Good morning, Boston Tea Partiers!

I wanted to sleep on it before addressing my sincere thanks to all of you for honoring me with our party's 2008 vice-presidential nomination. The matter seems to me to be a bit more solemn than would allow for pre-written or "canned" material. So, let me open with that thank you. Thank you!

Thanks also to all of the other candidates who stood for nomination to this ticket: Robert Milnes, Todd Andrew Barnett and Chris Bennett and of course our presidential nominee, Charles Jay.

In the days leading up to our nominating convention I spoke with our nominee, Charles Jay, a number of times. We discussed the opportunities this election represents for the party and how best to exploit them. As the vice-presidential nominee, I intend to assist Charles as best possible and to follow his lead in bringing the Boston Tea Party's message of freedom to America.

Discussing those things with Charles and having an in-depth, detailed action plan are of course two different things. Planning for the post-nomination and planning as the nominees are also two different things. So, what I'm bringing to you this morning is at least partly speculation on my part. But here's how I see this campaign proceeding:

- Even as we speak, the party's Colorado affiliate is doing the last-minute work to put our ticket on the ballot in that state. The deadline is today. Because I was unable to get a notarized declaration of intent to our Colorado stalwarts in time, the vice-presidential slot will be filled with a stand-in candidate (possibly Todd Andrew Barnett, or Colorado's own Wes Pinchot).

- Other likely or possible states on which the BTP's ticket may appear include Utah, New Jersey, Louisiana, Tennessee and most especially Florida. Because our presidential nominee lives in Florida and is working with others to build a robust affiliate party, I expect that the campaign's main "personal" focus to be in that state. To the extent that my personal finances allow, I will make myself available to personally campaign in any or all of these states.

- The presidential campaign web site is under development and should be unveiled shortly. As a sort of side project / campaign diary, I'll be blogging at My Front Porch Campaign.

- Our Internet strategy is developing, but I consider its three main elements to be: a) The extensive publication of policy articles by the candidates, naturally linking back to campaign and/or party web sites; b) Developing a relationship with the "net roots" through frequent candidate conference calls for political bloggers and other journalists; and c) As much online advertising as we can procure (purchased and donated in-kind by party members and supporters).

Of course, the above simply covers how and where we'll be saying what we have to say. Just as important is the what. As the vice-presidential candidate, I consider the party's platform and program to be the appropriate lodestars.

Since the party's current program is two years old, I anticipate that Charles may develop a presidential campaign program which is slightly different (but no less, and possibly more, radically "smaller-government"). If so, I'll naturally conduct my own campaign activities with promoting that program in mind.

In my opinion, the purpose of this year's campaign is primarily to grow the Boston Tea Party by positioning it as the most reliably pro-freedom party in America. This kind of promotion must occur not only in states where we manage 2008 ballot access, but in states where we intend to secure ballot access two or four years from now (which is ALL of them).

Two years from now, I want to see local, state-level and congressional candidates running on the Boston Tea Party line in 20 or more states. Four years from now, I want to see our presidential ticket and candidates at all other levels on the ballot in 50 states, in the District of Columbia, and in the US territories. I know that you want to see those things as well.

Those goals are not easily achieved -- especially for a party which is unwilling to sacrifice its principles to achieve them.

This process is going to take a lot of effort on the part of a lot of people. Our 2008 presidential campaign is the first major step in bringing aboard those people and inspiring them to that effort. Thank you for entrusting to me a major role in that task.

Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Boston Tea Partier for Vice-President