Carney and McGaughey will file for Governor and Lt. Governor Tuesday, June 1st, 2010, at 11:00 AM, at the Secretary of State's Office -- a news event will follow immediately after they file.

Photo of Carney and McGaughey, in action, follows the news release

Contact: Bob Carney Jr. -- (612)-824-4479 (home and business)

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For immediate release                                                                              

Minneapolis, MN, May 27, 2010 -- Veteran campaigner and property rights advocate William "Bill" McGaughey has agreed to run for Lt. Governor of Minnesota in this year's Republican Primary -- as part of the Carney/McGaughey ticket.

"I think Bill and I will make a great team -- advocating for ideas and issues that will resonate with Minnesota voters, and in particular with many who have been driven away from the Republican party. I'm grateful to Bill for agreeing to run with me," Moderate Progressive Republican candidate for Governor (and journalist) Bob Carney Jr. said today.

Carney and McGaughey (pronounced "McGoy") both ran for Mayor of Minneapolis in last fall's non-partisan Mayoral election. This was Carney's first appearance on a Minnesota ballot of any kind. That election received little media attention, and turnout was further dampened by the delivery of most or all DFL sample ballots after the election had been held. "Ranked Choice Voting had a positive result: candidates of different parties, or of no party, endorsed and unendorsed, frequently cooperated and campaigned together. During the campaign Bill and I worked together, and developed a working relationship that has led to the present Gubernatorial ticket," Carney said. After the campaign, Carney read one of McGaughey's books: Nonfinancial Economics, which McGaughey co-authored with the late Senator Eugene McCarthy. "Bill is a thinker, and is not afraid to challenge so-called 'conventional wisdom'. That's one of many attributes he will bring to our campaign," Carney said.

McGaughey has run several times in the past, including a 2008 challenge to Congressman Keith Ellison in Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District. McGaughey received 22,315 votes (or 7% of the total) in that general election, running as the candidate of the Independence Party. He did not seek that office this year.
 

McGaughey's political, professional, and personal background
 

McGaughey graduated from Yale in 1964, with a degree in English. Having a strong interest in philosophy and writing, he lived for the sake of expressing ideas. To pay the bills, McGaughey studied accounting, and passed the CPA exam in 1971. He worked in mid-level accounting positions until his retirement in 1996 from the Metro Transit Commission ("MTC"), at age 55, after serving there as a cost accountant for sixteen years, three weeks before he would have been eligible for extended health-care coverage. The MTC was laying off employees during its consolidation with the Metropolitan Council.

In preparation for his retirement, McGaughey bought and rehabilitated a house, and then bought a nine unit apartment building. Difficulties and battles ensued, as McGaughey confronted both drug dealing in his building and difficulties with the City and a neighborhood group. McGaughey completed extensive rehabilitation work on the apartment building, and described his experiences in an opinion piece published by the Star Tribune to debunk prevailing stereotypes about city policies.

Bill joined a landlord group organized by table-tennis champion Charlie Disney, helped this group gain members, and wrote various articles and letters on its behalf. This organization, Minneapolis Property Rights Action Committee (MPRAC), encouraged people who have been "abused by Minneapolis city government" to tell their stories. After Charlie Disney suffered a heart attack during his 2001 campaign for Mayor of Minneapolis, McGaughey took his place as a candidate, campaigned actively for a week, and finished about in the middle of a a twenty-two candidate field in the September 11, 2001 primary. Along with fellow landlord Jim Swartwood, Bill is now co-director of MPRAC.

McGaughey ran for the U.S. Senate in the 2002 Independence Party primary, finishing second to Jim Moore in a three-man race with 31% of the vote. He ran in Louisiana’s pre-Katrina 2004 Democratic Presidential primary to propose a change in trade policy and finished fifth among seven candidates - ahead of two much better-known candidates - with 2% of the vote.

In addition to Nonfinancial Economics, McGaughey has self-published four books in the new millennium. One presents a new theory of world history, one discusses the relationship between rhythm and self-consciousness, and two chronicled his political campaigns. The book on world history has been translated into Chinese and is sold in China. Bill has been active in an academic organization, International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, and has been asked to serve as program chair for its 2012 annual conference in Hartford, Connecticut.

Bill McGaughey was active in the Young Republican League of Minnesota in the 1960s intending to support the presidential candidacy of a moderate Republican, George Romney, who was a friend and business associate of his father’s in Michigan. He went to high school with Romney’s two sons and recently renewed acquaintance with the younger son, Mitt, a prospective presidential candidate in 2012, at a book-signing event in Wayzata.

Both Carney and McGaughey continue multi-generational traditions of political activism, including a strong Republican tradition, as evidenced by McGaughey's full name: William Howard Taft McGaughey, Jr. "My name carries forward from my Grandfather, who was a medical doctor in Indianapolis and an ardent Republican," McGaughey said. Carney's Grandfather was a Republican state representative in North Dakota before moving to Minneapolis, but bolted to the Bull Moose party, serving as a national Alternate delegate in 1912.

McGaughey married Yang Lianlian of Beijing, China, in January 2000.

Carney is planning to crank out a book on current national and state issues, and expects to self publish it some time in July. McGaughey will divide his time between campaigning and writing in the months ahead. "Bill may present ideas that I don't agree with, but I'm sure everything he will say and write is worth considering," Carney said.
 

A note on Minnesota Election Law

In addition to age and residency requirements, which both Carney and McGaughey meet, Minnesota Statute § 204B.06 provides as follows:

Subd. 2. Major party candidates. A candidate who seeks the nomination of a major political party for a partisan office shall state on the affidavit of candidacy that the candidate either participated in that party's most recent precinct caucus or intends to vote for a majority of that party's candidates at the next ensuing general election.

Carney qualifies for the Republican primary as a participant in the 2010 Republican Precinct Caucus. McGaughey, who caucused with the Independence Party, is prepared to state on the affidavit of candidacy that he "intends to vote for a majority of the Republican party's candidates at the next ensuing general election."

While both Carney and McGaughey are legally Republicans in this year's primary and general election, both are also committed to working with "people of all parties, or of no party", who are willing and able to bring independent thinking and a cooperative spirit to solving Minnesota's challenges. Both are supporters of "ranked choice voting", and similar systems, as a preferable alternative to voting systems designed to force an "artificial and unnecessary choice" between "candidates of an entrenched political duopoly."
 

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McGaughey (left) answers a question from FOX 9's Tom Lyden at an October 2009 news conference at Minneapolis City Hall.  Four candidates for Mayor were challenging Mayor RT Rybak's effort (largely successful) to cover up the fact that there was a Minneapolis Mayoral Election last year.  The candidates are (L to R): McGaughey, Al Flowers, Carney, and James Everett.