Frank MacKay

NATIONAL CHAIRMAN: On Sunday, September 23rd, Frank MacKay was voted National Chairman of the Independence Party of America in a historic unanimous vote at a meeting in White Plains, New York. Hundreds of Party officials, members and fans watched delegates representing the fifty United States vote MacKay into this esteemed position. This major political party is destined to create history in the times ahead. Find out more at The Independence Party of America today! NEW PRESS RELEASE:
Open Letter to Congressman Ron Paul from Frank MacKay, Chairman of the Independence Party of America
I want to wish you the best of luck in your congressional primary on Tuesday, March 4th.
Thus far during this Presidential election we have refrained from commenting on candidates that are in major party primaries. However, it has become clear that you will not achieve the Republican nomination.
In light of this fact, reformers across the nation are tremendously enthusiastic about your message and common sense platform. There are millions of average Americans that believe that you should consider a run for President as an independent so that you may continue your fight, and I am among them.
Your supporters in all fifty states want you in this campaign – the nation needs your bold ideas and millions of Americans want a real choice on Election Day.
Your campaign has stressed the importance of freedom. Please continue your fight by giving all Americans the freedom to cast a vote for a candidate that embodies the values of our founding fathers. BRAND NEW MACKAY/BLOOMBERG ARTICLE: Columnist Rick Brand of New York's Newsday, one of the nation's largest newspapers, has written a new column on Frank and Bloomberg's potential Presidential run. It appears in Newsday, January 27th, 2008. Here is this enlightening article below...
MacKay lays groundwork for Bloomberg bid by Rick BrandFueling the presidential fever, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg lately has crisscrossed the country in high-profile stops, among them pitching public works projects with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
While Bloomberg is jetting about, Suffolk and State Independence Party chairman Frank MacKay, complete with his rattail coif and earring, is also on the road, but to far less notice.
Since September, MacKay says he has driven to 35 states and dropped 35 pounds along the way. His mission is to stitch together a patchwork of ragtag reform, independent and enviro-third parties to try to clear the way to the ballot for a potential Bloomberg presidential run.
While Ross Perot's former campaign manager Clay Mulford last week in Texas warned Bloomberg of the "terrible impediments" to getting on the ballot, MacKay has no doubt about the mayor's prospects.
"I guarantee you if he runs, he will be on the ballot in all 50 states," said MacKay. "What we're doing is laying the groundwork and we'll get him three-quarters of the way there with volunteers."
"Bloomberg would be our ideal candidate," said MacKay. "We're about giving the public another major choice who can speak directly with the public."
MacKay added he "doesn't give a damn about social issues" like school prayer and abortion because they have skewed the public debate. "The right wing and left wing have interfered so heavily with the candidates, you don't know where the real person is any more."
Within New York, MacKay has made himself a force by the relentless strategizing that he freely imparts to all sides, from Gov. Eliot Spitzer to Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. Statewide, his party has 344,000 registered voters, though party officials admit many have no idea they belong to an organized party.
Locally, MacKay first made a mark helping Thomas Spota win his Suffolk district attorney's job and still exerts influence that far exceeds his party's numbers.
"No one should ever underestimate Frank," said Edward Walsh, Suffolk Conservative chairman. "If you look at his rattail and earring one minute, the next thing you know he's five steps ahead of you."
MacKay has also made missteps - his largest was failing to back Suffolk's Democratic County Executive Steve Levy in 2003. His bid to float Donald Trump's name for president also sunk like a stone.
Undeterred, MacKay last September went national, forming the Independence Party of America and making himself chairman. It's a vehicle he hopes Bloomberg will use in a potential run. MacKay, however, emphasizes that he is working separately from the mayor, though he admits frequent contact with top Bloomberg operative Kevin Sheekey.
MacKay has also become executive director of the Reform Party of America, another remnant of Perot's presidential runs in 1992 and 1996, which will give MacKay's new party instant ballot access in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Kansas.
Just last week, MacKay also drove cross country, holding meetings in seven states on his way to Minnesota, where the state Independence Party elected professional wrestler Jesse Ventura governor in 1999. That party voted at a state convention yesterday to join MacKay's new organization.
At first, Diane Goldman, a Minnesota party vice chairwoman, said she thought MacKay was "a Don Quixote chasing windmills." But now, she has come around: "He's a real go-getter, a salesman and very capable."
While billionaire Bloomberg may still have to finance massive petition-gathering operations in states including California, Texas and North Carolina, MacKay's efforts, backers say, will assure not only far easier ballot access, but better positions on November's ballot.
"In Florida, it's the difference between having the fourth spot on the ballot or the 26th," said Thomas Connolly, the new party's director for ballot access. "If you're that far down, you're only going to be elected mayor of Munchkinland."
MACKAY/BLOOMBERG ARTICLE: Frank MacKay was interviewed for the following article by The New York Observer, January 11th, 2008. The topic was Michael Bloomberg's possible run for President as an Independent...
