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Independence Party Forming In North
Carolina
1980 Presidential Candidate John Anderson
To Keynote First State Convention
By Miles Tager
Anyone who
thought Jesse Ventura was just a single ghost in the machine
 won’t have to wait
until the next presidential election to see that politics as
usual in America may have changed forever.
Ventura
and former Republican Senator Jeffords of Vermont are
mavericks who have made waves in recent times, but twenty
years ago another former Republican Congressman declared
himself an Independent candidate for president and took home
six million votes.
Now that
candidate, John Anderson of Illinois, will keynote the first
Independence Party convention ever held in North
Carolina.
Anderson,
77, currently serves as President of the Center for Voting and
Democracy in Washington, D.C. and also serves as President of
the World Federalist Association.
The party
of Ventura describes itself as “fiscally responsible and
socially inclusive,” and promotes a platform advocating
campaign finance reform, limiting legislation to one subject
per bill, restructering education, term limits for state
legislators and members of congress, reducing the national
debt, reforming the Electoral College, and universal health
care.
While the
party tries to gather one hundred thousand signatures (sixty
thousand are required to be registered in the state), “we are
also looking for candidates,” according to Chair Andy
Nillson.
Candidates
the Independence Party hopes to run in 2002 include for U.S.
Senate, U.S. Congress, state legislators, judges, sheriffs,
Clerks of Court, County Commissioners, School Board, and Town
Council.
No county
party organizations have yet been set up, Nillson said, but
will be following the party convention in June.
Petitions
will be circulated statewide to get signatures for the party
to be on the 2002 ballot, Nillson said.
Nillson
said the success of Ventura, and efforts to increase
visibility nationwide, are based on “concrete steps towards
giving the government back to the people.”
Toward
that end, the first plank on the platform would reduce the
political contribution limit from $4,000 to
$500.
Nillson
cites last election data which shows that approximately 200
families funded three-quarters of the campaign costs of both
major candidates for Governor in North Carolina, and that
candidates with the most money win elections 80% of the time
in the state.
Other
speakers at the convention include Dr. Robinson Everett of
Duke University and Chris Heagarty, Director of the North
Carolina Center for Voter Education.
The
convention will be held Saturday, June 9 in Raleigh;
registration can be by mail or from 8:00-10:00 a.m. Saturday
morning.
Pre-registration can be made to the Independence Party
of North Carolina; P.O. box 20504, Winston-Salem, N.C.
27120.
The
toll-free number is 1-888-925-IPNC, or go to http://www.mountaintimes.com/mtweekly/05-31-2001/www.ncindependenceparty.org. | 
