It was brought to my attention from several readers that rumors are floating around the Internet that Andy Martin is not a "natural born Citizen" due to his father's U.S. Citizen status at the time of Andy's birth. I was asked to address the question so here you go...
According to the obot blog the claim originated from;
"As seen here, Anthony Robert Martin-Trigona, a/k/a Andy Martin, was born in 1945 to Ralph Martin-Trigona (1913-1994) and Helen Vasilou.Ralph Martin-Trigona, Andy's father, was not born in the United States. And according to U.S. immigration records, Ralph naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1950:
Thus, Andy Martin's himself was not born to two U.S. citizens, as his father did not naturalize until Andy was 5." -snip-
Now, I do not know the validity of the claim so I emailed Mr. Martin to get his response to the accusation. Here's the exchange...
My message to Mr. Martin:
A few people have emailed me some accusations regarding your "natural born Citizen" status. I know the info originated from an obot blog, which raises red flags in my mind, so I figured I would ask you directly to address the accusations. Was your father a "naturalized" Citizen of the United States? And if so, what year did your father gain U.S. Citizenship?
Mr. Martin's reply:
"Thanks for the inquiry. The questions you relate do indeed come from Obamabots as you correctly note. I have offered to release my birth certificate when Obama releases his. I don't see any of the other presidential candidates being asked to respond to similar challenges. Obama is, as usual, targeting only me with his tactics because I am the only opponent he fears in November, 2012. And, as usual, I am flattered by his/their attention. Again, thanks for asking, and thanks for your thoughts." - Andy Martin
My followup message:
Thanks for the reply but I didn't ask about your place of birth nor do I have any doubts about that question. I asked if your father was a naturalized Citizen of the United States, and if so, what year did he gain Citizenship. - respectfully, www.ObamaReleaseYourRecords.com
From Andy Martin;
"My campaign discussed the substance of your inquiry when it first originated with the Obamabots several months ago, and that was and remains our response. Thanks for your interest." - AM -snip-
It is my personal view that candidates seeking the highest office in the land should all be vetted the same way to verify if they're constitutionally eligible to hold that office. No matter if that person is a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, black, white, green or purple polka dotted. Either Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution is the law of the land or it isn't. We can't pick and choose when to apply it, like Obama & Gang did. No one should be above the law. Now, don't shoot the messenger! -end-"
From: http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2011/02/truth-matters-is-andy-martin-natural.html
Maybe he's setting up a court challenge as an candidate who suffered particularized injury for being kicked off a ballot for not being eligible....
Whether he is or isn't, if the above is true...he would be in the same boat as Chester Arthur. Born in the country to a citizen mother and a foreign national father. Clearly NOT a "natural born Citizen" as known and intended by the framers.