By John Estridge, editor
The Brookville American-Democrat
A local man and one of his friends who lives about 400 miles away have decided to launch a Website seeking more say in federal matters.
Larry Wiwi and Leo Leinen from Iowa City, Iowa, launched Citizens First Ltd. To get there type in http://citizens-first.blogspot.com/.
“Citizens First is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating citizens about our federal government and encouraging them to become more politically active to make our federal government leadership more accountable to the citizens,” Wiwi said. “Our primary focus is to get citizens to demand a Second Constitutional Convention.”
Among the hot-button issues that he would like to see enacted through amendments from a Constitutional Convention are: congressional term limits, publicly funded elections and a national presidential primary day.
“A second convention (the first and only one happened in 1787) enables citizens to make Constitutional amendments we believe are necessary but that will never make it through Congress,” Wiwi said.
According to Wiwi, amendments like he was talking about are threats to those in power and willnever be allowed. Thus, the need for the Constitutional Convention.
“Article 5 of the Constitution provides citizens a means to make needed changes through the state legislators,
completely outside of the control of the sitting President or Congress,” Wiwi said.
All of this started 25 years ago when Wiwi was in college.
“I studied a lot of political science in college and learned then that the high re-election rate of congressmen (well over 80 percent then) was built in by the system since as public figures, they had easy and free access to the media and the ability to provide federal services to constituents to build loyalty,” Wiwi said. “Additionally, the incumbents had ready access to the party fund-raising machines and special interests to raise the enormous sums of money needed. That did not seem to me at the time as a good process to bring the best and brightest leadership to Washington.”
Since then, Wiwi said things have gone from bad to worse. With the public’s confidence in Congress at its lowest level ever, a record number of Congressmen were re-elected.
Also, Wiwi said he is tired of voting against candidates instead of voting for candidates.
“Last year's Congress had an approval rating below 20 percent, yet close to 90 percent continue to get re-elected,” Wiwi said.
“I am tired of voting against candidates - surely a nation of 300 million people can find better leadership choices,” he continued.
His call for a Primary Presidential Election Day came from McCain being the Republican pick before the race came to Indiana.
“Finally, this year I, like many Hoosiers, was disenfranchised at the primary level since McCain, who was my second last choice among Republicans, sealed the nomination before I even had the opportunity to vote,” Wiwi said.
Thus, Wiwi and Leinen discussed a positive outlet for their building frustrations.
“In early October, I finally had enough and shared with Leo that it seemed to me the only way we were going to fix this mess was to get citizens to retake control of the government and make changes the leadership never would through a second convention,” Wiwi said. “Leo's response was a simple ‘Let's do it,’ and we have been at it ever since.”
So far they have received a very cool response from media outlets and have been having trouble getting their message out to the populace. If they can ever do that, then it will be up to the American public what will happen next.
“The answer of course is an individual choice,” Wiwi said. “If you are happy as a citizen with your election choices, how your taxes are being spent, how much you are taxed, the influence of special interests, and the general direction and leadership from Washington, there is not a lot of reason to get involved. If on the other hand you are not happy with any one or all of the above, then Citizens First provides the tools to make a difference. The best part is, all we ask is that people write and call their state legislators - we do not and will not ask for money. To get started, all a person has to do is go to: http://citizens-first.blogspot.com/ and use the page links to learn and to contact various government leaders.”
Wiwi, who worked extensively on the original CIC process, said he wants to work on the federal level instead of the local or state level because the biggest problems are at the federal level. Also, Wiwi has faith in our government’s foundation.
“I have been a political junkie to some degree since the 1968 election when I was just short of 9 years old,” Wiwi said. “And I have always had faith that the underlying foundation of the country's values and democratic traditions and documents would eventually lead us to do the right thing and keep the country strong.”
“The leadership and direction under the last two presidents and their Congress' have badly shaken that faith, and led me to take this action,” he continued. “The worst issues are at the fed level, so work at the state and local level does not address the problems.”
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The Harrison Press
April 8, 2009
By Tina Emmick, Staff Writer
A Franklin County, Ind., man who lives near Harrison wants to start a movement to hold a second constitutional convention with the intent to amend the U.S. Constitution in three ways.
Larry Wiwi, a self-proclaimed political enthusiast, has been disgruntled with the way the federal government runs the country since he became interested in politics while attending college. Earlier this year, Wiwi and a former colleague, Leo Leinen, established an organization called Citizens First to encourage like-minded people to contact their state legislators and ask them to petition Congress to hold a constitutional convention - the first step citizens can take if they want to bypass the federal government and initiate a constitutional amendment.
