On July 20, Unity08 filed this rebuttal brief in its lawsuit to overturn an FEC ruling that said individuals could only contribute $5,000 to Unity08.
The brief argues that Unity08 intends to carry out its mission in the presidential election of 2012, although it acknowledges the name would change to Unity12. The brief also points out that Unity08 never had any intention of financially supporting the presidential candidate that would have been chosen, if it had held its on-line convention in 2008. The candidate would have been expected to raise his or her own money and plan his or her own campaign.
Thank you for the interesting news.
Wow.. Unity want’s to collect lots of money again in 2012…And waste it…
Efforts to join Unity 08 to a real third party – like the Green Party were serious, and started early in 2006, 2007, and 2008.
Unity 08 never understood what being a real political party takes outside the two bigger parties.
I took part in many of those meetings. Doug Bailey, and Gerry Rafshoon – for political icons of their time – the 1970s and 1980s were surprisingly unwilling to listen to good advice.
Many sincere Green Party leaders tried to work with both Bailey and Rafshoon. Numerous Greens attended Unity 08 strategy session across the U.S.
All of it essentially hot air. Bailey and Rafshoon did spend lots of donations from some of the nations elite.
Had they spent those funds on a Green Party, or Libertarian Party alliance the results would have been vastly better, more effective, and lasting.
Lets’ hope that’s what Unity 12 does….
– At the end of the day…Bailey and Rafshoon came out in support of the Draft Michael Bloomberg for President group..
Suspect they will again…Or is there another Billionaire with some sense and political experience waiting in the wings…?
It seems to me:
Unity08 and Unity12, if it happens, was and will be a bipartisan scheme, plot, double-agency, to cause reform two-party anti-establishment political activists to waste efforts on a non-starter activity. Nominate a bipartisan pair of Presidential and VP candidates in August eight (8) weeks before the election. The wasted Unity08 and Unity12 activities are designed to defuse any effective bid to take the Presidency away from the two-party monopoly dictatorship. Nominated that late there would be no chance to get them on a sufficient number of ballots to win and there would be no time to win over the American voters in a few weeks time before the Election. (Would they be in the Presidential debates? Not with the Ds and Rs in charge of the Debate Commission!)(Wasted efforts would again discourage activists from further efforts to dethrone the two-party system.)
Vernon Jordan was one of the founders of Unity08 and all of them were insiders at the highest level of the inner circles of the two-party dictatorship. They were money people, movers and shakers. The candidates would be a sham they had no intention to support with money.
The “intentional non-partisan political movement” needs to establish a bottom-up structure at the precinct level in every state. We need to nominate viable Presidential canidates by the early part of 2011 to have any chance to win the Presidency in 2012. The petitions need to be nearly comleted in all fifty states ASAP before the end of 2011.
Let’s get crackin.’ As one popular comedian says, “Let’s git ‘er done.” Insiders will not take our country back for us. It is up to you. And all of us.
Actually, a party can wait until July of a presidential election year and still place that nominee on the ballot of all 50 states. The Libertarian Party didn’t nominate Harry Browne until July 1996 and he got on in all 50 states that year. And the laws are somewhat better now than they were in 1996.
The trick is to qualify the party before the nominating event, which is what Unity08 wanted to do.
Unity08/12 is going about this the completely wrong way. Unless you have the resources to create a national infrastructure out of thin air (read… you’re someone like Ross Perot or Micheal Bloomberg) then you need to build that infrastructure FIRST, THEN go about finding candidates for national office.
Thankfully there are groups working towards this end. Maybe Unity08/12 will realize this after they waste another cycle and start helping them instead of building castles in the sky.