‘White Peoples Party’ forms

Wednesday, July 20, 2005 | 10:56 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A new political party, whose goal is to eliminate affirmative action and other government programs that help minorities, has been formed in Las Vegas.

Called The White Peoples Party, it filed with the Secretary of State's Office in Carson City Friday as the first step for qualifying to have candidates on the ballot in 2006.

The Republican and Democratic parties "pander to the minorities," says Michael O'Sullivan, chairman of the board of directors of the party, which will not allow Jews or minorities to join.

Allen Lichtenstein, counsel to the ACLU of Nevada, said there is nothing illegal about creating this political party but federal and state law will prohibit them from keeping out minorities and Jews.

"It is not going to fly," said Lichtenstein. "It (the political party) has to be open to all qualified voters." It is not a private organization.

The White Peoples Party, Lichtenstein said, has a right to espouse what it wants but "it has no right to discriminate to keep people out of the party."

The constitution of the party says: "We as representatives of the white race hereby declare that all policies and decisions to be made shall be governed and decided by whether it is good for our people, non-Jewish people of wholly European descent.

"In each case of every decision to be made, it shall be judged from 'Is it good for the white race?' "

O'Sullivan said Tuesday he knows there will be a lot of criticism but he said the politicians have been catering to the blacks, Hispanics, Gays and other minority groups instead of looking out for the interest of majority of white voters.

Former State Sen. Joe Neal, D-Las Vegas, the first black in the Senate, said he did not think people would want to join this party that espouses those views. For this party to accomplish their goals would require changes in the federal and state constitutions on such things as equal rights for all.

Neal said, "I don't think a group like this could take over the state." This is akin, he said, to movements outside of Nevada against Hispanics and blacks.

To qualify as a political party, it must gather 7,914 signatures or 1 percent of the number of people who voted in the three congressional districts in the 2004 election. That must be submitted by Aug. 11, 2006.

If the party wants to have a candidate for statewide office on the ballot, it must gather 250 signatures by May 1, 2006.

Of the minor political parties, the Independent American and the Libertarians continue to qualify as political parties and to put their candidates on the ballot next year. But the Natural Law, Green and Veterans Parties, will all have to requalify if they want a place on the ballot, according to the secretary of state's office.

O'Sullivan said his group is making plans to gather signatures later this year to qualify the party for a place on the 2006 election ballot.

The first board of directors of The White Peoples Party is O'Sullivan as chairman, Duane Vick as secretary and David Thomson as treasurer. All are from Las Vegas. O'Sullivan said there are "a lot more people" in the proposed political party.

One plank of the party is to force companies that export their jobs out of the United States to pay minimum wages to those workers. In that way, O'Sullivan said it would force these firms to return those jobs to this country and improve the economy.

Lichtenstein said if O'Sullivan and his group want to help the white race, "it should help the state and citizens create a multi-ethnic society and leave bigotry in the past where it belongs."

But Lichtenstein also said he would defend the right of the party to operate as long as it followed the laws of not discriminating against non-whites and Jews as party members. He said this was not a private club.

He said he has "never run across a political party where only certain people" can join. He questioned how county clerks, in registering voters, would handle the situation if the individual wanted to join the White Party.

O'Sullivan is a member of the Las Vegas chapter of the National Alliance, a white separatist group that gained notoriety earlier this year when it paid to have a "Stop Immigration" billboard put up in Las Vegas.

The billboard was the subject of protests by Hispanic groups.

The National Alliance stands for a "free, strong and proud white America," according to the message on the group's answering machine.

O'Sullivan said the White People's Party "is going to be the name for us (the National Alliance) to run candidates."

He said the group wanted "a name that is overtly racial -- so that people in voting booths who haven't been reached by us know what we stand for."

"It's like the Green Party," he said.