[ Ed Note: This article was originally published as a two-part article. For the sake of continuity, it has been archived as two successive pages. ]

Pat Dinizio is the lead singer of the Smithereens and he's on the phone with me, but we're not talking about the Smithereens. Pat is running for Senate in New Jersey on the Reform Party ticket (for the time being), competing with Democrat Jon Corzine or incumbent Republican Bob Franks. As I looked through the archives of the Newark Star-Ledger, I can see no mention in any of the past week's articles of Dinizio or his beliefs. "There's stuff on my from a while back," says Dinizio, explaining his absence from these articles, "But, mainly, it was stuff that was on the entertainment pages, unfortunately, which is not what this is about. The whole point is to get off the entertainment pages and on to the hard news political pages."

Right now, Pat Dinizio is breaking down his campaign strategy for me. "Unless you've got the money to buy the attention, you're not going to get it. This is a war that largely is traditionally fought on television and that's what they're going to do.

"My republican opponent (Franks) and my democratic opponent (Corzine), despite claims to the contrary, are going to go after each other big time. It's going to be scandalous and it's going to be ugly and I'm going to let them destroy each other. I'm just going to do a run around, like in a football game. Instead of trying to crash through their defensive line, I'm just going to step around them.

It isn't possible to talk about Pat Dinizio without mentioning his band, The Smithereens, who had a string of moderate hits from the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties, most notably, "A Girl Like You" and "Behind The Wall Of Sleep". For this, he is best known and this is the source for his campaign's exposure. This is also what's keeping him from being on the front page of his local paper.

His lack of serious media attention may be more than just the local media focusing on his to rivals. Dinizio has been criticized for pulling a publicity stunt in the form of running for Senate. Being relegated to the entertainment section only encourages that kind of speculation, but one look at his campaign's website (http://www.dinizio2000.org/), and it becomes clear that this is a man who is passionate in his beliefs and feels he has better ideas of how this country should be run. He is a passionate reformer.

One of his seemingly favorite topics is campaign finance reform. His approach to fund raising is about as grassroots as you can get: Through his campaign's website, you can have Pat come play in your town, neighborhood, even your living room for a contribution to his campaign. Dinizio has said that he will refuse funding from businesses, so that he is only indebted to private citizens when and if he takes the roll of New Jersey's next Senator. Dinizio is more than happy to point out the differences between his campaign and those of his rivals.

"We've got a man, Jon Corzine, the former CEO of (investment bank) Goldman Sachs, a guy who's a multi-billionaire, who has already spent $37.5 million on his primary campaign. He broke the all time spending record. He's not made any friends as a result of this. He paid $75 per vote to get the primary nod. There are people in his own party that aren't even supporting him because he is an anathema to them because of the greed and the will inherent to this campaign.

So, now, you've got one man who is a corporatist, a guy who's got interests all over the world from the billions in Goldman Sachs who now covets tower in Washington, DC, and will do anything to get it. This man's been a winner his whole life. He came up with a very canny plan to achieve the winning of the primary election and the democratic ticket. It's really that he's got to spend $100 million more to win. I believe he's already shot himself in his foot with his money. No one likes this guy.

No one like (Republican nominee and incumbent) Bob Franks. Bob Franks is a faceless politician who claims to have done a lot more than he actually did in the state senate. If you go to commoncause.com and you research Bob Franks, you will find out who have been the main financiers of his campaign and his office: Big timber, big oil and Wall street. These guys are the flip sides of a golden coin.

I'm not trying to denigrate either man personally or as individuals. The both seem like good men, good family men and who knows what really motivates and individual. We're talking about the means to the end. Let's talk about campaign finance reform, which is necessary. Corrupt campaign funding is the root of all evil in politics and the government, without a doubt. Everybody knows this. Sen. John McCain has recently threatened to shut down the senate until this campaign finance reform issue is resolved. How real that is? I don't know.

In any event, it's the low item on the totem poll in terms of public interest in the state of New Jersey. People are more interested in economics and their jobs and social security, and rightly so, but what they don't know and what they need to be reeducated about is that campaign finance reform directly reflects what they earn and the quality of their life. Only 4% of the people in the country donate to any political campaign at all. They finance virtually every campaign from dog catcher to the President of the United States. Most of (these contributors) are very affluent. So, the average person, the rank and file working American does not contribute to any political campaign and consequently they're not recognized. They simply don't have enough money to attract the attention of the people who are elected. What we're trying to do is run a text book example of living campaign finance reform.

