NAT Will Not Pull Tieli From NWP Ballot, Sources Confirm

Despite poor poll numbers, Tieli will stay on the ballot

GRANTHAM, NWP--Nationalist party officials in New Portsmouth will not replace House candidate Berta Tieli with another more viable candidate, party sources told GNN News Monday.

Rumors began surfacing last Friday, when anonymous party sources told local media that party insiders were considering replacing Tieli with another candidate who could give incumbent Senator John Isaak Slooter (TA) a tougher run for re-election.

Tieli, a 60-year-old state legislator from Haines County, was drafted in June to challenge incumbent Senator John Isaak Slooter, a traditionalist who ran unopposed earlier this year in a special election. But Tieli has been trailing Slooter in the polls for months. In the latest average of polls released last Friday by the Grantham Institute, a non-partisan research center, Slooter led Tieli 44% to 36%, with 20% of voters undecided.

A new poll released yesterday showed Tieli making the race more competetive; trailing Slooter 39% to 43%, with 18% undecided.

Still, despite gaining slightly in recent days, many within the NAT party believe Tieli should be trouncing Slooter, the nation's first Traditionalist candidate elected to the House, by double digits.

"Isaak Slooter is a conservative Christian," says Haines County NAT chairman Randy Weaver. "New Portsmouth is not a religious state. A strong majority of our state's residents reject the divisive nature of religion. So a liberal like Berta Tieli should be killing him in the polls."

Still, despite her disappointing poll showings, Berta Tieli will stay on the ballot.

"Berta Tieli was nominated by the New Portsmouth Nationalist Party to run against Isaak Slooter. She had our party's support then, and she has our party's support now," state party Vice Chairwoman Mary Vandehoogen told the press Monday.

Sources from within the party, who asked to remain anonymous because of party loyalty, told a local newspaper top party officials were considering replacing Tieli with a more viable candidate, such as Congresswoman Jean Larae Dowd from the state's 1st congressional district.

"That's not going to happen," says state party Chairman Bob Springer. "Berta Tieli is our candidate and we back her one hundred per cent."

The Slooter campaign jumped on the party's division, asking, "If Berta Tieli can't even get her own party to support her, how can she expect to get the voters to do so?"

Tieli's campaign would not comment on the recent events but ensured the campaign will move forward.

"This campaign is going strong. And we plan on working hard and moving forward through election day," spokesman Chris Mortis said.