PEG:   Over the past 15 years, I have been involved with ever growing numbers of citizen activists, trying to reclaim our rights to raise our children without government interference, to protect our own property, to defend our families. We have learned how to lobby, visited our legislators, and supported candidates from both sides of the political aisle and we are losing ground at an ever-increasing pace.

It used to be that we elected people who served, and then returned, to their communities. But that notion is now forgotten. Today, we have career politicians who have totally lost touch with the citizens they were elected to serve. It’s like we have a “ruling class”, which views citizens as necessary evils in the political process. We are accommodated, but we are never really given a voice. We’re always at arm’s length from the real decision-making.

If we really want to Save Our American Rights, we must stop re-electing career politicians who tickle our ears at election time, and forget us on inauguration day. We must take back the government itself, and restore it to its original limits. I believe that the office where I can best begin that process is the Governorship.

PEG:   In this effort, I have the permission and support of my husband. Unlike other candidates, where both parents are frequently away from the home and the children, Jim and I have committed to keeping our home life as stable as possible, so he will not always be traveling with me.

I have seen that my candidacy is an example to my children that I was willing to stand for the things that our family believes in - even when it involves sacrifice. I will never forget the evening when my seven-year-old was reading to me from a book about Thomas Jefferson. The story described how Jefferson did what he knew to be right even when it was difficult. My son looked at me with wide eyes and exclaimed, "Mom, that's what you're doing!"

Over the years, I have actively tried to encourage like-minded men, with more political experience than I, to assume such positions of leadership. Sadly, too many of them declined.

But our families still need to be protected from a government that thinks it can raise my children better than I can. And there is no fiercer defender of the home than a mother.

PEG:   You can only reform an organization if you control it. The leadership of both the Democrat and Republican parties is openly hostile to anyone who doesn’t conform to their agenda. One need only look at how the Democrats treated Bob Casey at their convention, and how the Republicans scorned Pat Buchanan to see the problem.

In both cases, the leadership’s actions showed how far they had distanced themselves from the grass roots members of their own parties. But since the party bosses control the flow of money and support, the members have no effective way to stop the hijacking of their own organization. I continually hear people tell me that they didn't move - their party did.

In the two major parties, only those who conform are given the resources to run for office. I tried to buck the party from within in 1990. About 46% of Republicans agreed with my positions. But after the election, the leadership responded by trying to purge the party of everyone who put their principles above the dictates of the party bosses. Since then, I have found many Democrats who are in the same position.

As a third party candidate, I provide a political “home” for those who are tired of business as usual, and want real change.

JIM:   I know that the stock market is at record highs and that business is booming. But I wonder why personal bankruptcies are occurring at unprecedented levels and increasing by greater margins every year. And I wonder why the increase in the number of bankruptcies in Central Pennsylvania is among the high- est in the nation. If everything is so good, why are so many people in so much trouble?

Since 1994, we have seen an increase in the gasoline tax. We have had an increase in pay for House and Senate members, and the Governor (notwithstanding candidate Ridge’s promise not to support such a pay raise). We have seen the state bowing to ridiculous federal mandates resulting in expensive and unnecessary auto emissions testing and catch-22 regulations. There has been a proliferation of off-track betting and a push for increased legalized gambling across the state. We are faced with new layers of bureaucracy and new regulations in real estate property liens and employment practices.

Efforts to enforce the Abortion Control Act are feeble, at best. Despite Tom Ridge having run on a promise not to derail the law, he has diminished its effect by failing to enforce the 24 hour waiting period. Moreover, his Department of Health waived a key requirement of the law, permitting the opening of a new abortion mill in State College, a mill that performs about 200 abortions every month.

I look back to leaders like Patrick Henry and the signers of the Declaration of Independence who pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor for the principles of liberty and sound government, for truth and virtue. They were ready to sacrifice all of their possessions for the cause in which they believed. As an American, I feel that I can do no less.

JIM:   That is exactly what the two major parties want us to believe. Not oniy do they want to use the government to control every aspect of our lives, they want to control our choices in the ballot box. They tell us that only they can possibly win and they certainly don't want us to “waste” our vote, hoping that we won't notice that such a position won’t help us at all. It helps those in power stay in power, with no change in their actions or policies. I consider that the height of arrogance.

The real question is whether we should be investing our vote in our beliefs or prostituting those beliefs by throwing away our vote on someone who will work against the principles we hold dear. It has been said that our vote is the currency of our virtue in politics. Those who urge us to vote for the lesser of two evils are asking us to sacrifice our virtue to their ambition. Personally, I think that how I vote speaks volumes about the value I place on virtue. It is NOT virtuous to vote for evil, greater or lesser.

JIM:   Because I don't see leaders who can find any principle to be important enough to take precedence over party affiliation in either party. We've had Democrat control and we've had Republican control. I can't find anything of substance accomplished for conservative causes during either. The sole purpose of power for both parties seems to be staying in power.

Democrats claim to be for the little guy, and then support international treaties and organizations that strip Americans of their fundamental rights. Republicans claim to be pro-life, but actively support openly pro-abortion candidates such as Christine Todd Whitman in New Jersey, and Tom Ridge in Pennsylvania.

I want to put my efforts into building a political organization that is based on principle, not just hunger for power. I want my children, and now grandchildren, to see that I believed in the principles upon which this nation was founded passionately enough to fight to protect them. And I know that the Constitutional Party is the proper vehicle to restore the precious liberty that is so rapidly being eroded.