The first Constitutional Convention took place in 1787 when 55 delegates representing 12 of the original 13 states met to re-evaluate the Articles of Confederation, the first chartered document used to govern the United States, said Wiwi. After a month of trying to “fix” the document, delegates decided to start over and created the U.S. Constitution, said Wiwi. To prevent the federal government from gaining too much power, the founders included Article Five which allows citizens to circumvent Congress and change the Constitution.
“The founders realized that people in power will do what they can to stay in power,” said Wiwi. “They saw that this could happen and gave us this tool.” Under Article Five of the Constitution, Congress has no choice but to hold a constitutional convention if two-thirds of state legislatures call for one, said Wiwi. “The beauty of Article Five is that it doesn’t matter who is opposed,” said Wiwi. “It truly is a vehicle where the common citizen can take control - the president, Congress or Supreme Court can’t stop it.”
To convince state representatives to ask Congress to hold a constitutional convention, Wiwi encourages citizens to call or write their state representatives. Sample letters and addresses are available on his Web site www.citizens-first.com, he said.
Wiwi said he believes the federal government is gaining too much power and abuses the power it has. The fact that Congress recently approved a $787 billion stimulus package without some members completely reading the 1000-page document is a frightening example, said Wiwi.
“People are concerned with the massive rate of spending,” said Wiwi. “To me it’s irresponsible.” Wiwi said he wanted to promote change and thought about pursuing a political career but decided that wasn’t the solution. “I thought, ‘What, as a common citizen, can I do?’,” said Wiwi. “I considered running for office but then realized that if I were successful, I would become part of the problem.”
Instead, he and Leinen decided the only way to change the way government works is to change the rules by amending the constitution. “If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting,” said Wiwi.
Citizens First has no intention of soliciting support to re-write the Constitution, said Wiwi. The original document has successfully guided the country for 200 years with very little need for change, he said. “My partner and I consider the Constitution to be the work of geniuses,” said Wiwi. “Part of the founder’s genius is that they made it so hard to change. In 200 years, we’ve only added 17 amendments and two canceled each other out.”
Wiwi and Leinen met when the two were employed by the same company in Iowa more than 20 years ago. They kept in touch after Wiwi moved to eastern Franklin County in the early 1990s and have been commiserating about the state of politics ever since, he said. They began working on Citizens First last fall and the organization’s Web site debuted on President’s Day, Feb. 16, said Wiwi. The Web site is the first step the pair have taken to educate citizens. They plan to spread the word by utilizing print and broadcast media and intend to establish a Facebook Web page, said Wiwi.
It will take a tremendous number of people to convince two-thirds of state legislators that a second Constitutional Convention is needed and Wiwi said he and Leinen understand that the probability of that happening is slim to none. “Realistically we know the odds are against us,” said Wiwi. “To pull this off, it will take the education and motivation of millions of people.” It could take years to convince state legislators of the need and more years before delegates are chosen and a constitutional convention is held. Even then, there is no guarantee that three-quarters of delegates needed to approve an amendment will agree, said Wiwi. “I would personally like to see this happen to send a clear message to the federal government,” said Wiwi. “You guys may have forgotten, but you really do work for us.”
Citizens First is promoting three amendments to the Constitution. The first calls for limiting the number of years congressmen can serve to 12 years, said Wiwi. Now, there are no term limits and congressmen are constantly pressured to vote on legislation supported by their political party and financial backers, said Wiwi. Once a congressman is elected, the odds are in his favor that he will be re-elected, no matter how good a job he has done in office.
“There’s no accountability for congressmen,” said Wiwi. “In 2006, 91 percent of Congress was re-elected.” If congressmen do not have to worry about being re-elected, they can vote on legislation that will benefit their constituents, not the groups that back their campaigns, he said. “Once they’re in office, people tend to start doing things to better their party, not the country,” said Wiwi. Citizens First proposes that elections be publicly funded, not privately funded by industry and special interest groups. Many highly-qualified people are discouraged from running for office because of the massive amounts of money they must raise to pay for a campaign, said Wiwi. “Where are our best and brightest going?” said Wiwi. “There’s a tremendous amount of leadership talent in this country.”
According to Wiwi, recently-elected senators spent an average of $8.6 million on their campaigns. Challengers who beat incumbents spent about twice as much, he said. “To raise that much money, you have to have deep roots in a political party,” said Wiwi. “And the party comes into office with a long list of IOUs.” Statistics show that about 86 percent of those elected spent more than their running mates on campaigns, said Wiwi. If everyone had the same amount of money, candidates would be forced to run on issues, he said.
The third proposed amendment calls for national presidential primaries to be held on the same day. Staggered primaries allow candidates who are successful in the early primaries to garner more financial support if it looks like they will win the nomination, said Wiwi. Now, votes from states who vote earlier in the primary count more than votes cast later, said Wiwi. “John McCain had the nomination before I even had a chance to vote,” said Wiwi. “If all primaries were held on the same day, it would level the playing field.”
