the reason I became right wing,” Medved allegedly told Kelso. However, while they were friends in high school, Medved now hates Kelso.
Kelso said that there is only a tiny group of people that are big fans of Hitler. Prominent individuals like Lindbergh, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford made “pro-white” statements. He added that Ford’s 1905 The International Jew, a four volume set of books, blatantly criticized world Jewry. Kelso said that Ford was making half of all of the cars purchased in England, France, Germany and Russia, and that despite Stalin’s “smear”, Ford was not supportive of Hitler. Kelso also stated, however, that a popular misconception was that Lindbergh was a Third Reich sympathizer. He quoted the pioneering pilot as saying that  “worst thing would be a war among family of nations,” referring to World War II.
 Kelso had an interesting take on Hitler, the man revered by a large segment of the white nationalist community worldwide. Kelso said, “Adolf Hitler did more damage to the White race than anyone else”. (emphasis added).
Kelso mentioned that the first AFP candidate, Ryan Murdough, ran in a 2010 GOP primary for New Hampshire’s state house of representatives and got 296 votes, or 11%.  However, AFP repudiated him immediately after they heard his “Hitlerian neo-Nazi material” and that he “loves Hitler”. Kelso said Murdough was devious and originally signed up as a Ron Paul fan and looked great.  Per Wikipedia, Murdough was the National Political Director for the National Socialist Labor Party. Kelso went on to say that AFP repudiates Nazism, said he never met Murodugh, who he called a “Sieg Heil provocateur”, and said that the New Hampshirite hurt the party’s image badly. In contrast to chariman William Johnson, Kelso said that skinheads are not welcome in the party, and further hammered to point home that  Wikipedia lies about the AFP when they label the party as white supremacist. Kelso said that the AFP is the party of  ”intelligent white people.”
The AFP has one announced candidate in the 2014 elections, Atlee Yarrow, who is running for Governor in Florida. It is not known whether or not he is petitioning to get on the ballot. Yarrow is the leader of the American Freedom Party of Florida. On his campaign website, Yarrow has  links to a neo-Nazi online merchandise store called Get Some 88, a white-only dating site (currently offline) called Aryan Blood, and the world’s largest and most well known white nationalist website, Stormfront. Yarrow was formerly active in the Socialist Party USA (serving as secretary of the state party twice) from 1999 until his expulsion from the party in June 2007. His campaign website can be found here.
 Election results (for all candidates on the ballot with the AFP label)
YearOfficeCandidateOn the ballot asVotesPosition
2011Governor of West VirginiaHarry BertramAmerican Third Position1,111 (0.37%)[27]5/5
2012West Virginia House of Delegates, District 51Harry BertramAmerican Third Position1,110 (0.88%)[28]11/11
2012President of the United StatesMerlin Miller & Virginia AbernethyAmerican Third Position2,714 (0.00%)[29]18/27

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Personal Freedom Party Faces Challenge In Ballot Access Drive

Originally published on IPR on August 2nd, 2013:
The Personal Freedom Party is an essentially nonexistant politcal party in New York State without a website, formal organization, bylaws, more than a handful of legitimate members, state recognition of any kind or anything else. The “party” has a mere four likes on Facebook. Tom Stevens, an attorney who founded the Objectivist Party and ran as its presidential candidate in 2008 and 2012, is the leader of this frivolous political organization.
The paper organization announced in May at what was termed a nominating convention that it would run professorial chess player and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential contender Sam Sloan for Mayor of New York City, Stevens for for NYC Public Advocate, and Richard Bozulich for Comptroller. Two paid petitioners were hired to collect 7,000 signatures for the ballot access drive.
Apparently, according to Stevens’s blog, the slate of candidates tried to also get on the ballot as Republican Party candidates. New York is one of only eight states were electoral fusion is legal, meaning that candidates may appear on the ballot more than once as members of multiple parties. However, the only other states that typically practice fusion are South Carolina and Connecticut. The GOP line needed 3,750 signatures. The blog post explained that Sloan spent $22,900 to hire several petitioners, several of whom were flown in from out of state.
In total, 4,517 signatures were filed, but they were challenged. A hearing was held at the New York City Board of Elections on July 30th, at which the signatures were rejected because the witnesses to the signatures were not members of the Republican Party.
According to Stevens, Sloan may discontinue financing the drive to get the Personal Freedom Party candidates on the ballot.
Source:
Note from me: I got attacked by "Doctor" Tom Stevens on his blog because of the article. You can see the article below:
On of Stevens's lackeys (or possibly himself, who knows) called me an "immature, pot-smoking pipsqueak" and said that I should be "immediately dismissed as a contributor to the Independent Political Report." Lol. Those who have been aware of Stevens's activities by following IPR over the years know that he is one of the most dangerous and disgusting people in the third party world, causing possibly irrevocable damage to the Libertarian Party through whatever way he possibly can, be it running the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania as an absolute dictator and doing all he could to run that organization into the ground to publishing  wildly disturbing articles like Support For The Decriminilzation Of Bestiality Is Becoming a Key Issue For Libertarian Leaders. Needless to say, Stevens is a deranged lunatic whose antics it would be better to ignore but yet...it's so hard too...he's entertaining. Oh well. 

