Introducing Chelene Nightingale, Candidate for CA Governor

CONSTITUTION PARTY CANDIDATE DISCUSSES CALIFORNIA’S ECONOMY, POLITICS, THE OBAMA ELIGIBILITY QUESTION AND MORE

by Sharon Rondeau

(May 11, 2010) — Chelene Nightingale is a homeschooling mom, former campaign manager, activist, actress, businessowner and currently a candidate for governor of California for 2010 for the Constitution Party, with the American Independent Party the California affiliate.  She has lobbied in Washington, DC and Sacramento to demand no amnesty for illegal aliens and securing of the borders.

SHARON: Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you about your campaign and plans for California.  What is your schedule like since your campaign began?

CHELENE: It’s a pretty crazy schedule.  I usually start at 8:00 a.m.  The latest I start is 9:00 a.m., and that is every single day.  The schedule varies:  I’m either online or I’m out traveling.  For instance, yesterday I had to go to ABC to make a statement, and later today I’m speaking at a forum.  Tomorrow I’ll be at a Meet and Greet.  So it varies.  I also write and return phone calls.

It’s a lot different from being a gubernatorial campaign manager, which I was four years ago.  I managed the campaign for Art Olivier, who was the Libertarian candidate, so I got a taste first-hand of what a third-party candidate’s campaign is like.  At that time, I stayed in the office all the time unless there was an event that I needed to attend with him, but I worked probably 12-14 hours a day answering online calls and setting up appointments and travel arrangements.

But this time, it is completely differently, not just because I’m the candidate, but even my campaign manager is not just sitting 14 hours a day online and setting up appointments, because we are so busy.  People are waking up.  Are they waking up in time for November?  I don’t know.  But they’re definitely more aware and and a lot more frustrated than they were four years ago.  So our campaign, for example…we’ve determined that we’re at 10% out all of the gubernatorial candidates, which to some may not seem very strong, but when you consider that normally a third-party candidate doesn’t poll that well for a primary or even, most of the time, after a primary, it’s pretty astounding.  We therefore took all of our webstat (Quantcast, Alexa, BrainSTAT all do stats for internet), and our site was outperforming hits per day than Steve Poizner, who is one of the Republican gubernatorial candidates and has spent $20,000,000, and we’re getting more hits than he is, and we’re pretty neck-in-neck with Jerry Brown, who has already been governor twice and he’s our attorney general.

SHARON: And he’s running again for governor?

CHELENE: He’s running again.  We have term limits, and he really shouldn’t be running, but he is using the excuse that because the law was not in place until after his first two terms that he can get away with it.  It just goes to show the elitist mentality.  We’re a quarter of Meg Whitman’s website hits, who, by the way, everyone is calling “Queen Whitman,” but we’re not spending $60,000,000 on our campaign.  So we took our 10% based on the internet.  There was a poll on the internet at Calguns that has us in second place with 25 or 26%, and there was actually a mainstream poll that had Steve Poizner, Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman, and they were showing Steve Poizner at 25% and they showed “Other;” no name, just “Other,” at 13%.  Of course, there are other candidates running; there are over two dozen right now.  But we looked at all the other candidates’ websites’ hits and where they were placing on Calguns, and we’re pretty confident we’re at 10%, and based on what we’re seeing, if you Google my name and just read what’s out there, it’s a lot different from Art’s campaign, and he was an extraordinary candidate.

So times are different.  People are frustrated; we’re fully entrenched in collectivism.  I think that many people started waking up under the Bush administration, especially after the Patriot Act.  I think even more are waking up when they hear “Czars,” and with the passage of the socialist health care.  When the majority of Americans overwhelmingly didn’t want a bill and then this administration so arrogantly said, “Well, we don’t care what you want; it’s the law now,” I think that shook up even more people.  I know for me, I woke up under the Bush administration.

SHARON: Were you politically active before you were Art’s campaign manager?

CHELENE: I had been for a couple of years at that point.  Actually, I worked in the entertainment industry, and one of my associates had been a Marine, and he was very political.  He still is, and we’re still really good friends.  He kept urging me to pay attention.  He said, “You don’t know what’s going on,” and this was coming from a Marine.  He wasn’t satisfied with the 911 Commission Report, said our borders were wide open, and that we have an illegal immigration problem, and I just thought he was crazy.  And I would tease him; he was my friend, and I would say, “Well, you’re a conspiracy nut,” and we would just tease each other.

