From U.S. Presidential Candidate to Missouri's 2nd Congressional District

Pat Buchanan leaving MSNBC as a political analyst caused me to reflect on the campaign of 2000 in which I was a candidate for U.S. President in the Reform Party Election.

Many interesting events took place that year. I became involved with the Missouri recruits to the Reform Party while running in the Democrat Party, and crossing paths with the great people then involved with Ross Perot. We watched both major parties running the country in a way predicted by Ross Perot when I heard him describe it as the "great sucking sound" as our economy began its descent.

So it moved me to become involved in the 2000 race as described above. Perot had earned the party a nice kitty of about $12.5 million, so that alone attracted about 10 other participants from across the country with only me with contact within the Party.

Even Donald Trump got on board for a while. On a visit to California I was invited by members of the San Francisco Reformers who were backing their candidate for mayor to spend election day with them. Lo and behold, when I did, I found they were all gay, well educated and well off—and we had an interesting day visiting polling places and other attractions, like Chinatown and other notable points along the way.

So, I had a secret cadre of supporters, just by being human and interested in them.

Come election day in the Primary, Trump had already dropped out, and to the surprise of the entire nation, I was declared the winner as betting the second most votes, because Donald was disqualified. 

Buchanan came into the affair with a lot of money behind him, and he bought votes from the lightly organized party and he controlled the convention in Long Beach until someone who had just sold a dot-com company developed a divided convention.

The result was that in Missouri that fall, Buchanan was on our ballot and I filed for a state office and received three times as many votes as did Pat in Missouri.

At a point, I noticed that the Buchanan effort started using the Internet to raise funds. When I viewed his effort, I noted he did not clearly have the disclosure on who was doing it. I filed a complaint with the ethics people in December 1999, which was finalized in March of 2000. Of course the election was over in November, but I mention it because in August 2001, I received a nice letter from them saying the study showed I was substantially correct, but due to results they decided to cancel my case. I think he did have to pay a token fine for his deeds.

It was a great education traveling all over the West, Midwest and South United States, getting to visit thousands of people and got to know the country much better for the effort. Again, another campaign without having a fundraiser. 

Now we have Super Pacs taking millions of your money and making ads that no one pays attention to and that clutter up the airways. 

My life has been in production and not talk, so I will attempt to run for Congress without fundraising, but by showing how I will produce jobs and income for people by giving information on what is really going on.

I am not currently a candidate for President, but am seeking to represent Missouri's 2nd Congressional District as a Democratic candidate in the upcoming Primary. I have lived and worked productively all my life in this district, and will let the voters decide who can best represent them.