A member of a White supremacist political party has filed organization papers with Mesa to oppose District 3 City Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh in next year's municipal elections.

Although Mesa's local elections are nonpartisan, Ralph A. Brandt identified the American Third Position of Grand Forks, N.D., as his sponsoring organization.

American Third Position is a political party that was founded in 2009.

Its mission statement says, in part, "The American Third Position Party believes that government policy in the United States discriminates against White Americans, the majority population, and that White Americans need their own political party to fight this discrimination."

"Our party represents the ethnic interests of White people," Brandt told The Mesa Republic Tuesday. "I personally believe that White people are getting the short end of the stick."

Brandt, 62, said he opposes federal rules that affected Mesa's recent redistricting process. In a plan approved Monday by the City Council, District 3 acquired an unusual "L" shape in order to maintain a Hispanic majority in District 4.

On other local issues, Brandt said he favors extending light rail to Mesa Drive - a decision made by the City Council more than two years ago. He also wants to rein in city salaries, claiming that Mesa has about 70 people drawing six-figure incomes.

Brandt also said he opposes the recall of Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce, R-Mesa. His candidacy, he said, "is my way of standing up and being counted" on the Pearce recall.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that monitors what it deems extremist political groups, says on its website that American Third Position "is a political party initially established by racist Southern California skinheads that aims to deport immigrants and return the United States to White rule. The group is led by a coterie of prominent White nationalists. . . . The party has big plans to run candidates nationwide."

American Third Position's director is William Daniel Johnson, identified by SPLC as a Los Angeles corporate lawyer who was born in Pinal County and graduated from Brigham Young University.

"As early as 1985, Johnson proposed a constitutional amendment that would revoke the American citizenship of every non-White inhabitant of the United States," SPLC said. He also favored deporting ethnic minorities, including American Indians.

Johnson's political allies have included neo-Nazis and members of the Ku Klux Klan, according to the profile.

Brandt would not be the first far-right candidate to seek a Mesa City Council seat.

In 2006, J.T. Ready finished second in a four-way primary in District 4, but then-incumbent Kyle Jones won the seat outright with a majority of the vote.

Ready was not open about his neo-Nazi affiliations during that race, but he later identified himself with that movement. Pearce was an early political ally of Ready but later disavowed their relationship.

In the statement of organization he filed with the City Clerk's Office, Brand lists his occupation as "computer geek" and his employer as Ted Watkins EA, a Scottsdale accounting firm.

Kavanaugh said he knows nothing about Brandt other than his party affiliation.

"His goal seems to be to qualify his party as a recognized party for state election purposes, so it seems curious he would run for a nonpartisan office with his sponsoring organization being his partisan political party," Kavanaugh told The Republic.

He added, "I have never had any questions or comments from him on city issues or my performance in office during all the time I have served. He has never expressed any interest to participate in any community projects, boards or committees, which is typically where council candidates come from. I look forward to hear what he would do if elected."

Kavanaugh, elected to his third council term in 2008, is running again next year.