We're running a stealth campaign that's certainly below the radar of both parties. We represent the forgotten majority, the middle class that is centrist. It doesn't represent the far left or the far right, which both major political parties have turned into. It's about empowering the American worker and the American family with a fair living wage, with comprehensive health care benefits and pension plans provided by their employer. That way we don't have to depend on Big Brother or Big Sister to take care of everything for us. We don't need to implement universal health care.

Then we've got social security. Well, if our elected public officials didn't raid social security to use it for other programs, it wouldn't be in trouble. We need to create a lock box where that money collected from payroll taxes is not touched. That's what's got to be done. It's a common sense thing. But, our elected public officials won't do it, because they're bought and paid for by special interest and there is the essence of my campaign."

With his opponents spending unprecedented amounts on their campaigns, Dinizio estimates his total campaign spending to be about $17,000.00. Dinizio is receiving the kind of press that only 2 decades as a rock star can buy. His high profile automatically makes him one of the reform parties best known candidates behind Pat Buchanan, the notorious candidate who's been sited for causing dissension in the Reform Party ranks. Buchanan's perceived rightist and sexist views led to a near riot at the Reform Party convention in early August as the party split when deciding who should be their presidential candidate. Not only have supporters of the reform party lost their faith, but Dinizio tells Hybrid that he will be the next high profile candidate of the party to leave. "I began this as a reform party candidate. Jesse Ventura had reinvented and reenergized the party with his successful governortorial run in Minnesota. Jesse was the figurehead of the reform movement when I became the candidate for your senate in New Jersey. Pat Buchanan was nowhere to be found. Pat Buchanan joined up with the approval of (Reform Party founder) Ross Perot. Ventura left.

"Then, Buchanan took the party away from Perot and then split the party up. I did not attend the convention in Long Beach. I wouldn't be a part of it, not part of the madness that was more akin to a WWF cage match than a political convention. I just didn't want to get in the crossfire of that, so I stayed home, even though I was one of their prominent candidates. I just wasn't going to be there. I didn't want to deal with it. I was more concerned with focusing on the issues and what I have to do here in my home state and the greater good to win.

I'm leaving the reform party to join up with Ventura and the Independence party. I've got the approval and the blessing of the independence party and all of Ventura's people."

With the move away from the mayhem and undefined platform of the Reform party, Dinizio will now only have to answer for what he believes is right for the United States as well as his home state of New Jersey. Pat seems open to talking about the issues and dodges no questions. He reiterates, throughout our interview, that he thinks that people ought to know the truth about their government and if armed with that information, they will be able to take back their government. He refers to his campaign as a vision quest, as one individual standing up against the system.

Life imitates art

You've thrown concerts to raise money for your campaign. Have you seen the movie Bob Roberts?

"Apart from his (Bob Roberts) political ideology, I'm modeling some aspects of my campaign on the way he was touring to promote his campaign in that fictional movie. There's no other way for me to do it, because people recognize me from having a guitar in my hand.

This thing is about doing it a way it's never been done before. I'm not going to campaign with a suit and tie on. I'm not going to not play my guitar because no one ever did it that way in politics. I say 'To hell with that'. I'm going to do it my way. People know me from my music, they know me from my songs, that's where my credibility comes from.

Politics is way to serious to begin with. We're trying to take some of that seriousness away from it and put a sense of irreverency into it, as should be. Politics should not be this completely sacred cow that everyone's afraid to touch.... or even look at. There has to be a more human element put into it and we all have to recognize that we are all human and imperfect and fragile and that we're just like everybody else.

"It's no accident that the Smithereens achieved their greatest success in the Reagan era. It was a more conservative time than we live in today. Our music was always conservative. It was a reflection of who we are. I'm not that conservative. I'm really in the center on most of my issue points and my view points are just purely common sense in my mind."

