Why you should contribute $1,000 to my campaign today !
As each one of you likely knows, relatively few of the U.S. House races are actually contested at each election. The Republicans and Democrats make agreements in Washington and in state capitals to ensure that long before Election Day most elections can be securely predicted. This happens through preferential laws for incumbents, extreme racial, political, economic, and social gerrymandering, lobbyists helping to build up incumbent war chests, and a host of other techniques. All in all, we really don’t get that many genuinely contested elections for U.S. House seats.
What we have in the 10th Congressional District of Illinois is a genuinely contested election. A Democratic challenger, stepped up to the neo-con Republican incumbent, and with less resources than the incumbent, nearly unseated him in 2006. Now, in 2008, they are running against each other again, and they are running on very similar platforms – bigger, unconstitutional government, more foreign intervention. What was a race that tipped in favor of the incumbent has pundits throughout the US throwing their arms up in the air. It’s definitely unclear who will win. Since pundits need something to talk about to stay in business, and eventually the viewing public will tire of the latest McCain-Obama barb, those pundits will eventually turn their attention to the few contested US House races.
You have a wannabe Obama, running against a wannabe McCain, and then someone (me) running on the U.S. Constitution. This race means something. It has ideological importance, and it will occupy part of the November national spotlight. That alone should make you want to get involved in this campaign.
Even if you love the GOP and don’t want an independent in office because it’ll further prevent the GOP from having a majority in the House, we can probably agree that the GOP, on the President’s coattails, is unlikely to retake Congress this year. That makes the issue of who’s in the majority much less important.
Because I’m running on my principles and not some wishy-washy platform pieced together by a pollster, neither party wants me running. A principled man, who disregards the advice of polls, is a loose cannon in Congressional politics. He might end up challenging any candidate on any issue. He might end up giving credence to issues that aren’t genuinely covered by either party’s platform. He might end up entertaining tough questions from the electorate and then amplifying them in debates.
Therefore, when all else fails, Democrats and Republicans alike have very strict ballot access laws in the State of Illinois to protect them. The Republican in the race, needed to turn in 673 valid signatures and was then able to get his campaign kicked off last year. The Democrat in the race had to turn in 1,001 valid signatures and was than able get his campaign rolling last year. Independents were not allowed to start collecting signatures until late March, 2008 and may not submit the signatures until mid-June 2008. One week ago, I had to turn in a minimum of 10,285 valid signatures, but was not allowed to turn in any more than 16,455 valid signatures. That’s right, in Illinois, independent candidates, in addition to needing 15 times as many signatures as Republicans are limited on the upside on the number of signatures they may submit to the State Board of Elections. As many of you know, usually, the political rule of thumb is to collect twice as many signatures as you’re going to need. It was clear that if a challenge to my signatures came forward that this could be a very difficult situation. Therefore, I started contacting wiser minds to figure out if a backup plan was possible. Indeed, a backup plan is possible, and indeed, this backup plan has never been tried in the State of Illinois. Illinois law, is clearly unconstitutional in some of the stringent requirements that it places on third party and independent candidates. What is needed is for someone to demonstrate that violation of the U.S. Constitution to a federal judge.
Last Monday, with one and half hours left before the one week challenge process came to an end, someone came forward and challenged my signatures, which creates an excellent opportunity to bring forward a federal case to challenge the State of Illinois’s unconstitutional ballot access laws. This is a golden opportunity to challenge some of the most unconstitutional, unfairly applied, draconian ballot access laws in the country.
When you support me, with you generous contribution today, you will not only be supporting a candidate in a national race, running on his principled respect for the US Constitution, but you will also be helping to see to it that in the future in Illinois every candidate running as an Independent, Constitution Party, Green, Libertarian, or any other party that comes along will have an opportunity to make his or her voice heard by running for office.
This is, after all, America, where minority opinions are protected, and where on July 4, 1776 , a minority of 56 men got together and signed their own death sentences, a document of treason in opposition to the King of England and in opposition to tyrants everywhere.
Will you support me today with a $1,000 donation to have the voice of “We the People” heard in the national electoral stage, and to have the voice of We the People heard in Illinois elections of the future?
Please follow www.FreedomSlate08.com to make a generous contribution today.
With your help, I will be able to do all that I can to make that happen and I will do all that I can to see to it that highly-qualified, pro-Constitution, pro-Freedom Congressional candidates, regardless of party affiliation, are running in each of Illinois’s 19 US Congressional Districts in 2010.
Thank you.
Allan Stevo
Independent Candidate for US House, IL-10
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