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Category Archives: Libertarian

Here is who is running for Texas’ statewide positions – cnhinews.com

Posted: October 15, 2022 at 4:38 pm

AUSTIN The top three Texas statewide positions - governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general - receive much of the general attention, but there are several other statewide races voters will see on the ballot this November.

Below is a breakdown of all statewide positions and candidates that will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot. The symbol (I) indicates incumbent.

GOVERNOR

Role: The states chief executive responsible for outlining budget recommendations for the legislature and leading the state and its military forces during emergencies.

Candidates: Republican Greg Abbott (I), Democrat Beto ORourke, Green Party Delilah Barrios, Libertarian Mark Tippetts

LT. GOVERNOR

Role: Head of the state senate, the lieutenant governor establishes all special and standing committees, appoints all chairpersons and members, and assigns all senate legislation to the committee of his choice.

Candidates: Republican Dan Patrick (I), Democrat Mike Collier, Libertarian Shanna Steele

ATTORNEY GENERAL

Role: The states chief legal officer responsible for defending the state of Texas and its duly elected laws by providing legal representation to the state.

Candidates: Republican Ken Paxton (I), Democrat Rochelle Garza, Libertarian Mark Ash

COMPTROLLER OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

Role: The states chief financial officer works as the states tax collector, chief accountant, chief revenue estimator and chief treasurer for all of state government, as well as administrator for a number of other programs.

Candidates: Republican Glenn Hegar (I), Democrat Janet T. Dudding, Libertarian V. Alonzo Echevarria-Garza

COMMISSIONER OF GENERAL LAND OFFICE

Role: Head of the state agency focused on maximizing and diversifying revenue sources for the Permanent School Fund and expanding the development of renewable energy on state lands, among other things.

Candidates: Republican Dawn Buckingham, Democrat Jay Kleberg, Green Party Alfred Molison, Jr.

COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE

Role: Head of the state agency that promotes agriculture production, consumer protection, economic development and healthy living.

Candidates: Republican Sid Miller (I), Democrat Susan Hays

RAILROAD COMMISSIONER

Role: Head of the state agency that regulates the oil and gas industry, gas utilities, pipeline safety, among other things.

Candidates: Republican Wayne Cristian (I), Democrat Luke Warford, Libertarian Jaime Andres Diez, Green Party Hunter Wayne Crow

TEXAS SUPREME COURT

Role: The nine-member court is the court of last resort on civil matters.

Place 3 candidates: Republican Debra Lehrmann (I), Democrat Erin A. Nowell, Libertarian Thomas Edward Oxford

Place 5 candidates: Republican Rebeca Huddle (I), Democrat Amanda Reichek

Place 9 candidates: Republican Evan Young (I), Democrat Julia Maldonado

TEXAS COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS

Role: The nine-member court handles appeals on criminal matters.

Place 5 candidates: Republican Scott Walker (I), Democrat Dana Huffman

Place 6 candidates: Republican Jesse F. McClure, III (I), Democrat Robert Johnson

Other state positions that are elected based on location are all State Board of Education members, and all state senators and state representatives. The length of term for each position varies.

Voters will also be electing their U.S. Congress House of Representatives, which serve two-year terms.

Voters can also expect to see local positions such as district attorneys, county judges and commissioners, district and county clerks and constables on their ballots. Each of the local positions serve four year terms.

Early voting runs Oct. 24-Nov. 4. Election Day is Nov. 8.

Those who are eligible and wish to vote by mail must first submit an application, or ABBM, to their countys Early Voting Clerk by Oct. 28.

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Third-party candidates could make a difference in a close race between Oz and Fetterman – CBS Pittsburgh

Posted: at 4:38 pm

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) Despite all the money spent by the two major party candidates attacking each other in the U.S. Senate race, Pennsylvania voters do have other choices on the ballot.

As KDKA-TV political editor Jon Delano reports, this year there are three third-party candidates running for Senate.

When U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R) ran for reelection six years ago, he defeated Democrat Katie McGinty by just 86,000 votes out of 6 million votes cast. The Libertarian Party candidate got 235,000. Put another way: McGinty lost by 1.5 percent, but the Libertarian got 3.9 percent, more than double the winning margin.

"The interesting thing about elections this close is anything can be a spoiler," says Prof. Kris Kanthak at the University of Pittsburgh.

It's not clear third-party candidates take votes away from the major party candidates, but more voters in this region in the last competitive Senate race voted third-party than, say, in the Philadelphia region.

In the last Toomey race, the Libertarian got 4.4 percent of the vote in Allegheny County, 6.1 percent in Beaver County, and 7.8 percent in Indiana County, well above the state average and the margin of victory.

"We know that independent candidates have made a difference in Pennsylvania," says political analyst Larry Ceisler.

In a close election between Democrats and Republicans, third-party choices can be critical. Besides Democrat Fetterman and Republican Oz, voters have other choices: Libertarian Erik Gerhardt of Montgomery County, Keystone Party candidate Daniel Wassmer of Pike County, and Green Party candidate Richard Weiss of Allegheny County.

Ceisler thinks while the Green Party could hurt Fetterman, the Libertarian is more likely to hurt Oz.

"The Libertarian brand is probably more known and more lethal to Republicans," says Ceisler.

But most third-party candidates reject the notion that they are spoilers, saying they bring voters to the polls who would never vote for either Oz or Fetterman.

Delano: "Do you see yourself as a spoiler in this election?"

Wassmer:"No. Not at all. That's one of the biggest misconceptions of third parties completely."

"I would never be voting for any GOP candidate. I have the same problem with the Democratic candidates."

Wassmer, a former Republican, says he will never vote Republican again, while Weiss says his appeal is to voters unhappy with both major parties' environmental views.

"We believe we are not taking votes away from the other parties. We're bringing new people to the polls," says Weiss. "They both are going to continue expanding fracking and drilling for oil and really what we have is a climate emergency."

Gerhardt has a different take.

"We're going to take votes away from both of them," Gerhardt said. "A lot of people aren't happy with the Democratic candidate and how left they're going, and the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate isn't the strongest."

While voters have five choices on the ballot, control of the U.S. Senate really depends on whether Fetterman or Oz wins, not the others.

