I received this sincere question from a supporter of mine in the 2010 election.  Since there are probably many people with the same, I decided to publish this as an Issue so the voters can understand what happened to me in 2010 and where I am headed in 2012.  The path to election in Ohio is a very heavily controlled process and third party candidates have insurmountable roadblocks placed in front of them.  It will be a remarkable accomplishment if any third party candidate can ever be elected to high office because of the impediments that exist.  I ran as an Independent, but my message is Conservative, not Progressive and my views have appealed to many people.  It is time to move this on to the masses and win this election.

Dr. Pryce,

I would love to vote for you in 2012, however, I am having a difficult time understanding your recent switch to becoming a Republican. Last election, you prided yourself on being the candidate that represented the "middle class," and spoke strongly against the two party system. Now, after being defeated last election by candidates from either party, you have switched and joined them. How do you justify this? Are you admitting that you cannot win as a third party candidate? Do you no longer represent the "middle class?" How do you suddenly join a system you so adamently campaigned against in 2010? With all due respect, why should I vote for someone that is selling out? I do not mean any disrespect towards you, I simply believe these are important questions that need to be addressed. Good luck and God bless.

Sincerely,

Jonathan

Dear Jonathon,

It is both easy and difficult to reply to your question.  I fully understand your concern.  Let me share with you what my experience was as a third party candidate.  I had to gather 5 times as many signatures as did R's and D’s Then I turned them in the day before the May Primary and was told they would be counted starting within 2 weeks.  The SOS’s (Secretary of State) attorney told me (on video tape) that the SOS had to get the petitions to the individual County Election Boards within 72 hours and they had to begin counting them within 10 days of receipt.  6 weeks later my petitions were still in Columbus in the hands of the SOS.  I was told they were "keeping them safe."  FROM WHAT????  Then I reminded the SOS Representative that they were supposed to get those signatures to the County Election Boards within 72 hours and he replied "Oh that is for the Republicans and Democrats. There is another law that pertains to you and he quoted it to me."  They were "allowed" to hold the petitions until June 20, 2010, which they did.  Then the County Election Boards were required to display them so the public could challenge the signatures for 10 days and they had until July 15th to return the petitions.  The SOS had until 4:30 PM on the 15th of July to certify the petitions. Jennifer Brunner reportedly certified my petitions at 4:29:59 on July 15th, the absolute last second before violation of campaign law.  I do not want you to think I have an issue with the SOS.  I was treated fairly and by the law to the letter.  It was not necessary to go to those lengths to hamstring my candidacy, but it was within the law.  Two days after that, I received notification from the SOS that I had made the ballot, but you would never know it. My name never appeared on the SOS Website.  None of the County Election Boards put my name on their web sites or any of their literature.  The only time my name was mentioned by anyone occurred on September 24th, 2010 when the ballot was certified.  My name was placed on the ballot with nothing beside it.  I was an Independent Candidate, but in Ohio, for some reason a candidate has to belong to a party. You should have seen the number of e-mails I had after the election apologizing to me for not voting for me.  When they went to the website, they were disappointed in not voting for me because without something beside my name, they "did not know what I stood for."  The SOS office told me putting "independent" beside my name would "give me an unfair advantage" in the election.  I was not allowed to have "Independent" by my name.  So I was only recognized by anyone if they were lucky enough to hear me speak for the last 5 weeks in the election.  We calculated that we actually spoke to only between 700 and 1000 people yet it turned into nearly 50,000 + votes.  That resonated.  I had a high profile publicist in NYC that worked with me on my book and my campaign and she sent out over 33,000 press releases and NOT ONE OF THEM WAS EVER printed.  I was not allowed to participate in the televised debates. I was told by the Newspapers that sponsored the debates that I was a "non-viable" candidate.  So to answer your question, which you actually have already, is No, a third party candidate has absolutely no chance to win anything in Ohio.  The Republicans only maintain 15% of the registered voters and the Democrats maintain 24% and together they control just over a third of the registered voters.  There are 63% Independent voters in the state yet their Independent candidate was not allowed to have Independent by his name.  The rules are made up entirely by Democrats and Republicans.  The County Election Boards are made up of 2 Republicans and 2 Democrats by law and NO Independents.  The Independent voters have no voice in anything.  I must ask you did you personally do anything to help my campaign? Did you donate anything to help me print materials and put up yard signs and display commercials on TV?  Jonathan, to win a statewide election, it takes a ton of money and even more effort.  We only had about 10 total donations and 2 of them came from doctors in New York.  The answer is No, a third party candidate cannot win anything in Ohio unless they are monumentally wealthy and can put $20 million of their own money into the campaign, but Meg Whitman in California spent $120 million of her own money and did not win. This time, I decided to run as a Republican because it is virtually the only chance I can have to represent your views.  I was a lifelong Republican and I had to drop out of the Party to have any chance of gaining the name recognition I needed for the 2012 race. I was angry that the Republican Senators were the ones that unanimously voted to cut doctors reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid and it was causing doctors everywhere to go bankrupt and drop out of practice.  I could not live with that.  I made my statement, though.   The media would not recognize me or even talk to me except Mike Spinelli of the Columbus Examiner and Jim Albright of WHLO and Harris Faulkner of Fox News Channel in New York City, all of whom I will be eternally grateful for their courage and their recognition that there are good candidates outside of the Parties that need to be recognized.  That philosophy is not supported by anyone else unfortunately.  I am still the same Mike Pryce you knew last autumn. I have not sold out to anyone.  I have to become a Rand Paul type of candidate to have half a chance to get my views out in front of the public. Now I have to win two elections. It takes a lot of courage to run like that.   I still have a lot of problems with the two Parties, and you will hear my positions.  Unless, however, there is a huge change in American Politics, this is the arena we must participate in.  I did succeed in getting a lot of name recognition, and to get 50K votes with no money and no media exposure has turned a lot of heads.  I can win this election. I must tell you that in the 4 short weeks since I announced my candidacy, I have had more attention than the entire time I ran as an Independent.  If I could have raised a slim $2 million in the last election I could have won that one.  I think I was the best candidate of the bunch but had no way to get my message out.  Running on a Party ticket is not "selling out" Jonathon.  It is just the reality of politics in Ohio.  I hope you will not abandon me, but become a soldier for me in this election.  You have nothing to fear from me.  America and Ohio need more people like me to go to Washington if you as a voter really want to effect a change.  The issues I spoke about have not changed.  They were not "talking points" to try to get votes.  I believe in my principles even if they conflict with some of the Republican Party, but if you will research that, my views were not at all off the mark from good Conservative political standpoints.  If you are going to search for another third party candidate then I admire you, but I also have learned that you will be perpetually disappointed in the outcomes.  In politics, there is no such thing as a moral victory.  So join with me and let us remove the Senator that has voted for every spending bill, the disastrous Obama Care bill, who has run up the national debt and caused the US Dollar to be losing value, and who has hidden from the voting public for 5 years until it is time to run for office again and we still have some of the largest numbers of unemployed people in the country.  Sherrod Brown has made no difference in the State of the State of Ohio and it is time for him to go.  You can make a big difference in your State.  I am your man; I always was; and I always will be.  You elect me.  I do what you say.  That is what separates me from all the rest. 

I hope I have answered your question to your satisfaction.

Sincerely,

Michael Pryce MD

Republican Candidate US Senate Ohio 2012