Chairman's Corner September 2018

Our Faithful former State Chairman John Wagner has Passed Away

Our faithful former State Chairman of the Independent American Party, John Wagner, has passed away.  He will be sorely missed! There will be a Celebration of John’s Life at his home at 780 Norfolk Dr. in Carson City on October 6, at 3:30.

John went into the hospital for a tumor on his colon, got an infection, went into sepsis and a coma, began to recover then suffered cardiac arrest. He passed away late on August 17, 2018.

John was a very active 83 years. He served as Chairman of the IAP for 7 years becoming Chairman in 2009 and serving until 2016. Before and after he became State Chairman, he served as the lobbyist at the State Legislature for the IAP including the most recent Session in 2017. John ran for office several times as an IAP and in fact was running this year for State Senate District 16.

John and his wife Sidney spent many hours setting up, manning and taking down IAP booths at gun shows and other events in Carson, Douglas and Winnemucca. John, Sidney and I traveled around the state working to set up new active counties in Humboldt, White Pine, Lincoln and successfully did so in Churchill County.

John dealt directly with the Secretary of State for the Party especially when we were getting our candidates filed. He also helped immensely by downloading the registered IAP voters for the State Convention for every county but Clark. 

John came up with the idea of the “Citizen Lobbyist Workshops”. He made the original power point and secured the location in Carson City at his church in which John and Janine Hansen jointly did the workshops. After that they were expanded to Reno, Elko, Winnemucca, Las Vegas and Pahrump.  The Citizen Lobby workshops have been critical in expanding and engaging the public participation at the Legislature. 

 Everyone at the Legislature liked John. When he testified he would often say, “It’s about the issue not about individuals.”  John spoke innumerable times at the Legislature not only as a voice for the Party but as a voice for truth and good government. 

 John raised a lot of money for the State Party through his efforts organizing gun drawings in 2016 and 2018. This helped to pay for State Conventions for both of those years.

 On a personal note, John with Sidney, rescued me several times when my car broke down when I was in Carson City at the Legislature. He and Sidney let me stay in their home when I had to go to Carson when the Legislature wasn’t in Session. He helped me find and secure apartments in Carson City. He helped me get the furniture set up.  I often said, “John you act as if you were my father,” and he would just say, “Drive safely, Janine.”

 The tears are flowing now as I think of the huge loss to the Party, our State and to me personally that losing John will be.  It is my prayer that others will step forward to fill the huge hole that losing John will create. When I spoke with Geoff Dornan of the “Nevada Appeal” today, (who is doing an article about John), I said it will probably take 10 people to fill John’s shoes. It will be especially difficult to replace him at the Legislature.  However, I suspect John will be looking down on us, serving as one of the many Angels who guide our paths in the Legislative Halls. Every time I get in my car I will be hearing him say …”Drive safely Janine.”

 I want to thank his daughter Kim Cantacesfi, who recently moved to Nevada, for keeping me informed about John while he was in the hospital and welcoming us to John’s Celebration of Life on October 6^th at 3:30.

 Janine Hansen, John’s friend