Party: Libertarian Age: 53 Family: Single, never married Residence: Sparks Occupation: Owner of Cornell Financial Services Inc. Political experience: Alternate delegate to Republican National Convention in 2008; Northern Nevada delegate to the Libertarian Party National Convention in May 2010.
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In this years presidential election, we have the choice between a republican and a democrat. Most people identify with one of these two parties and will vote for the candidate of their respective party. Many other parties exist that have a few supporters, but one party in particular has gained tons of notoriety starting in the 2008 election and continuing today.
The party that has risen from the bottom is the Libertarian Party. Ron Paul, although a republican candidate, carries the values of a libertarian. The best way to describe his, and true libertarian values and ideas, is one word: nonaggression.
Nonaggressive acts by the government in every aspect describe true libertarian beliefs. This idea of nonaggression means that libertarians agree with conservatives on some issues and with liberals on others.
When it comes to taxes and spending, libertarians dont want the government doing any of it. If the government tries to act, that is aggressive and against libertarian ideas. Libertarians want people to do for themselves.
When it comes to gay marriage and the legalization of drugs, libertarians side with the liberals. They want people to do whatever they want.
Libertarians believe in the people to do well, the rights of the people and protection of those rights. Libertarians believe each individual knows what is best for them; they believe in the freedom to do as they please.
Libertarians dont need the overseeing government to advise them what they should or can do.
If they wish to ingest a drug, they should be able to. The act of consuming a drug is nonaggressive to others, so it follows libertarian values.
If someone desires to gamble his or her own money away, the government should not stop him or her from doing so. Stopping people from gambling with their own money proves an aggressive act on the part of the government.
When it comes to business, any regulation on a business is a form of aggression. Forcing business to apply certain practices, wages, etc. goes against the nonaggression principle. If a business wants to pay employees one penny an hour, let that business try. No one will work there because competing businesses will offer better wages and attract labor.
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Chances are you and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson are in agreement on several issues. In fact, I can almost guarantee it.
If youre a pothead, Johnson says you should be able to consume as much hemp as your body can handle.
Think its about time we stop sending troops into the mountains of Afghanistan? Johnsons your guy.
Want to spend six days a week in your moms basement gambling online? Knock yourself out, says GJ.
Johnson will not wake up on a cold morning in late January 2013 as the new president of the United States, but if things break right the only candidate enthusiastically in support of our right to gamble on sports and bet online can make things uncomfortable for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in a few states.
I wouldnt be doing this if I didnt think I could have an impact, Johnson told Covers.com in a recent interview. And I think I can win if I can get into the debates.
The Backstory
Getting banned from the Republican debates last winter basically slammed the door shut on his bid to win the GOP nomination, so in late December the former two-term governor of New Mexico did the only honorable thing he up and quit. A little more than four months later Johnsons break with the Republican Party became irrevocable when Libertarians nominated him for president at their convention at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas.
Its no surprise that Republicans treated Johnson like a picnic skunk. He thinks that if the GOP wants government out of the hair of business, then it also has no business snooping into peoples bedrooms.
There is a certain Republican dogma I cant accept, says Johnson. Homophobia is one of those issues.
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Libertarian Gary Johnson is online sports betting's big hope
A serious property rights violation. (Joe Raedle - GETTY IMAGES) Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western University, has been writing a very interesting series of posts at The Atlantic on conservative approaches to various environmental problems. Here he lays out the libertarian case for tackling climate change:
Policy-wise, Adler explains, a small-government approach to global warming might include things like: a revenue-neutral carbon tax that replaced income taxes, public prizes for innovation, and the stripping away of regulations that inhibit the adoption of cleaner energy. (Ive written a fair bit elsewhere on electric-utility regulations that might be worth a peek.)
Adler also has a post on how property rights in fisheries could help reduce overfishing: The creation of property rights in the underlying resource aligns the incentives of those who work in the fishery with the health of the fishery, he writes. As owners of a share in the catch year-after-year, the fishers have a stake in ensuring there are more fish tomorrow than there are today. Iceland and New Zealand already employ systems along these lines, although theyve been slower to spread to the United States with a few exceptions in places like Alaska and parts of southern California.
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Libertarian candidate Jim Maas has announced that he will make another bid for the state Assembly.
Maas of Rothschild is running for the 85th Assembly District. The seat is being vacated by Rep. Donna Seidel, D-Wausau, who is a candidate for next week's 29th Senate recall race.
Democrats Jeff Johnson and Mandy Wright, both of Wausau, already have declared for the race. Pat Snyder of Schofield is the lone Republican in the field.
Friday is the deadline to file nomination papers. The partisan primary will be held Aug. 14 and the general election is Nov. 6.
