http://www.jimgilchrist.com/article.php?id=141

Jim Gilchrist’s Victory Party remarks

December 7, 2005

Jim Gilchrist:

I want to start by saying that I am so proud to be working with each and every one of you who shares the vision, which was my hero Ronald Reagan’s vision, of a secure and sovereign America, and I want to thank all of you for supporting my first – but only my first – political campaign. Please accept my humble gratitude, and my congratulations, for a job extraordinarily well done.

I want to thank my beloved wife Sandy, who will love me in the morning – win, lose or draw in this contest! I want to thank all my outstanding colleagues and supporters, including Minuteman co-founder Chris Simcox, and all the countless Minutemen and women and campaign volunteers, for getting us so unbelievably far with our message.

Tonight is a VICTORY – and it is only the beginning.

We have done in this first effort so much better than we were “supposed to�! Whether or not in a notoriously partisan District like the CA 48th voters were able to break with Party labels and Party loyalties of a lifetime, in a very compressed and contentious special election cycle, is in a very real sense irrelevant to what we are about.

I have said many, many times – this has never been about me, this always has been about the common good, about the protection, of our nation.

WE HAVE A HUGE VICTORY HERE TONIGHT, BECAUSE WE HAVE SUCCESSFULLY ISSUED A CLARION CALL, A WAKE UP CALL TO AMERICA, AND TO CAREER POLITICIANS EVERYWHERE -- ABOUT THE CRISIS THAT CONFRONTS US ON OUR BROKEN BORDERS. THAT CALL WAS NOT STIFLED, IT IS IN FACT BEGINNING TO BE HEARD -- AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE LEARNING THE TRUTH, AND RESPONDING, AND DEMANDING THAT OUR GOVERNMENT DO ITS DUTY!

This IS the beginning of the end of politics as usual, an end of “fool the voter� falsehoods by ambitious professional politicians that leave our national security and our national sovereignty vulnerable and compromised.

This IS the emergence of a new era where if you RUN as a conservative, you had better GOVERN as a conservative – or the people will find a better candidate to stand for the privilege of representing them.

The time of the modern Minuteman, the Patriot, the time of the American people is here, and America WILL return to the rule of law – whether the special interests, and the party label enforcers, and the open borders lobby – and the mainstream media – like it or not.

Over the next little while, this grassroots Minuteman movement is going to continue to grow and spread across America like a prairie fire, we will empower candidates to challenge incumbents and party darlings all over the country, and we will put an end to the prevailing political failure and dereliction of duty that our nation has had to endure over illegal immigration and lax border security.

And the political elites are going to have to once again start respecting the will of the people - and do the job the people have entrusted them to do. If they do not, we will hold them accountable.

We don't have final numbers yet tonight, but is clear that we set out to send a message to Washington, and that message has been delivered!

And so, just as this is the beginning, not the end, of our work, let me say it is also just the beginning, and far from the end, of my political aspirations. Like John Paul Jones, "I have just begun to fight!"