Arly H. Pedersen and Catherine Carter have little chance of sitting in the U.S. House next year. But the Independent American and Natural Law party candidates for the 2nd Congressional District aren't running to win.
They're running to get their messages across.And the two have very different messages.
Pedersen, a small businessman who has run for a number of state, local and national offices, is a conservative with a capital C.
Carter, a health educator, belongs to a party formed in 1992 that stresses "common sense" solutions to America's problems. The party was founded by John Hagelin, a Harvard-trained quantum physicist, according to party campaign material. The Natural Law Party has six candidates on the Utah ballot this year.
Pedersen said the Independent American Party merged with the old American Party a year ago. "There was a group of us that basically believed the same things, so we just got together," he said. The old American Party, an arch-conservative group, had been around in Utah and several other states for a number of years.
Pedersen ran for governor in 1988 and lieutenant governor in 1992. He's run for his local Utah House seat five different times and for mayor of West Jordan.
"We're really pushing constitutional government," Pedersen said. He's for a much smaller federal government, one whose responsibilities are strictly spelled out in the Constitution. "We want the federal government out of education completely. I'm very big on the 2nd Amendment; (various groups) are trying to disarm us, and I'm very much opposed to that. We should eliminate the Department of Energy, do away with bureaucracy after bureaucracy until we get to defense, which is one of the few responsibilities the federal government should keep.
"Our biggest problem is immorality in government. Gold is the currency we should get back to (eventually), but a congressman can't do everything alone," Pedersen said.
Carter said while few Utahns know about the Natural Law party, "Everyone I do talk to likes it - just a common sense approach. So many people are concerned about the negativity in politics, in everything, and how that affects especially the children" in society.
Carter said she decided to run after national party leaders called her and asked her to get involved. While saying sometimes her candidacy frightens her, Carter stressed that if average citizens don't run for office, then the field is left to "wealthy people or those representing special interests."
The Natural Law Party took out a full-page advertisement in the Oct. 13 edition of the Deseret News explaining at length what the party stands for, and the party's vice presidential candidate, Mike Tompkins, was in Salt Lake City recently.
Tompkins said the party seeks real-world, common-sense solutions to problems. "We seek consensus, not partisan (political) bickering." If a current federal program works, like Head Start, the party favors it. But many, if not most, federal programs don't work, he said, addind that there's great waste in such programs and eliminating them or reforming them will save billions of dollars.
The party says that the budget can be balanced by 1999, and that a 10 percent flat-rate income tax imposed by 2002 would provide enough funds to keep the budget balanced.