The election is four weeks from today.

Jon Delano is a familiar face on KDKA, having been the station's political analyst since 1994. In September 2001, Jon joined KDKA full time as the Money & Politics Editor and this region's only political analyst who covers national and local issues that affect hometown residents.

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Third-party candidates could make a difference in a close race between Oz and Fetterman - CBS Pittsburgh

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Here’s what’s on the ballot in Ionia County this November – Sentinel-Standard

Posted: at 4:38 pm

IONIA COUNTY Voters in Ionia County will have a lot to consider in the Nov. 8 general election. Ballots include statewide, congressional, municipal and school board positions, along with a handful of statewide proposals.

Heres a rundown of candidates and topics on the ballot in the Ionia County area Tuesday, Nov. 8. To view your sample ballot, visit michigan.gov/sos/elections.

Statewide and Congressional

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, is seeking a second term. She faces Republican Tudor Dixon, who emerged from acrowded primary in August. Third party candidates include Mary Buzema (Libertarian), Donna Brandenburg (U.S. Taxpayers), Kevin Hogan (Green) and Daryl Simpson (Natural Law).

Democrat Dana Nessel is seeking reelection as attorney general against Republican Matthew DePerno. Joseph McHugh Jr. (Libertarian) and Gerald Van Sickle (U.S. Taxpayers) are running as well.

Candidates for secretary of state are Democrat Jocelyn Benson, Republican Kristina Karamo, Libertarian Gregory Stempfle, Christine Schwartz of U.S. Taxpayers and Larry Hutchinson Jr. from the Green Party.

Ionia County will vote in Michigans newly drawn 2nd Congressional District. Republican John Moolenaar, who currently represents the states 5th Congressional District, is running against Democrat Jerry Hilliard and Libertarian Nathan Hewer.

Three statewide proposals to amend the states constitution will also be decided in November.

Proposal 22-1aims to change the states term limits. If adopted, the proposal will limit state legislators to 12 years of service, which can be served entirely in either the state house or senate, or in a combination of both. The proposal also adds financial disclosure requirements for legislators, the governor, secretary of state, attorney general and lieutenant governor.

Proposal 22-2deals with voting laws. If approved, the constitutional amendment would add nine days of in-person early voting, allow voters to verify their identity with photo ID or a signed statement, allow voters to use a single application to vote absentee in all elections, require state-funded absentee-ballot drop boxes and postage for absentee applications and ballots, make it so post-election audits may only be conducted by election officials, require military or overseas ballots to be counted if postmarked by election day and more.

The final proposal,Proposal 22-3, deals with reproductive rights. It would add a constitutional amendment to establish new individual right to reproductive freedom for all decisions about pregnancy including childbirth, abortion, postpartum care, contraception, prenatal care and infertility. It would also invalidate state laws conflicting with the amendment.

Voters will also choose two members of the state board of education, two regents of the University of Michigan, two trustees for Michigan State University and two governors of Wayne State University.

Michigan Legislature

In Michigans 18th Senate District, Thomas Albert, R-Lowell, will face Kai Degraaf, D-Ada. The district covers the western and southern portions of Ionia County including the villages of Saranac, Clarksville and Lake Odessa. Albert currently is the representative of the 86th House District.

The rest of the county will vote for Michigans 33rd Senate District. Incumbent Rick Outman, R-Six Lakes, Mark Bignell, D-Greenville, and Jay Gillotte, L-Lyons, are running for the seat.

State House races in Ionia County are in districts 78, 91 and 93.

District 78 will see Gina Johnsen, R-Lake Odessa, against Leah Groves, D-Lowell. District 78 covers the majority of Ionia County, including the Palo, Ionia, Portland, Saranac, Clarksville, Lake Odessa areas.

District 91 has Pat Outman, R-Six Lakes, facingTammy DeVries, D-Cedar Springs. District 91 comprises the Belding, Orleans and Smyrna areas in northwest Ionia County. Outman currently represents the 70th House District.

District 93 will see incumbent Graham Filler, R-St. Johns, face Jeffrey Lockwood, D-Saginaw. Voters in the Lyons, Muir, Pewamo and Hubbardston areas in northeast Ionia County will vote in the district.

Ionia County

In District One, voters will decide between incumbent Republican David Hodges and Democrat Michael Baker for the Ionia County Board of Commissioners. Hodges currently serves as board chair.

In District Three, voters will choose between Larry Tiejema and Democrat Michelle McCord. Tiejema currently serves as District Two commissioner and board vice chair.

In District Four, Republican Phillip Hesche will face Democrat Judith Transue.

Democrat Ally Cook and Republican Gordon Kelley will face each other for the countys District Five seat. Cook is the current District Four commissioner and Kelley serves as a First Ward council member on the Ionia City Council.

Scott Wirtz (District Two), Jack Shattuck (District Six) and Terence Frewen (District Seven) each won their respective August primary elections and face no opposition in November. They will begin their terms on the county board on Jan. 1.

More:2 Ionia County commissioners keep seats in August primary election, 1 voted out

Municipal

Voters in Belding willelect three candidates to the City Council. Mayor Pro Tem Jorel Davis will look to retain his seat. Shelley Gladding, John R. LaClear and Jeannine Hughes Leary are also on the ballot.

Lake Odessa area voters will choose three candidates to serve four-year terms on the Village Council. Current trustees Michael Brighton and Jennifer Hickey are eying another term while Charles Jaquays and Mary Yoder are also seeking spots on the council.

Proposals

Voters in the Lowell Area Schools District will consider a Headlee Override to return its operating millage to the full 18 mills. Rollbacks have reduced the millage to 17.0241 mills. If approved, the districts operating millage will be restored to 18 mills for 2023-2028.

Voters in the Lakewood Public Schools District will consider a bonding proposal. The district is placing a $64 million bond proposal on the November ballot while maintaining the previously approved 7-mill debt millage. The district is hoping to improve its facilities, including safety and security upgrades, and create spaces to improve student achievement and instruction.

The Ionia Community Library is asking voters in its district to approve a levy of 0.98 mills for 18 years, from 2022 to 2039, to renovate, operate and maintain a new library building. The millage will generate $426,000 in its first year if approved.

