Honey, I Shrunk The Tent!
OH, YES, the Nevada vote for Peroutka – I see it now. But, if they have 40,000 members, why did they deliver less votes than Wisconsin which has only 109 members?In Tampa, we made our Biblical/Christian and other principled arguments as to why the CP National Committee should formally recognize the fact that the Nevada party had disaffiliated itself by being for various exceptions when it comes to murdering innocent, unborn babies by abortion. We lost the vote. The Party-Over-Principle-Can’t-We-All-Just-Get-Along-Because-We-Must-Have-A-Big-Tent-To-Win-People won the vote. But, it seems that, ironically, and unwittingly to be sure, the efforts of the POPCWAJGABWHABTTWP have made the CP’s vote-tent smaller, according to the following analysis by Daniel M. Hoyt of Oshkosh, Wisconsin — J.L.
In last week’s commentary I remarked on how a neglected garden can become overrun by weeds. Even if you just leave one small corner, where nothing is planted, unkempt the weeds will take over and spread to the rest of your garden.
We in the Constitution Party are seeing this happen and whether it was bad seed or neglect or both we now have a garden that is being taken over by an undesirable element. The garden was planted with the intentions of growing good fruit and reaping a harvest of statesmen who, when elected to office, would effect a positive change for Christ’s Kingdom. Instead we have pluralists and compromiser’s who, when pressed on the issue of life, would rather remain and retain for the sake of unity than stand on principle for the sake of a few babies.
Also last week I stated that Montana had officially disaffiliated on July 1st by a vote of 51 - 5. After sending my post I also learned that the state of Missouri had disaffiliated by a unanimous vote on June 24.
This news prompted me to look at the numbers from the 2004 presidential election and see just how the Constitution Party has benefited by choosing to retain the IAP of Nevada rather than revoke their affiliate status, but let me lay some groundwork prior to stating what I found.
The Constitution Party has a state organization in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Not all those organizations are active and about one third don’t have ballot access - yet. Of those organizations five of them have officially left since the Tampa vote to retain the Independent American Party of Nevada as an affiliate. They are, listed alphabetically:
Missouri - disaffiliated June 24, 2006
Montana - disaffiliated July 1, 2006
New York - disaffiliated April 22, 2006
Ohio - withdrawn but still affiliated
Oregon - unaffiliated May 31, 2006
Now let’s take a look at the 2004 election results to see just what was “saved” by keeping Nevada affiliated:
Nevada - 1,152 votes for Peroutka.
Those who have left:
Missouri - 5,355
Montana - 1,764
New York - no ballot access
Ohio - 11,940
Oregon - 5,257
So even the least of those states (according to votes), Montana, had more people vote for Peroutka than Nevada did. Wasn’t the line that was touted in Tampa something to the effect of punishing one state for the musings of one person and why give up that ballot access over what one person said?
The National Committee gave up 24,316 votes to keep 1,152. And we don’t know what Maryland (and their 3,421 votes) has done yet from their June 27th meeting…
If the IAP Nevada has 40,000 members then why didn’t they bring in 40,000 votes?
Even here in Wisconsin with our measly 109 members, where we dropped the ball in getting Peroutka’s name on the ballot and had to do a write-in campaign during the three weeks prior to the election, we drew more than 3,000 votes for Michael - more than twice what the Nevada party contributed WITH his name PRINTED on the ballot!! Where’s the principled stand over the politicking that’s been done? In the states who have left, that’s where. And I predict there will be more state affiliates - and their associated ballot access - choosing to leave the CP if this situation isn’t corrected. I know there are several states right now preparing resolutions to be sent to the National Executive Committee calling for the official disaffiliation of Nevada during or before the fall National Committee meeting or those states will also leave.
If this were a corporation and we just lost 20% of our support base in order to keep less than 1% the share holders would be furious and demand the board of directors immediately replace the entire executive staff.
In the Constitution Party the rank-and-file members are the “share holders” and the National Committee members are the “Board of Directors”. There are 297 positions on the CP’s National Committee but, on average, only 100 or so attend the NC meetings.
It is up to those of us who are sickened by the results of the Tampa vote who need to take action and I mean right now! We must inform the entire slate of National Committee members of what has happened and the results thereof. We must encourage every one of the NC members to attend the next meeting and push for another vote to disaffiliate Nevada.
Let the Independent American Party be truly ‘independent’ by officially cutting the ties that bind us. They have already demonstrated they are not willing to support the CP National Platform so let’s work to build a new affiliate for Nevada - one that is proud to have the name “Constitution Party”.
For God and Country,
Daniel M. Hoyt,
a guy from Oshkosh,
(with a list).