The Bloomberg Primary: Unity08 Loses, Independence (Party) Wins
“I was in 26 states in the last 76 days,” Frank MacKay, chairman of the Independence Party of America, said in a phone interview at 11 p.m. last night while driving through Alabama. “Every single state that I’ve been in, we’re talking ballot access.”
MacKay’s travels highlight why he won a major victory yesterday against the star-studded Unity08 in the below-the-radar contest to see which budding political organization would be in the best position to offer their nomination to Michael Bloomberg if the mayor decides to run for president.
Yesterday, officials of Unity08 announced they were suspending their ballot access operation—which was successful only in Florida and Mississippi so far - and losing two of their founding members, Doug Bailey and Jerry Rafshoon.
In a public letter, the board of directors of Unity08 blamed their stunted growth on a Federal Elections Commission decision limiting their contributions to $5,000, instead of the $25,000 allowed for the Republican and Democratic Parties.
“We were caught in a peculiar catch-22,” the Unity08 directors Bob Bingham, Angus King, Peter Ackerman, Zach Clayton and Lindsey Ullman wrote. “’We wanted to break the dependence on big money by getting lots of small contributions from millions of members, but needed some up-front big money to help generate the millions of members to make the small contributions. And the FEC (in effect, an arm of the parties) didn’t let that happen.”
The letter went on to acknowledge that there is no room for more than one third-party candidate in the race this year. “Mayor Bloomberg seems poised to run on his own (and the fact is that two independent candidacies wouldn’t work) if the parties leave the sensible center open,” wrote the Unity08 directors in what was, in essence, their concession speech.
MacKay agrees.
“If he decides to run, I don’t care if God comes out of the sky, we’re going with Bloomberg,” he said.
Departing Unity08 founders Baily and Rafshoon agree too. The Unity08 directors said the pair were heading to a “a committee forming to draft Mayor Bloomberg should the circumstances seem right.”
While Unity08 was collapsing, MacKay was building his nationwide campaign.
The Virginia Independent Greens announced yesterday they agreed to become an affiliate of the Independence of Party of America (IPOA), making them the second statewide group in the country to do so. The Pennsylvania Reform Party affiliated with the IPOA earlier this year, and the Independence Party in Minnesota - which elected a governor there in 1998 - will vote on whether to affiliate on January 26.
MacKay said his job isn’t to find a candidate, but rather, to see how a third-party presidential candidate can get on the ballot nationwide.
“Every state has different laws,“ MacKay said. “Unity08 was trying to start from scratch. What I’m doing is I’m doing is taking people that have already done it locally, and weeding through.”
While both parties, Unity08 and the IPOA, prefer Bloomberg as their candidate, the two groups would have been trying to achieve different goals with the billionaire mayor’s candidacy.
Unity08 hoped its open nominating process - held online - would attract voters left out of the hyper-partisan primary process and lead to a fusion ticket of one Democrat and one Republican. “The past year has taught us that it’s tough to rally millions to a process, as opposed to a candidate or an issue,” Unity08 directors acknowledged.
The IPOA wanted to establish a permanent third party entity in as many states as possible, coalescing around the principles of voter reform, and led by a serious White House contender. MacKay said many states grant permanent ballot access to parties on whose line a certain number of votes are cast. So, while an IPOA candidate may not get enough support in a given state to win any electoral college votes there, that candidate could garner enough votes to establish an IPOA Party in that state.
“In Minnesota, they need a statewide candidate in every four-year span to get 5 percent of the vote. That’s what their threshold is” MacKay said. In Virginia, the threshold is 10 percent, he said.
“We’re hitting on all cylinders right now,” MacKay said. “All we need is a candidate.” NAMED REFORM PARTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Frank MacKay has been named the Executive Director of The Reform Party. From The New York Daily News, December 28th, 2007:
Frank MacKay, head of the New York Independence Party and Independence Party of America, has been elected executive director of the Reform Party USA and is headed to Sacremento, CA to address Reform Party members at their annual conference.
“Our goal is to unify a movement and develop another major party in the country; 2008 looks like the golden age for independent politics and we want to get ahead of the curve,” MacKay said when I caught him via cell phone at JFK.
Why is this news?
MacKay is one of the biggest champions of the Bloomberg for President movement, which (if it materializes) would be an independent campaign. Getting onto the ballot in all 50 states is a time-consuming and pricey endeavor for any independent candidate, even if he’s ready to spend upwards of $1 billion of his own money.
Having the Reform Party on his side would make life a lot easier for Bloomberg.
The Reform Party, started by another deep-pocketed independent, Ross Perot, has automatic ballot access in four states: Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kansas. Together, they represent 15 percent of the signatures a presidential candidate has to collect to get onto the ballot nationwide.
They also account for 89 electoral votes (it takes 270 to win).
The Reform Party has affiliates in 27 states, all told. In states where the party doesn’t have a ballot line, members have been petitioning their candidates onto the ballot. An independent presidential candidate could tap into these grassroots organizations to get help with his (or her) petition effort.