The ICL hopes to move from the Hall-Fowler Home at 126 E. Main St. to the National Bank Building at 302 W. Main St. The Hall-Fowler Home would then become a museum. A millage proposal for 20 years failed by 36 votes in the August election.

More:Ionia Community Library millage proposal fails by 36 votes

More:Ionia Community Library to place another millage proposal on ballot this November

School Board

Ionia, Portland, Belding, Lakewood, Saranac and Pewamo-Westphalia all have school board positions on the ballot next month.

Incumbent Ken Baker and Dayna Ellis will be elected to six-year terms on the Ionia Public Schools Board of Education. Incumbent Robin Marhofer and challenger Ray Shippey are running for a partial term on the Ionia school board ending in 2024. Tim Montgomery will be elected to a partial term ending in 2026.

Five candidates are vying for two seats on the Portland Public Schools Board of Education. Incumbents Linda Hoxie-Green and Douglas Logel Jr. are running againstSusan Moyer, Joe Polasek and Kurt Sandborn.

Three spots are up for grabs on the Belding Area Schools Board of Education. Incumbent Terry Boni is running against Keven Krieger, Jennifer Lien, Lary Richmond and Nichole VandenHout.

Four candidates are running for two seats on the Lakewood Public Schools Board of Education. Incumbent Wendy Behrenwald is running against Kay Jones, Paige OMara and Micah Steed. Trustee Jami Manszewski will be elected to a partial term ending in 2024.

There are four candidates running for three four-year terms on the Saranac Community Schools Board of Education. Incumbents President Sarah Doll, Treasurer David Price and Trustee Ted VanKuiken are running against Diana Naylor.

Several candidates are running for three open spots on the Pewamo-Westphalia Community Schools Board of Education. Candidates are incumbent President Jason Hafner, Evan Fedewa, Nicholas Martin, Lori Pung, Luke Thelen, Brad Weber and Tony Wirth, who is running as a write-in candidate.

Judicial Races

Two seats on the Michigan Supreme Court are up for election, with incumbents Richard Bernstein and Brian Zahra facing Kyra Bolden of Southfield, Paul Hudson of Kalamazoo and Kerry Lee Morgan of Redford.

Kathleen Feeney of Rockford and Raymond Voet of Ionia are vying for a six-year, non-incumbent position with the 3rd District Court of Appeals.

Judge Ronald Schafer will be re-elected to a six-year term in the Eighth Circuit Court for Ionia and Montcalm counties. Schafer is running unopposed.

Contact reporter Evan Sasiela atesasiela@sentinel-standard.com. Follow him on Twitter@SalsaEvan. Sentinel reporter Mitchell Boatman contributed to this report.

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Here's what's on the ballot in Ionia County this November - Sentinel-Standard

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Kemp leading Abrams by double digits; Warnock and Walker tied | – Capitol Beat

Posted: at 4:38 pm

ATLANTA Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has opened a double-digit lead over Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams, according to a poll released Wednesday.

However, Georgias U.S. Senate race is in a dead heat, the Capitol Beat/Georgia News Collaborative Poll found in a survey of 1,030 likely general election voters conducted Sept. 15-Oct. 4 by the University of Georgias School of Public and International Affairs.

The survey found state Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, with a slight lead for the open lieutenant governors seat over Democrat Charlie Bailey.

GOP incumbents hold a solid lead in both the races for attorney general and secretary of state, according to the poll.

Kemp drew the support of 51% of poll respondents to 40.7% for Abrams, giving the governor a lead of 10.3%. Libertarian Shane Hazel was a distant third with 2.3%, while 6% of those surveyed were undecided.

Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., was favored by 46.4% of the poll respondents, to 43.4% for Republican challenger Herschel Walker. Given the polls margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, the race is essentially tied. Chase Oliver, the Libertarian candidate, trailed at 4.1%, while 6.1% of those surveyed were undecided.

Support for Jones stood at 43.5%, with 38.8% of survey respondents favoring Bailey. Factoring in the margin of error left Jones with a slight lead over his Democratic rival for lieutenant governor. Libertarian Ryan Graham was third at 4.0%, and 13.8% of respondents were undecided.

While Kemp polled slightly above the 50%-plus-one margin needed to avoid a Dec. 6 runoff, the race for Senate and possibly the contest for lieutenant governor could be headed toward an extra round of voting.

The survey found Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger well ahead of state Rep. Bee Nguyen, 47.9% to 33.9%. Libertarian Ted Metz stood third at 6.3%, with 11.8% undecided.

Likewise, GOP Attorney General Chris Carr held a strong lead over Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan, 47.4% to 38.8%. Libertarian Martin Cowen trailed at 3.6%, with 10.2% undecided.

Although both Raffensperger and Carr were short of the margin needed to win the Nov. 8 election outright, the large percentage of undecided voters left room for the two incumbents to get over the threshold.

Kemps lead over Abrams in the gubernatorial contest has widened over recent polls.

I think hes done a good job, said Misty Dunn, 45, an archaeologist from Meriwether County, a regular Republican voter who supports Kemp even though she disagrees with his staunch opposition to abortion.

I cant vote the other way on that one issue, Dunn said.

Aaron Williams, 42 of McDonough, who works for a telecommunications company, said he plans to vote for Abrams primarily because she is not a Republican, a party he has soured on.

The conservative side has gone full on hypocrisy, Williams said. I cant get behind a single conservative candidate.

Wendy Meehan, 72, of Madison County, said she will vote to elect Warnock to a full Senate term because her positions in favor of Medicaid expansion and against the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion align with the Democrats.

Meehan said she doesnt believe Walker is qualified to serve in the Senate.

He should not be a Senate candidate, she said. Georgia could do much better than him.

Lisa Elias, 53, a business owner from Gainesville, said she liked Walker when she saw him speak at her church.

He seemed like a good man, Elias said. Im a Christian, and Im conservative in my values.

But some Republican voters are starting to have concerns about Walker following allegations of violence against his ex-wife and that he paid for a former girlfriends abortion.

If these things are true, thats horrible, said Sarah Simcox, 56, a kindergarten teacher in Forsyth County. But I think politically he might be better [than Warnock]. Im struggling with it. Its going to take a lot of prayer.