Maas ran for the Assembly in 2010, but was defeated by Seidel. Maas ran this spring for the Marathon County Board, but was defeated by District 17 incumbent Elroy Zemke.
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OXFORD, N.C. Barbara Howe is gearing up her campaign this weekend to be the next governor of North Carolina, but the Libertarian candidate is running her campaign different than most.
"There are 100 counties in North Carolina and a lot get ignored, so I think I'll visit every one and set up a 5K run," Howe said.
The three-time gubernatorial candidate plans to lead a campaign encouraging people to be more physically active, but if she wins, she wants a government that's less active.
"You don't tell people how to educate their children and how to prepare for their health care and how to plan for their lives, you protect them from people who would hurt them, but otherwise you leave them alone," she said.
Howe supporters say her campaign strategy could jumpstart her success.
"The metaphor for Barbara running in every county, trying to literally run a grassroots campaign, is an attractive way to get her name out and let voters know she is an option," said Michael Munger, who ran for governor in 2008.
This being Howe's third run for governor, she says there's a lot more at stake.
"This is an important race for the Libertarian Party because this is our ballot-access race, she said. If we don't get 2 percent of the vote, we will cease to exist as a political party in North Carolina."
Howe's final race will be the night before Election Night, when she plans to finish at the Governor's Mansion.
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OXFORD, N.C. Barbara Howe is gearing up her campaign this weekend to be the next governor of North Carolina, but the Libertarian candidate is running her campaign different than most.
"There are 100 counties in North Carolina and a lot get ignored, so I think I'll visit every one and set up a 5K run," Howe said.
The three-time gubernatorial candidate plans to lead a campaign encouraging people to be more physically active, but if she wins, she wants a government that's less active.
"You don't tell people how to educate their children and how to prepare for their health care and how to plan for their lives, you protect them from people who would hurt them, but otherwise you leave them alone," she said.
Howe supporters say her campaign strategy could jumpstart her success.
"The metaphor for Barbara running in every county, trying to literally run a grassroots campaign, is an attractive way to get her name out and let voters know she is an option," said Michael Munger, who ran for governor in 2008.
This being Howe's third run for governor, she says there's a lot more at stake.
"This is an important race for the Libertarian Party because this is our ballot-access race, she said. If we don't get 2 percent of the vote, we will cease to exist as a political party in North Carolina."
Howe's final race will be the night before Election Night, when she plans to finish at the Governor's Mansion.
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Not many students can juggle five classes, a business and a congressional campaign.
But UCLA graduate student Steven Collett, 57, is currently studying public policy at the Luskin School of Public Affairs, running his own accounting firm and pursuing a bid for Congress.
Collett, the sole Libertarian in the race for Californias 33rd Congressional District, will square off in June against Democratic, Republican, Green and independent candidates, including longtime Democratic incumbent Henry Waxman.
Brad Rowe, who is Colletts colleague, said he met Collett early during their tenure in the public policy graduate program.
Rowe said he found it inspiring to see Collett take a pivot in his career while building on his previous experiences and time at UCLA to realize his political aspiration.
Its been a lot of fun to watch (Collett) progress and grow, Rowe said.
Collett said that although he sometimes draws different conclusions from course material presented in class, he has found his classes and professors very valuable.
It was at the school of public affairs that Collett said he hoped to find the tools to develop his political platforms and accrue the credentials for a congressional race.
Mark Kleiman, Colletts adviser and a professor of a public policy, acknowledged that Collett is a busy guy.
Im hoping he will have some time, if he doesnt get elected, to do research, Kleiman said.
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UCLA graduate student and Libertarian Steve Collett runs for Congress
While President Obama rakes in the dough out in Palo Alto Thursday, the junior member of the Libertarian Party's presidential ticket will be making a stop in Oakland.
Jim Gray, the Libertarian Party's vice presidential nominee will be speaking from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at Oaksterdam University, 1600 Broadway. The event is free and open to the public.
Gray, a retired Orange County Superior Court Judge, supports legalizing marijuana, as does the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson.
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By Bud Kennedy
The Tea Party takeover of Tarrant County Republicans is nearly complete.
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Posted at: 05/24/2012 7:20 PM By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4
Gary Johnson continues his long shot against-the-odds campaign for the U.S. presidency, with a new internet ad that hits hard on the issue of war and peace.
The new ad for the Libertarian Party candidate is so simple and direct, that it's almost staggering in today's political climate.
Its the stuff politicos call "red meat".
The ad does a slow pull from a crowd of people and tilts its perspective to reveal the peace symbol - the image that galvanized the antiwar movement in Johnson's own youth more than 40 years ago.
