National Chairman's Letter

March 2000

Dear Members and Friends of the Independent American Party,

On March 10 our IAP held its first presidential primary ever! This was part of the Utah presidential primary election, a part of the new Western States Primary. In the Independent American Party race Howard Phillips received 623 votes (56.6%) and Earl Dodge received 477 votes (43.4%). In the Democratic Party race the results were Al Gore 12429 (79.9%) and Bill Bradley 3131 (20.1%). In the Republican Party race the results were George W. Bush 57389 (65.3%), Alan Keyes 19348 (21.3%), John McCain 12651 (14.0%), Steve Forbes 858 (0.9%) and Gary Bauer 426 (0.5%).

These are unofficial tallies with 99% of the Utah voting districts reporting. Although McCain had suspended his campaign, and Bradley, Forbes and Bauer had withdrawn from the race, the Utah ballots had already been printed and the former candidates asked that the votes for them be counted.

We are very pleased to have Howard Phillips and Earl Dodge seeking our nomination, and to have had them participate in our primary election. Both are very fine men. And both have spoken very highly of each other. Howard is founder and current presidential nominee of the Constitution Party, formerly US Taxpayers Party. Earl is national chairman and current presidential nominee of the Prohibition Party.

The Utah voter turnout for the primary was poor, mainly because there was no real contest except for the IAP ticket. Only 9 percent of registered Utah voters came out to vote. That was about 21% of the number who voted in the 1998 general elections. The IAP got 1.0% of all primary votes cast. The Democrats got 17.5% and the Republicans 84.5%. It is notable that Keyes (whose views are in line with the IAP, Constitution Party and Prohibition Party) received 21.3% in the GOP vote. We are certain that Keyes and the IAP took votes away from each other. We hope that in 2004 Keyes will be among the third party presidential candidates.

The weekend before the Utah presidential primary, we held our third IAP National Conference in Salt Lake City. This consisted of a Friday evening Executive Committee Social, a Saturday morning National Committee business meeting, and a Saturday afternoon Presidential Candidate Forum. We were fortunate to have Howard Phillips at our afternoon event. He held a news conference, addressed the meeting, and participated in a question-and-answer session. We also heard a taped address from Earl Dodge (who could not attend in person). Both candidates were well-received by the audience. Howard and Earl (later by phone) both graciously accepted an invitation to serve on the National Advisory Board of the Independent American Party. They have shown a great example in their spirit of cooperation between our three like-minded parties for the cause of our nation's survival and future!

Yours for Freedom!

Bruce Bangerter
IAP National Chairman