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Robby Wells Addresses Accusations, Claims He Has Virgil Goode’s Endorsement for 2016

By Krzysztof Lesiak
The following was originally published on IPR on July 21, 2013. 
Robby Wells (center), with SSU officials and then fiance Nicole Miller, left (photo from November 2011)
On July 17, 2013, Robby Wells, an independent presidential candidate running in 2016, hosted a conference call that lasted just over an hour. In it, he first devoted a substantial segment of time to discussing an article that was published July 15th by Joshua Fauver entitled Robby Wells, Faux of the Liberty Movement? In the article, Fauver, who had just resigned from his post as the Southeast Regional Coordinator for the Wells campaign, blasted Wells on his controversial football coaching career and reasons for resigning from Savannah State University as well as Well’s colorful 2012 presidential run, in which he ran as an independent as well as sought the nomination of three parties. Among other developments, Wells claimed to have 700 pledged delegates for the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, which proved to be untrue and was sharply criticized by Fauver. The article has received over 200 views on the website it was originally published on, IACR.
In the conference call, Wells attempted to “clear the air” of the accusations that were made against him as a football coach, which included negligence, an attitude of only being concerned with himself, and even an accusation that Wells is a “pathological liar”.
The following is a partial transcript of the call:
“Let me just say this straight up front; I am just like 99.6% of the people in this population. I am considered to be middle class or below, I’m a middle class guy,  I’m not a multi-millionaire that’s running for president. I truly believe it’s time for one of “We the People” to step forward. In order for a real person to step forward, that means that a real person who’s gone through real-life experiences, he’s had ups, he’s had downs, he’s had mountain top experiences, he’s had some valleys. And I’ve been there. I’ve been through all of it, just like millions of people across this country that wonder how they’re going to provide for their family everyday when they wake up. I wonder the same thing. I’m feeling like my American dream has been stolen from me and replaced with an economic nightmare.
So with that being said, I would just like to go ahead and clear the air before I talk to you about some great things that are going on. When you start making noise as a candidate, then it’s obvious that you’re going to get attacked. And this past week, were were attacked. And we were attacked by someone that infiltrated this camp, we’ve come to learn a lot since this person left the camp. But this person dug up a lot of stuff from my football coaching career. Just to make a brief statement about it: I was the first black head football coach to ever be…I’m the only white head football coach to this day to coach at Savannah State.
On January 28, 2010, which was way in the past, if you ask me it seems like fifteen years ago, because everything’s gone in a completely different direction with my political career, but I was forced to resign..I was forced to resign, after a senior vice president on campus told me that I would never be able to relate to the alumni of Savannah State because I was white, and that I would never be able to relate to the people at Savannah because I was white and my then-fiance was black. She and I are unfortunately not together now. I was then told that I could either resign or that I could be terminated that day. To make a long story short, it was six days before national signing day. I was given the word that every kid that had decided to come to Savannah State would be given a scholarship on Sunday but that I would no longer be the coach. That was correct, except for five kids, those kids had one thing in common – and that was me. They were all Caucasian.
So, if it had just been about me I probably would have gone along and gone quietly into the night and just gone on and continued down my path of pursuing the White House. But, I knew that that had to be cleaned up because the kids and their families got hurt, so I took a stand, and filed suit and the state of Georgia of course came in and did a whole investigation. Well, whenever you file a suit against someone on racial discrimination they’re not going to admit, ‘yeah, we discriminated.’ They’re going to give every other reason in the book, which they did. After the state of Georgia did their investigation, they saw that I was telling the truth, they cleaned house.
After they cleaned house, they called my legal team wanting to know what it was going to take for me to settle. After that phone call was made, we met in federal court for a federal judge presided over a settlement hearing and this judge strictly acted as a mediator. In that hearing, the judge ordered Savannah State to pay me financially for the wrongdoings. The judge also ordered – and this is more important to me than anything else – ordered that Savannah State apologize for the negative things that they had put out about me that were untrue, that we had documented proof of them being untrue, and ordered them to do it in a joint press conference. That press conference was held on campus at Savannah State University. They welcomed me back on campus with open arms, in that state the new athletic director stated that they were sorry for the statements made against me, that I never broke any NCAA rules, and that I was the most successful coach that they had had in over a decade…actually approaching two decades, right now, that I’m the most successful coach that they have ever had. With that being said, we hugged again, said our goodbyes, and went our separate ways, which each ended well.
And from that moment on, I have never looked back, but I did need to clear the air because in today’s world, you take everybody over a Google search but obviously, this young man did not…or at least he says he did not. So I wanted to clear the air with everyone, let everybody know, yes I’ve been through some valleys, but I stood up for what I knew was right, and if I had to do it again, I’d do it again. Because right is right and wrong is wrong. With that being said, I’m not going to take any questions on it, I’m going to turn this back over to Aaron [Aaron Lyles, Wells' co-campaign manager and Constitution Party of Virginia vice-chairman -KL] for a few minutes.”
Further on in the conference call, the new Southeast Regional Coordinator for the Wells campaign gave an update on her activities. Lyles emphasized after she spoke about how rich the Southeast is in terms of Electoral College votes and said “with the Southeast, I firmly believe we can win the White House.”
Later in the call, Wells spoke about the endorsements he says he has received:
“I’ve been endorsed by Liberty Candidates. I’ve actually been endorsed by three presidential candidates from 2012. The candidates are Virgil Goode, Constitution Party nominee, Susan Ducey and John Mealer. I actually got endorsed by John Mealer in the very last presidential debate we had that year. And at the very end of the debate he actually dropped out of the race and endorsed me. I don’t think that’s ever happened in a presidential debate but that was it.”
Sources have told IPR that Goode, a former Virginia congressman, will be addressing his alleged “endorsement” of Wells in the coming days.
Afterwards, the floor was opened up and several callers questioned Wells on a variety of topics, including education, in which Wells expressed opposition to “Common Core,” the subject of “fair trade,” in which he called for increasing tariffs, repealing Obamacare, the importance of the Tenth Amendment, and the George Zimmerman case. With regards to the case, Wells said that now there is a “mob rule” trying to get the Justice Department to prosecute Zimmerman and that in his view this is unconstitutional. A caller also asked about human trafficking. Wells mentioned that he had partnered up with an organization called Rise Up Ministries (same name as his campaign slogan) to combat the issue and mentioned that 1 million people are trafficked annually in the United States, and that worldwide that figure is 17 million. He said his intention was to bring attention to the issue and to stop it through means like safety education.
Wells also said that he wasn’t yet sure whether he would stay on as an independent candidate because, according to him, “the Republican Party has actually been courting us a little bit as well, so, you know we could actually do that.” [emphasis added].
At the end of the call, campaign manager Aaron Lyles thanked all those who listened and participated and said that the campaign’s next conference call will be held next week.
Wells’s campaign website can be found here, and his Facebook page is here.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Phil Hudok Running as Constitution Party Candidate for U.S. Senate from West Virginia