Black voters who responded to the poll overwhelmingly preferred Democrats Abrams and Warnock, not surprising since most Black voters support Democratic candidates. But Warnock outperformed Abrams among that group of voters, 89% to 80.7%.

Walker, a former University of Georgia football star, drew only 2% support among Black voters, while Kemp was preferred by 8% of Black survey respondents.

Kemp held a solid lead over Abrams among men, 58% to 33.3%. Walkers lead among men was strong but not as large as Kemps. Walker was supported by 52.5% of men who responded to the poll, compared to 37.7% favoring Warnock.

Warnock, however, enjoyed a huge lead among women, 53.6% to 36.3% for Walker. Women were much more evenly divided in the governors race, with 46.6% preferring Abrams to 45.4% supporting Kemp.

Broken down by age, Kemp held the edge among all groups except for those between the ages of 30 and 44. Among that group, Abrams led 50.6% to 39%.

Warnock led decisively among younger voters, those between the ages of 18 and 44. Walker turned the tables with a solid lead among the 45-64 age group and a smaller lead among voters 65 and older.

Kemp polled strongest among voters with a high school education or less, while Abrams biggest advantage was among college graduates.

The same was true in the Senate race, with Walker scoring highest among those with a high school diploma or less, and Warnocks best showing coming from poll respondents with a college degree.

The poll was conducted via telephone, about 90% through cellphone interviews and 10% over landline connections.

The survey results were weighted to represent respondents proportionally in terms of race, sex, age, and education.

Staff writer Rebecca Grapevine contributed to this report.

This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.

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Wisconsin secretary of state: Your guide to the 2022 election & the candidates – WUWM

Posted: at 4:38 pm

What does Wisconsins secretary of state do?

Wisconsins secretary of state oversees the acts of the governor and the state Legislature, manages public records and serves on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands. The SOS would act as governor if the current governor and lieutenant governor were removed from office or unable to serve.Whats at stake?

The race for secretary of state could determine the future of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Governed by six commissioners shared evenly between the Republican and Democratic parties, the WEC was created by Republicans in 2016. This commission provides support to local clerks and monitors compliance with election laws and accuracy. The WEC chairperson is responsible for certifying state and federal election results, excluding the presidential race, which follows a different set of rules. The commission faced heightened criticism after the 2020 presidential election. If a Republican SOS is elected, they may attempt to abolish the WEC and potentially seek to transfer its duties to the SOSs office.

Who are the candidates?

Neil Harmon

Biography: Neil Harmon joined the Libertarian Party in 2016 and is a former Democrat and Republican. He has worked in health care for over 25 years. Harmon serves as the vice chair of the state Libertarian party.

Party: Libertarian

Links: Facebook

Select endorsements: Libertarian Party of Wisconsin

Article worth checking out: Meet The Candidates For Secretary Of State: Neil Harmon (WORT)

Doug La Follette

Biography: Doug La Follette has served as Wisconsin's secretary of state for 44 years. La Follette started Clean Wisconsin and has focused on renewable energy since the 1970s. He helped Gaylord Nelson, a former Wisconsin governor and U.S. senator, organize the first Earth Day in 1970. La Follette was also appointed by President Jimmy Carter as the assistant director to the Mid-American Solar Energy Complex. He earned a PhD in organic chemistry from Columbia University and later became an assistant professor of chemistry and ecology at UW-Parkside.

Party: Democrat

Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter

Select endorsement: Our Wisconsin Revolution

Article worth checking out: What to know about Doug La Follette, the Democrat seeking another term as Wisconsin secretary of state (Journal Sentinel)

Amy Loudenbeck

Biography: Amy Loudenbeck was first elected to the Wisconsin state Assembly in 2010. Loudenbeck has served as vice co-chair of the Joint Committee on Finance, chairman of the State Capitol and Executive Residence Board, and is a member of the State Fair Park Board. She graduated from UW-Madison in 1991 with degrees in political science and international relations. In 2020, Loudenbeck attended the White House Summit on Human Trafficking and served on a panel to discuss human trafficking in Wisconsin.

Party: Republican

Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Select endorsements: Former Gov. Tommy Thompson, U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, state Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu. Additional endorsements listed on Loudenbecks website.

Articles worth checking out: Wisconsin SOS hopeful wants election control, won't say how much (Associated Press), What to know about Amy Loudenbeck, the Republican running for secretary of state in Wisconsin (Journal Sentinel)

Sharyl McFarland

Biography: Sharyl McFarland is a decades-long advocate for social justice and human rights. Her work focuses on such issues as voter suppression, racial inequalities, mass incarceration and homelessness.

According to the Wisconsin Green Party, McFarland rallied to close down the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, sharing an anecdote about the mistreatment of her at-the-time 17-year-old son.

Party: Green

Links: Website | Facebook

Select endorsements: Wisconsin Green Party

Where do the candidates stand on the issue of election oversight?

Harmon: Harmon says elections oversight should be taken away from the Wisconsin Elections Commission and given to an elected, non-partisan body, according to an interview with WORT 88.9 Madison. He also believes the number of commissioners on that panel should be reduced from six to four, with the secretary of state serving as its leader.

I think if theres any kind of shenanigans or people having problems with access to voting that, thats where the secretary of state should be the overseeing figure of that, he told WORT.

La Follette: La Follette says the secretary of state's office is coming into focus as the newest battleground to save democracy.

On his website, La Follette writes: Far-right politicians have proposed stealing power over elections in the hopes that they can use it to overturn any result they don't like. The state of Wisconsin has been a pivotal battleground in several of the past presidential elections.

He hopes to keep the Wisconsin Elections Commission intact to continue its electoral duties.

Loudenbeck: Loudenbeck wants to abolish and replace the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

This isn't a power grab, Loudenbeck told the Associated Press. "The Legislature should explore a wide range of policy options to utilize this constitutional office that is directly accountable to voters and look at what other states are doing and talk about restoring some traditional responsibilities, including election oversight, if appropriate, to the office.

According to the AP, Loudenbeck has been vague about her views on election fraud and whether she believes President Joe Biden is the legitimate president; however, she did say that the government is obligated to ensure a secure elections system conceding that decertifying Biden's victory is not an option.

