More Middle Americans Should
Seek Local Office

by Richard F. LaMountain

ar better than most, Middle American News readers understand how mass immigration, racial preferences and "multiculturalist" education endanger our nation. The October 2005 edition showed how governments, even at the local level, can fight back -- and gave readers powerful encouragement to seek local offices themselves.

In "Local Officials Act on Illegals," John Vinson reviewed how county governments are suing companies that hire illegals, seeking to deny illegals taxpayer-funded services, and forcing landlords who rent to illegals to obey housing codes. "If their praiseworthy example can attract more recruits," Vinson wrote, "America's ongoing colonization by illegal aliens could suffer a significant setback."

And in "Grassroots Action," Peter Gemma told readers, "Running for office is one of the most effective ways to build a platform for Middle American issues. The reason? It gets the public's attention." Gemma profiled candidates who "took the bull by the horns," sought political office, ran courageous advertisements, and focused voters' attention on issues like immigration and patriotism in public schools.

Take a look at my own recent candidacy: Perhaps it will encourage other readers to seek local office, too -- and help show how to frame Middle American issues, however national in scope, within the context of a local campaign.

In May 2005, my home of Multnomah County, Oregon, held an election to choose officials of several local governing bodies -- among them the board of directors of Portland Community College. PCC is a public, two-year institution with a $135-million annual budget funded largely by income and property taxes. Its academic and vocational curricula serve 85,000 students on four campuses. It is governed by seven directors, each of whom runs on a non-partisan ballot and represents a geographic district containing some 90,000 registered voters.

Despite its importance, the office of PCC director flies under most voters' radar screens. Consequently, it offers a civic-minded citizen of modest means, who is willing to run for office, a chance to forward his beliefs and influence public policy -- without having to raise and spend huge sums of money.

This made it the perfect race for me. I'm not a prominent Portlander, but a night-shift, blue-collar worker who lacks the professional and civic stature many voters seek in candidates. Still, I've long wanted to do something in a direct, public way to forward my beliefs. Early in the year, I decided a run for PCC's board was the way to go.

I logged onto the Multnomah County elections office Website to find out how to become a candidate. The process was simple: to get on the May 17 ballot, I had to collect the signatures of 25 of my PCC district's registered voters, or pay $10, by March 17. And I found that for $25, I could buy a 325-word statement in the county-published voters' pamphlet that would be mailed to voters along with the ballots. So I went to the elections office, paid the fees, completed the requisite forms, and became a candidate.

Next, I devised a platform to align PCC's policies, programs and curricula with Middle American values. The platform's premise: that the college's responsibility not only is to its closest "stakeholders" -- its faculty, staff and students -- but to the taxpayers who fund it, and the nation of which it is a part. I wrote an outline of my platform for the voters' pamphlet, and submitted it to the elections office by the mid-March deadline.

At a PCC candidates' forum in April, I elaborated. "As director, first and foremost I will be accountable to, and an advocate for, the taxpayers who fund this college," I told the audience. "I will oppose increases in property or income taxes to fund PCC programs, and oppose any efforts by the PCC board of directors to refer tax-raising bond issues to voters."

Instead, I pledged, "I will work to assure PCC wrings every ounce of productivity from the taxpayers' dollars it already gets." To this end, I advocated that the college retain an independent cost-control firm, or create an independent volunteer commission, to scrutinize PCC departments and programs for needless, wasteful or inefficient spending.

Then I addressed the subject of citizenship. "PCC exists for, and should serve, American citizens first," I stated bluntly. "If a non-citizen can gain preference for admission or hiring over a citizen in that citizen's own country, then citizenship has no meaning . . . At this college, where there is such fierce competition for slots in some programs -- like the nursing program, which last year saw 900 applicants for 90 slots -- it is simply immoral to admit a non-citizen over a citizen."

I cited the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which allows an employer to hire a citizen over a non-citizen if the employer finds each equally qualified. "To the law's fullest extent," I pledged, I would work to assure PCC "gives preference to citizens over non-citizens in staff hiring and student admissions."

Next I noted the dangers of multilingualism. For years, I said, English had been America's "linguistic glue." But in the past 40 years, after influxes of tens of millions of non-Western immigrants, America had become "a nation in which some understand some, others understand others, but all don't understand all." This, I said, "has undermined our perception of ourselves as fellow citizens, and as a common people." To combat this, and help Portland's immigrants better assimilate to America's linguistic mainstream, I proposed to expand PCC's English-as-a-second-language programs.

