Category Archives: Libertarianism

A libertarian political advocacy group submitted a petition to the Arlington Heights Village Board Tuesday that could bar the village from offering taxpayer-funded financial incentives to the Chicago Bears football team which is looking to buy the Arlington Park International Racecourse for $197 million as well as any other business that might open in the area.

Brian Costin, deputy state director of Americans for Prosperity Illinois, led the petition effort and said the organization submitted 663 signatures to the board at its meeting Tuesday night.

The petition, which originated from a section of the Arlington Heights municipal code that allows for resident-generated referendums, calls for the Village Board to consider an ordinance that would prevent the village from extending any kind of financial assistance to any corporation seeking to open in the village.

Village officials say such an ordinance would be disastrous for the village, while organizers from the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity call it an anti-corporate welfare ordinance.

In presenting the signatures to the Village Board during the public comment portion of the meeting, Costin noted that Americans for Prosperity recently ran a poll that found 72% of respondents supported the Bears move to the village but that 68% opposed the use of public money to bring them to Arlington Heights.

Weve seen stadium bills and corporate welfare projects turn sour for taxpayers across Illinois, Costin said, citing examples in the towns of Bridgeview and Hoffman Estates.

[Chicago Bears show renderings for enclosed stadium complex in Arlington Heights, but say theyd expect some public funding for surrounding entertainment district]

Arlington Heights officials said passing such a measure would put the village at a major financial disadvantage to its neighbors.

Mayor Tom Hayes was absent from the board meeting last night, telling Pioneer Press in an email that he was in Canada on a non-refundable vacation hed booked a year ago. But Hayes previously expressed his disapproval for the ordinance API is pushing.

We dont think its something thats in the best interest of the village, Hayes previously said. If something like this is enacted, then all those businesses are going elsewhere, and how will that benefit our residents?

Hayes previously told Pioneer Press that he would do everything in my power to see (such an ordinance) stopped.

Village Manager Randy Recklaus was present at the meeting Tuesday night and blasted the idea of the ordinance.

This is a very extreme proposition, Recklaus said. It would literally cripple the villages ability to engage in any economic development throughout our entire community.

Recklaus added that major swathes of the village, like its downtown area, were redeveloped through public financing incentives like tax increment financing districts.

[Will the Chicago Bears leave Soldier Field? Heres what to know about the teams possible move to Arlington Heights.]

In fact, the Village Board considered a TIF district-related request at the meeting Tuesday for the Southpoint Shopping Center at 600 East Rand Road. The developer sought money from the TIF to help construct two commercial buildings: one for a Chipotle restaurant and the other for an AT&T retail store.

Resident Martin Bauer told Arlington Heights trustees he was opposed to the use of public money on Bears-related construction.

Bauer said he was not with Americans for Prosperity, but said he might get involved with that group or a similar one if the village continued moving forward with the project.

No public money is needed to develop this particular site, he said about the former racecourse property. Were not talking about a brownfield. Were not talking about an eyesore thats been sitting vacant for decades.

Bauer said Hayes and some members of the Village Board had become googly eyed over the prospect of bringing the football team to the village.

He indicated that he will do anything to make sure that the Bears come to Arlington Heights, Bauer said of Hayes.

Recklaus responded to Bauers comment, in the mayors absence.

I do not recall Mayor Hayes ever saying he would do anything to bring the Bears here, Recklaus said.

The petition needed 546 signatures, or 1% of the voting population of the village, to be submitted to the Village Board as a potential ordinance. If the board then rejects that proposed ordinance, then the petition organizers may try to get 12% of the villages voting population to sign on and force a referendum on the ballot at an upcoming election.

More:
Arlington Heights board gets petition from Koch brothers-backed group calling for law that may impact Chicago Bears' stadium plans - Chicago Tribune

After a history-making 2020 and 2021, Georgia is once again on our minds with two high-profile statewide races on the ballot this November: the U.S. Senate race, a highly competitive contest between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, as well as the gubernatorial contest, a high-octane rematch between Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams.

But interestingly, these races have pretty different outlooks in FiveThirtyEights 2022 midterm forecast. The Senate race is currently rated as a toss-up, while in the governors race Kemp is a clear favorite to win.

Given how partisan our politics have become especially in a state like Georgia where the electorate is highly polarized its pretty unusual that the two statewide races show such a large gap, as much as 13 percentage points in some polls. Historically, major contests in Georgia have run close together, which is why a sizable split between the Senate and governors races would be pretty remarkable.

