National Chairman's Letter

Adopt a Candidate

April 2002

Dear Members and Friends of the Independent American Party,

We just held our first and successful Regional Conference for the Independent American Party April 27 in Nashville, Tennessee for our 13 Southern states. Six states were represented at the event. Speakers included representatives from the Prohibition Party, Independent National Committee, Native Americans, and the IAP. This initiates what will likely become an annual event in each of our Eastern, Midwestern, Southern and Western state regions. We commend Connie and Kim Gammon and Howard Hibbetts for a great Southern States Regional Conference (SSRC).

We have Independent American candidates running in Tennessee, Minnesota and Michigan. Connie Gammon, our Southern States Coordinator, is running for US Senate in Tennessee, under the label of our state affiliate Tennessee Independent Party (TIP). He is has already attracted significant media interest there. The TIP is also lining up candidates in several other races. Ben Thompson, our Midwestern States Coordinator, is running for US Senate in Minnesota, subject to ballot qualification requirements in July. And Tony Hefner, an IAP member, is running for the state legislature in Michigan, also subject to ballot access rules.

These candidates will be our Independent American Party standard bearers for the 2002 elections. We will soon add a Candidates section to our www.usiap.org web site that will feature each of them. The idea is to have a brief biography, brief stands on issues, contact information, and links to the candidates' web sites (if available). We may also add a few more candidates in other states where they are able to ballot qualify. I invite each of you to send emails or letters of encouragement to all our candidates and help them in any way you can.

Since the IAP does not have 2002 ballot qualification as a political party in any state, we have very few candidates of our own. The few candidates we do have are made possible by more favorable ballot access laws in a few states. So we have considered another approach:

May I present to you our Adopt a Candidate program! (kind of like the Adopt a Highway program). In this program, we are looking for good like-minded candidates of other political parties. It doesn't matter whether they are running as Republicans, Democrats, Constitution, Reform, independents, or whatever, so long as they represent our core values rather than the often divergent views of the parties they may be running under.

The idea is to endorse them, adopt them as our own candidates, and assist them in any way we can. We will also include them in the Candidates section of our web site. For a candidate to qualify, he or she must be of good moral stature, believe in our core values, and not be competing against any of our own candidates. Our core values include pro-life, pro-Constitution, and pro-US sovereignty, among other things. Our values are outlined in our national Mission, Principles, and partially adopted Platform that are published on our web site.

I attended the state convention of the IAP of Nevada on April 19-20 in Elko, NV. That state party is currently affiliated with the national Constitution Party. But they are very close to the national IAP and established formal liaison with our national party a year ago. They are running a remarkable 41 candidates, including 84-year-old Ruth Hansen (mother of Dan Hansen, who was killed in an auto accident three days after speaking at our National Conference in January). Their slogan is, "Every Member a Candidate!" I proposed to the convention floor that the national IAP adopt all of their candidates, and the idea was roundly applauded.

The major candidates for the IAP of Nevada include Steve Dempsey, Janine Hansen, and Dick O'Dell for the three congressional seats; David Holmgren and Ike Yokum for governor and lieutenant governor; and Johnathon Hansen, Mark Andrew and John Lusk, for state attorney general, treasurer and controller.

The Utah IAP had over 20 candidates of its own in 2000, but lost ballot status for 2002. It may be adopting several Republican congressional candidates, pending the results of the GOP state convention May 11. One of the candidates (a former Congressman) approached us about supporting him in his race for Congress. The IAP is also adopting at least two Utah state legislative candidates, one each from the Democratic and Libertarian Parties. We also have candidates in Virginia, California and Wisconsin in mind.

I invite and encourage all of you to look for good candidates in your various states, and try to screen them for credibility, character and stands on the issues. If they meet our ideals, please nominate them for our Adopt a Candidate program. You may submit your nominations to your IAP State Contact or Acting Chair (if we have one for your state), your Area Coordinator, or to national (at wilslist@quixnet.net). Their contact information is on our web site. Please mention the proposed candidates name, party, office, website, contact information, and why you are nominating the candidate.

We will also screen the candidates at the state, area and national level before formally adopting them as IAP candidates. This may be an unorthodox approach -- adopting candidates from other parties, but we want to place the interests of our nation above the interests of party.

With the exception of promoting our own candidates and the ones we adopt, we are primarily in a holding action for 2002. I strongly believe that during the 2003-2004 presidential election race, when the voters turn their thoughts more readily to politics, that the Independent American Party will blossom. Of course, there is much to be done this year and next for that to happen. With God's help, and commitment and dedication on our part, it can be done. Meanwhile, we will focus on the 2002 campaigns of our own candidates and our adopted candidates for the IAP. We are grateful for these candidates and their efforts in the cause of liberty and for our nation's future.

Yours for Freedom!

Bruce Bangerter
IAP National Chairman