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Independence
Party State Central Committee Meeting, April 17, 2004
The annual meeting
of the State Central Committee was held at Inver Hills Community College
on Saturday, April 17. A relatively brief business meeting
included discussion/voting on proposed changes to the party bylaws and
the election of three State Standing Committee Chairs and the elevation
to three Pro-Tem chairs to full chair status.
Former US Senator Dean Barkley spoke to the committee and highlighted
how far the party has come in just 12 years.
“We started as a party of four people and as I look over the
crowd today, I see a lot of new enthusiastic faces…This is great!.”
He highlighted that the Independence Party is still the only
political party that stands for “a fiscally responsible government
that stays out of our personal lives.” Sen. Barkley ended by stating that as the two entrenched
political parties “continue to lie to us and build up deficits”,
Independence Party candidates will reap success in at the polls by
giving “voters someone and something to vote for.”
Important changes to
the bylaws included:
- Improvements
to the process for receiving, screening, working with, and
mobilizing support for, prospective candidates for local, state and
federal levels.
- Eliminating
cross-endorsement of candidates for partisan office; under this new
bylaw the IP will not endorse any candidate running on any other
party’s ballot line.
- Setting
the earliest time for a candidate to receive endorsement to no more
than six months prior to the date of the general election (special
elections exempt).
State Party Chair, Jim
Moore, expressed his satisfaction with the changes, saying “We have
strengthened our candidate endorsement guidelines to ensure that our
endorsement is more meaningful to Minnesota voters.”
He added, “This moves us toward our most important goal of
identifying, encouraging and supporting highly qualified Independence
Party candidates for office, particularly in local Minnesota House
races.”
The Central
Committee elected to fill standing committee chair vacancies:
- Fundraising:
Buford Johnson, Pequot Lakes
- Government
Affairs: Booker Hodges, Minneapolis
- Platform
and Public Policy: Marian Brown, Apple Valley
Additionally, the
Central Committee elevated the following State Standing Committee Chairs
Pro-Tem to full Chair status:
- Conventions
and Special Events: Jennifer Osborne, Cottage Grove
- Budget,
Planning and Development: John Watson, Arden Hills
- Candidate
and Campaign Support: Craig Lamothe, Maple Grove
Candidates for
public office attending as visitors who spoke to the meeting:
- Dr.
Carol Grishen, Minneapolis, IP candidate for Minnesota House, 62A
- Michael
Corbin, Medford, IP candidate for Minnesota House, 26B
- Brian
Hanf, Crystal, IP candidate for Minnesota House, 45B
- Jim
Mork, independent (not IP) candidate for Congress, CD1
Released Online: 4/30/04
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