For starters, the gap between the two races varies depending on pollster, but on average, polls have found a 7-point difference between the margins in the Senate and gubernatorial contests. This pretty much matches what our more rigorous polling averages found, too, with Warnock up around 2 points and Kemp leading by about 5 points or a 7-point gap.

The margin in Georgias Senate and governor races in polls that measured both, including the gap between the two contests, since the May 24 primary

The data is shown as rounded but was calculated based on the fully-reported info in cases where pollsters provided decimal points. A (D) or (R) beside a pollsters name indicates their or their sponsors partisan affiliation.

Source: polls

But the fact that Georgias electorate is so polarized makes it unlikely that well see too large of a gap between the two contests. Like most of the Deep South, Georgia has a racially polarized electorate, where most Black voters back Democrats and most white voters back Republicans.

Take Georgias 2020 presidential vote: 88 percent of Black voters supported President Biden, while 69 percent of white voters supported former President Trump, according to the 2020 exit polls. This gives Georgia what we at FiveThirtyEight call an inelastic electorate, or an electorate for which factors like the political environment and candidate traits are unlikely to sway voters because so few voters are swing voters.

This lack of a gap in Georgias statewide elections is clear when we examine elections dating back to 2002, which is arguably when Georgias current political era began that year, Republicans won the governorship and captured a state-legislative chamber for the first time since Reconstruction. For instance, when we compare the outcomes in each pair of presidential, Senate and gubernatorial races in years when two of those races were on the ballot, the margins in these high-profile races usually differed only to a small extent, as the table below shows.

Difference in margin between major statewide elections for president, Senate or governor in years when at least two of these offices were on the ballot, 2002 to present

*Special election for U.S. Senate

The 2020 Senate race is the regularly scheduled Class II seat, as the special election for the Class III seat was a jungle primary. No candidate won an outright majority in either Senate election, which by state law necessitated a January 2021 runoff, as shown in the 2021 row.

Source: Dave Leips Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

Although each year and race had its own set of particulars, six of these eight sets of elections saw only small differences in margin less than 3 points. The exceptions were the 2010 midterms and 2016 presidential election, when there was a wide gap between the Senate election and the other statewide election. (Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson was up both years, so he may have given the GOP a lift as an incumbent; also former Gov. Roy Barnes served as the Democrats nominee for governor in 2010, and his past appeal in more conservative parts of the state may have made that race closer than it wouldve been otherwise.) But these elections were the exception, not the norm. Even the states most recent elections, the 2020 presidential election and 2021 Senate runoffs, featured elections with very similar margins although they might be evidence that the overall political climate in Georgia is shifting toward Democrats.

Its notable, then, that the FiveThirtyEight forecast shows such a large divide between the Senate and governor races in its average projected vote share. The forecast currently has Kemp with a 6-point lead and Warnock with about a 1-point lead, which would amount to a 7-point gap between the two races.

There are a number of potential explanations for this gap, but the biggest factor might be incumbency and, more importantly, that Georgias top two races feature incumbents from different parties Kemp is a Republican and Warnock a Democrat. Incumbency does not provide as strong a tailwind as it once did, but both Kemp and Warnock are relatively popular politicians who could each win. From April through June, Morning Consults polling gave Kemp a 52 percent approval rating and only a 39 percent disapproval rating; Warnock, meanwhile, had an approval rating of about 47 percent and a disapproval rating of 41 percent.

In other words, there isnt that much difference between Kemps and Warnocks standing in Georgia. However, given that the gap between the two races is unlikely to remain this large and that Kemp has a healthier lead over Abrams than Warnock has over Walker, voters who split their tickets could matter a lot for Warnock. And two polls, one from Emerson College released last week and a July survey from Beacon Research/Shaw & Company on behalf of Fox News, show how different degrees of Kemp voters backing Warnock could matter. In Emersons poll, only 3 percent of Kemp supporters backed Warnock, and overall, Walker led by 2 points. In the Fox News survey, meanwhile, 8 percent of Kemps supporters backed Warnock, and overall, Warnock led by 4 points. The takeaway here is that higher levels of support for Warnock among Kemp voters would seemingly boost the incumbent senators chances of finishing ahead of Walker.

This is not to say that only split-ticket voting will matter to the outcomes in each race; turnout and the overall political environment are also important. But Warnock would be in much better shape if he could capture 8 percent of Kemps voters versus just 3 percent: Based on the 2018 governors race, that could be a difference of roughly 100,000 votes, or about 2.5 percent of ballots cast. In a close contest, thats a big deal case in point, Kemp defeated Abrams by just 55,000 votes four years ago.

