QUOTE
Former La Porte man is running for president
Craig Davison
For The News-Dispatch
LA PORTE - In Tuesday's election, one presidential candidate's journey started on L Street in La Porte.
Constitutional Party candidate Chuck Baldwin was born and raised in the Maple City, graduating from La Porte High School in 1971.
Baldwin, who is on the ballot in more than 35 states, is not on the Indiana ballot.
Baldwin's parents moved to La Porte from the family home of Little Rock, Ark., looking for work, which his father found at Allis-Chalmers and later the New York Blower Co. Baldwin was born in La Porte in 1951. He spent most of his youth living at 308 L St. In high school, he worked at the Five Star Food Center on Indiana 2.
"Growing up in La Porte was a wonderful thing," said Baldwin, who is also a syndicated columnist and radio host.
His interest in politics started after he moved to Pensacola, Fla. and founded the Crossroad Baptist Church. Evangelical televangelist Jerry Falwell asked him to be executive director of the Florida Moral Majority in 1980.
"That was the kind of thing that launched my interest in being involved in the political affairs of the country," Baldwin said.
Baldwin said he left the Republican Party in 2004 after President George W. Bush's first term in office. That's when he found the Constitution Party.
"I felt like that's where I wanted to make my political home," he said.
The Constitution Party was formed as the U.S. Taxpayers' Party in 1992, but changed its name in 1999. Baldwin said that, according to voter registration, it is the fastest-growing and third-largest political party in the country.
He said the Constitution Party is pro-life, pro-second amendment, pro-traditional marriage and believes that constitutional government is required of everyone who takes the oath of office.
"I think we are what the Republican's wish they were," Baldwin.
It wasn't his intention to become the party's presidential candidate. He spent most of the primaries campaigning for Republican candidate Congressman Ron Paul. By late April, as Paul's candidacy faded and the Constitutional Party convention neared, he was asked by party leaders to be the candidate. He won 74 percent of the vote at the convention over former U.N. ambassador Alan Keyes for nomination.
"I never dreamed that when I came here and when I later on joined the Constitution Party that I would ever be their candidate for president," he said.
Since then, he has logged more than 30,000 miles across the country to spread his message.
He said the mainstream media has not been favorable to third party candidates like himself and other parties that are on enough state ballots to win the election, making it difficult for voters to know all the candidates.
"If I had 10 percent of the media coverage of John McCain or Barack Obama, I'd be the next president of the United States," Baldwin said.
The Republican and Democrat candidates, said Baldwin, have become too similar and that real change would come from candidates like himself.
As the Constitution Party nominee, he said he can keep trying to spread the message.
"If we don't keep that message in front of the American people, that message is going to die," Baldwin said.
Craig Davison
For The News-Dispatch
LA PORTE - In Tuesday's election, one presidential candidate's journey started on L Street in La Porte.
Constitutional Party candidate Chuck Baldwin was born and raised in the Maple City, graduating from La Porte High School in 1971.
Baldwin, who is on the ballot in more than 35 states, is not on the Indiana ballot.
Baldwin's parents moved to La Porte from the family home of Little Rock, Ark., looking for work, which his father found at Allis-Chalmers and later the New York Blower Co. Baldwin was born in La Porte in 1951. He spent most of his youth living at 308 L St. In high school, he worked at the Five Star Food Center on Indiana 2.
"Growing up in La Porte was a wonderful thing," said Baldwin, who is also a syndicated columnist and radio host.
His interest in politics started after he moved to Pensacola, Fla. and founded the Crossroad Baptist Church. Evangelical televangelist Jerry Falwell asked him to be executive director of the Florida Moral Majority in 1980.
"That was the kind of thing that launched my interest in being involved in the political affairs of the country," Baldwin said.
Baldwin said he left the Republican Party in 2004 after President George W. Bush's first term in office. That's when he found the Constitution Party.
"I felt like that's where I wanted to make my political home," he said.
The Constitution Party was formed as the U.S. Taxpayers' Party in 1992, but changed its name in 1999. Baldwin said that, according to voter registration, it is the fastest-growing and third-largest political party in the country.
He said the Constitution Party is pro-life, pro-second amendment, pro-traditional marriage and believes that constitutional government is required of everyone who takes the oath of office.
"I think we are what the Republican's wish they were," Baldwin.
It wasn't his intention to become the party's presidential candidate. He spent most of the primaries campaigning for Republican candidate Congressman Ron Paul. By late April, as Paul's candidacy faded and the Constitutional Party convention neared, he was asked by party leaders to be the candidate. He won 74 percent of the vote at the convention over former U.N. ambassador Alan Keyes for nomination.
"I never dreamed that when I came here and when I later on joined the Constitution Party that I would ever be their candidate for president," he said.
Since then, he has logged more than 30,000 miles across the country to spread his message.
He said the mainstream media has not been favorable to third party candidates like himself and other parties that are on enough state ballots to win the election, making it difficult for voters to know all the candidates.
"If I had 10 percent of the media coverage of John McCain or Barack Obama, I'd be the next president of the United States," Baldwin said.
The Republican and Democrat candidates, said Baldwin, have become too similar and that real change would come from candidates like himself.
As the Constitution Party nominee, he said he can keep trying to spread the message.
"If we don't keep that message in front of the American people, that message is going to die," Baldwin said.
