In Utah, a group called The People's Right has begun an organizing campaign geared specifically toward the election of independent candidates for office.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports on the launch of the effort on President's Day:
One grassroots group took advantage of Presidents Day as the opportune time to launch its own brand of revolution. "In honor of the first president, George Washington, it is the right and duty of the people to declare independence from partisan politics," said Dale Ure of The Peoples Right. Citing a section of state law that allows an organization of voters to qualify independent candidates outside the established party system, The Peoples Right announced the Utah Independent Project, with its chief aim to run a no-strings-attached candidate for governor and other high-profile offices. "We are not looking for the traditional politician," said Alton resident Sharla Christie, a regional coordinator for The Peoples Right. With that in mind, the group said that self-nominations will be rejected at its regional and statewide meetings to be held Feb. 27 at the Territorial State House in Fillmore. "We will have 70 to 100 meetings in the next two weeks," Christie said. "We don't run this -- the people do. We just give them the tools." The group's new Web site, www.utahlive.us is key to building momentum to meet the March 19 filing deadline for state and federal races, Christie said.
On the site's
"About" page we read:
The Peoples Right is a group of Utah voters whose purpose is to promote, find and support independent candidates for public office who will take an oath not to accept bribes “corporate donations” or become corrupted with personal use of campaign funds.
As I wrote early last month in a profile of
Utah's independent candidates for congress, it is anybody's game there.
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3 comments:
The Peoples Right is a front for the Constitution Party, hardly a grassroots movement. I left this comment with the original tribune article:
This article should be titled, Constitution Party discovers internet and tries to masquerade as concerned unaffiliated citizens.
Sharla Christie quoted in the article ran as a Constitution Party candidate for state legislature district 72 in 2006: http://elections.utah.gov/2006candidates.htm
Steve Maxfield Jr. & Sr. were both co-founders of The Peoples Right, LLC and both Constitution Party candidates in recent history according to this trib article: http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14100898
"The Peoples Right will bar its candidates..." yada yada sounds like another party convention to me. What do they mean "its" candidates?
I don't mind working with the Constitution party in coalition. To access resources with building the unaffiliated or independent or whatever you want to call it movement, visit www.uliv.org or email public at uliv.org
I was wondering who they were likely affiliated with. Even if it is a spin off of the Constitution Party, if the process ends up supporting and strengthening candidates other than those of the Democratic and Republican Parties, it's more independent than a lot of other "independent" groups out there. Anything that helps build real infrastructure independent of the Democratic-Republican machine is worth supporting.
Yes, that's why I don't rule out working with them, but they didn't exactly get that little Constitution Party factoid out in front. I'm not holding my breath though, I've contacted the CP on more than one occasion to enlist support for independent redistricting. Dead silence. I think the CP is plagued by an all or nothing myopia.
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