By Krzysztof Lesiak
Originally published on IPR on July 3, 2013
Phil Hudok
Since early 2013, Phil Hudok has been running as the Constitution Party candidate for U.S. Senate in West Virginia for 2014. Hudok, a former public school teacher, was the Constitution Party’s write-in candidate for Governor of West Virginia in a 2011 special election (received 76 votes, or 0.03%) and again in 2012 (received 72 votes, or 0.01%). A Randolph County resident, Hudok is currently a state officer in the West Virginia CP, serving as a trustee and director of the Potomac Highlands Council.
Hudok, 62, has four daughters with his wife, Lynn. His youngest daughter, Olivia, was a senior at Pickens School, West Virginia’s smallest public school serving only 44 students from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. However, she received homebound instruction due to the fact that she refused to take newly mandated vaccine shots. Public health officials claimed that allowing Olivia Hudok into the classroom without her receiving the mandatory immunizations would put other children at risk. Hudok, one of only three seniors at the school and the class valedictorian, was permitted to attend commencement ceremonies and graduate in May.
Hudok, a life-long West Virginian, holds a BA degree in Physics and General Science from West Liberty State College and a Master’s Degree in Educational Computing from the University of Charleston. Hudok operates a small photography and video business and also serves as webmaster and media producer for Call to Decision Ministries, a non-denominational Christian ministry that conducts outreach efforts across the nation and has produced over 500 hour-long Bible studies.
In August 2008, Hudok, along with 2008 CP gubernatorial candidate Butch Paugh and another individual became the fist holder of a non-biometric West Virginia driver’s license.  This was achieved after eight years of petitioning and refusing to provide biometric facial images for the state database used for identifying criminals and other purposes. However, the successive governor elected in October 2011, Earl Ray Tomblin, rescinded the agreement that allowed Hudok and the two others to posses non-biometric driver’s licenses.
The Constitution Party candidate’s platform centers on his Christian religious beliefs and his belief in adhering to the Constitution. Hudok emphasizes the importance of a “God-ordained” family as the “cornerstone upon which society is built” and restoring what he says is the nation explicitly Christian heritage. He believes that three questions must be asked before any level of government exercises authority: 1)  Is the service that the proposed authority would exercise, truly necessary? 2)  Is the governmental structure in question prohibited by either God or by constitutional statute from assuming such authority? 3) Is the family or another more localized level of government capable of successfully administering the service? 4) Is the governmental body even capable of providing the service?
Hudok has written a mission statement that he has posted to his campaign website:
I credit Jesus and the Call To Decision fellowship for the spiritual foundation, my parents for a good solid upbringing, my family for support, and the founders of this country for the opportunity, for any success I have had or will ever have in the future.
I am presently the 2014 Constitution Party candidate for U.S. Senator.  I plan to bring to the public the constitutional issues that have been ignored and trampled.  Our form of government is designed for and will only work within the realm of our Christian heritage and beliefs. That message must be made clear with no compromise. If the Lord is not the foundation, the house will fall. Duty is ours and results are the Lord’s. Both major parties have participated in the degradation of our once proud and worthy country.  It is time for everyone to make soul searched decisions.  I have made mine.  Have you made yours?
I serve God, family, and country in that order.  The New World Order is an anathema to everything I believe in.  That is what motivates me to pursue political office.
Currently, Hudok has a campaign website as well as a YouTube channel. He does not seem to posses a Facebook page or personal profile.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Talking with Gary Johnson on Google Hangout

