RALLY DRAWS U.S. TAXPAYER PARTY LUMINARIES

One woman is a former Republican state legislator who deserted the party after receiving 42 percent of the vote in her race for governor in 1996. The other is a Pennsylvania third-party candidate who is running ahead of the Democrat in the race for governor.

Ellen Craswell and Peg Luksik were the main attractions at the U.S. Taxpayers Party Life and Family Rally '98 Wednesday.

The rally at the Drury Lodge was one of four statewide crusades on different themes the party plans this year.

The USTP came to national attention in 1996 when Patrick Buchanan considered mounting a third party USTP candidacy after his quest for the Republican nomination failed. Its members oppose abortion, defend Second Amendment rights and are for smaller government and less taxation.

If those sound like Republican positions, the USTP maintains that the party's "big tent" philosophy of inclusion has made it indistinguishable from the Democrats.

Craswell was in the Washington State legislature for 16 years prior to running for governor. Two days after the election she was diagnosed with cancer and spent a considerable amount of time in treatment and recovery. "I had a lot of time to reflect," she said.

Looking back on her government service, the ardent conservative concluded that her party wasn't the vehicle for the kind of political change she believes necessary "to save the country."

As a freshman legislator, she said, she was counseled to make safe votes to assure herself of being re-elected. "I was shocked to see how important that was to the party," she said. "They won't bring a controversial vote in an election year."

In March, Craswell abandoned the party for the USTP affiliate, called the American Heritage Party, and many Republican party officials went with her. She says more will follow.

The party has 600-700 members in Washington, and 11 counties have formed organizations, she said.

In Washington State, the USTP has a list of seven non-negotiable principles: Life, liberty, property, family, the Constitution, American sovereignty and states rights.

"We will support anybody true to these principles -- Republican or Democrat," she says.

Luksik jumped into the 1990 Republican gubernatorial primary in Pennsylvania when she was 36. She had never run for office before but she felt betrayed by the leading candidate's stand on abortion rights. She got 46 percent of the vote.

It was a learning experience. "I learned that I wasn't afraid to stand up for the things I believe in and that you can tell the truth and it will be OK," she said.

Abortion is the issue that got Luksik into politics and it's still "the most fundamental issue," she says. "There are certain check-off issues. Life is one of these."

The USTP refuses to help any candidate who does not pledge to defend "the inviolable right to life of innocent human beings, from the moment of conception to natural death -- without exception."

The mother of six, Luksik is the founder of Mom's House, a program that provides day care so women who decide to have their baby instead of an abortion can pursue their education. She also is a teacher and opponent of outcome based education.

She says her candidacy remains a longshot but adds, "No election is predictable."

The probability that USTP candidacies hurt the Republican Party more than the Democrats does not concern Luksik, despite her past allegiance to the GOP.

"If the Republicans don't stand for what they believe in, they are reaping what they've sown."