This is the OFFICIAL list of 800 pound gorillas. These officeholders and/or candidates for office are the ONLY ones who are standing up for the truth and advocate doing the right thing for our children, crime victims and taxpayers. They will be listed in the order that their contributions to the 800 pound gorilla organization are received. When enough officeholders/candidates have come out of hiding they will be rated as to other relevant factors including :

            1] Date of contribution – those who come out of hiding early…. Before the truth becomes common knowledge, deserve more support than those who jump on for political survival.

            2] Amount of contribution – shows the degree of commitment.  We the voters should judge these people as Jesus did – those with fewer resources get more credit as with those whose voter pool includes less of Benton County.  A well funded candidate who runs exclusively in Benton County should give more than someone with a shoestring budget who needs few votes in our county.

            3] Priority of drug reform issues in campaign – those who give money and then put other issues well ahead of drug policy reform obviously don’t understand how extensive the damage caused by the pure evil policy called the War on Drugs really is. If you are in a leaking boat, you repair the leaks first – before devoting all your energies to bailing.  That is precisely how this policy – with absolutely no real support – has survived this long:  well intentioned people deliberately choose to ignore the causes of the problems and initiate more big government to deal with symptoms. There are only a handful of issues not directly connected with drug policy reform; they are as follows:

            A] Abortion.

            B] Regulatory reform

            C] Campaign finance reform

            D] Tax reform – but not tax reduction; one can not seriously address tax relief without opposing the de facto War on Taxpayers.

            E] Most other “reform” issues that have nothing to do with children’s safety, welfare or education, public safety and crime victims or taxpayers.

            The 800 pound gorillas will OWN the moral high ground and all character issues. After all, how much character can you possibly have if you are in hiding on major issues and deliberately back a policy which you know to be harmful to your constituency? Unfortunately, in most races there are unlikely to be any 800 pound gorillas on the ballot. The GT has convinced most potential candidates that standing up for truth and righteousness make one “irrelevant”. If you find this unconscionable, then you will have no other choice than to write “800 pound gorilla” as a write in choice in most political races.

In many races it will be quite easy to rationalize a decision to support someone other than an 800 pound gorilla – especially if none are in the race. Many offices have little to nothing to do with the damage caused by the so called “War on Drugs”. One can maintain that all local city council races fall into that category. Those who run for offices that are committed to enforcing “the law of the land” like District Attorney and Sheriff, could be exclude on the basis that the office enforces – rather than makes - policy…. However, keep in mind that many of these people continue to lobby for expansion of the Drug War – which results in increased harm – while in office.  Do you really want your tax dollars being used to advocate expansion of a policy that is widely known [but not openly acknowledged] to be harmful to all citizen taxpayers? While outright condemnation may be out of line, simple acknowledgement by such candidates that drug policies have no open public support should provide voters assurances that such abuse of tax dollars won’t occur under their watch.

As of the first of 2002, there are no candidates or officeholders who are 800 pound gorillas. The list will be updated as contributions come in:

NAME                         OFFICE HELD/SOUGHT                   DATE/AMOUNT