McFarland: McFarland says the integrity of elections is being questioned and people demand answers.

The only way to have free and fair elections is to have hand-counted paper ballots, with routine post-election audits to ensure that every vote is counted equally and fairly, she told the Wisconsin Green Party.

McFarland supports a non-partisan election commission to end the WEC rampage of discrimination against independent politicians. She also says the electoral college is a system that does not represent the people and that a winning candidate should be determined by the top vote-getter.

Wisconsin's midterm elections are Tuesday, November 8, 2022. If you have a question about voting or the races, submit it below.

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Letters to the editor Oct. 13 | Daily Inter Lake – Daily Inter Lake

Posted: at 4:38 pm

Radical-right vote

If Montanas radical-right (RRs) want to elect Anne Bukacek to the PSC, they better support Ryan Zinke for Congress. Because RRs are only 20% of the Republican Party, Bukacek needs R votes to win, and Zinke can use RR votes to assure he wins.

Ryan Zinke is an intelligent, dependable, solid American. Trump-haters like Marc Racicot and Bob Brown are RINOs who will vote for Trump-hater Tranel rather than Trump-supporter Zinke.

Do we want to elect a Trump supporter or a Trump hater to Congress? As a conservative Republican, I am voting for all the Rs on my ballot.

Recall the disasters of 2012 when RRs voted Libertarian. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes called Republican Denny Rehberg a traitor and me a quisling because I supported Rehberg. RRs voted 6.7% Libertarian to give Democrat Jon Tester a 3.5% margin over Rehberg. The hate-voting RRs torched Montana, America, and themselves by putting Tester in the Senate for 12 years.

In the 2012 governors race, Democrat Steve Bullock beat Republican Rick Hill by 1.6% while 3.8% voted Libertarian. Rhodes and Oath Keepers National Chaplain Chuck Baldwin campaigned against Romney for president. They got their wish in Obama.

After years of professing freedom, RRs voted to be slaves. Their John Birch Society was a diversion because its leaders will not endorse Republicans.

The Positive Voting Mantra (proposed by Aristotle and supported by todays Christian churches) says, Our moral duty is to vote to achieve the most possible good, which eliminates voting for candidates who cannot win, and eliminates mandatory conditions.

Yes, we are morally obligated to vote for the lesser of two evils. If you believe, as RINOs Mark Racicot and Bob Brown do, that Monica will achieve the most possible good, then vote for her. But dont waste your vote on a Libertarian.

So, do you RRs want to elect Anne? If so, you (Jim White, Chuck Baldwin, Anne and other RRs) must show your support for Ryan Zinke for Congress.

Real Patriots vote for Republicans.

Ed Berry, PhD, Bigfork

Over the past eight years it has been my privilege to represent the people of House District 7 in the Montana House of Representatives. It has been an honor to serve you and to have enjoyed the continued support and confidence of so many in our district.

As my service comes to an end it is important to me to endorse a candidate that I feel will represent this

District and its interests going forward. For me that person must have the experience, energy, character and vision for the job, and they must put the people of Kalispell first. It must be someone that has a heart for service and isnt afraid to work with anyone to solve problems, has a conservative approach to governing and who knows Kalispell and the Flathead.

Thats why I am endorsing Courtenay Sprunger to be your next representative for House District 7.

Courtenays family has a long legacy of service in the Flathead. She has served our community in many roles including as President of the Kalispell Chamber Board, in numerous service organizations and as a tireless advocate for our valley and its people.

Courtenay has a business on Main Street in Kalispell and a vision to solve tough issues like jobs, public safety, education, infrastructure, and housing with an eye toward limiting the size of government while still getting results that matter.

Im grateful to all of you that have offered me your support, encouragement and advice. I am confident you will find that Courtenay is up to the task of being a champion for you and our community and Im asking that you vote for her as your next representative. It is my honor to offer her my support and endorsement.

Rep. Frank Garner, R-Kalispell

Inquiry and comparison, two helpful methods to use when evaluating individuals vying for the same position, in this case for membership on the Public Service Commission.

One is a physician, trained in clinical skills to diagnose and treat the human body, the other is a financial analyst, educated and experienced in matters of economic significance and strategic planning.

As a surgeon and, later in my career, a health system executive, I possess an understanding and knowledge of what each of these persons claims as qualifications to be elected to the PSC.

John Repke, with over 40 years of career knowledge obtained in corporate finance and possessing an MBA in Finance, has experience directly related to the challenges faced by the PSC. Clearly, he has the background to provide better representation for those of us seeking fair, equitable and well-informed decisions from the Commission.

Dr. Wayne A. Miller, Kalispell

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The Libertarian Party is collapsing. Heres why – The Hill

Posted: October 11, 2022 at 12:13 am

Only a few years after its greatest triumph, the Libertarian Party is collapsing, torn apart by an insurgency of alt-right sympathizers with racist tendencies. Libertarianism, the idea that state power must be absolutely minimized, relies on ideas of individual rights that seem flatly inconsistent with racism. And yet libertarian rhetoric has always had powerful attractions for those who wanted to resist racial equality. How is that possible?

There is in fact a connection, but it is one of psychology and political history rather than logic.

I just published a history of libertarianism. The book is a critical introduction to this ideology, which has done so much to shape American politics. I focused on its major thinkers Hayek, Friedman, Epstein, Rothbard, Nozick and Rand and sought to address their strongest arguments. None of them were racists, and most rejected racism vehemently, so I largely ignored the linkage with racism. Yet now it presents itself.

In May, the party was taken over at its national convention by the so-called Mises Caucus, a far-right group, some of whose members have been associated with racist and antisemitic ideas. The caucus is named after the libertarian economist Ludwig von Mises, whose philosophy was pretty crude (as I explained in the book) but who firmly condemned racism.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year, the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire tweeted (in a later deleted post) that America isnt in debt to black people. If anything its the other way around. Caucus members have called for violent repression of antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters. The new leaderships first and most prominent decision was to remove from the party platform language declaring, We condemn bigotry as irrational and repugnant.