But I listened to him.  We worked together for a couple of years.  He was consistently emailing me and telling me what was happening, and after I had my son, which occurred while we were working together…I was already a stepmother at that time but she didn’t live with us…but when you become a mother and there’s a child in your home at all times, it really changes your perspective on life.  And I said, “Well, let me take a closer look at what you’re sending me.”

And then I had a few experiences of my own.  We lived in a nice community where other people who work in the entertainment industry who are “B” or “C” levels (we didn’t live in Bel Air or Malibu or Beverly Hills), but we lived in a nice area.  We lived near a police station, and we heard that there had been gunshots by MS-13 gang members.  And we had helicopters over our home and in our neighborhood, and at night I would just drive around the neighborhood and I could see a complete change in everything.  I said, “OK, I’m willing to really listen to you now.”

So he invited me to join this organization that Joe Turner, who works in the government now, but at the time he was young, bright, just graduated from college, very charismatic individual with a lot of ideas and he had helped with Prop. 187.  Barbara Coe was the co-author, and Joe was one of the volunteers for Prop. 187 and then later on, I think he was a volunteer for “Save Our Licenses.”  So then he decided to start his own group, and the domain is still there; it’s www.saveourstate.org.  Joe Turner was the one who created the initiatives that Hazelton, PA; Farmers Branch, TX and Escondido, CA adopted to combat the illegal alien invasion in their communities via rents, etc.  So we were very much into street activism, and when I first joined, I attended a couple of events, and I was shocked, just shocked.

The very first event I attended which I believe was a bit on the forum; I’d been paying attention, but I think the very first event I attended was in June 2005.  I remember showing up, and there were only maybe 6-8 Americans with American flags, and there were at least 100 illegal alien supporters, many of whom were dressed in these uniforms.  And you know, I had been in Girl Scouts when I was a child, and it looked like Brownie uniforms.  I had no idea who they were, but I quickly found out they were Brown Berets.  And I heard some of the most hideous hate speech I’ve ever heard in my life coming from them: how much they hate Americans and America, that this was their place, this was stolen land, that Americans were lazy.  The rhetoric just went on.  I was standing there, listening to this, and nobody knew who I was; I easily blended into both sides of the argument, and I was in shock.  I turned around and there were a couple of Catholic priests, and I remember walking up to one of the priests, and I said, “Did you just hear what I heard?  That was hate speech.”  And he laughed.  I will never forget that.  He laughed.  And I looked at him and I said, “I’m a fellow follower of Christ; I’m not Catholic, but I’m a fellow follower of Christ, and I don’t think Jesus would be laughing at this hate speech.”  And he said, “Well, you have to understand where they’re coming from,” or something to that effect.  Then he said, “I have to go.”  And he took off, and the two priests took everybody, and they had vans that were paid for, and it woke me up.  After that I never looked back.  I became very involved. I started organizing events, and I became so active that Joe asked if I would become the media director of his organization.  Then in late 2006, he had to leave because he was going to go work for FAIR and asked if I would take over his organization.  So I became the Managing Director until the campaign, although for Art Olivier, I obviously couldn’t do both, so other people stepped up to the plate during that time.

So I’ve been very, very active for years now, and once you’re awake, you can’t turn back.  The dots start connecting, and you learn about the North American Union, and then you learn about the Bilderbergs, and the CFR and how entrenched the government is and what a real republic is meant to be.  You start reading the Founding Fathers, and the dots just quickly connect… the drug cartel, and all the reasons our borders are porous, and you realize the money that is just being funneled into the destruction of America.

SHARON: What do you think is causing or allowing the illegal alien invasion?  You mentioned the Bilderbergs and the Rothschilds, the CFR…are they in control of America right now?

CHELENE: I believe in conjunction with the drug cartel, yes.  I highly recommend everyone watch the documentary by Rusty Fleming, “The Drug Wars:  Silver or Lead.”  It is a very eye-opening documentary.  So yes, I think they may all have different agendas, but absolutely, the Bilderbergs, George Soros, the cartels – they’re all working on the destruction of America with their open borders. There are obviously different reasons why they want the borders open, but what it boils down to is just money and corruption.  If people want to say it’s a conspiracy, well, it’s not a conspiracy if the government has its own websites, like the North American Union isn’t a conspiracy; there’s www.spp.gov.  Alex Jones has a lot of video of him following the Bilderbergs and going to the hotel where they were meeting and getting photos, and I know when Jesse Ventura’s show was on air, he spoke to a person who had been a Bilderberger.  So it’s in their own words.  It’s out there if people want to go look.  You can either have your head in the sand or you can draw a line in the sand.  It’s one or the other.

