National Chairman's Letter

Chairman's Farewell

April 2005

Dear Independent American friends,

After nearly seven years as National Chairman of the Independent American Party, the time has come for me to step down as National Chair. I announced my decision to do so at a special National Committee meeting last November. Consequently, at the end of my current term—which ended last weekend—the IAP elected new national officers at our National Conference on April 15-16 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

So please welcome our new national officers! Will Christensen of Desert Lake, California is our new National Chair. Cathy McDonald of Roy, Utah is 1st National Vice Chair. John Greenamyre of Alpharetta, Georgia is 2nd National Vice Chair. And Roger Tucker of Ottawa, Kansas is 3rd National Vice Chair. The numeric rankings of the Vice Chairs have no application except to determine the order of succession in the case of vacancy, absence or disability of the Chair.

Will Christensen served about ten years as the IAP of Utah State Chair before moving to California several years ago. (I was honored to have served as his state Vice Chair for a time.) In 2000 he ran for U.S. Congress against Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) and received nearly 16% of the vote. He served as IAP Western States Regional Coordinator in 2002 and as 1st National Vice Chair the past two years. Will brings new blood and fresh ideas into the leadership of the IAP.

Cathy McDonald has been serving as Western States Regional Coordinator the past two years and will also continue to serve in that capacity. John Greenamyre has been serving as Southern States Regional Coordinator and Georgia State Chair about a year and will also continue to serve in those callings. Roger Tucker has served several years as Kansas State Chair and will also continue to serve in that position.

It was seven years ago that the national Independent American Party was created—in 1998, as an outgrowth of the Utah Independent American Party. The Utah state party held three state conventions that year. In February they debated whether to remain affiliated with the national American Party or to affiliate with the national U.S. Taxpayers Party (later renamed Constitution Party). They took a straw vote which was evenly divided, but a write-in vote suggested the creation of our own national party.

On May 16, 1998 a second convention was held in which the Utah state party debated whether to remain with the national American Party, affiliate with the national U.S. Taxpayers Party, or form and affiliate with a new national Independent American Party. A straw vote was taken in which those favoring the American Party versus the U.S. Taxpayers Party were about evenly split. But a majority favored a new national Independent American Party. Consequently, the state Executive Committee formed a National Organizing Committee of six with a commission to form the national IAP.

Thus, on May 27, 1998, six of us—Sandra Richter, Renee Dale, Cheryl Tullius, Larry Garske, Mark Smith, and myself—met at my home and founded the national Independent American Party. I was elected as acting National Chair, and the others were also elected as acting national officers. We began to hold monthly officer meetings and launched our national web site—  www.usiap.org —in September 1998. But we were a national party without any states. 

After the general election in November 1998, the Utah party held its third state convention of that year. Again we debated whether to remain with the national American Party, affiliate with the U.S. Taxpayers Party, or affiliate with the brand new Independent American Party. Arly Pedersen, National Chair of the American Party, argued in favor of his party. Dan Hansen, of Nevada, argued in favor of the U.S. Taxpayers Party. And I argued in favor of the national IAP.

After two hours of debate, the Utah delegates took a binding vote by secret ballot. The results yielded 18% in favor of the American Party, 18% in favor of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, and 64% in favor of the national IAP. Since the IAP of Utah state bylaws required a two-thirds vote to change its national affiliation—having missed that by less than 3%—we held a runoff vote. The choice was to remain affiliated with the national American Party (the default choice) or to affiliate with the new national IAP. A 2/3 vote was needed to change affiliations. The national Independent American Party won in the runoff by a vote of 80%.

In January 1999 the national IAP began holding semi-annual National Conferences. At the first conference we adopted our national IAP Constitution and Bylaws. I was elected National Chair (no longer acting) and my fellow co-founders were elected to other national officer positions.

In July 1999 I began writing my monthly National Chairman's Letter. Many of them were reports on party activities. But I devoted 13 of them to each point in our Mission statement, 14 to each section of our Platform, and three to the 13 points of our Principles. Links to these 30 letters are in the Beliefs section of our IAP web site. This is now the last of my Chairman's Letters.

I want to give special thanks to my co-founders—Sandra (deceased), Renee, Cheryl, Larry (deceased), and Mark; to later national officers that served with me—Pat Champion, Clair Bangerter, Richard Wilde, Will Christensen, Connie Gammon, Joseph Fedele, and Steve Alloy; to those who served as Regional Coordinators—Will, Connie, Joseph, Steve, and Cathy McDonald and John Greenamyre; and to the many state officers and contacts, committee members, candidates, and party members and supporters. I thank everyone for their support of my chairmanship, and I now ask you to give the same support to our new national officers.

So what will I do now? I will be serving the party as a traveling ambassador, as a mentor to national and state officers, and as an advisor to the Executive and National Committees. I will also be devoting much of my time to writing. But as Chairman, I now bid you all a fond farewell.

Yours for Freedom!

Bruce Bangerter
IAP National Chairman Emeritus