National Chairman's Letter
Peroutka & Baldwin
July 2004
Dear Independent American friends,
The Independent American Party is pleased to announce its endorsement of
Michael Peroutka and Chuck Baldwin for President and Vice President of the
United States. They are the national presidential and vice presidential nominees
of the Constitution Party. Our choice also reflects the results of a non-binding
poll we took in the Spring, which gave Peroutka nearly 44%, George Bush 18%,
Ralph Nader 10% and other candidates 28% (for first choice).
Michael Anthony Peroutka is the founder of The Institute on the Constitution,
a nation-wide program for teaching the principles in the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution. He is a practicing attorney, having graduated
from Loyala College in Maryland and the University of Maryland law school. He
and his wife Diane have three children.
Chuck Baldwin is the Founder-Pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola,
Florida. He is an author, newspaper and Internet columnist, and host of the
Florida-based radio program "Chuck Baldwin Live." He is a graduate of
Christian Bible College in North Carolina. He and his wife Connie have three
children.
The IAP National Committee, in session during the IAP National Conference
held July 16-17 in Salt Lake City, Utah, unanimously endorsed Peroutka and
Baldwin. The committee also sifted through a number of candidate profiles, then
endorsed 15 other candidates in several states for federal or local offices. All
of the endorsed candidates are members of other political parties, but
two-thirds of them are also joint members of the IAP.
When it became apparent that the IAP would not have ballot status in any
state this year, I issued a call in my March Chairman's Letter for IAP members
to consider running as candidates on other party tickets. In my April Chairman's
Letter I extended an invitation to our readership to nominate or submit names of
good candidates for consideration for endorsement by the IAP National Committee.
A fair number of nominations were received.
The criteria for candidate endorsements set by the National Committee were:
(1) The candidate must be of good character. (2) The candidate must be in
general agreement with our national Mission, Principles and Platform. (3) The
candidate must have been recommended by a member or friend of the IAP. (4) The
candidate must be a well-known member of the IAP; or must have submitted a
candidate profile; or must have a campaign web site with profile information.
(5) The candidate must be a bona fide candidate whose name will appear on the
ballot either as an independent or candidate of another party.
We were able to vouch for the character and positions of our IAP candidates;
others we had to glean from their candidate profiles or web sites. There are
many good candidates out there that were not considered because no one nominated
them, or they failed to submit a candidate profile or have a web site. To ensure
credible endorsements, we excluded write-in candidates and those presidential
candidates who lacked having ballot status in a significant number of states.
We endorsed twelve Constitution candidates (including seven who are members
of the IAP), two Tennessee Independent candidates (who are members of the IAP),
one Republican candidate, one America First candidate, and one Libertarian
candidate (who is also a member of the IAP). Our candidates come from Florida,
Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah. We have
added a Candidates section to our www.usiap.org web site, which contains
a list of all our endorsed candidates, including a web page or web site for most
of the candidates.
Following are the names, states, parties and offices of all our endorsed
candidates:
For federal offices we have Constitution candidates Michael A. Peroutka of
Maryland for President and Chuck Baldwin of Florida for Vice President. And from
Utah we have Constitution and Independent American candidates Gary Van Horn for
US Senate, Jeremy Petersen for US House - District 2 and Ron Winfield for US
House - District 3.
In Idaho we have Libertarian and Independent American candidate Timothy A.
Raty for state house # 34-A. In Maine we have Republican candidate John Linnehan
for state senate # 28. In Massachusetts we have America First candidate L.
Thomas White for state house # 8. And in South Dakota we have Constitution and
Independent American candidate D. Scott Bartlett for state senate # 11.
In Utah we have Constitution and Independent American candidates Frank
Crowther for state senate # 24, Craig Perkes for state house # 34, Bruce
Bangerter for state house # 44, and Benton L. Peterson for state house # 68. We
also have Utah Constitution candidates Douglas K. Thompson for state house # 54
and Edward T. McGarr for state house # 58.
In Tennessee we have Tennessee Independent and Independent American
candidates Sandy Williams Collins for Polk County Assessor of Property, and
Clint A. Deal Jr. for Polk County Constable # 3. The Tennessee Independent Party
is the Tennessee affiliate of the national Independent American Party.
Freedom is a gift from God! And it is our civic and patriotic duty to do what
we can to elect good, honest and wise candidates to office who will strive to
protect our rights and freedoms and who will be righteous role models for
America. I ask you to contact any of our endorsed candidates — who have placed
themselves on the line for freedom — and ask them what you can do to help in
their campaigns. Then in November — in those races where you have a choice to
vote your conscience, vote for the lesser of two evils, or not vote at all — I
ask that you do what is right for America!
For God, Family and Country!
Bruce Bangerter
IAP National Chairman
