Speaker Summaries

John Dashler, candidate for governor, on the difficulty of ballot access in Georgia.

John Dashler is running for Governor of the state of Georgia. At least he is trying, as he told Madison Forum Members at the June 13th luncheon meeting speaking on the subject of ballot access.

John is descended from a signer of the ratification of the Constitution of the United States for the state of Pennsylvania, and is the fourth generation of his family to serve in the military in wars from the Civil War to Vietnam.

He explained that the Founding Fathers risked lives, fortunes, and lives of their families to advance a democratic form of government founded on self determination, self government, and equal representation under the law.

He pointed out that nowhere in the Constitution or in the Federalist Papers do the principle authors make a case that participation in the process will be based on your membership in one of two parties. And yet no greater example of restricted ballot access exists in this country other than in the state of Georgia. According to Richard Winger of the publication, Ballot Access News, says that Georgia has the most restrictive ballot access laws in the country. Other southern states have much easier ballot access rules ranging from no fee to a small fee and/or no signatures to 10,000 signatures. N. Carolina had their ballot access laws challenged. They wee stricken down in court and are presently in the process of re-crafting their ballot access laws.

No independent candidate has ever made the ballot for a state wide office in the state of Georgia. As a Republican or Democrat a candidate must meet a few constitutional requirements, complete a few forms, pay a qualifying fee, and pledge allegiance to one of the two political parties during qualifying week, the last week in April. An independent candidate must collect signatures, on nomination petitions, of registered voters that equal one percent of those that were registered during the prior election of the office sought. In Georgia it was just under 4 million registered in 2002, which means 40,000 signatures on nomination petitions during a 180 day period beginning a couple of days after the Legislature convenes. The qualifying period ends on July 11th. The Secretary of State is not required by law to employ a means test, and there is no time frame for the verification of the signatures, only that it be done as expeditiously as possible. The candidate must be notified at least five days before the general election and has five days to challenge the ruling if he is disqualified.

John is technically campaigning to qualify to become a candidate for governor. As such he has been the target of everything from fear to intimidation and with threats of loss of tax-exempt status for church ministry to loss of state contracts to anyone found to be helping with this campaign. He has been denied access to 22 public meeting places in one county that is heavily Republican. He says his campaign is about the public good. John contends that the party members are afraid of giving up power and afraid of giving voters access to a representative form of government. And the voters he has spoken to all over the state are angry about this lack of access.

John was asked why he wanted to be governor. He says he is a conservative. He sees the governor is the only one who has access to the real facts and to the movers and shakers in and out of government. As a businessman he is more interested in serving the public than in the game of power.

When asked how many names he has on his petitions he said he could not disclose that, but there are 1700 Georgians who have at least two petitions in their hands in 70 counties. Everyone he speaks to takes petitions. The independent movement is growing.

John says it does not take millions of dollars to run this part of the campaign. He contends that if he makes the ballot it will not take millions of dollars to run an effective campaign to win the election. He says he felt going in that if he made it on the ballot he would have a chance to win. Now he feels that if he makes it on the ballot he is very confident that he can win the election. That’s how much anger and sense of hopelessness that exists throughout the state.

John Dashler’s web site is www.dashlerforgov.com.

Phil Kent, the national spokesman for Americans for Immigration Control, a veteran Georgia journalist, author of “The Dark Side of Liberalism”, former president of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, and a Sunday panelist on WAGA-TV’s “The Georgia Gang”, spoke on: The U. S. Senate’s illegal alien amnesty bill is a Trojan horse.

The U. S. Senate’s illegal alien amnesty bill is a Trojan horse says Phil Kent, the speaker at the Madison Forum’s breakfast meeting Saturday, June 24th.

Phil Kent of Atlanta is the national spokesman for Americans for Immigration Control, a veteran Georgia journalist, author of “The Dark Side of Liberalism”, former president of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, and a Sunday panelist on WAGA-TV’s “The Georgia Gang”.

Mr. Kent says the good news is that we are winning. As recently as three months ago, the open borders and multicultural crowd were winning, but because of citizen pressure on our elected members of Congress, both in the House and the Senate, we have turned the whole debate around. A top Republican staffer reported that at a recent House Republican Conference Meeting, Speaker Dennis Hastert opened the meeting with a long speech about how he had been in his district and everything he had heard at his town meeting was how we are being invaded, low wage people are taking jobs, welfare is up, our language is changing, our culture is changing, and on and on. Hastert said it is a 50-state problem, something most voters already knew. Also, John Boehner, the new House Majority Leader, is getting the message. Senator Johnny Isakson has become a leader on the issue of border enforcement only legislation which recently garnered 40 votes in the Senate. This is a benchmark of what we can do.

Mr. Kent gave the opinion that the House of Representatives will kill the Senate’s amnesty bill, because Speaker Hastert also said, at that House Republican caucus, that they were going to hold field hearings around the country about the immigration legislation, which drives the knife right into this Trojan Horse Senate plan. He said he thinks the Senate had a bout of temporary insanity when they passed the bill and mentioned that Senator Richard Lugar, who has been in the Senate for 35 years or more, actually said, “You know, I really didn’t read this bill”.

Senate and House staff people are supposed to be telling their bosses what is in various bills. They pay attention to the messages sent to the Capital, so we should call and speak to the staffer in charge of immigration questions to complain and to praise. Mr. Kent said don’t send a letter; e-mail, phone, or fax.

Mr. Kent reiterated the differences between the bills. The House bill has a border enforcement only plan. The Senate bill has virtually no enforcement whatsoever. And what, he says, is so maddening and a slap in the face of everyone who plays by the rules, is that the President, and Senators John McCain, John Kerry, Teddy Kennedy, and Joe Biden are a bi-partisan cabal that got the idea of giving the people who snuck in illegally a path to citizenship. He said we should not be giving something as precious as citizenship to people who have committed multiple felonies by sneaking in here, many of them women who are having babies who become automatic citizens.

He went on to say that this issue is not a Liberal or Conservative issue. All polls show that every political and/or ethnic group in America is opposed to illegal immigration. Over 80% of all groups polled oppose illegal immigration, and over 90% want the American military on our borders. He also mentioned several Senators who have been strong opponents of anything that smacks of amnesty.

Mr. Kent mentioned that the fence on our southern border has virtually stopped illegal immigration in southern California as well as improving the environment. He also said that at the last minute the Senate agreed verbally to consult with Mexico on building the fence.

Mr. Kent quoted Robert Recter of The Heritage Foundation who said that the estimate of 12 – 20 million illegal immigrants in the country should be doubled, because the Senate bill allows all family members to come in under chain migration, and added that in a 10-year period it would cost our government $60 billion in services for these immigrants. In addition, says Mr. Kent, in the Senate bill, all illegal aliens who worked here would be allowed to come back and collect Social Security. Also, at this time, of the 140,000 green cards issued each year to legal immigrants, about 10% are reserved for unskilled labor with the rest used for skilled professionals. The Senate bill switches the legal immigrant formula to 10% for professionals and 90% for unskilled workers.

Questions covered a wide range, from our chances of banning dual citizenship, to ballot access, to how the NAFTA/CAFTA Super Highway funding got into the Highway Bill without allowing input from the voters.

Websites mentioned are www.immigrationcontrol.com , www.numbersusa.com, and www.philkent.com The Capital Hill Switchboard number is (202) 224-3121.