On June 11th, 2013, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to get in on a Google Hangout with former New Mexico Governor and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson and talk with him for over six minutes. I asked him about endorsing David Earl Williams III, a libertarian Ron Paul Republican who is running for Congress in Illinois' 9th district (I'm David's deputy campaign manager) and whether or not Gary plans on running for office again in the future. The Hangout was sponsored by GJ's political action group Our America Initiative.

(I published an article about what was discussed in the hangout on IPR).

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Interview: CP Vice-Chairman Randy Stufflebeam Talks About CP Baltimore Meeting, CCTUC and More

Published on IPR on April 27, 2013. More third party politics. Stay tuned, original political commentary from me will be coming soon!

Randy Stufflebeam is currently the National Vice-Chairman of the Constitution Party, a position he’s held since April 2012. He resides in southern Illinois. He was the CP candidate for Illinois Governor in 2006, in which he received 19,020 votes (0.55%). This is the largest write-in vote total in Illinois history. He is also the vice chairman of the Constitution Party of Illinois and is a former Marine.

Krzysztof Lesiak
Going into the April 20th national committee meeting in Baltimore, how did you feel? Where you optimistic that it would be a successful meeting?



Randy Constitutional Evangelist Stufflebeam
That’s an interesting question. Interesting in that I am almost always a glass half full kind of person. Did I feel that the meeting was going to be successful, that depends on what you mean by successful. Frank Fluckiger, the National Chairman is a details oriented kind of person and I had every confidence that the objectives/agenda that he set for the meeting would be achieved, and pretty much by the clock that is set. In that regard I had no doubt about the meeting being successful.

The number one thing we have to do within the Constitution Party across the nation is raise money. This is an area where my optimism hasn’t been so high. HOWEVER, I am much encouraged in our prospects as we have what I perceive to be tremendous leadership in raising money through Peter Gemma. Peter was involved in the Ron Paul endeavors and has helped the Republican Party raise a lot of money in the past and he is now fully on board with the Constitution Party. He has presented some short term and long term goals that once implemented, I believe, will put the Party on the path of financial recovery.

Overall, I would have to say that the meeting was very successful, not so much in terms as to what was specifically accomplished at the meeting, but in terms of getting the party to begin heading in the right direction and get us on a solid financial foundation to put us in the condition of winning elections throughout this nation.


Krzysztof Lesiak
Ok. Now according to an article I wrote for IPR, 3 major events transpired. The first of which, was the disbanding of Young Constitutionalists. Why do you think YC was not successful? Also, when Joshua Fauver arrived for Saturday’s meeting, he claimed he wasn’t informed about the votes on the matters that took place before he first walked in, until some time later- why wasn’t he informed at all, do you suppose?