Finally, theres one other wrinkle with Georgia: If no candidate wins an outright majority of the vote, a runoff between the top-two finishers will take place on Dec. 6, 2022. And considering each contest has a Libertarian candidate, which is notable because Libertarians have averaged a little over 2 percent in statewide races dating back to 2002, its entirely possible that if the Senate race is especially tight, a Libertarian candidate who gains 1 or 2 percent of the vote could trigger a Warnock-Walker runoff in December. Currently, the FiveThirtyEight forecast gives the Senate race about a 1-in-5 chance of going to a runoff, while the governors race has about a 1-in-10 chance.

At this point, its too soon to say how the races in Georgia will change, but with two months to go until Election Day, well be keeping a close eye on Peach State polls to see whether the gap between the two contests remains large or narrows.

Originally posted here:
Georgias Senate Race Is Much Closer Than The Governor Election. Will That Hold Until November? - FiveThirtyEight

To the editor: While it was very easy to get caught up in the many crimes of Donald Trump over the summer, I became immersed in a very readable book by historian Nancy MacLean: Democracy in Chains.

It helped me to understand the background of our current situation. Most Americans, if theyre in the least bit politically engaged, focus on the here and now, election results, etc., while the radical libertarian right wing has been playing a very long game to alter the fabric of American democracy. It began in the post-Civil War era but found its footing in the mid 1950s with the Brown v. Board of Education decision. The ongoing effort to do away with public education goes back to that fateful time.

When President Joe Biden gave his soul of the nation speech, he sounded the alarm about a cult-like group of Donald Trump followers. Of course we should be worried about the possible violence they would foment, but the concept of democracy is much broader. Restricting voting to desired classes of citizens is an ongoing issue. The MAGA Republicans feel that when everyone votes, they lose.

Im sure the radical libertarian big-money donors thought they hit pay dirt with a Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan ticket in 2012. Unfortunately for them, both men were totally devoid of charisma, but the false concept of "makers and takers" took hold.

It won't be easy, but we need all hands on deck to fight for our democracy.

Stephanie Hoadley, New Marlborough

Excerpt from:
Letter: The threat against democracy | Letters To Editor | berkshireeagle.com - Berkshire Eagle

SomethingIjust learned and confirmed that I want to share all registered voters can participate in the Republican or Democratic primaries.

As Ive previously written, if you are a member of one of the two big parties, you can only vote on their ballot. If you are unenrolled in either, you can choose which to vote in.

What I hadnt realized was that voters registered for third parties (Libertarian, Green, Rainbow, etc), also get to participate and choose their ballot. That is because none of those political groups met the threshold to be treated as a real party in this primary. (When third parties do qualify for their own ballots, members are then restricted to voting on those ballots.)

Libertarians currently have the same status as members of the Pizza Party and a long list of other political designations. (That may change for the 2024 primaries.)

Below is my reminder of who is on each ballot and where/how you can cast yours.

With todays downpour, Im guessing many voters wish they took advantage of early alternative options. If you still have your mail-in ballot make sure to get it into the drop box at the Town House (17 Common St) before 8:00 pm.

Otherwise, you need to head to the gym at Trottier Middle School (49 Parkerville Road) to vote today. The polls are open until 8:00 pm. (The entrance is on the side of the building facing the outdoor track.)

If you have any questions about voting, you can leave a voicemail for the Town Clerk at 508-485-0710 ext 3005 or email townclerk@southboroughma.com. (The office is closed today so staff can oversee the election. You can find them in person at Trottier.)

Below are details on who is competing for votes in the primaries. (For those that have campaign websites I could find, I inserted links so you can research their positions.) Only Democratic and Republican parties are holding primaries for our precincts.

Governor

Lt. Governor

Attorney General

Secretary of State

Auditor

Governors Councillor Third District

We already know which candidates will be on the ballot this fall for the following positions. (Some of the uncontested candidates dont even have opponents on another primary ballot. The deadline has passed for Non-Party candidates to file to add their names to the November ballot. Im not aware that any have, but cant yet rule out that possibility.)

Read more here:
Vote in the State Primary - mysouthborough

Ash Mirchandani is tired of battleground politics, which he described as a landscape where partisan bickering takes precedence over consensus-building progress.

So the Southern Nevada resident and registered nonpartisan decided to do something about it by launching the Coalition of Independent Nevadans (COIN), a group he envisions as a neutral platform to engage more nonpartisan voters in the political process.

If we can hold both parties to a higher standard of working with each other and creating meaningful common sense-driven policies, then our job is done, said Mirchandani, managing principal of Kaizen Strategies, a government relations firm, and president of the United Citizens Foundation, which provides mental health services for children.

