The Southern Party: Strengths
and Weaknesses
Statement from Executive Committee - as we
start our 5th year & 3rd election cycle
In Part 1 (See:
Many
ask, “Why a Southern Party …?”), we provided a brief
explanation of the reasons that the Southern Party of Georgia
exists. In this article, Part 2, we provide a summary of our
strengths and weaknesses resulting from our efforts in our first two
election cycles.
Note that we are including both positive and negative aspects.
It is pretty unusual for a political entity to include both, but we
do value being honest and truthful.
This is a grassroots effort, it is your effort. Those who have
contributed and given your support deserve an open and honest
accounting of what we have accomplished. Those of you who have not
made a decision to give us your support but are considering doing
so, need to have the facts and know that you will always be given
the truth.
So a brief summary of the major categories of our effort
follow and we invite all supporters to feel free to ask questions.
Elective efforts:
The only purpose for a registered political body in Georgia is
to offer candidates, espousing our platform, in elections. Other
functions can be performed without a political body. Even though we
do lobby for or against legislation, provide candidate evaluation,
voter guides and information about issues, this summary will
concentrate only on aspects of offering and electing candidates.
It is our policy as a grassroots effort to start at the State
Legislature and local level as opposed to running candidates for
statewide offices that we can not adequately support.
In 2002 we met our goal of running two candidates and
exceeded the goal of getting at least one on the ballot, both
achieved ballot access by nominating petition. The candidates
received 10% and 20% (in three way contests) of the actual vote in
November and it was considered an excellent showing for a new
party's first effort.
In 2004 we fell short of our goal of having four candidates
as we only fielded two. We fell short of our goal of having half
of the candidates achieve ballot access as neither qualified by
petition. In both efforts, the petition requirements were several
times higher than the requirements of the 2002 races.
However, the positives from these four campaigns deserve
attention. In each one there was a very positive response from the
public. Our message of restoring Our Founding Principles has
widespread support with the general public. In the campaign for
Senate District 51 by Mike Crane last year, over 3,100 petition
signatures were obtained in roughly 60 days which was the highest
number of signatures submitted by any petition candidate last year
in Georgia. 70% of the citizens who were asked -- signed the
petition -- and a large number of unregistered citizens filled out
voter registration forms.
In addition to the excellent reception from the public, the
campaigns have been considered issue oriented -- no mud slinging
-- and have received positive comments from members of the major
parties. The media has treated us fairly, although we received no
endorsements.
Overall the efforts have been totally lacking any of the
aspects claimed by the doomsayers who claim that by taking a
principled stand on our Founding Principles, Christian Heritage
and Southern Heritage, the politically correct would erupt into a
feeding frenzy.
The only truly negative aspect is the lack of organization
and funding resources to overcome the hardest ballot access laws
in our entire country! If our plan (next article) receives your
continued support, the probability of elective success is
reasonable.
Campaign tools:
Developing tools of the trade is one of our major assets at
this time. Recognizing that the major parties have both
organizational and funding resources way beyond anything we can hope
to achieve in the near future, we face a major challenge. Instead of
complaining we have been actively working to meet this challenge.
The Southern Party has developed and/or deployed the best set
of campaign tools available for non Republican/Democratic campaigns.
- We have our own direct mail capability. Some of you have
seen the first deployment of the online voter database (eLobby
features).
- A telephone issue line will soon be integrated with the web
site. The telephone system will also operate stand alone and will
be capable of message distribution and polls.
- We have secured excellent purchasing capability on many
campaign items; yard signs, door hangers, etc.
Our goal has been to produce campaign tools and capabilities
that are structured for independent campaigns at costs that are
within our expected campaign budgets. We are trying to be good
stewards with our supporters' contributions.
Organizational efforts:
To have any continued success a political entity must begin to
build organizations across its elective districts. This has been our
greatest shortcoming. We have started several county parties, but
have not been successful in helping most of these become viable
organizations. This shortcoming is of course one of the major
reasons that we have fallen prey to the tough ballot access laws.
This is not unusual in the early years of an effort. However
it has been identified as one of the two critical areas that must be
improved if we are to move to the next level of running competitive
candidates with our share of election victories. As you will see in
the next article, we will be presenting a plan to overcome this
weakness if we receive your support.
Platform:
Our platform and position on the issues has received an
excellent reception from the public. We have now taken formal
positions on an increased number of issues; Fair Vote, Immigration,
Outsourcing, Display of Ten Commandments, Limited and Open
Government, Tax Reform, ending the unholy influence of the Metro
Atlanta Chamber on our State government - to mention a few. The
acceptance of our principled stand, devoid of pandering to political
correctness displayed in our platform is a strong asset.
Communication:
We have mixed results on communication. For internet
communication we are setting the standard in Georgia. On direct mail
or telephone communication with our supporters we have failed to
meet an adequate standard of performance.
Internet: The Southern Party of Georgia web site is by far
the highest traffic and
ranked political web site in Georgia and possibly the entire
Southeast. Averaging 40,000 - 50,000 visitors and 150,000 page
views a month it far exceeds the ranking of any other political
site in Georgia. To put this in perspective, the site has an Alexa
ranking on the average higher than the Republican National
Committee (rnc.org) and on the average as many page views as the
Democratic National Committee (democrats.org). These are amazing
statistics since we can not afford any paid advertising.
On written or telephone communication with our supporters we
need major improvement. Those of you that are members will
certainly not disagree and we hope that you will like the steps we
are proposing to correct this shortcoming.
Fundraising:
We have been able to raise the minimum level of funds to meet
our ongoing efforts. The two campaigns that achieved ballot access
in 2002 were able to meet their campaign plans. Our radio commercial
effort for the rigged March 2, 2004, referendum was much more
successful than hoped. So we owe all of our supporters a loud and
resounding thank you -- your support has been greatly appreciated.
We hope that as you read this you are satisfied that we are putting
your support and confidence to proper use.
Looking forward we need to improve our fundraising efforts. We
have to provide more assistance to our candidates in overcoming the
toughest ballot access laws in the country and their capability to
get their message out to the public.
Summary:
To summarize, the status to-date, as we start our third
election cycle:
- The reception of our campaigns by the public has been
better then expected. But we have not met our goal for the number
of candidates and face serious ballot access restrictions.
- We have developed campaign knowledge and tools that are the
best available for non Republican/Democrats and may exceed even
major party campaigns in some areas. But we are behind in
organizational efforts and fundraising.
- We have developed the highest traffic political web site in
Georgia. But we are behind in direct communication with our
members and supporters.
- The application of Our Founding Principles to the issues of
today has been well received and we have had limited success in
starting a debate on these issues. But we are lacking the
capability to distribute our message to larger audiences.
Now comes the real
question. Where do we go from here?
In the next article we begin to present a proposed plan on how
to utilize the strengths and to improve the areas where we have
fallen short.
Starting a grassroots effort in today's world is difficult.
Starting one that does not pander to political correctness is just
plain tough. There are many such efforts that have started
over the last few years, but most have fallen to the wayside. They
have fallen to the wayside by either folding, or worse yet - caving
in to political correctness.
But the Southern Party of Georgia has neither folded, nor
caved into political correctness run amok in Georgia:
Despite our small size and politically
incorrect name, there is finally a voice for those who believe in
returning to our founding principles and ending the reign of
political correctness run amok in our land.
How much we grow is up to you. We appreciate all assistance in
forwarding
this material to those who should be interested.
Part 1
Many ask, “Why a Southern Party …?”
Part 3
The Southern Party: A Plan for 2006
Election Cycle
Part 4
The
Southern Party: We need your help!
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