MARILYN CHAMBERS MAY BE
AN "ACCIDENTAL CANDIDATE" FOR VICE-PRESIDENT,
BUT SHE'S "FULL STEAM AHEAD" NOW!
Adult film legend will be on the ballot in #2 spot on Personal Choice Party ticket

When Marilyn Chambers got a phone call from an old friend who wanted her to jump into the political arena, she didn't quite know what to make of it.

"When he asked me if I was interested in running for Vice-President of the United States, I thought he was joking," says Chambers, who blazed a trail for the adult film industry in 1972 when she starred in "Behind the Green Door".

"He" was Charles Jay, a writer, publisher, and businessman who had just been nominated by the upstart Personal Choice Party as its presidential candidate. And Jay wasn't joking in the least.

"Marilyn was the only person I ever seriously considered," says Jay, who had previously been a candidate for the Libertarian Party's vice-presidential nomination, but shifted gears in mid-May to pursue the Personal Choice nod so he could carry a campaign through to November.

After the initial shock, Chambers jumped right in. "The candidates with the Personal Choice Party have the freedom to comprise their own platforms," she told the New York Press in an August interview, "and mine is built on the right to have your own personal choices. Americans are supposed to have the constitutional right to partake in whatever activities they want to, without restrictions. That's not quite how the country's being run."

Jay explains that his selection wasn't for the express purpose of novelty, either. "Absolutely, I felt that Marilyn brought some publicity value to the ticket," he says, "but what a lot of people don't understand is that even though I'm sure it wasn't her primary motivation at the time, Marilyn, through her participation in adult films, has done more to advance the First Amendment right of free speech than any other candidate in this presidential race. From that perspective, she is a very strong symbolic presence."

The First Amendment is certainly something that is very much on Jay's mind. He is an investigative journalist of considerable renown in the professional boxing industry, ruffling many a feather with his exposes of various publicly-appointed regulatory officials. And in an interview last week with the website AboveTopSecret.com, he took Libertarian Party officials to task for closing off the debates to certain 'fringe' candidates at their nominating convention.

"They were applying essentially the same criteria Republicans and Democrats might apply to them when determining inclusion - or exclusion, as it were - in the debates, and they were doing it very late in the game," the PC Party candidate charged. He went on to say, "....To me, you've lost all of your moral authority to complain about Republicans and Democrats keeping you out of the debates if you have, in effect, done the same thing to your own. I guess it's what you call 'Freedom of Speech - that is, if you qualify'."

Chambers, of course, will be forever linked to the celebrated Mitchell brothers, who produced 'Green Door', and San Francisco's O'Farrell Theater, where she also performed live and came face-to-face with First Amendment issues on more than one occasion. A legend in the Bay Area, she received the key to the city from San Francisco mayor Willie Brown on July 28, 1999, on what was proclaimed "Marilyn Chambers Day." She has made statements and appearances on behalf of many organizations devoted to preserving freedom of speech, including the Free Speech Coalition.

But she's a strong supporter of the Second Amendment as well.

"Marilyn used to go on the air with me a lot when I hosted a radio show in Miami," Jay said. "One night, when she was in the studio, I had a serious gun control advocate on the program. They got into an impromptu debate, and I was shocked by the fact that she was more than holding her own. I mean, she was steamrolling the guy. To be honest, I didn't even know she was so passionate about the subject."

"The right to bear arms is very important to me," she says. "I used to own a gun shop in Las Vegas called the Survival Store. I need a gun in my home if somebody breaks in. I want to be able to shoot them. I also want to be able to protect my country."

Both candidates are solidly on the record in their support for same-sex marriage. Jay has railed against the Mormon church - of which 2/3 of Utah voters are members - for its role in trying to influence the outcome of Amendment 3, which will outlaw all marriages aside from those between a man and a woman. In a press release earlier this week that caused some controversy in Utah political circles, he decried a passage in a written LDS statement, which suggested 'there may be great loneliness in their lives' in referring to homosexuals. Jay responded in his own statement by writing, "Boy, if ever there were a 'kinder, gentler' way to hate and pity at the same time, they've certainly found it. If I were a part of the homosexual community, I'd take great solace in the Mormon brand of 'compassionate conservatism', and then I'd regurgitate. One may cloak one's statements any way one wishes, but when it gets right down to it, the debate is being fueled by those who just can't handle the fact that some people are not like them. I guess values like tolerance, acceptance and love don't seem to have a place when religion meets politics. "

"Obviously, the LDS people don't have a real grip on reality," he says. "There's something very dark and dangerous about government by religion. It's a doctrine that will bring this country down, sooner or later."

Jay says that although Chambers' involvement in the campaign has serious overtones, and that most people haven't had any problem seeing substance in it, there are members of the media who have insisted on taking a monolithic view. "One guy from CNBC called me, and he wanted to get me in the studio and Marilyn on a satellite hookup," he said. "Along the way, he asked, 'This is kind of a tongue-in-cheek thing, right? I mean, you're not really serious?' When I told him we were, he seemed really disappointed, and we never got on the air. I don't mind having fun in a campaign, but I'm not interested in doing a clown act. It's okay. I'm prepared to confront those situations, and I'm not going to roll over for anyone."

The Personal Choice Party was formed a couple of years ago, and this is the first time candidates have run under its banner. Jay and Chambers have ballot access only in Utah, where the party is headquartered (she is listed on the ballot as 'Marilyn Chambers Taylor', her married name). In the other states, they are campaigning for write-in votes.

It's an uphill battle, but Jay understood that early on. "For a candidate without a big organization or a lot of money, this fits better as a four-year plan than a four-month plan."

So does that mean he'll run again in 2008?

"I'm considering it. And if Marilyn wanted to stay involved, she'd be more than welcome."


*************************************************************************************

CHARLES JAY is the Personal Choice Party's candidate for President. He is on the presidential ballot in the state of Utah and is running a write-in campaign in other states. For further information on the Charles Jay--Marilyn Chambers campaign, please visit http://www.charlesjay.com. More information on the Personal Choice Party can be obtained at http://www.personalchoice.org.

CJ For America -- P.O. Box 534, Elkhart, IN 46515-0534


###