Group Backs “Citizen Representatives” for Congress
Get Out of Our House wants a new way to choose Congressional representatives. Image courtesy GOOOHAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The tea party movement and its candidates have made lots of noise over the last couple of elections. But in 2012 there’s another group in Texas trying to shake up the establishment by replacing what it calls “career politicians” with “citizen representatives.”
The group is called GOOOH. It stands for “Get Out of Our House.” The “house” is the U.S. House of Representatives. And who needs to get out? GOOOH founder Tim Cox says it’s career politicians.
“We’re not saying that all career politicians are bad,” Cox said. “But we’re saying the results collectively that they’ve delivered are disastrous for this country.”
So Cox wrote a book explaining how he thinks people should select candidates to run for Congress. The method includes selecting candidates from small groups and using several rounds of voting to end up with a locally picked candidate.
Using that framework, the group has selected a handful of candidates. Seven of them are in Texas, including candidates in four Central Texas congressional districts. Three are in Florida and one in North Carolina.
Almost all are running as Republicans, but Cox says that’s not because the group is conservative.
“We’re not trying to say let’s go elect 435 Republicans or 435 Democrats, let’s elect 435 citizen representatives, or at least select them,” he said. “And let them compete in the primaries and have a fair and honest chance at actually winning.”
Cox believes redistricting and ballot access restrictions have allowed Republicans and Democrats to rig elections. He says there’s almost no chance for a third party to win a race.
“So GOOOH was designed to say, let’s don’t go create a third party, nobody wants a third party,” he said. “That will never work in the way that we’re set up. If you want to win, you have to win within the two-party framework. And more importantly you have to win within the party that’s been gerrymandered to win your district.”
Williamson County’s Eric Klingemann believed in the GOOOH system and decided to attend a nominating meeting to help select someone to run for Congress against District 31 incumbent John Carter in the GOP primary.
“Little did I know that at the end of it they were going to say, we think you’re going to be a good candidate and a good representative of our district, please go forward,” Klingemann said.
Klingemann, like the district, is conservative. And he’s pushing the traditional conservative messages of cutting spending, cutting taxes and securing the border.
Tim Cox knows a primary win there or for any GOOOH candidate may not happen this time around. But he thinks GOOOH is the right answer to the present system.
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