As a result, the party is facing mass defections. In 2016, Gary Johnson was the most successful Libertarian presidential candidate in history. He got almost 4.5 million votes (3.3 percent of the votes cast, three times more than any previous Libertarian candidate, including Johnson himself in 2012).

The crackup is in part the result of crass political machinations. The insurgents are funded by donors who have been close to former President Trump, suggesting that the takeover is part of a coordinated Republican stratagem to destroy a party that has been draining away Republican votes. If Trump had gotten every Libertarian vote in 2020, he would have won. The chairman of the New Mexico Libertarian Party wrote that the leadership has adopted messaging and communications hostile to the principles for which the Libertarian Party was founded, serving no purpose other than to antagonize and embarrass. That may indeed be the purpose. Battles for control of the state party are also happening in Virginia and Massachusetts.

This stratagem would not be possible unless the alt-right people were available for recruitment. There is a reason why they joined the Libertarians instead of the Greens, another third party whose principles are equally antithetical to them.

The connection between libertarianism and race dates back to 1964. After he had the Republican presidential nomination, Barry Goldwater (himself no racist) voted against the Civil Rights Act on libertarian grounds: In a speech co-authored by future Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, he said that the freedom to associate means the same thing as the freedom not to associate. In so doing, he transformed the Republican coalition. Eisenhower had gotten about 40 percent of the Black vote in 1956; Nixon in 1960, about a third; Goldwater, 6 percent. Goldwater was the first Republican ever to win in Georgia and the first since Reconstruction to carry Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina. Richard Nixons eagerness to woo the voters who had supported George Wallace in 1968 consolidated the racial polarization of American politics.

Racism seems to be part of libertarianisms appeal to some Americans. It is easier to oppose government power if you dont like what that power will be used for. Some of the libertarian leadership noticed that and has made racist appeals for decades. Some libertarians even dream of abandoning the state for clusters of self-governing enclaves, some of which could be all white. Ayn Rand called racism the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. But her condemnation of unproductive, parasitic moochers has more resonance when you think you know who those people are.

Libertarianism offers a peculiar vision of the heroic solitary individual who sustains himself without any external support. It says, I dont depend on anybody. I can take care of myself. This fantasy of autarky can also involve the capacity to separate from people one doesnt like. It denies any obligation to them that might be based either on shared membership in a community or on a history of wrongs that one has involuntarily benefited from. The fantasy is easy to swallow if it means that one gets to keep more of what one has. Here as elsewhere in libertarian thought, there is an active partnership between delusion and greed.

Andrew Koppelman, John Paul Stevens Professor of Law at Northwestern University, is the author of Burning Down the House: How Libertarian Philosophy Was Corrupted by Delusion and Greed (St. Martins Press).Follow him on Twitter@AndrewKoppelman.

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The Libertarian Party is collapsing. Heres why - The Hill

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Liz Truss, libertarianism, and the real anti-growth coalition – www.businessgreen.com

Posted: at 12:12 am

'Growth, growth, and growth'. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, a terrible political slogan. Abstract, indistinct, and drawing attention to the glaring economic failure of the past 12 years of Conservative government.

Liz Truss' attempt this week to position her government as the standard bearers of economic growth, bravely standing up to the nefarious forces of the 'anti-growth coalition' is a classic 'enemies of the people' style attempt at populist division, lumping together "Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP, the militant unions, the vested interests dressed up as think-tanks, the talking heads, the Brexit deniers, Extinction Rebellion" with anyone else who disagrees with the government so as to brand them all as enemies of prosperity.

But as with so much of the new government's agenda it is guilty of over-reaching. As the FT's Jim Pickard noted, it is "ludicrous to argue that anyone who doesn't support your particular economic plan must somehow be anti-growth - if you don't use *my* cake recipe you must be anti-cake".

Of all the anti-growth agitators listed by Truss only Extinction Rebellion could reasonably described as being opposed to growth, and even they are often simply in favour of a different, better kind of growth. Moreover, as I've argued many times before, if the economy is not growing is it not more likely to be the fault of those in actual power than the naughty scamps with placards?

As for the rest of the 'anti-growth coalition', Truss' focus on growth allows the opposition to fight on a territory it would happily choose and offers a daily reminder that the most powerful members of the anti-growth coalition are to be found on the government's own benches. The biggest drag on growth currently is to be found in the form of flatlining productivity, crumbling infrastructure, lengthening NHS waiting lists, soaring mortgage repayments, inefficient homes, nimby MPs, a hard Brexit deal that is set to knock four per cent of GDP, and a Prime Minister who genuinely abhors the sight of solar farms on under-productive agricultural land. Responsibility for all these barriers to growth and many more can be reasonably laid at the door of the Conservative government.

However, the biggest problem with Liz Truss' growth plan is to be found not in its ham-fisted political positioning, but in the fundamental inconsistency between the government's ideological impulses and its stated goals. The plan won't work. And it won't work because it completely misunderstands how modern business and modern economies succeed.

Nowhere is this incoherence better illustrated than in the government's confused approach to the green economy.

One of the few industrial success stories of the past decade has been provided by the offshore wind sector where a combination of direct funding, competitive subsidy auctions, and stable regulatory frameworks has served to drive regional investment, create jobs, and slash costs and emissions. Similarly, just before Liz Truss' speech this week, the UK auto industry confirmed it had sold its millionth plug-in vehicle, again underlining how it is electric vehicles that have provided the only bright spot for the sector over the past few years.

Everywhere you look in the green economy it is the same story. Study after study demonstrates how a national energy efficiency upgrade programme and zero carbon home building blitz delivers a better return on investment than any other infrastructure programme. Onshore renewables projects provide the cheapest and quickest form of new power capacity. Hydrogen, CCS, battery, smart grid, and nuclear projects are all in the pipeline or ready to go, providing a route for long term industrial competitiveness, energy security, and job creation. Public transport, mobile, and broadband connectivity boast enormous potential to unlock rural and regional productivity. Regenerative agriculture and negative emissions projects provide a means of bolstering climate resilience and food security.

These projects and thousands more like them would not only drive economic growth, but they would drive the right sort of economic growth. Growth that would be sustainable in every sense of the word, unlocking huge co-benefits through improved health, enhanced energy security, greater energy efficiency (or should we call it energy productivity?), better climate resilience, and increased competitiveness and export potential.