It's an unmistakable message that reverberates with millions of Americans - yet you won't see it in the mainstream campaigns of Democrats and Republicans.
It's a message Johnson has stuck with since his switch from republican to Libertarian last December, and his successful quest for that party's presidential nomination.
"I'm doing this today because this is agenda that I think resonates with most Americans," Johnson said in his formal Libertarian announcement last December. "It's an agenda that's not being addressed by either political party."
In fact Johnson was anti-war while he was running for the Republican nomination last year, and even came out against the American invasion of Iraq while he was still governor of New Mexico.
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He has a very long way to go, but Gary Johnson is trying to pick up where Ron Paul left off.
Johnson is the Libertarian Party nominee for president, a perch that Paul has used in the past to run for the White House. But this year, Paul is still pursuing his long-shot bid for the Republican presidential nomination and it is Johnson who wants to emerge as the main alternative to the major parties.
Normally, there would be little reason to think that a Libertarian candidate would make much difference. But 2012 could be different because Paul has shown that some libertarian ideas have unusual power this year, such as an emphasis on individual liberty and on massive reductions in federal power and spending.
[See pictures of Ron Paul]
And Johnson, the former two-term governor of New Mexico, is starting to make his move to capitalize on what he sees as a promising environment. He is running a new ad on the Internet that bills him as the peace candidate because of his long-time opposition to the Iraq war and other U.S. military involvements abroad. This parallels Ron Paul's position.
And in a fund-raising appeal on the Internet, Johnson's senior adviser Ron Nielson recalls how Johnson reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 30, 2003, and Nielson uses the upcoming anniversary of that climb as a deadline for contributions. "Now, in 2012, Governor Johnson is on another, even greater, climb," Nielson says. "A climb to restore Liberty as the bedrock governing principle of this great nation. And he would be the first to tell you that this year's climb is far, far more important than the one he made 9 years ago."
[See a collection of political cartoons on the 2012 campaign.]
Nielson adds: "We know there are millions of Americans who see that Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will only offer more of the same big government, less liberty and interventionist policies that are driving us off a cliff."
Johnson's campaign has set a goal of raising $29,035 by May 30, matching the 29.035-foot height of Mount Everest. It's a relatively tiny amount, but Johnson supporters hope it will lead to bigger things.
He, in fact, is starting to register in some state polls as the Libertarian nominee. In Wisconsin, he gets support from 6 per cent of voters in the latest Reason-Rupe survey, while Obama is backed by 46 per cent and Romney 36 per cent. Public Policy Polling finds that Johnson garners 9 per cent in Arizona. If this trend continues, Johnson could conceivably make a difference in some states by pulling libertarian-conservative support away from Romney and making it harder for Romney to defeat Obama.
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"It's unfortunate that the political powers that be want to use taxpayers' money to shutdown the Libertarians, Greens and other parties," Libertarian Party spokesman says The Green and Libertarian parties on Tuesday said they are launching new petition drives to get their candidates for president and other offices on Maryland's November ballot after losing a battle before the state's highest ...
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Greens, Libertarians launch drives to get on state's November ballot
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul speaks Nov. 20 to a crowd of supporters at UNR. Photo by David B. Parker. / David B. Parker/Reno Gazette-Journal
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Plainfield resident Dan Reale, the Libertarian Party candidate for Congress in Connecticut’s 2nd District, on Saturday formally asked for cross-endorsement from the Republican Party before Friday’s Republican convention. Reale has been seeking Republican support since February 2011 in speeches throughout the region.
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Libertarian appeals for Republican endorsement as convention nears
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Libertarian Party is challenging astate law that allows only Virginia residents to circulatepetitions to get minor party candidates on the general electionballot.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court in Richmondon behalf of the Libertarian Party of Virginia and Darryl Bonner, aPennsylvania resident who often circulates petitions for theparty's candidates in other states.
The complaint alleges that the restriction violates theplaintiffs' First Amendment right of free speech and association.
In a similar case earlier this year, Republican presidentialcandidate Rick Perry challenged a related Virginia law that imposesthe residency requirement for petition circulators in primary
elections. A judge said the requirement is probablyunconstitutional, but ruled that Perry filed his lawsuit too late.
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A top campaign official for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign says there’s “no chance” that the Texas Republican congressman will endorse Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson for president over presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney.
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Ron Paul campaign rules out endorsing Libertarian Party nominee
11-05-2012 16:31
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Libertarian Solution - Barry Short: End Alcohol Prohibition - Video
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Libertarian Solution - Fred Stitt: End Government Electric Monopoly - Video
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Libertarian Solution - Elizabeth B: Your Right to Self-Defense - Video