SHARON: What do you think the percentage is of Californians who know that the country is perhaps being steered by these un-American-type forces?

CHELENE: I was just reading an article, and it’s interesting that you asked this question, because apparently the author of this piece had supposedly interviewed some other gubernatorial candidates, and one candidate (and there were no names mentioned) stated, “Chelene Nightingale is a ’12’ where most Americans are a ‘3,’ meaning that I know so much more information than the average American.  I hope that’s not the case.  I hope I’m not a ’12” and most Americans are a ‘3.’  I hope it’s more that we’re all closer to a figure of 10 on a scale of knowledge.  I can say this:  I think that the percentage that is awake now…we can really thank the 2008 presidential elections and Ron Paul and Chuck Baldwin for the increased awareness.  Without those two, I don’t think we would be where we are today where so many more Americans are awake.

Based on my political activism and managing arts campaign, I believe that  maybe 5% of Americans were awake before 2008.  I think now, and the numbers keep growing, I would say it’s 25-30% and growing.  I was speaking to a supporter of ours yesterday who has been actively telling people about our campaign, and she hosted an event on Saturday.  I wasn’t able to attend because he had another event.  She had documentaries to show people, and she said that she was so discouraged at how much information people did not know and how many people are still saying to her that they don’t care; they have better things to do:  go to a football game, barbecue, or whatever.  So I think it’s still a pretty high percentage of Americans who are not aware, but I want to give Americans credit.  If you look at the polls, though, when people are polling about the Arizona bill, or health care, or about the tea parties, it seems at least two-thirds of the country is very frustrated with the current climate and want to make changes.  How many of that majority actually know everything that’s involved is maybe half, so we’re still at about the 30% figure.

SHARON: What do you think should be done about the Obama eligibility question?

CHELENE: Long before I was running a campaign, I spoke at an event, and I actually called Obama an illegal alien.  Half the audience was in shock.  A lot of the people afterward went online and mocked me.  But I think that it is a very valid question.  For those who defend Obama and say, “Well, he has shown his birth certificate,” I say, “No, not the one that you or I would need to show if we had to prove that we were born in this country.”  I don’t understand the whole cover-up.  Getting your legitimate long-form birth certificate, depending on the state, is $25-$40. That’s all it costs.  Why spend millions of dollars in attorneys’ fees and the legal process and public relations when you can just go spend $250-$40 to get the legitimate birth certificate and then put it online.  To me, there seems to be a fraud.  If I am elected into office, I would simply call Obama and say, “Look.  Let’s just settle this right now.  Just fax, mail, or fedex a copy of your legitimate long-form birth certificate to me so that I can see it, and then I’ll be satisfied.” I think it’s just that simple.  But the fact that there are so many people with so many facts out there…I’m seeing emails daily coming in  with some new fact or discovery saying that he wasn’t born here.  But then people want to talk about, “Well, he was a ‘naturalized’ citizen.  His mother was a citizen.”  I hear that argument frequently.

To me, the Constitution is quite clear.  It’s not just one parent who needs to be a naturalized citizen; both parents should be naturalized, and I even have a problem with McCain, quite frankly.  I think if you are going to be the president, and this is the President of the United States of America – that means that they’re the one with their hand on the button –  they’re the ones who are supposed to protect our sovereignty and our security with an oath to the Constitution…and the fact that there aren’t more outraged people kind-of scares me.  People don’t care about their sovereignty or security!  Because if you don’t have allegiance…if you’re born here to parents who were patriotic and loved America, then most likely your allegiance is going to be to this country.  But if you have at least one parent who was not born here, you were raised Muslim in another country and your mother was a communist who didn’t really like America, you don’t really have the allegiance to this country.  What you want to do is destroy this country.  And I don’t understand why more people aren’t considering that angle.  If he’s legitimate, fine.  But where is his allegiance?  I didn’t vote for him; I was a Ron Paul and Chuck Baldwin supporter.  I only vote for those who will plead an oath to the Constitution.  And that’s another thing:  since when have we seen a president fumble the oath the day of inauguration and then go do it again in private.  I’m disturbed by that, and I don’t know why there aren’t more people who are disturbed.

