Third-party presidential candidate is openly courting voters from both parties, but his hardline message targets conservative Kent County voters

With the announcement June 24 that Constitution Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin had opened his national campaign office in Grand Rapids, it raises a question about the potential political impact his presence might have for the GOP base.

Statistics show Kent County favored George W. Bush in 2004, voting 171,201 for Bush and 116,909 for Sen. John Kerry. In the 2006 governor’s race, Kent County went to Republican candidate Dick DeVos — 128,471 votes to Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s 109,940.

But John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has only recently gained the national support of leading evangelical leaders like Phylis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum and Matt Staver of the Liberty Counsel. As recently as July 1, evangelicals and other conservatives were voicing concerns about supporting McCain. Conservatives dislike the Arizona senator’s support for amnesty for illegal immigrants and other immigration measures, and they are none too pleased with his McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform packages.

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 This leaves a candidate like Baldwin standing in his Division Street offices looking like a Messiah for the beleaguered conservative movement. And Baldwin is obviously taking note. The move to open his campaign office is a strike into the heart of Michigan conservative politics, the home of former Michigan GOP Chair Betsy DeVos and her hubby, Dick DeVos, the Amway-connected onetime gubernatorial candidate.

Baldwin has also begun plucking off support from Ron Paul supporters — including this Grand Rapids-area Ron Paul Meet Up — and has a Facebook group created by Kyle Bristow, the former Young Americans for Freedom leader at Michigan State University who encouraged his readers to vote for Paul in the primary. Baldwin’s campaign has taken up the mantra of Paul’s Revolution, which failed to catch to fire.

Bristow hosted anti-immigration leader Chris Simcox, founder of the Minutemen Civilian Defense Fund; Ryan Sorba, a lecturer who claims the conversation whether homosexuality is genetic or not is a hoax; and Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party which advocates for the elimination of all non-white immigrants from England. In addition, Bristow has been tied to neo-Nazis, including hosting an April 12th appearance by Canadian neo-Nazi Paul Fromm, at Lansing’s Cadillac Club. Bristow has continued to post on the YAF blog, even though he resigned his position with the group months ago, and his writing has taken a more stridently white nationalist tone to it, including a piece where he accuses black men of raping white women. As a result of his racist and homophobic lecture series, the YAF chapter at MSU has been listed in 2006 and 2007 as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization which tracks and monitors hate  groups and ideology in the United States and abroad.

Congressman Paul has also been tied to white nationalists. Michigan Messenger reported on Paul’s own racist and white nationalist ties last fall. You can read those stories here, here, here and here. In addition to being endorsed by Stormfront Radio, the internet radio station of a white nationalist web site, newsletters written on Paul’s behalf surfaced which contained numerous racially charged allegations. Paul was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president, which has since effectively been won by Arizona Senator John McCain.

Baldwin appeared in an Internet commercial for Paul as well.

The Constitution Party received 132,067 votes nationally in the 2004 presidential election, on which Baldwin ran in the VP slot. That was an increase from 2000, when the party only had 101,278 votes. While hardly a major political force, the party theoretically could drain off some GOP votes in Michigan if the election were a close one here, and possibly help swing the 17 Michigan delegates into Democrat Barack Obama’s column.

In a May column on his website, Baldwin wrote about what he would do if he were president.

  “If I were president, I would immediately seal our borders. I would also see to it that employers in America who knowingly hire illegal aliens are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. In plain language: any employer who consciously hires illegal aliens would go to jail. They would not pass Go; they would not collect $200; they would go straight to jail.”

  “And speaking of illegal immigration, as president, I would enforce our visa rules. This means anyone who overstays their visa or otherwise violates U.S. law is immediately deported. There would be no ‘path to citizenship’ given to any illegal alien. That means no amnesty. Not in any shape, manner, or form. I would not allow tax dollars to be used to pay for illegal aliens’ education, social services, or medical care. As president, I would end birthright citizenship for illegal aliens. There would be no ‘anchor babies’ during my administration.”

  “If I were president, I would use the bully pulpit of the White House to encourage Congress to pass Congressman Ron Paul’s Sanctity of Life Act. In short, this bill would do two things: First, it would declare that unborn babies are persons under the law. Second, under the authority of Article. III. Section. 2. of the U.S. Constitution, it would remove abortion from the jurisdiction of the Court. In essence, this bill would immediately overturn Roe v. Wade and end legalized abortion.”

Baldwin went on to say that he would withdraw U.S. participation from the United Nations and NATO and that it is time America recognize China is “a very serious threat” to U.S. security. He also promised to be “the best friend” to gun owners.

All these issues should play well in west Michigan, where voters have elected such politicians as Jack Hoogendyke, a representative from Holland who testified against a series of anti-bullying bills on behalf of the conservative American Family Association of Michigan.

The question is, will Baldwin hurt McCain, help Obama, or some combination therein?