Randy Constitutional Evangelist Stufflebeam
Before going into the separate issues of the Young Constitutionalists and the Clarion Call to Unite Committee let me specifically address Mr. Fauver’s position of not being informed of the votes concerning these matters of which he has an interest.

Both of the resolutions that dealt with these matters were first dealt with by the Executive Committee on Friday night and were passed without dissent. HOWEVER, all resolutions that are passed by the executive committee MUST BE presented to the National Committee and voted on before they can be considered passed by the party. Both resolutions were presented to the National Committee and they were both passed without dissent.

While the titles of the specific resolutions that were to be considered by the National Committee were not listed on the agenda, the agenda had specific time for dealing with resolutions and I believe that time was listed on the agenda as being Saturday, @ 8:45am. It is my understanding that Mr. Fauver decided to sleep in during the time of discussion for any resolutions that might be presented to National Committee. Mr. Fauver was registered for the National Committee meeting and had paid his registration, however, he did not pay the State Committeeman dues and was not listed by the state of Louisiana as an official committeeman/representative of his state and therefore did not have any voting rights at the committee meeting. Still, I have been assured that had Mr. Fauver been present, he would have been afforded the opportunity to speak on behalf of either resolution.

Had I even had the time to recognize Mr. Fauver’s absence that morning, I might have thought he lost interest in the meeting and was possibly already on a flight home. Be that as it may, I was running the sound system for the meeting and had no time to take specific notice as to whether or not Mr. Fauver was present and informed of information that he has a specific interest in. As far as I knew, he was there.

Let me state unequivocally that there was NO DEVIOUS attempt to withhold information from Mr. Fauver. The fact that Mr. Fauver was absent from probably the most important part of the meeting (which was on the agenda, the resolutions report @ 8:45) of which he was registered (and paid good money), means that the majority of the responsibility rests on his shoulders, not mine, nor the chairman’s responsibility to ensure he is where he should be when he has an interest in what is taking place at the meeting.

YOUNG CONSTITUTIONALISTS

In the issue of the “Young Constitutionalists” the language of disbandment is inaccurate.

According the motion that was made during the fall, 2012 National Committee Meeting that was held in St. Louis, there was a condition that organizational bylaws for the Young Constitutionalists would be presented to the next national committee meeting which meet on April 20. The Young Constitutionalist leadership failed to meet this obligation and therefore made the resolution that was made in the fall “null & void.”

The National Committee passed a resolution (without dissent) on Saturday morning which stated:

“In as much as the bylaws and documents were not submitted as a condition of the original resolution to reestablish the Young Constitutionalist, as an official arm of the Constitution Party, the resolution is null and void.”

I will accept the blame for the Young Constitutionalists not having been successful. I admit that because my attention has been directed towards other endeavors within the party, both nationally and within my own state that I did not give the Young Constitutionalists the attention that it deserved. I will correct that deficiency.

The bottom line was that the Young Constitutionalists were responsible for not fulfilling its obligations and the national party was simply holding the Young Constitutionalists accountable which was supposed to be the official arm of the party.

That’s not to say that this can’t be done at the fall meeting of the National Committee, but it will be an entirely new effort to reestablish the Young Constitutionalists and with the water that has been under the bridge on this past effort, we’ll definitely be prepared with documentation prior to the meeting.

NOW, I can personally say that Mr. Fauver was completely aware of what was happening with the Young Constitutionalists as I personally talked with him Friday night about it.

CLARION CALL TO UNITE COMMITTEE

In the issue of the Clarion Call to Unite Committee (CCUC) I don’t think that I need to rehash the issue dealing with Mr. Fauver’s lack of being informed about the resolution that was passed.

I will say that I was present for both the Executive Committee discussion and the National Committee discussion and never once was Mr. Fauver’s name brought up as him being there as an official representative of the CCUC. As I stated above, I personally discussed the situation with the Young Constitutionalists on Friday night following the executive committee to let him know that the issue of the Young Constitutionalists will be brought before the National Committee meeting in the morning (Saturday). Never once did it enter my mind that Mr. Fauver was there as an official representative of the CCUC, otherwise I would have let him know about the resolution about the CCUC at the same time I talked with him about the Young Constitutionalists.

Before I provide the specific resolution that was passed by the National Committee, I have heard nothing but positive statements about and respect for the Chairman of CCUC, Cody Quirk and Vice-Chairman Joshua Fauver.

In both of the discussions (the Executive and National Committee) regarding the CCUC issue, never once was there a deriding comment made about either of these gentle, neither do I believe that during the discussions their names were even brought up; the discussions revolved, almost exclusively, around the advantages and disadvantages of affiliating with the other organizations.

