With less than a month to go until the general election we've been hearing from the players, but now a lesser-known team is trying to storm the political field. <\/p>\n
Click here to watch Brenton Awa's report. <\/p>\n
Come November, you might notice a lot of L's on the ballot. This year's general election fields 17 Libertarian candidates. That's the most ever offered by the party in Hawaii and it's also 16 more than the one who made the ballot in the last election. <\/p>\n
\"Rather than waiting for the current system to change, we want to be the ones making the change,\" said Anthony Higa, the Libertarian state House candidate. <\/p>\n
Anthony Higa's looking to represent State House District 19. He's going up against the incumbent Bert Kobayashi and Republican Victoria Mathieu. Higa's one of the Libertarians top candidates and he's giving this run all he's got. Higa already went as far as quitting his day job to focus on finding the needs of his community. But when no Libertarian has ever won any race in the state, getting supporters can be next to impossible. <\/p>\n
\"The chances are always long shots unless you're a democrat in the State of Hawaii because this is a blue state,\" said Tracy Ryan, Libertarian Party chairperson. <\/p>\n
The hope for this party lies in its beliefs. Libertarians want minimal government involvement while maximizing the public's freedom. They stand for ending the income tax, keeping guns accessible and marriage equality. <\/p>\n
\"We feel that liberty is the default position in a free country and we feel the burden of proof are the people that want to make anything illegal should fall on them, not on the people who say that it shouldn't be criminal or illegal,\" said Ryan. <\/p>\n
Other candidates leading the Libertarian's charge are Tom Berg, the former City Councilman is up against Republican Bryan Jeremiah and Democrat Matt Lopresti for House District 41. On the Big Island, there's larger expectations for Eric Weinert. While he doesn't have name recognition, the party believes Weinert could win because his stance has \"high\" standards. <\/p>\n
\"We've been in favor of legalizing marijuana since day one when we started 40 years ago and the public opinion supports us for the first time,\" said Ryan. <\/p>\n
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Libertarian candidates 'on the rise'<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With less than a month to go until the general election we've been hearing from the players, but now a lesser-known team is trying to storm the political field. Click here to watch Brenton Awa's report. Come November, you might notice a lot of L's on the ballot. Continue reading