I think that George Soros, who donated to both McCain and Obama, was behind Obama’s campaign.  I’ve read several sources that say that Obama was selected by the CIA.  I don’t know if that’s true or not. But certainly George Soros was behind Obama’s campaign.  George Soros is a man who hates this country; he wants to destroy this country.  He makes that very clear.  He’s definitely a collectivist and an elitist.  So you have to look behind the people who are even supporting those candidates; why would they select those candidates to support?

I wish people cared more.  I wish people would stop looking at skin color or whatever the case may be and start looking at a candidate’s actual voting record, their actual statements toward the Constitution…I think that if a candidate is somebody who supports the Founding Fathers and the original documents, instead of George Bush, who called the Constitution “just a piece of paper,” – these are not the type of people we should be electing into office.  Although I was growing up at home and still young, I liked Ronald Reagan.  Of course, I’ve heard some people say negative things about him, but I don’t care.  What I saw growing up was a man who loved this country.  Every time you heard him speak, he was so patriotic.  So was he part of the CFR crowd?  I don’t know.  I don’t really want to know.  I just remember how patriotic it was to grow up in this country.  And then we were followed by George Bush Sr., who clearly was the first one who came out and said, “This is the new world order.”  And that was frightening, especially when I was just getting ready to become an adult.  That was really frightening words, chilling words to listen to.

SHARON: What did you think he meant by that at the time?

CHELENE: You know, I wasn’t quite sure at the time; I just knew that it was not something good.  I just thought, “What is the new world order, and what was wrong with what we had?”  Now since then, it just sounds so Freemason…it’s obviously an evil agenda, an elitist, globalist agenda of dismantling nations and their constitutions worldwide, going under the UN rule.  That’s how I look at it.  And certainly, every president since then…I mean, it was followed by Clinton, who gave us NAFTA; and then his own son, who gave us the Patriot Act and the North American Union; and now we have czars.  I’ve seen a quick dismantling of this country ever since George Bush Sr. took office.

SHARON: The progression towards socialism is probably there even to people who don’t pay attention to politics much.  Switching topics, what plans do you have to get California back on its feet financially?

CHELENE: That’s a great question, and we think we have a really sound plan to take some steps.  The first thing we want to do is bring the National Guard back home and place them on the border because we have to stop the flow of traffic coming illegally into our country which is costing our state in money and public benefits for illegal aliens $20B a year.

SHARON: That’s $20B?

CHELENE: A couple of years ago, FAIR did a report that reported that it cost our state $10.5B in just the incarceration, health care and education of illegal aliens, but our Los Angeles County Supervisor, Mike Latonovich, has conducted several reports on the cost of food stamps for Los Angeles County alone for the undocumented, and it’s over $1B.  Although obviously Los Angeles County is one of the hardest hit and has the largest illegal immigration population; nonetheless, if you add up all the counties which are doling this out, it has to be at least $20B.

SHARON: How do you think all of this got started, allowing benefits to go to people who don’t belong in the country or the state, for that matter?

CHELENE: I think it’s just part of the whole agenda.  Obviously, people want to blame the corporations and businesses for the problem that we have, but I don’t see it that way.  At one time I did; at one time, I was one of the people who saw blamed them as well.  However, I know that I have friends who live on the border who actually found pamphlets that were printed by the Mexican government telling citizens how to enter the U.S. illegally.  I think it’s even on the internet; you can “Google” it.  I think that it was definitely the North American Union-New World Agenda Order that opened up the borders and allowed this; the government allowed it.  When you read that Eisenhower, who was one of the presidents before my time, had illegal aliens deported, then obviously, this is something within the government.  But I think that once they got here, the corporations and businesses took advantage of the cheap slave labor and then once they got behind it, I think that’s where extra money came in to help fund or push any agendas.  So anyway, in our state, it’s $20B at least, and it could be more than that.

I know people will argue that they pay taxes, but most do not, and those who do are not paying $20B-worth to cover the benefits.  So that’s one of the things we need to do immediately if we take office:  an extensive audit of the financial records and assets.  There’s a lot of wasteful spending in our state, and we need to end that.  We need to find ways to unplug the political machine that allows the state to spend our money on special interests, public employee unions and our legislature.  We have the most Marxist legislature in the entire country with our money.  We’re the eighth largest economy in the world, so where is that money going?  We have the resources, so obviously, it’s being poorly managed.  This legislature will go part-time if I am governor.  Next, we will make sure that the books balance.  We will sell anything that we don’t feel serves our state and stop the wasteful spending.

——————-

Editor’s Note: There will be a second interview with Ms. Nightingale in the near future following the June 8 primary.