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Former US Senator to help kick-off Mountain Party Fall Campaign

Charleston, WV – Mike Gravel, Alaska’s US Senator from 1969-81, is in Charleston this weekend to endorse the Mountain Party’s candidate for governor and promote his latest book, Kingmakers, with a public signing at Taylors Books on Saturday.

Jesse Johnson, who is running his second race for governor on the Mountain Party ticket, met Gravel during Jesse’s bid for the 2008 Green Party presidential slot. They became good friends on the campaign trail.

On a recent radio interview in California,  Gravel said the only candidate he would endorse in this whole election is Jesse Johnson of the Mountain Party in WV.

Gravel was the Senator who read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional record during the Vietnam War and lead a Senate filibuster to end the military draft. He ran in this year’s Democratic presidential primary and debated Hillary and Obama in the early debates with noted success.

Johnson is a filmmaker who returned to his roots in WV to lead the Mountain Party. Johnson’s father was a Charleston police officer for 25 years. His 2004 bid for governor helped the party maintain its ballot status as the only independent political party in WV. Earlier this year the Mountain Party affiliated with the national Green Party of the United States.

Gravel’s book signing will be 2-4 PM Saturday  Sept. 6^th at Taylor’s books and immediately afterwards he’ll host a campaign reception and fundraiser.