By When Long Beach business executive and Cal State Long Beach alumnus Frank McEnulty, 51, became disgusted with partisan politics and what he perceived as wasteful spending by the federal government, he went beyond writing a letter to his local congressman: He decided to run for president of the United States.
“When people find out I’m running for president, they usually first think, ‘President of what?’ But when they read my card, they often say, ‘Oh, that makes a lot of sense,'” McEnulty says. “If I see something that’s wrong or not working right, I always want to try to fix it. I think that our political system is wrong right now.”
Despite having no political experience, the CSULB alumnus – who graduated with a degree in accounting in 1978 – is hoping that his fresh perspective will strike a chord with voters looking for a candidate not connected to interest groups or insider politics.
“The more I talk to people, the more I find that people are just totally fed up with the two political parties,” he says. “I feel that [the two major political parties] are both more or less the same and they’re absolutely corrupt, and the only thing they care about is their own power. They don’t care about doing what’s best for all Americans.”
Although McEnulty has only raised about $5,000 for his campaign so far (all of which has come from contributors on his e-mail list), he plans on steadily building support through both an Internet-based grassroots campaign and media exposure, and he hopes to launch an ad campaign when he has enough money. His candidacy and five-person campaign committee are also registered with the Federal Elections Commission.
“I have a finance chairman, and we file the same quarterly reports as Hillary [Clinton], [Barack] Obama and [Rudy] Giuliani – but ours are just a lot shorter,” McEnulty says.
McEnulty, an independent who voted for President George W. Bush in the last presidential election, has positions on almost every campaign topic imaginable, including the war in Iraq (according to his campaign website, he believes the U.S. should stay in Iraq and take steps such as “house-to-house searches of every house” if necessary to “finish the job,” although he believes the U.S. should not serve as “the world’s policeman”) and immigration (he says the borders should be controlled, and proposes a guest-worker program, with requirements such as opening a bank account and obtaining a “legal, taxable job”). He also advocates simplifying the federal tax code, although he does not believe it is necessary to increase or lower taxes.
Even though McEnulty acknowledged that his chances of winning the election are “minimal” at this point, he is working to secure a nomination from third parties such as the New American Independent Party, and he plans on campaigning nationwide beginning next year.
At the very least, he hopes his self-described “campaign of ideas and ideals” will inspire voters to look beyond what the Democratic and Republican parties have to offer.
“Except for the Kool-Aid drinkers on the right and the left, no one is happy with the political process right now,” McEnulty said. “No one is happy with the fact that they have no voice in who gets elected. It’s all up to the machine. There’s a great hope in this country that somehow that will change. No one knows how to do it, but I’m trying to.”
