Home to CA's famed Joshua Trees

Libertarian elected officials keep popping up all over the U.S. The Libertarian Party does its best to keep track of them, but more often than not, they don't make list of Libertarian affiliated elected officials.

Meet Chad Mayes, City Councilman for Yucca Valley, California. The town lies in San Bernadino County not far from the big US Marine base at Twenty-Nine Palms. The population is approximately 16,000.

A Letter to the Editor of the local paper exposes Mayes as a "Libertarian."

From the Hi-Desert Star "What do parties have to do with it?" John Fretter:

Councilman Chad Mayes stated that as a Libertarian, he struggled with a council decision (Hi-Desert Star, Feb. 5).

That led me to wonder whether the Town Council members shouldn’t be elected on the basis of each candidate’s political stripes.

If candidates promised to make decisions based on their political allegiances, voters would better know what they’d be voting for.

In contrast, I voted for Chad Mayes three times based on his being a lifetime resident of this place, his youth and idealism and his family background.

I didn’t expect libertarianism might come into play.

Freter goes on to criticize libertarianism itself:

Years ago, I was interested in the subject of libertarianism. Liberty has visceral appeal. But my research was disillusioning. Though Libertarian stances on some social issues are laudable, the economic ideas of libertarianism are often at best naive, at worst cruel and would work directly against the blessings of liberty that Libertarians claim to stand for.

Plus, I looked for their record. There is no historical example ever of a successful libertarian government — at any level — anywhere.

He concludes:

Maybe it’s naïve, but I’d prefer that the issues the town of Yucca Valley faces should be dealt with objectively, logically and with no councilperson struggling with personal politics.