White supremacist campaigns for Congress

WARSAW, Ind., (WANE) - He's led the Ku Klux Klan , and founded his own white supremacist group. Now, Tom Metzger wants to add "congressman" to his controversial resume. The Warsaw, Indiana native is campaigning for the Third District Congressional seat held by Mark Souder .

"You got to have radical, independent people, going for power, that's what you need," said Tom Metzger. "I'm not running saying I got to win, I'm running saying I want change."

The 71-year-old former KKK Grand Dragon and founder of the White Aryan Resistance has launched a campaign as a write-in candidate. He advertised his candidacy with a small ad in the Warsaw-Times Union Newspaper. It urged people frustrated with "the Republicrats" to "send them a real message." The seven-line ad concluded with "Write in Thomas L. Metzger for Souder's job, 3rd District."

"I ran the ad for a week and I might bring some hillbilly bands into town to get the campaign going," Metzger told NewsChannel 15. "They can call me any name they want, but I'm going to tell the truth."

Metzger touts himself as pro-union and the candidate for the working class. He tells NewsChannel 15 that he is ready to shake up Washington.

He says, "I'd go to Washington and get into Congress and have a fist fight ever day. I don't think there's anybody gonna say the controversial things that I'm going to say about let's get out of these (expletive) wars and rebuild our infrastructure. Let's keep our money in Indiana and tell the federal government to go to hell."

Metzger is no stranger to politics. In 1980, he actually won the Democratic Party's nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in San Diego. He later lost in the general election to the Republican incumbent.

In 1982, he received three percent of the vote during a United States Senate run in the Democratic Party Primary.

"I have a long history of politics, all the way back to '64 with Barry Goldwater," Metzger said. "I've been involved with more politics than any of these guys have ever been in."

Metzger knows his chances of winning the race are slim, but he hopes to at least make a statement.

He says,"You never know, it might be an accident, and I might win. I'm pretty well known, and I'll make sure I'm known even more before it's over...I know politics."

Congressman Souder's office declined to comment on this story.