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| Affiliation | American Independent |
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| Name | William Kennedy Shearer |
| Address |
San Diego, California , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
January 21, 1931
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| Died | March 03, 2007
(76 years)
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| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Modifed | David
Jan 22, 2021 09:03am |
| Tags |
Widowed -
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| Info | William Kennedy "Bill" Shearer
Bill Shearer and his wife Eileen founded the American Independent Party in 1967 to support George C. Wallace’s presidential campaign, he was the first State Chairman of the California AIP and it’s first candidate for Governor in 1970. In its early years the AIP faced fierce opposition from Nixon operatives, neo-Nazis, and even the George Wallace campaign itself, who wanted to control the AIP as a vehicle for Wallace without the Party being a viable political entity to the Democrats and Republicans. With his extensive knowledge of politics and California state election laws; he kept the American Independent Party ballot-qualified when it was in danger of losing ballot status in the early 70’s, being there were several attempts in the state legislature to rewrite the California ballot-access laws. Bill also fought, sometimes unsuccessfully, to maintain the national American Independent Party (which later was renamed the national American Party that later split apart when a zealous element of the John Birch Society took over the national American Party and expelled several state parties allied with the California AIP.
Eillen Shearer was a running mate to the 1980 AIP Presidential candidate John Rarick, and later served as Chairman of the AIP.
Sadly, Eillen Shearer passed away in December of 2002.
Bill Shearer co-founded the national Constitution Party (then called the U.S. Taxpayers Party), in 1992 with Howard Phillips. Bill Shearer later served honorably as national Chairman from 1996 to 1999, and helped the national U.S. Taxpayers Party pay off is financial debts and help Party funding get into the black.
Bill also has attracted the ire of religious extremists formally in the Constitution Party when he attempted to get the former Preamble of the Constitution Party reworded, which included the Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and language that was misinterpreted by some fanatical members of the Party as being a religious test to exclude certain people from leadership positions and even membership, whose beliefs didn’t ‘conform’ to the Preamble. The current Preamble of the Constitution Party, which was worked out through conpromise, has the paragraph excluding religious tests and welcoming all to join the Party.
Bill fought successfully to defend the Nevada Independent American Party when attempts were made to disaffiliate it because the State Chairman, Chris Hansen, publicly stated that he favors exceptions in abortion. While the truth was most of the detractors sought to expel the Nevada IAP because of Chris Hansen and most of the IAP leaders being members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon), using the abortion issue as a excuse.
A truly amazing accomplishment for Bill, besides maintaining the California AIP’s ballot status since 1968, was when Bill attended the CP National Committee meeting in Tampa Bay and worked to get the Nevada disaffiliation voted down by the National Committee of the Party. Unfortunately Bill, being diagnosed with cancer in early 2006, was given until April (the month of the Tampa meeting), to live. Yet Bill defied such a expectation and was there to defeat the disaffiliation proceedings which would’ve kicked out the second largest state affiliate in the Constitution Party and the largest in terms of voter registration percentage.
Bill Shearer was a big fan of Operetta and loved Mexican music & culture, visiting Mexico frequently. And also a Attorney and co-partner With Duke, Gerstel Shearer, LLP. Bill collected dinosaur fossils and studied about dinosaurs as a hobby. Bill was fluent in various languages, including Spanish and Afrikaans.
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