People

When interviewing Pat Dinizio, you get the feeling that he's giving you plain talk on a one to one basis. It doesn't feel like he's using the interview to speak to the world, which both he and I knew was the whole reason he was there. He seems to want to understand the individual and in turn, be understood on a personal level. Dinizio does not want to have you second guess his motives. He is an everyman, dealing with everyman issues. When asked how much faith he has in people to make the right decisions in a time when voter apathy is at a high and people are rioting in Boulder, Colorado because they can't illegally drink or rioting and raping at Woodstock '99, Dinizio say he believes education is key to people making the right decisions.

"People have to be told the truth. First off, lose respect in a system where the truth is not being told. Where CEO's are giving themselves $16 million dollar bonuses, but only giving the rank and file a 3% bonus spread out over 2 years. Where's the good faith in that?

We're living in a culture of greed and a kind of debased culture where the media will not bear the responsibility of their actions. They won't own up to what they've contributed to this corruption of society. That's why you've got kids running around crazy.

By empowering the American worker, you're empowering the American family. If you've got families that are working 2 and 3 jobs just to make ends meet, who's looking after the kids to give them a sense of value and ethics? You need to have one of the parents, be it the mom or the dad, stay home with the kids for at least a certain amount of time to give them the proper nurturing and love and guidance. If that's not coming, where are they going to get it from? They're going to get it from kids at school, they're going to get it from the media... This is why we've got a society of kids running around crazy today. They don't know whether they're coming or going.

The education system has failed our children. We're not giving them core values or core education. We're not giving them the skills they need for life. We're just giving them feel-good platitudes and that's a problem.

I do trust the people. I don't believe the government necessarily trusts the people. I think that the people in general will seek the higher road and ultimately make the right decision.

I think it's about education. I think it's about me, stepping forward and telling the truth about why things are happening the way that they're happening. It's kind of like starting over. I mean, it's everywhere. Everything has been infected by this culture of disbelief. A culture where people have lost faith in their government and their elected officials. They're not being given, dare I say it, the spiritual nourishment that they need. This has nothing to do with church or organized religion. It has to do with, right versus wrong.

We're not necessarily punishing people for their behaviors either. So, they're not learning. But I still believe in look for the best in people. I'm still for initiative and referendum that lets the people decide what the law of the land is going to be. Why should myself, if I'm elected to senate, or 100 senators or 9 supreme court justices or the president of the united states... who are they to make these decisions. It should be in the hands of the people. I believe that."

School Vouchers

When it comes to the public school system, Dinizio says that children have been let down. As a strong proponent of the voucher system, Dinizio believes that competition over our childrens education can be nothing but a positive step.

With a growing population and a lack of teachers, isn't a voucher program the same as asking private schools to be as overcrowded and uncontrollable as public schools?

"I think that people should be afforded the opportunity to home school or to put their children in the type of schools they desire their children to be in.

When Hillary Clinton claimed that it takes a village to raise your children, what she really meant was that it takes the government to take the kids away from you and put them in daycare at age 2 and indoctranate them with her values and this is what I'm fighting against. I don't want the government telling us how to raise our kids. Vouchers enable parents to raise their children without interference and to put them in a school that may or may not be religious... that's their choice. It's not up to the government ."

Gun Control

Who's responsible for the Columbine shootings and how would you prevent it from happening in New Jersey?

"Then we get on that slippery slope of guns and gun control and gun rights and all of that kind of thing. Certainly, the people shooting those guns killed those poor people. God forbid, it should happen to any of us or our family and my heart goes out to all of those people and their families.

But, on the other hand, we must look at it this way. Historically, every totalitarian society or every totalitarian nation, from Pol Pot to Hitler to Stalin, the first thing they did was take guns away from society. They deprived the citizenry of their right to defend their families and their property. It's a basic right. Without the right to bear arms, without the right to defend yourself, your family and your property, we're not going to be having conversations like this very much in the future. Your first amendment right are going to disappear very quickly.

In terms of Columbine, you have to point the finger at the media to a certain extent and television, to video games perhaps.... No one has the answer. These kids could've just been sociopaths to begin with anyway that were going to do it no matter what.