And I went further. I work in a plant with large numbers of foreign-born employees, and have seen firsthand how multilingualism creates a Balkanized, cliquish environment. "A workplace is far more efficient, harmonious and inclusive when everyone in it uses a single, standard means of communication," I said. "In recognition of this, I'll work to assure PCC exercises its legal right to mandate that English is spoken by PCC staff on PCC premises, and whenever communicating college information or conducting college business."

Next I addressed affirmative action. Like many colleges, PCC employs race and gender preferences aggressively. This I opposed. "This is 2005 -- not 1865, and not 1910," I told attendees. "Race- and gender-based preferences discriminate against today's white and male Americans, who never oppressed anyone, simply because some of their white and male ancestors denied women the vote, or held slaves, decades or even centuries ago."

I noted the college must abide by presidential Executive Order 11246, which requires "affirmative action" to remedy past discrimination. Still, I observed, colleges have some leeway in how to implement the order. (The University of California, for instance, has reined in racial preferences while remaining within the order's dictates.) To the extent the order allowed, I told the audience, "I will work to institute a PCC approach that favors individual merit over unearned racial and gender privileges in hiring and admissions."

Last, I proposed that PCC require students to take one short course on Western civilization, and one on Western culture's influence on U.S. history, before receiving their associate's degrees or transferring PCC credits to four-year institutions. The courses' purpose: "To inculcate knowledge of and appreciation for the Greco-Roman cultural and political precepts, Anglo-European history, and tolerant Christianity that -- more than the influences of any other culture -- birthed America's constitutional government, wealthy market economy, and tradition of free intellectual inquiry."

I also proposed an annual "Western Heritage Month" at PCC. "Every year this college recognizes Black History Month, Hispanic History Month, the Asian New Year, and other months and events focused on and reinforcing the various ethnic identities of minority Americans," I said. "It is only appropriate to devote equal time to the unifying Western culture that is America's guide and template -- the culture that American citizens of all races share in common, and that has provided them unparalleled freedom and opportunity."

Though I didn't address them at the forum, in the voters' pamphlet I offered several other planks: to oppose in-state tuition for illegals (an issue then before the state legislature); to end efforts to recruit, enroll and employ foreign students; to explore bringing ROTC to PCC; and to provide 24 free credit hours to combat veterans.

Did I win? No. My district encompassed Portland's liberal downtown and part of its historically black neighborhood -- challenging terrain for a Middle American candidate. And my opponents were impressive indeed: an 18-year veteran of the PCC Foundation board, and a college-governance expert with a doctorate in education.

But my long-shot status didn't mean my campaign was merely quixotic. As Gemma wrote, "Winning isn't always the ultimate goal in a campaign." Poll results notwithstanding, a political campaign can educate voters to Middle American beliefs -- especially those, as in Portland, who usually get to "choose" only between leftist and "multiculturalist" candidates.

More, running for a local office, one needn't spend a fortune. In addition to the $35 for the candidate-filing and voters'-pamphlet fees, I spent $4,000 to send postcards summarizing my platform to the district's 13,800 registered Republicans (whom I expected might be more receptive to Middle American values than Democrats and independents). And one "advertisement" was free: My remarks at the candidates' forum were broadcast several times on PCC's cable-TV station.

It takes a thick skin to espouse Middle American beliefs. My campaign was mocked by Portland's "alternative" weekly and a local political Website. And at the forum, the audience applauded other candidates' remarks, but greeted mine with dead silence.

But there were gratifying moments as well. Oregonians for Immigration Reform urged its members to support me. Several people -- including a black woman -- told me I had won their vote. Running for office on a Middle American platform tells other like-minded people they are not alone, and brings them out of the political isolation to which they've been consigned by America's political elites and the corporate press. That's the first step to building Middle American solidarity and creating a consciousness of our mutual interests. And, when the campaign was over, I could look at myself in the mirror and know I had stood for my beliefs in Portland's liberal public square.

So to fellow Middle Americans, I say this: Call your county elections office (or log onto its Website), find out what local offices will be up in 2006, and strongly consider running for one. Get platform ideas from your local newspapers, Middle American News, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform's excellent Website. You'll find a candidacy for local office educational and rewarding. And win or lose, you'll know you've done your part for America in a direct, public way.

Sometimes the odds against us seem overwhelming. But the combined effect of countless Middle American candidacies may help sway fellow citizens' thinking, and go a long way toward reclaiming our nation.

Richard F. LaMountain is a former writer and editor for Conservative Digest magazine.