The resolution that was passed concerning the Clarion Call to United Committee states:

“The National Committee is taking a position that it is not in our best interest to become involved with the Clarion Call to Unite Committee or affiliate with this organization.”

There are two extremely notable “cons” in dealing with this particular issue:

1) The Clarion Call to Unite Committee is proposing that the Constitution Party dissolve its organization (as well as all the others) so as to create a completely new organization, where a new platform and bylaws would be drawn up and new leadership elections would take place.

2) Two of the organizations were involved in a major rift where they had issues with the official Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominee of the party that was elected and decided to support one of their own. To my knowledge, neither party’s leadership has ever made an attempt at reconciliation.

There is an example of another state party affiliate deciding to support a presidential candidate of its own. They disaffiliated to do so. They have since made reconciliation and have been brought back into the party as an official affiliate. There’s no reason why either of the two that disaffiliated shouldn’t have sought reconciliation with the Constitution Party. Instead, they are more than happy to see the Constitution Party dissolved and then merge together to elect new leadership. This seems more like a hostile takeover than a longing to reconcile the differences and merge with the Constitution Party so that together we can be stronger and start winning elections.

AGAIN, the Constitution Party has extended NO ILL WILL towards anyone associated with the Young Constitutionalists nor the Clarion Call to United Committee. I expect to see great things come from these young men. I know that Joshua Fauver has announced his run for office and I will do all that I can to help and support him in his endeavor.

It is my opinion that the Constitution Party leadership has acted correctly in both issues. The Constitution Party stands ready to unite with ALL fellow Constitutionalists. HOWEVER, we do not see dissolving the organization for political expediency to be the best idea. As I have said on numerous occasions, “I believe the Constitution Party is the last great political hope for these United States of America!” Yes, I know we have issues! Yes, I know we need money! Yes, I know with more people in the party we would be stronger! Yes, I know that it is an uphill battle in cliff proportions! BUT I ALSO KNOW THAT THE CONSTITUTION PARTY HAS THE FOUNDATION AND THE PLATFORM AND THE LEAERSHIP TO START WINNING BATTLES AND GETTING CANDIDATES ELECTED.


Krzysztof Lesiak
Do you think that, if more members of the Constitution Party were present at the National Committee meeting in Baltimore, Md, the votes on the matters relating to Joshua, the YC organization, and the CCTUC would have still been unanimous?


Randy Constitutional Evangelist Stufflebeam
Regarding the Young Constitutionalists… NO. That was mine and Joshua’s fault.

Regarding the CCUC… Who knows? Especially if there had been members not only registered, but paid committeeman dues. If he would have been there as a committeemen, I would expect that it would not have been unanimous.

By the way, I would not use the word “unanimous”. Both resolutions were passed “Without Dissent” no roll call vote was taken and therefore unanimity can not be established. There might have been someone who abstained from voting and if there was an abstention, it would not have been unanimous. Does that make sense?


Krzysztof Lesiak
Ok. this is my last question on CCTUC. The 4 points of it are that the party that’s joining must be pro-life, favor constitutional government, support non-interventionist foreign policy and withdrawal from the UN, and support for tariffs and American jobs from outsourcing and foreign competition. Did CP members at the meeting know of these 4 planks of the CCTUC, and in your opinion does it really matter?


Randy Constitutional Evangelist Stufflebeam
This is a simple question to answer.

1) Those points are a matter of fact in the Constitution Party’s platform.

2) While those (and others) criteria would absolutely have to be met to affiliate with the Constitution Party, they were not at issue. What was at issue is two things, primarily:

A) The past actions of a couple of the other organizations and the destructive affect that they had on the Constitution Party.

Dissolving the Constitution Party’s leadership and platform is NOT in the best interest of the Constitution Party (neither do I believe it to be in the best interest of our country, because of affect),


Krzysztof Lesiak
I forgot about this one: least one person alleged on IPR that Quirk’s and Fauver’s association with the Robby Wells 2016 campaign was the primary reason for the rejection of what they were advocating for. Do these statements bear any credence?



Randy Constitutional Evangelist Stufflebeam
I do believe that Robby Wells was mentioned as supporting the CCUC during the Executive Committee meeting discussion, I do NOT think it was mentioned during the National Committee meeting.

And while I’m certain that was a factor, I don’t believe it was the main factor.


Krzysztof Lesiak
Ok. Darrell Castle announced at the meeting that he’s exploring running for the CP presidential nomination in 2016. If you feel comfortable, what’s your opinion on this? Also, what are your plans for the CP’s future – and what is your outlook on how the CP will be carrying on, including growth, candidate recruitment, youth, etc?