You know, there are certain people who want to point the finger at the media, other people want to blame video games, no one really speaks of bad parenting. What about parents who are irresponsible? What about parents who aren't there to watch their kids and nurture them well? Does it get back to economics as I spoke about before? Maybe because employers aren't affording a proper living wage. Maybe the parents aren't around and the kids aren't supervised. I know that I had supervision and that my parents ruled with a strong hand. If I was out of line I was told and punished to no uncertain terms and I'm none the worse for it. Again, you talk about disciplining kids and they want to lock you up and throw away the key and I think they're wrong, quite frankly."

How can America effectively allow law abiding citizens to carry weapons, yet take them away from criminals?

"Well, that's the point. You've answered your own question. You cannot take defense weapons away from the average law abiding American citizen who has a gun for protection in their home in an obviously violent society. Typically, it's not the average American gun owner, who is a responsible citizen, it's not that person going around and commiting robbery and killing people, it's the criminals. If you take guns away from law abiding citizens, it's ludicrous to think that that gesture is going to help the government take the guns away from the criminals. Do you trust the government to defend you? I don't.

(My views on gun control have) made me a very unpopular bloke in the music community because you've got well meaning musician friends of mine, who want to see guns banned or outlawed. Banning guns or gun control is not about crime control, it's about controlling people and I don't want to be controlled, do you? I want to preserve as much of my freedom as I can."

"Spiritual Depression"

You talked a bit on your site about the "spiritual depression" that America is suffering through...

"That was actually a quote from the book, 'Fight Club'. The movie to me, actually says a few profound things about where our culture is headed. It struck some sort of a responsive chord in me and I am of my generation. I'm a pop culture guy. That's why there's quotes from George Carlin (on my website), there's quotes from a fictional character named Morpheus from the Matrix on there, but it's stuff that makes sense. If you put pop culture quotes in there... some people may not remember who Will Rogers is, some people don't even know who Harry Truman was, some people don't know who Ghandi was. So, there's quotes from those people. But, I thought that by throwing in quotes from contemporary pop icons or pop culture figures, even if they're fictional, that it might ring some sort of responsive chord in the younger people going to the site."

The Great Depression produced some of the hardest workers and patriotic Americans the country has ever had. Is this the kind of situation we need to cleanse ourselves of this spiritual depression?

"I don't think anyone wants to be in a depression. I don't think it would be good to be in a depression, but you've got to understand that there's perhaps 2 generations of people growing up now who have not known what it's like to live through a war or to go to war or to really fight to preserve our way of life and our democracy and our country.

I'm amazed sometimes.... There was a roadie that we had one time, a guitar tech, who said 'Well, we grew up in the Reagan era. We didn't know from day to day. We were told by our teachers that the bomb could fall anyday.' I said, 'Hey, man. I have my draft card from Vietnam. I didn't from day to day if I was going to get my ass shot off in Vietnam and we also had the threat of a nuclear war. You didn't have the threat of war personally, and we still had the threat of nuclear holocost, so who are you kidding? Don't feel sorry for yourself, get off your butt and do what you have to do. Don't make excuses or blame other people.

Historically, it's taken these traumitc events in our history to unite the nation. We don't have that now. I wonder, seriously, if there was a serious threat, which there seems to be one building in China... and if people can't see it they're blind. It's up to people like me and other Americans who consider themselves somewhat patriotic, not overzealous, but proud to be an American. I'm not waving the flag, I'm just stating the truth here. The reason that I oppose the WTO and GATT and NAFTA is that we're doing business with China who are commiting human rights atrocities. It's clear, it's a fact and it's public knowledge that they're (China) taking all of the money that they're making off of these deals and putting right into their military and they're out to kick our ass.

We're sitting here and you've got crazy people, like in the socialist party, who want to cut military spending by 50% and other people that really can't see the forest for the trees. We must preserve and defend American soveriegnty. If America falls, then the world falls. I believe that. And we're on the slippery slope.

There is no unified national sense of patriotism anymore. I'm not talking about nationalism. I'm just talking about pride. I'm talking about pride in your country, pride in the fact that you're an American, that you're fortunate enough to come here. My grandparents, the first thing they wanted to do was get their citizenship papers. They were proud. They were proud to be part of this experiment. They moved here because they were starving in Italy. People come here because they're not making it on whatever level where they come from and they're afforded that opportunity to come here. No one is beating down the doors of any other countries to get in. So, that must say something about our country. It must say that our country is still great."

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