Nomination Speech
National Secretary Election
Dearborn, Michigan Reform Party National Convention July 1999

ABC News recently released a poll that claimed that the percentage of Americans who want a third party challenge to the Democratic and Republican candidates for president has declined. In 1995 51% of Americans polled supported a third party challenge in comparison to 36% who were polled last week. There was an op-ed piece on the front page of the Opinion section of the Sunday Los Angeles Times this week written by Walter Schneider, a CNN political analyst. In that article, Schneider stated that "Third parties are like bees, they sting and then they die."

I like to think of the Reform Party as the Africanized honey bee - those are the new strain of bees invading the country who sting but don't die. The fact is that the media and the two major parties have been trying to spin that hive since Perot's historic and unprecedented 20 million votes in 1992.
And as Ross Perot says, the media likes to chew on us - I think they're particularly upset because they haven't been able to spit us out. We're that bad taste in their mouths that they just can't get rid of!

What the media never look at is the correlation between those polls numbers and where the Reform Party is at in the party building process. Building a third party, as anyone in this room can tell you, is a long hard process. The media is unable to see the picture of what's happening at the local level. The brick by brick, person by person, press release by press release, member by member work that so many of us do is under the media radar screen. In my opinion, however, that is the most important aspect of what we have been doing and must continue to do at this time.

My fundamental commitment to the Reform Party, whether I serve another two years as your secretary or not, is to continue to do that brick by brick work - finding activists, building the party, making the phone calls to new members, signing Reformers up on the street. More and more people are coming to realize that that activity - party building - is really what it's all about. The Reform Party is growing up from the bottom. And a lot of people aren't happy about that. That grassroots process is truly the gem of the Reform Party. It's precious but it's fragile and it must be well taken of.

Grassroots party building is the tool that those of us without the millions of special interest dollars have, to take back our country. I have had the incredible privilege of working closely with Russ Verney since the founding of the Reform Party in 1995. We worked together to qualify Reform on the ballot in California - the first state to do so. We have worked together to consolidate our internal structure, develop an independent fundraising operation and build the party for the last two years as party officers. I think the Reform Party owes him a generation of gratitude for his brilliant
and cutting-edge work. The Reform Party would not be where it is today, if it wasn't for Russ Verney.

Now Verney has been going around the country and talking to Reformers about the importance of building at the local level. We need to run candidates for local office, city council, school board and county commissioner races. Last week in a television interview, Jesse Ventura talked about the Reform Party needing to run candidates for every level of political office. Building the Reform Party - from the bottom up.

In California, I ran for Lieutenant Governor last year as the party's candidate and received 75,000 votes. I worked closely with Judy Duffy, our state chair at the time to parley that campaign into a voter registration drive which added over 3,000 new members to the party in three weeks and
re-qualified the Reform Party as a permanent party on the ballot in California for the next four years. As a member of the California Reform Party Board of Directors for the last two years, I was in charge of organizing new chapters. In that time I have helped more than 30 chapters
get started and organized in California from across the state. As national secretary, I have had the privilege of providing members with information they needed and have had the distinct privilege of running around like a maniac at every convention and making sure to take thorough and efficient
minutes. But more importantly, I have used my position as a national officer to build the party. I proposed an initiative that was overwhelmingly approved and implemented by the Executive Committee to establish a fundraising pilot project. That project is in the process of producing a
concrete plan to make this party financially independent and competitive with the two major parties.

That is what my commitment is - to the heart and soul of this party - to party building. In an endorsement letter that Russ Verney wrote in support of my race for secretary he said, "I have had the distinct honor of working closely with Jim Mangia since October 1995. He has worked tirelessly to build the Reform Party at the neighborhood, community, county, state and
national levels. Jim has recruited members, organized campaigns, raised funds, and represented the goals of the Reform Party at public forums and in the media. For the past two years Jim has faithfully served Reform Party members in the position of secretary and carried out his duties and
responsibilities in a manner every member can be proud of. I believe Jim Mangia is the right person to serve as secretary of the Reform Party for the next two years."

I want to thank Russ for those kind words and I promise to continue that work as your secretary for the next two years.

In the course of our party building efforts, as people with intense opinions and intense passions for America have worked together there have been disagreements. Sometimes we've even gotten on each other's nerves. There are political fights in any and every political organization. Recently I've
been the target of some personal attacks within the California Reform Party. I won't derail us with any details, but I felt that I had to at least say, when you're building something from the bottom up - there's bound to be controversy! But come on - it's enough that the media and the Democratic and
Republican parties are constantly chewing on us - let's stop chewing on each other!

Securing ballot status in California was especially meaningful, in my opinion. I hope I'm not sounding too California chauvinistic. Please excuse me if I am. But the California ballot status experience was meaningful because when Ross Perot went on Larry King Live and announced his intention to aid us in the quest to build a new political party and take back control of our country, California was the first state we went into to qualify. It was the birthplace of the Reform Party. There are also some basic logistical realities - it's the most populous state in the country. Whatever the media is saying about bees stinging and dying, we went out and registered 3,000 new
members in three weeks earlier this year. There was tremendous support for the Reform Party in every part of the state. I have personally been on the phone with hundreds of those new registrants across the country inviting them to get involved at the local level. That voter registration drive and phone calling operation is only the beginning of an invigorating and ongoing effort to build this party at the local level. And that is the nuts and bolts, nitty gritty work that I will continue as your national secretary.

>From those first days in 1995, when we were all out in the streets signing up Reform Party members, I have worked in many different kinds of communities throughout California and the country. I have had the privilege of building the Reform Party with people from many different walks of life. I believe our political, social and cultural diversity is one of our party's greatest
strengths. I want my campaign for Secretary to stand on the platform of Reform Party unity. Now is the time for our party to stay united and stay on course. We are at a critical juncture. The 2000 presidential race is already upon us. The media is "chomping at the bit" to exploit our
differences and disagreements. We have a unique opportunity with the added attention presidential jockeying brings, to project a unified, growing, vibrant political force - one that we can be proud of - the Reform Party!

As national secretary, I have helped to build the Reform Party, unify our members, support our candidates and run for office - and at the same time perform the secretarial duties that are critical to our organization. I would like to continue to serve as your secretary for one more term. Thank
you for your consideration.