The Truss administration insists it remains supportive of this agenda. But its initial focus on taking office has been on pursuing a fracking revolution that will never happen and ordering yet another review of net zero, environmental rules, and farming subsidies that will burn through at least one per cent of the available time to meet the UK's climate targets and potentially result in the sacrificing of crucial policies on the altar of small state ideological purity. A government that has promised to prioritise growth is deferring and diluting decisions that could help drive rapid growth with near immediate effect.

Meanwhile, at both the practical and the ideological level Truss' growth plan is as likely to hamper growth as it is to stimulate it.

Kwasi Kwarteng's fiscal irresponsibility fuels market instability and pushes up interest rates, driving up the cost of the capital investments that are essential for both driving growth and delivering on the UK's net zero goals. At the same time, the ideological disconnect between what the bleak economic and security situation requires and the Prime Minister's impulses further undermines growth prospects. To take just one example, the only reason the UK is refusing to emulate its neighbours and call on the public to save energy in response to the very real risk of blackouts this winter is found in Truss' insistence that she is "not going to tell you what to do".

It is worth underpacking the ideology behind Number 10's reported decision to block plans for a modestly funded 15m public information campaign to encourage people to save energy this winter. The Prime Minister has decided that households should be completely free to use as much energy as they choose even if it means we all suffer blackouts. It is 'there is no such thing as society' as policy choice. The only thing that will be allowed to encourage people to use less energy will be the price signal, except that price signal has been drastically diluted by a government intervention that will cost the taxpayer up to 150bn. The whole sorry mess is as ideologically incoherent as it is economically and politically nonsensical.

It is also important to stress how all of the UK's allies and competitors, as well as the vast majority of the business community, now understand that government has a central role to play in driving sustainable economic growth. The EU and US response to the global energy crunch has been to visibly double down on the net zero transition and rapidly adopt policies and public spending that will mobilise multi-billion dollar investments in low carbon infrastructure. China continues to quietly accelerate its renewables and EV revolution. Even Singapore is not the libertarian fever dream it is painted out to be.

Meanwhile, everyone from the CBI to the IMF to the boss of Shell implores the government to fast track the net zero policies, effective regulations, and windfall taxes that can simultaneously drive growth, enhance energy security, and slash emissions.

Earlier this week one of the Institute of Economic Affairs' apparatchiks, Kristian Niemietz published a revelatory twitter thread in which he argued that the "downfall of Trussism and Kwartengism" was the result of the leftward drift of elite opinion. "In the past, you might have expected those people to be quite sympathetic to a Truss-Kwarteng agenda," he argued. "Truss and Kwarteng are broadly economically liberal, but there's nothing Ukippy-Gammony about them. They might describe themselves in terms that FT/Economist/Times readers like. The trouble is that those people only have skin-deep convictions. They're obsessed with 'respectability'. They'll always adopt the opinions that are considered 'sensible' and 'nuanced'. There was a time when economic liberalism could have ticked those boxes. That time is over Economic liberalism has lost all Upper Normie support."

Leaving aside for a second that economic liberalism's apparent casting out by the elite has been so successful that its leading acolytes are currently Prime Minister and Chancellor and its party of choice has been in government for 12 years, there is an alternative explanation for the political and economic elites' apparent disengagement from economic liberalism which Niemietz and his Tufton Street allies refuse to consider: it doesn't work anymore, if it ever did.

Elite opinion is shifting, not because it is shallow and obsessed with the zeitgeist, but because reality has shifted. The climate crisis is real, as is the remarkable competitiveness of clean technologies, and the threat to democracy from populism and authoritarianism. Market forces can help, but they can only do so much in response to these challenges. The combination of polluting externalities and the risk of free riders in the industrial transition means governments are required to catalyse investment in public goods, set effective market rules, and police them. True economic liberals used to understand this, until libertarianism made too many of them forget it. The problem with libertarianism is you eventually run out of biosphere to despoil.

This does not mean only left-wing governments can now deliver economic growth and effective climate action. Far from it. There are plenty of centre-right, market-led policies that can help drive green growth and accelerate the net zero transition. But raw libertarianism of the kind favoured by many of Truss' allies and advisors is incompatible with modern sustainable economic growth. You can't fund tax cuts on the never-never, you can't deregulate regulations that have already been removed, you can't cut state apparatus that is already on its knees, you can't decarbonise while digging up ever more oil and gas. It is a recipe for instability and suffering. It will fail on its own terms.

The IMF, the International Energy Agency, the UN, the world's top financial institutions, pretty much every leading corporate on the planet, these organisations are not advocating for a green growth path enabled by a proactive government because they have become a 'woke' arm of Greenpeace, but because it is what proven economic and physical reality dictates as the most sensible course of action. Elite opinion used to support colonialism, workhouses, and a whole lot more besides. Times change. The fast-dawning reality is that libertarianism and its shrink the state impulses are fundamentally ill suited to the needs of the 21st century, whatever social media edge lords and demagogic Republicans say to the contrary. Truss' preferred approach to any and all challenges is just not compatible with an era of climatic instability, rapid industrial transformation, and great power geopolitics

The government is right to go for growth, growth, and growth. The problem is that like the rest of its political operation, its preferred growth model looks doomed to failure.

A version of this article first appeared as part of BusinessGreen's Overnight Briefing email, which is available to all BusinessGreen Members.

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We are the country taking the energy crisis least seriously. Even Shells boss is baffled – The Guardian

Posted: at 12:12 am

Wars cannot be fought successfully by libertarians. They demand collective effort, shared sacrifice, strategies for deploying scarce economic resources and collaboration with allies. All are anathema to a libertarian like the prime minister, Liz Truss.

State initiative inviting collective effort and sacrifice is off-limits as nannying. Demands on the better-off and on companies enjoying extreme windfall profits to share their proper burden are vetoed as coercive and confiscatory. Even working with the foreign other is regarded with suspicion as a constraint on sovereignty. Put not your trust in libertarians especially in war.

