Who to vote for?
Election
time is here again.
At the Buffalo
Regional Right to Life Office, as well as at my own law office, I receive
a large number of calls from folks asking “who is prolife?” “who can I
vote for”?
Several years
ago, the choice was a lot easier: New York State had a party strictly
devoted to culling candidates who are pro-life from those that support
abortion.
Now, please
scroll down to the bottom of this letter before you go further: consider
the job it is to chase down all these candidates, and find out where they
stand, if they will even tell you where they stand.
I was one of
those who devoted ¾ of a year to establishing this amazing party in the
most liberal state in the union, and it was no small task. But we had
many hundreds, thousands even of people working state-wide committed to
sacrifice for life. That was 1978.
I personally
pushed a stroller down many streets, drafted the petitions needed to get
the party’s candidates legally qualified on the ballot, then aided with
the tumultuous legal battles we were beset with because of outrage of the
abortion promoters and supporters.
The hard work
paid off certainly in Western New York…..we had a 100% pro-life delegation
to Congress, we showed the play-for-pay politicians that good people could
accomplish a good effort…the tide was turning, and I have a very
interesting story of how I got Ronald Reagan to call the Right to Life
Party Convention because he really wanted our support………….
However, 2
gubernatorial elections ago, it was time us to get the usual 50,000 votes
for a candidate for governor on our party line, which gave us automatic
ballot status for another 4 years….by then, we were an established party,
and so many took for granted the hard work it took to keep a political
party going…..
That was the
year 2002. We fell about 3,500 votes short of our goal, and the party
fell into the state where every time it wanted a candidate on its line, it
would have to get 5% of the registered voters in a district to sign for a
candidate. That meant first, paying for the list of registered voters in
the district. That was very costly. Then, it meant getting 5% of those
voters to sign petitions, an endless, time consuming task requiring huge
numbers of volunteers to go door to door in a short window of time,
getting the signatures, checking them, doing the procedure to file them
(purposely made difficult by those who run politics in the state), and
then working for the election to follow.
Why didn’t we
get the 50,000 votes statewide on the gubernatorial line? It was really a
no-brainer for anyone who was really pro-life. We had pro-abortion Pataki
and Carl McCall, both pro-abortion, and Tom Golisano on the Independence
line, who called himself “pro-life”, but only a tiny bit. Read on.
That year, a
well known preacher on a religious TV station gave a brilliant sermon on
how every Christian and Catholic MUST vote for candidates who will work
against abortion, it was great. BUT THEN he ended this sermon with the
caveat, that well, if there was someone who was ‘kind of’ pro-life but had
a chance to be elected”, well, vote that way.
Within days, an
8 ½ by 11 full color flyer with the most beautiful baby came by, flaunting
Tom Golisano as “the only pro-life candidate on the ballot”. HOW pro-life
was he? he was only opposed partial birth abortion, which amounts to
infanticide.
However, the only real pro-life candidates on the ballot for
Governor was on the RIGHT TO LIFE PARTY LINE: Gerald CRONIN!!!!
The party fell 3,500 votes short, and the Right to Life Party went into
history, and since then, despite repeated requests in Western New York, we
could not raise up the volunteers to hit the streets so we have the
punch and public presence that having a RIGHT TO LIFE PARTY alone can do,
to help pro-life candidates win offices. In the past, it gave the
margin of victory or defeat many times, and provided a guaranteed block of
voters.
Now this is
history.
So now, having
once had a party that vetted out the RIGHT TO LIFE CANDIDATES, people
scrounge around to find out who stands for life, and most candidates DODGE
the issue. We survey candidates, but without being able to say we have a
block of voters who will vote for the pro-life candidates, political
candidates don’t even bother to respond to a survey.
Even more, one
person looking to see what candidate of many is ‘pro-life’ and thinking
it is a big deal to endow that person with your vote has little or no
meaning.
Without a
committed block of voters that we can deliver, we can continue to expect
the tide of pro-abortion, anti-family candidates to set our policies and
make our laws.
However,
any one who is really committed to life will understand that WE MUST
CHANGE OUR LAWS and that can only be done by getting PRO LIFE PRO FAMILY
candidates in office, and that is only done by hard, painful time
consuming work. One snowflake in a blizzard does not count, but every
snowflake in an avalanche pleads “NOT GUILTY”.
How do
you plead? If you believe you are pro-life, put some feet to your beliefs
and VOLUNTEER NOW to work on re-starting
the Right to Life Party in Western New York when it will really
matter….next year’s house of representative races.
Call
716-852-3028 to volunteer. Speak clearly, add your name, address and phone
number and email, and ROLL UP THOSE SLEEVES. We will need to get started
the first of 2012 to really do something and your time and talents are
needed!!!!
Sincerely,
Stasia Zoladz Vogel
President BRRTLC
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