All posts in the topic New candidate for Independence Party endorsement for U.S. Senate (Short link)
I will seek the endorsement of the Independence Party of Minnesota for U.S. Senate. The endorsement will be made at a special convention to be held by the Independence Party before June 30, 2008. Two other candidates are also seeking the IP endorsement for U.S. Senate: Stephen Williams of Austin, Minnesota; and Kurt M. Anderson of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Additionally, former Governor Jesse Ventura has hinted at an interest in this office but nothing has yet materialized in that regard. In my campaign for U.S. Senate, I want to focus on the issue of jobs. I am concerned about the long-term prospect of employment for Americans in a free-trade environment that exposes them to direct cost competition with workers in low-wage countries in Asia and Latin America. The nation’s annual trade deficit has soared to $800 billion, driven mainly by oil imports and cheap manufactured goods. I do not believe that the usual panaceas - more education and currency adjustments - will get our nation’s trading accounts back into balance. In the campaign, therefore, I want to begin discussion of alternatives to free trade. My view is expressed in the following statement that was offered yesterday at the IP platform convention: “ "We support consideration of alternatives to the current free-trade approach which look at trade from a development standpoint. The U. S. government should cooperate with other governments to promote economic development throughout the world in ways that increase living standards, improve working conditions, and improve quality of life for all the world’s people without gutting the U.S. industrial base, depleting nonrenewable resources, or damaging the natural environment. Furthermore, we need to get our own cost structure in line - especially in the health-care field - so that goods production can be reestablished in the United States and Americans can have attractive long-term job prospects." This goes beyond such measures as rejecting the proposed U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. I fear the issue is framed in such a way that it will inflame anti-U.S. passions if we reject an agreement with Colombia, having approved one with Peru. Instead, the U.S. government needs to consider scrapping the entire trading system. The “free trade” imperative came out of bad experiences during the Great Depression when national governments protected their own industries and corporations. But now corporations have no loyalty to nations or to groups of employees. We need to consider a new model of trade in which national governments would cooperatively regulate multinational corporations, ending the race to the bottom in terms of labor and environmental standards. In my view, national governments should legitimately be able to use tariffs as a tax to punish companies that produce goods for export in factories that pay extremely low wages and require unusually long hours of work or which discharge wastes in environmentally irresponsible ways. The cost savings they would get from such arrangements would be nullified by the tariff they would have to pay to get their products into the United States. This scheme of “employer-specific tariffs” is presented in an article that I wrote for the spring 1993 issue of Synthesis/Regeneration, a national Green Party publication. It can be found on the web at http://www.greens.org/s-r/06/06-30.html. I have a campaign website at http://www.newindependenceparty.org, which tells all you would want to know about me and my thoughts on trade. In 1992, I published the first anti-NAFTA book on the market, “A U.S.-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement: Do we just say no?”. It influenced both the Clinton and Perot presidential campaigns in that year. In pushing alternatives to free trade, I want to move the Independence / Reform party back to its Perot roots. I live in Minneapolis, just west of downtown, where I own and manage three rental properties. I have also been a cost accountant with both private companies and a public-transit agency. I’m co-director of Metro Property Rights Action Committee, a group of landlords fighting abusive city governments, as well as a frequent contributor to the Watchdog newspaper. I’m married with a stepdaughter who is a flight attendant with United Airlines. Thanks to her, I’ve been to China twice in the past year. I have previously run for U.S. Senate in the Independence Party primary in 1992, finishing second to the party-endorsed candidate, Jim Moore, with 8,400 votes or 31% of the total. I also ran in Louisiana’s 2004 Democratic presidential primary, finishing fifth among seven candidates with 3,100 votes or 2% of the total. Those times I ran as a solo candidate. This time I would not run unless I received party endorsement. However, I do have experience as a candidate in two statewide campaigns. If you have comments or questions, you can reach me by email at <email obscured>, by telephone at (612) 374-5916, or by mail at 1702 Glenwood Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55405. My website, http://www.newindependenceparty.org, will also be a communication link. Of course, I’m also looking for campaign contributions and other support. I think we can make a difference. I pledge a good effort. Please contact me if you wish. I’d love to hear from you. Bill McGaughey
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