Independent American Party
186 Ryndon Unit 12, Elko,
Nevada 89801, info@iapn.org
September 14, 2005
Report from the Independent American
of Nevada:
First I would like to
thank all of you who signed the letters at the April 2005 Salt Lake City meeting
supporting our candidates in the battle with the Nevada’s Secretary of State and
Attorney General. This is a battle based on protecting political free speech for
candidates. Many of our candidates were
facing fines up to $15,000 even though they spent no money on their campaigns and filed
the required forms.
We faxed the letters, many of you signed plus many we
collected in Nevada, exposing the actions of Attorney General Brian Sandoval (who has been
nominated by Senator Harry Reid an appointment on the federal court) to Senator Harry
Reid, Nevada’s Senator Ensign, all the Senators on the US Senate Judiciary Committee,
the Governor, and Brian Sandoval. In
addition, in May we picketed in front of Brian Sandoval’s office. Since that time not one of our candidates has
heard anything from the Attorney General’s office.
It appears the persecution has stopped for now. Thanks goes to all of you
for your help. Sometimes the only recourse
for justice is political.
The Independent American Party had full time lobbyists in
David Schumann and Janine Hansen at the 2005 Nevada Legislature. We tirelessly worked to preserve the right to
petition by initiative and referendum in Nevada, which was under serious assault in
Nevada. Petitioning numbers were to be increased from 10% to 15%-20% making Nevada the
most difficult state in the nation. There were more than 20 bills attempting to limit the
right of petition. No bill seeking increases in numbers of signatures required or
significantly increasing other requirements for petitions passed. We also worked on some
50 other election bills with great success. All of the horrible bills by the Secretary of
State further limiting political free speech were defeated outright. In addition, a bill which would have prevented
anyone from running for office who was facing “fines” for so called violations
of the elections laws was defeated. This was critical in the IAP’s battle with the
Secretary of State and Attorney General.
After years of opposing and exposing the so-called “Ethics
Commission” candidate speech police provisions were repealed. The IAP worked with a coalition of groups
including the ACLU on this important legislation. In
addition, the other “powers” of the Ethics Commission were significantly cut
back. We worked for 10 years to secure this
victory.
The Independent American Party was also successfully involved
in a Pro-Life coalition, which for the second session in a row defeated Planned Parenthood’s
attempt to take away the right of conscience of pharmacists who do not want to fill
prescriptions for abortion drugs. The bill would have placed heavy fines and jeopardized
the license of the pharmacists if they refused to fill prescriptions for abortion drugs.
Our growth in terms
of registered voters has been phenomenal. We have doubled our membership in just two years
under the leadership of our State Chairman Christopher Hansen. We are the third largest
party in Nevada with 34,302 registered members. That is over 3% of the total number of
registered voters in Nevada. We are the only
party including the Democrats and Republicans that gained party members during the latest
reporting period.
We are planning a
State Central Committee meeting in Tonopah on October 20, 2005 where we will make plans
for our state convention in April of 2006. According
to state law we choose our candidates at the state convention. We are working now to secure 30-50 candidates.
Respectfully
Submitted, Janine Hansen
Executive Director
Independent American Party of Nevada
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