http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061018/NEWS/610180332/1001

October 18, 2006

SPLC: Candidate has ties to white supremacist group

By Mike Linn
Montgomery Advertiser

The Southern Poverty Law Center is exposing an Alabama congressional candidate for his ties to a white supremacist group that advocates "racial cleansing" in its promotional materials.

Mark Layfield of Auburn, who is running as an independent in the 3rd District, identified himself publicly as a member of the National Alliance at a white rights conference in New Orleans, said Mark Potok, who tracks hate groups for the SPLC.

On its Web site, National Alliance advocates an all-white nation achieved by eliminating Jewish and non-Aryan values and customs. Potok said National Alliance founder William L. Pierce, who died in 2002 of cancer at the age of 68, called for killing America's Jews by sending them in cattle cars to the bottoms of abandoned coal mines.

"The voters of Alabama should know that they have a man -- who has for many years been a Nazi -- running for public office," Potok said.

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Layfield neither confirmed nor denied he ever belonged to the National Alliance.

"Why would you even ask such a question?" he asked. "It's not illegal to be in the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). It's not illegal for them to reject my membership. Why would you not ask a question about that?"

In the race to represent the 3rd district, which covers 13 counties including Montgomery, Layfield faces the Republican incumbent, Mike Rogers of Saks, and Democrat Greg Pierce of Alexander City. The election is Nov. 7.

Layfield states on his Web site, www.layfieldforcongress.com, that he supports pulling troops from Iraq and placing them on the Mexican border.

He also supports organized union labor, cutting foreign aid to Israel and deploying military vehicles stateside for timely response to natural disasters.

Layfield filed a federal lawsuit against incumbent Rogers in September alleging his civil rights were violated in July while collecting signatures calling for Rogers' resignation.

Layfield said he was in the hallway of the Calhoun County Administrative Building when he was "menaced" by two men who told him he had to leave. He said the county administrator had given him permission to be there.

Marshall Macomber, Rogers' chief of staff, said in September that Rogers had no connection to the incident.

The conference where Layfield announced his National Alliance membership was hosted by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, Potok said. Layfield was arrested in 1999 at a Klan rally in Fort Payne along with four others for unlawfully possessing three guns in a vehicle, according to The Associated Press.

Layfield said he was never convicted of the crime.

Obviously, Layfield is a brave and dedicated White activist. But for him to try and hide his racism, anti-semitism and/or association with a WN group he is a member of, is downright deceptive, dishonorable as well as counter-productive, in my judgment.

It's best to stick your chest out, be proud and unapologetic, and tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth all the time. To do otherwise only deceives and confuses Whites you're trying to influence and educate. And by the end of the campaign, you've achieved absolutely nothing positive for WN or for White people.

To hell with vote numbers because we're not going to win anyhow. Use campaigns to EXPOSE THE GD KIKES as persuasively and as extensively as possible with the maximum resources you can bring to bear, is my advice.

It's best to stick your chest out, be proud and unapologetic, and tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth all the time. To do otherwise only deceives and confuses Whites you're trying to influence and educate.

I don't necessarily think it is dishonorable since I am assuming it is about guys like this realizing they will not get very far with those sort of open connections, but it is most likely going to be found out anyway and it makes organizations like the SPLC's day. By being open about who you are you take that ability to "out" you away from them.

And yes, when you hide something like this and then it is found out, you make it appear as if there is something shameful in it and whites already get enough of the idea that racial pride or awareness is the epitome of evil bullshit and don't need to have those ideas reinforced by those who are supposedly pro-white.