Interestingly, the state Independence Party used to be affiliated with the Reform Party, but severed ties in 2000 with the latter picked Pat Buchanan to carry its banner in the presidential race.
Upcoming: Coming soon is a brand new book named The Network Interviews by Frank MacKay, Gordon MacKay, and Steven Fallon. This unique collection gathers the best of the rock and roll interviews from The Network, the New York City tristate area's number one music entertainment interview newspaper started by Frank and Gordon MacKay in the late 80's. These interviews are very rare and haven't been seen by anyone in over twenty years, and include such music legends as Bon Jovi, KISS, Guns 'N Roses, Metallica, Poison, Iron Maiden and many more. There will be more news about this upcoming book in the very near future!
Contribute: You can be a part of the new upcoming book The Network Interviews as described above. If you were a part of the 80's and early 90's metal scene, send in your stories, recollections and quotes and we just may use your submission for the book in a special section about the fans that made it all possible. Just include your name (first or first/last), where you are from, and even if you want, your myspace URL so the readers can see who you are. Send them in fast because it's almost time for this new book to hit the stores!
PRESS AND NEWS New article: The New York Sun, one of New York City's major newspapers, has a new article on Frank MacKay today, October 5th 2007. Read this new article: Independence Party Chief Hits Road To Enable Bloomberg Run Article: The New York Daily News, Tuesday September 25th, has a new article on Bloomberg's possible Presidential run, with Frank MacKay included. Read the article: Mayor Bloomberg flirts further with idea of presidency New article: The New York Daily News, one of New York City's largest newspapers, has a new article featuring Frank MacKay today, September 17th, 2007, right here... NY Daily News September 17, 2007 New label: Frank's brother, Gordon MacKay, has announced a brand new record label, Straw House Records. Straw House is a music and film company that deals in CDs, DVDs and films. Independent-minded musicians and bands, filmmakers, and the like are encouraged to network and present yourself! Global: On Saturday May 26th, Frank MacKay presented the award for Best Actor in a Comedic Role at the Bollywood Awards at Nassau Coliseum. With 10,000+ plus in attendance at the Coliseum, it was the largest crowd Frank has ever spoken to live in person. And with a worldwide television audience of over one billion people, it was easily MacKay's most-viewed television appearance.
Announcement: the general public is invited on the last Monday each month to attend the 3rd Party Club gathering at the Blue Catering Hall, 7 Montauk Hwy (Rt. 27a), Bluepoint, Long Island NY. It is at the corner of Nichols Road and Montauk Hwy, and the phone number is 631-363-6666. It begins at 7pm, and Frank MacKay is your emcee and host. Admission is free, and there is a free buffet as well. You will hear various special guests speak, and then you can mingle and network with anyone and everyone. Hope to see you there! ABOUT FRANK MACKAY Known internationally as a political leader, Frank MacKay is the New York State Chairman of the Independence Party, the third largest political party in the country. However, it is unknown to many that MacKay has a history in music as well, as both a musician and industry professional.
Excelling at guitar at an early age, when MacKay was 16 he recorded his first album, and was also giving guitar lessons to adults at the time, building up an array of more than fifty students. Still in his teens, he (along with brother Gordon) started Network, a music newspaper that evolved into a national magazine, and featured exclusive interviews with such rock and roll heavyweights as Bon Jovi, KISS, The Ramones, Guns and Roses, Whitesnake and countless others.
MacKay also started booking and promoting local acts and clubs. Mackay, along with partner Bill Bogardt, even opened up a series of nightclubs on their own named Dr. Shay's, all featuring original music talent. He has promoted countless tours for many name bands such as Testament and Forbidden, and among the major entertainment names he has acted as manager for include CJ Ramone of punk rock legends The Ramones, and world-renowned "Mind Freak" magician Criss Angel.
MacKay has also owned independent record labels and is responsible for the negotiation of almost 50 record contracts. He is currently in the studio doing extensive production work for a group of projects.
Frank MacKay has certainly been no stranger to the media. He has made more than 150 TV appearances, and he has been featured, quoted or mentioned in over 1000 press articles.
The reach of MacKay even stretches out to India's film industry, otherwise known as "Bollywood," as he has been named on the Bollywood Board of Directors. MacKay was a presenter of a Bollywood award on stage at the massive Nassau Coliseum on May 26, an event that was seen by 10,000+ at the venue, and by a television audience consisting of over a billion people around the globe.
Frank MacKay is also a dedicated family man, being happily married with four children. The New York City Mayor at the time, Rudy Giuliani, performed the marriage ceremony for Frank and his bride. One of his kids, his 14-year old son, is a monster guitarist in his own right.
MacKay has also worked hard for a vast education, with four degrees. He recently received his Masters from Stony Brook University, was appointed to the Board of Trustees at Briar Cliff College, and spent a year on the Board of trustees at Five Towns Music College.
In 2007, MacKay continues to lead the Independence Party to new heights, while rediscovering himself as a musician after many years. He has been recording tracks for a new album of acoustic free-style jazz with spanish overtones due in the very near future.