National Chairman's Letter

April 2000

Dear Members and Friends of the Independent American Party,

Since the Utah IAP is our current "flagship" state party, I would like to report on happenings in Utah. Utah has over thirty candidates running for office this year under the Independent American Party banner! It has the Governor, Lt. Governor, US Senate and all three Congressional races covered, as well as a host of state legislative and several county races. And the IAP has two candidates running for the same US House seat.

The Utah IAP has gained members from other parties. Our Utah IAP Gubernatorial candidate ran as a Republican for US Congress in the last election and forced the incumbent Congressman into a primary election. Our US Senate candidate ran for Congress under the GOP four years ago. One of our Congressional candidates was a Republican candidate for US Senate two years ago. Our Lt. Governor candidate ran under the Prohibition Party in the last election. We have former Democratic and Republican candidates running for the state legislature as IAP candidates.

The Utah IAP will hold its State Convention on May 13 in Salt Lake City. All of the candidates (except in the one contested Congressional race) are expected to be elected as the party's nominees for the various offices. The IAP National Convention will also convene for a short period to formally elect its nominee for President of the United States. Since Howard Phillips won the presidential primary election, he is expected to be the IAP nominee. The National Convention will meet again for other business this summer during the IAP National Conference scheduled for July 14-15, 2000.

I attended part of the National Committee meeting of the Constitution Party on April 1 in Atlanta, Georgia. Presidential candidate Howard Phillips reportedly gave a rousing address the evening before (which I missed account of travel delays). I learned that Howard's Vice Presidential running mate, conservative columnist Joseph Sobran of Virginia, has withdrawn as a candidate primarily account of the difficulty in trying to balance the task of being an effective writer and candidate at the same time. The Constitution Party has formed a Vice Presidential Search Committee to find a replacement for Sobran.

Meanwhile, Dr. Curtis Frazier of Missouri is serving as a stand-in Vice Presidential candidate for the Constitution Party until it can find and elect a nominee as Howard's running mate at their next National Committee meeting in Montana on Labor Day weekend. There is talk of trying to get Alan Keyes to run for Vice President under the Constitution Party (which cannot be considered by Keyes until after the GOP National Convention in early August). The IAP will likely accept our Presidential nominee's choice for running mate to be our Vice Presidential nominee.

Yours for Freedom!

Bruce Bangerter
IAP National Chairman