What is GOOOH?

You will need to read their website for a complete understanding.

The following summarizes my understanding using extracts from their site (bold is my emphasis):

GOOOH stands for ‘Get Out of Our House’ and is pronounced like the word ‘go’. It is a NON-PARTISAN plan to evict the 435 career politicians in the U.S. House of Representatives and replace them with everyday Americans just like you.

How do I participate in a Candidate Selection Session?

Follow these six simple steps:

1. Become a GOOOH member.
2. Pass the Candidate Screening Exam, ensuring you meet all of the requirements to run for Congress (citizenship, age, etc.), as well as the prerequisites for our system (not a politician, etc).
3. Complete the Candidate Questionnaire and document how you’d vote if elected. All questions require a “for or against” answer. Here are a few sample questions:
* Will you vote for or against a presidential line item veto?
* Will you vote for or against House term limits of 4 years or less?
* Will you vote for or against replacing the current tax system with the FairTax as proposed by Linder and Boortz?
4. Sign the Commitment Agreement stating that you’ll resign within 72 hours if you vote contrary to your Candidate Questionnaire answers or accept funds other than your federal paycheck while in office.
5. Donate at least $100 to help fund the national campaign.
6. Finalize your entry by locking your questionnaire answers.

How The Process Works

Members will have until some time in April (exact date TBD) to declare their candidacy by completing the six Candidate Selection Session registration steps. Once the deadline has been reached, all candidates will follow the process summarized below, with one person in each of the 435 congressional districts ultimately bubbling to the top of the system as their district’s nominee.

Candidates will be randomly assigned into pools of 10 participants within their congressional district. There will be as many pools as are needed in each district.

1. Pools will meet simultaneously at predetermined locations across the country on consecutive Saturday mornings.  Sessions start at 9 AM and will last approximately 5 hours.
2. Each pool of participants will select two candidates to advance to the next round, via the GOOOH Selection Session process outlined in the book.
3. Advancing candidates will be randomly assigned into a new pool within their district. Steps 2 and 3 will repeat until there are only ten candidates remaining in each district.
4. If there are 1,250 participants, there will be four rounds. The actual number will be determined based upon the number of participants in each district. There will be a maximum of eight rounds, though four to six are more likely.
5. Before the final round, we are considering having the 4,350 finalists participate in a weekend retreat to ensure they fully understand how the final selection round will work and to ensure they are committed to representing their district if selected. Details will be determined as the time nears.
6. The final ten candidates in each of the districts will select a single nominee to represent their district.
7. The 435 nominees will be placed on the November ballot, in their respective districts, to compete against the Republican and Democratic politicians.
8. The campaign for each of the candidates will be orchestrated by the system, which will provide all necessary funding.

Mission

….  For GOOOH to succeed we will need 500,000 participants. We will continue to build our base of supporters until we have the participation we need, at which time we will begin our effort to access the ballot. The rules are different in each state, and the politicians have done a great job of building barriers to prevent competition, but they have left the drawbridge down. In some states, we may be forced to form a party, call it the GOOOH party for now. In states like Washington and Texas that is not presently an option. In some states our candidates may run as Independents. In others we may run as a Republican or Democrat, even competing in the primary if time allows. We may run on some other Party’s ticket, such as the Libertarian Party or the Constitution Party. When we reach our membership goal, the rules in each state and the willingness of established parties to cooperate will help determine how we access the ballot. But one thing is certain: once we get to 500,000 members and begin our push, politicians will find themselves in an extremely difficult position justifying why a GOOOH candidate will not be allowed on the ballot. And remember, 500,000 is just the start. We will soon have five and then fifty million or more supporting GOOOH. How many state representatives are going to want to stand in the way of us getting on the ballot? We look forward to that “discussion.”

The contents of their web-site indicates that they will run candidates against the Republican and Democratic parties.  They may start a GOOOH party, or run on the Independent, Libertarian or Constitution party.  This sounds exactly like a third party to me.  And third parties split the vote.

GOOOH currently has 82,000 members.  Thus, I doubt if they will be a factor in 2010.  But if they are successful in growing at the same rate, they will be a threat to our 2012 success.

I have observed several Redstate members advocating GOOOH.  I would be open to your comments on how the GOOOH approach will not result in splitting the conservative vote.