Randy Constitutional Evangelist Stufflebeam
I THINK IT’S GREAT ! ! ! If I had my way, I’d have at least 4 candidates officially announcing their candidacy for the Constitution Party’s Presidential Nomination.

That’s why I held the only Constitution Party Presidential Debates by conference call.

Plans for the future?

Current plans are to focus on state and local races. I am working to recruit a full sleight of state-wide candidates here in Illinois, I already have a Gubernatorial and an Attorney General Candidate.

Nationally? I’m looking to recruit more presidential candidates. It will generate more interest in the party.

I believe within the next year GROWTH WILL BE PHENOMINAL!! Given the complete dissatisfaction of the two major parties and the defection that we are already beginning to see.

Youth? ABSOLUTELY. I will be working on those “Young Constitutionalist” bylaws.

As the song says, “The future’s so bright, I’ve got to wear shades!”


Krzysztof Lesiak
Oh, BTW.. do you think Robby Wells will seek the CP nod in 2016? He’s currently an independent



Randy Constitutional Evangelist Stufflebeam
Let me be clear about something.

I am the National Vice-Chairman. It is my job to gain ballot access for our party and our candidates. IT IS NOT TO SUPPORT ANY PARTICULAR CANDIDATE AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL. It would be a conflict of interest to do so. My job is to make it as fair as possible for every candidate seeking our nomination. That’s why I held the debates last year that I did.



Randy Constitutional Evangelist Stufflebeam
Robby Wells seeking the CP nomination?

I think he should and the longer he waits the harder it will be for him to get the nomination, especially considering there are other people already talking about it.


Krzysztof Lesiak
Do you know or feel comfortable disclosing the other people?


Randy Constitutional Evangelist Stufflebeam
In terms of “real” candidates, currently, Darrell Castle is the only one exploring the possibility. There always someone nobody knows who wants to put their name in the hat as well.

But that doesn’t mean some “big name” candidate won’t come seeking our nomination within the next couple of years.


Krzysztof Lesiak
Randy, thanks so much for your time!! I REALLY appreciate it. Is there anything you think we missed that you would like to add?


Randy Constitutional Evangelist Stufflebeam
I think that’s good for now. I look forward to seeing your “report.”

It’ll be fun to see what the response will be.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

IPR Interview: Joshua Fauver Talks About Constitution Party National Committee Meeting in Baltimore

Originally published on IPR on April 24th. 

Joshua Fauver is a Constitution Party activist from Louisiana. He is the Vice-Chairman of the Clarion Call to Unite Committee (CCTUC). He is also the Southeast Regional Coordinator for Robby Wells’s 2016  presidential campaign. In March of this year, he announced his candidacy for the Louisiana House of Representatives in the 21st District in 2015. Here’s his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JoshuaFauverforStateRep

 



  • Krzysztof Lesiak 
     





    Alright. So, before we get into what transpired in Baltimore, could you tell us about your involvement with the CP, like how long you have been involved, what your positions are/were, and also a little bit about your 2015 campaign for Louisiana state representative?













  •  





    Sure. I became involved in the Constitution Party officially in April of 2012. I had begun talking to them in March of that year an agreed to become more involved after the Louisiana Republican caucus as I was still interning for the Youth For Ron Paul Campaign. I actively campaigned on behalf of Virgil Goode after the caucus. I held the position of Chairman of the Young Constitutionalists very briefly and have recently announced my intentions to run for State Representative in Louisiana’s 21st district. Our current representative is a two term incumbent Democrat who has never been challenged outside of his own party so I feel really good about my chances.












  •  


    Krzysztof Lesiak 
     





    Ok. So how did you feel going into Balitmore’s meeting on April 20th? What were your expecations?



















  • I felt good going into the Baltimore meeting on April 20th. I had sat in the executive national committee meeting on the 19th, and nothing of any real dire concern was brought up. My expectations were that things would be normal. I had seen the agenda, we had received one when we registered for the meeting and I was expecting we would follow it and things would be relatively normal.












  •  





    How many people (estimate) were there at Saturday’s meeting? What states had the biggest representation, if you know this info? Was there general enthusiasm in the crowd, considering this was months after Virgil Goode’s surprising under-performance in the election?


















  • I believe the estimate was something like 53 people. It was around 50. I honestly couldn’t tell you what state had the largest representation.I would say the enthusiasm was good. A lot of people were excited about what Jenifer Young has going on in her state and the progress she is making there.


















  • Is she Wyoming’s state chair?



















  • I believe so. Yes.



















  • Ok. So what was the first major thing to happen once the meeting was called into session? Was it the topic of Young Constitutionalists?



















