Lake Elsinore Democrat Makes Showing In Presidential Primary

Lake Elsinore resident Craig Tax Freeze Freis created a following in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary with his grassroots campaign.

According to final reports from the Jan. 10 New Hampshire Presidential Primary, Freis received 400 votes in the state. President Barack Obama received 49,080. There were close to 24 other Democratic candidates running in New Hampshire.

Freis said he threw his name into the presidential race because he does not like the direction in which President Obama is taking the United States. He calls himself a John F. Kennedy-era Democrat that he believes is not the same type of Democrat holding office today.

“I believe in Kennedy’s speech, 'ask what you can do for your country, not what your country can do for you,”' said Freis, 67, who legally changed his middle name to Tax Freeze in 1994.

Freis knows he is an underdog in the race because he does not have the financial backing or name recognition as the leading candidates but it did not stop him from running a grassroots campaign in New Hampshire. 

“I have a shoestring budget without the shoe,” said Freis, who traveled to the New England state on frequent flier miles. Without enough money to print flyers and buy media coverage, he hand wrote his campaign message on cards and personally handed them out to voters.

On Election Day Fries said, he fought for media coverage and was able to snag interviews with Time Magazine, some foreign press, CNN and other news outlets.

Oil and real estate investor Freis said he couldn’t sit back and do nothing as his neighbors in Lake Elsinore continue to lose their homes to foreclosure and are unable to find work.

“I would take the money we use in the Middle East to get oil and put it toward creating jobs in the United States and use our own oil. I would try to lower gas prices by limiting the restrictions from the Environmental Protection Agency,” said Freis.

His plan to create more jobs is to bring manufacturing back to the United States by giving companies incentives and changing the tax codes.

Other issues on which Freis took a stand include banning genetically modified food in the United States; focusing on protecting our own borders and avoiding costly foreign wars.

Freis will not enter the South Carolina Primary because of the $30,000 price tag for candidates to place their names on the ballot. The New Hampshire Primary cost $1,000.

“I am not giving up.

"I am trying to raise more money to run in another primary,” Freis said.