It may be indirect, but Britain is in a war against Russia. But we are the country taking the winter threat of Putin-induced energy shortages least seriously. We are alone in not asking for energy savings or efficiencies from business or households in exchange for the generous bounty of an indiscriminate price cap offered to everyone regardless of circumstance. With negligible capacity to store gas ourselves, we depend on the kindness of EU countries to help us if Putin turns the screw on gas supplies this winter. And we are the country whose incredible fiscal policy stupendous tax cuts at the same time as huge spending on an indiscriminate energy cap is cast as if the world were as placid as a millpond, so provoking contagion in the financial markets that risks damage to our allies.

The emphatically non-libertarian Biden administration openly regards Truss as out to lunch but so do former friends in the EU. The design of Trusss energy price guarantee package, up to 150bn, is regarded with incredulity. Her veto of a 15m public information campaign designed to suggest how citizens might save energy because it represented a state intrusion into personal space is an accurate window into Trusss worldview. She truly believes this libertarian nonsense.

In her world, there can be no collective endeavour to save energy and no fair sharing of sacrifice. Thus, it is illegitimate to tax the windfall profits of energy companies, let alone curb the speculative activity of energy traders bewildered by the scale of the profits they are making. This would improperly confiscate profit, which is the driver of all human activity: any obligation to society or others is delusional.

Thus the outgoing CEO of Shell, Ben van Beurden, may say publicly, as he did last week, that the market cannot be allowed to operate to hurt the weakest: One way or another, there needs to be government intervention... that somehow results in protecting the poorest. And that probably means governments need to tax people in this room [of energy companies] to pay for it I think we just have to accept [that] as a societal reality.

But Truss lives in the parallel universe of libertarian Ayn Rand novels in which alleged societal realities are the enemy of the moral imperatives of choice, personal freedom and individual responsibility. In her view, Van Beurden suffers from false consciousness, as Marxists used to say of workers content to live with capitalism. Shell may have got lucky with the oil price, but its sole responsibility is to distribute its profits, however excessive or lucky, to shareholders who will spend it as they think fit or invest in what it considers likely to yield profit in future. It must and should not worry about those realities. She doesnt. So why should Shell?

Thus the irresponsible approach to energy. Capping the unit cost of energy so that the average bill is 2,500 per household this winter is certainly better than no cap, but for the 10.5 million people on absolute low incomes after housing costs, bills on that scale remain impossible. They should have had more relief, the better-off, less. Further windfall taxes should have been levied on energy companies, as Shells CEO suggested, and a huge campaign launched on energy saving. The government should set an example; following Germany, France and Spain, no public building should be heated above 19C. There could be traffic speed limits and restraints on lighting buildings, adverts and shop fronts. EU states are setting targets for reducing energy usage by 8%-10%. Why not Britain? The whole package could have been targeted and cheaper, and the billions saved could have been spent on a mass programme to scale up the insulation of our hopelessly energy-inefficient housing stock.

No dice. Instead, our government is praying that we will avoid the National Grids extreme scenario of Putin-induced, Europe-wide energy shortages and France, Belgium and Holland being incapable of supplying us electricity in the winter, which would force a succession of three-hour rolling blackouts. But France has signalled that it may not be able to export energy this winter and Putin, after a fall in gas prices over September, is all but certain to reproduce what he has done with Opec and impose gas shortages or even no gas on Europe. The extreme scenario is all too likely.

Worse, as the Bank of England told the government last week, its mini-budget of 45bn of tax cuts on top of this carelessly expensive approach to energy nearly triggered a financial implosion. Yet the markets are now learning that Truss wants to use investment zones to butcher up to another 12bn of corporation tax revenue even as the Bank comes to the end of its emergency gilt-buying programme. Trusss Britain is a hotbed of financial instability.

Yet the country and the Conservative party are chained to this imbecilic policy framework for at least the next two years. It may lead to political annihilation for the Tories at the next general election, but the damage that is being done remains colossal and hard to repair. Even the chancellor, vainly trying to cap the number of investment zones, and Jacob Rees-Mogg, suffering a veto of his proposed energy public information campaign both fully paid up members of the right must be dazed by the ideological obstinacy of their leader. The only silver lining is that Britain, after this, will never again flirt with toxic libertarianism.

Will Hutton is an Observer columnist

This article was amended on 9 October 2022. An earlier version referred to the government capping energy bills at 2,500 per household this winter. The energy price cap announced by Liz Truss is a limit on the unit cost of electricity and gas, not on overall bills; the 2,500 a year figure relates to the average amount that a typical household will pay under the new cap. This has been corrected.

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How to sell freedom without fighting | The Advocates for Self-Government – The Liberator Online

Posted: at 12:12 am

Have you lost friends over politics? If so, theres a show I want to introduce to you.

There are four things you should do, in conversation, to avoid arguments. You can do these things and become even more persuasive at the same time.

Would you like to know what those four things are?

Recently, I came across a podcast episode that I want to share with you. I want to share it because it matches the classical spirit of the Advocates for Self-Government. Our organization was founded by a salesman to help people get better at selling Liberty.

I came across this episode because its host, Jim Babka, is the editor-at-large here at The Advocates. His show is called Gracearchy with Jim Babka.

Gracearchy is a neologism about ending the blame and scapegoating that is typical in politics, and replacing it with genuine understanding. If you listen to a few episodes, youll quickly gather that the host is a voluntaryist libertarian.

Recently, Jim interviewed Duane Lester, Director of Issue Education for the Grassroots Leadership Academy. Together, they explored more gracious political conversation.

And you can learn these four powerful techniques by watching or listening to this episode of Gracearchy with Jim Babka. Once youve got these down, you can rinse and repeat for each conversation you have.

Duane also explained how to apply the three languages of politics without trying to use a language other than your own. This insight will allow you to still be yourself yet state your own views more clearly than ever.

Duanes training sessions draw crowds at conferences around the country. If you would like to have him come train your local group in these techniques, you can also find out how to do that by watching the show.

More Persuasion: Less Fighting

Youll find Duanes advice to be quite practical and instantly useful.

And Jim has been called an outside the box thinker. His new show reaches a niche audience. I encourage you to check it out on YouTube, and even do as I have Click the bell and subscribe to AHO Network, which hosts this show.

Mike SerticPresidentAdvocates for Self-Government

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