  • I couldn’t tell you that. I was about an hour late to the meeting on the 20th.



















  • Ok, so what was the topic being discussed at hand when you came in?



















  • Don Shrader was discussing party building when I came in.



















  • Alright, according to my article, Young Constitutionalists was dissolved. It was supposed to be the youth arm of the CP per my understanding. You were its chairman. Why was it decided to be dissolved? Was there any opposition to this?



















  • I knew the topic was going to be discussed. Randy Stufflebeam had a discussion about it Friday night. There were stipulations in the resolution passed in St. Louis that we had not noticed to be totally honest. We failed to meet those stipulations. We knew we would most likely be dissolved on Saturday, but I don’t know if there was opposition to dissolving the organization. It must have been done during the first hour of the meeting, during my absence. No one provided me with any details on the matter after it happened.



















  • So what were some of those stipulations? And what was your reaction to finding about this dissolution happening before you arrived at the meeting?



















  • Well, like I said, Randy and I talked about it Friday night. I knew it was going to happen, I wish I had been there for it, but I knew it was going to happen. Some of the stipulations were having by laws and such drawn up by the Spring meeting. Something both Randy and I failed to get done.


















  • So there were never any Young Constitutionalist college chapters being discussed ( I assume this would be part of the organization’s goal)?


















  • We were certainly discussing them. I was contacted by several college aged students who were interested in starting a chapter on their campuses. Problems with prioritizing time arose for me when I became involved with Free and Equal and I know Randy was running an exploratory committee for a Senate campaign, and had the day to day responsibilities of being the vice chairman of the party. I’m aware it isn’t a great excuse, but the bylaws just didn’t happen.



















  • Ok. Now to the huge issue, the Clarion Call to Unite Committee (CCTUC). Were you representing them? Why did the CP overwhelmingly pass a resolution saying that they won’t support or affiliate with the CCTUC and its efforts? Did this come as a surprise to you?



















  • You might say I was representing them. I wasn’t there to do that however. I went to represent Louisiana. I can’t tell you why the C.P voted on a resolution saying the will not support our efforts. I wasn’t there. This too was done during that one hour period when I was not present. It wasn’t on the agenda they had given us, nothing discussed alluded to the idea it would come up during the meeting on the 20th. In fact, I asked Mrs. Joan Castle if anything of any real importance would come up, she said not to her knowledge. In fact, I didn’t even discover that this resolution was voted on until this afternoon, which is shocking to me. Both Randy and Frank knew full well I supported this matter and didn’t even bother telling me after my arrival that it had been voted on.



















  • At least one individual told me the CCTUC was rejected because Robby Wells, a 2016 independent presidential candidate, is involved with it. You and Cody Quirk are involved with Well’s efforts to a degree to, as is Constitution Party of VA co chair Aaron Lyles, who is Well’s co campaign manager and Virgil Goode’s second cousin. Apparently, the person I talked to believed Wells isn’t widely liked in the CP. Do you think that because of him CCTUC was not endorsed by the party?



















  • Being that no on from the party told me anything about the matter I don’t believe I can answer that question accurately. But perhaps the idea has merit, as long time party activist Darrel Castle did announce his interests in seeking the party’s nomination in 2016 on the same day the CCTUC chose not to endorse the efforts of the CCTUC. Though I can’t say that is the case, perhaps it is. I don’t know. Again, no one from the party informed me of the vote to begin with.



















  • The C.P chose not to endorse the efforts of the CCTUC I mean.



















  • Do you think Wells will seek the CP nod in 2016? I believe he said he’s running independent now as part of the CCTUC efforts to bring in people and then come back into the CP. If he doesn’t, Castle will likely be the nominee. What’s your opinion of Castle representing the party as its presidential candidate?



















  • That will have to be a decision that is made closer to 2016. Right now Robby is concerned with getting his name out there and building a team and support across the country. As far as Mr. Castle goes, I don’t him well enough to make an informed opinion on him as the party’s candidate.



















  • What do you think overall of the CP’s meeting? Was it productive and successful? What does the CCTUC plan on doing now?



















  • Obviously my opinion of the meeting has changed as the report on the vote I was unaware of came in. I’m not happy at all with what transpired in Baltimore. I was totally blindsided when I found out about the resolution that was passed. I would hardly call their decision not to endorse our efforts a success. I think it will hinder the growth of the party. I believe we are going to continue our efforts at unifying the parties. I still believe it is necessary for our goal of restoring constitutionally limited government. We will continue with or without the Constitution Party’s blessing.



















  • Anything that you think we missed, that you would like to add?



















  • No, I think that about covers it.

















  • Thanks for your time.