The coalitions formation comes as nonpartisans represent a growing portion of the Nevada electorate. In July, 530,941 people were registered as nonpartisans, making up 29 percent of active registered voters statewide, according to data from the secretary of states office. By comparison, Democrats account for 33 percent of active registered voters, while Republicans comprise 30 percent. The remaining voters belong to minor political parties, such as the Libertarian Party and Independent American Party, among others.

Lumped together, voters who registered as nonpartisans or members of minor political parties account for 37 percent of the Nevada electorate.

Nonpartisans alone are a large enough voting bloc that they could sway the outcome of the upcoming midterm elections a fact not lost on candidates as they attempt to court those coveted votes.

Thats why one of the coalitions first acts will be interviewingand then endorsing candidates for a variety of statewide, legislative and local elected offices, said Mirchandani, who serves as the groups chair. A panel of nonpartisan voters will conduct the interviews, with each person ranking the candidates based on an agreed-upon scoring system. If the candidate scores fall within a narrow range, the panelists will have a group discussion and then vote.

Mirchandani said the beauty of the group is that none of the panelists are heavily involved in the political sphere. Theyre all volunteers.

They are everyday people that are taking out time because they care, he said.

COIN plans to announce its list of endorsements toward the end of September and, in the future, hold other events, such as listening tours.

Editors Note: This story appears in Indy 2022, The Nevada Independents newsletter dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the 2022 election. Sign up for the newsletter here.

View original post here:
Group catering to nonpartisan voters launches ahead of the election The Nevada Independent - The Nevada Independent

UBET, WIThe Libertarian Party of Wisconsin (LPWI), true to its principled opposition to theft by government through taxation, denounces President Joe Bidens latest proposal to forgive student loan debts with the publics treasury, as announced within the past week.

To give blanket government payments to those holding student loan debts, literally on contracts made privately by parties for future private gain, and made by choice and consent, rankly continues the unequal and corrupt practice of using the public money of everyone to bribe the few for popular political support and power. The proposal, furthermore, does nothing to solve the underlying problem or stop the continuation of predatory lending and funding for individual education.

With total debt forgiveness, as detailed so far, going to each individual with $10,000 in loans, etc. and the eventual sum total cost to taxpayers, by some estimates, will amount to $500 Billion. This will greatly impact yearly Federal budgets, lead most likely to more deficit spending, and increase the total accumulated national government debt. This grotesquely political scheme would betray the average tax-payer with the Federal Governments further fiscal mismanagement and irresponsibility. And finally, as to equality and fairness, what happens to people who already paid their student debt obligations by themselves, and in full?

The LPWI offers the following solutions: 1) Encouraging a privately-run system to better advise the student population seeking higher education, specifically, about the risks and obligations of assuming debt; and 2), more open and competitive accredited private markets for educational opportunities, without government money or mandates, which we believe will lower the overall costs of the educational system, at all levels. Finally, 3) the LPWI endorses US H.R. 899, legislation before Congress to terminate the Federal Department of Education, in order to return education standards and control of curricula to parental and local control.

For more information on the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin, please visit http://www.lpwi.org.

See original here:
Libertarian Party of Wisconsin: Wisconsin Libertarians oppose student loan forgiveness ideas as theft - WisPolitics.com

One of the fun conditions of this project is that the three teams did not in any way collaborate with each other or get an advance look at what the others were going to say. As a result some recommendations overlapbetween teamsin a positive way, some conflict, and many others simply don't engage one way or the other. For example, we at Team Libertarian reached very similar conclusions to Team Progressive on reforming the Electoral Count Act, but a mostly opposite conclusion (as Prof. Foley has noted) on whether government should seek to regulate false statements about elections. And although Team Conservative's comments on restricting presidential emergency powers both dovetail with ours and add useful detail, few of our other recommendations engage.

Although we and Team Conservative may have marched off in different directions, I and many Cato Institute colleagues are on board with much of what they say. Runaway administrative agencies usurping legislative power? Yes, a big problem. Congressional abdication of power stretching over for a half-century or more, shifting responsibility to the President and the judiciary? Definitely. I agree too that there's a decent case for making it at least a bit easier to amend the U.S. Constitution. (Here's a Cato fellow writing in 2011 proposing a modest reduction in the threshold number of states needed for proposing and ratifying an amendment.) The need to move past a broken primary system in which candidates with independent and crossover appeal get knocked out because they can't appease their party's most zealous base voters? Right again.

On the topic of elections, we're also in agreement with Team Conservative's observation that campaign finance reforms have backfired and that we should be repealing such laws rather than adding more. But let's also get real: the election world wasted much of 2021 in a battle over whether Democrats would succeed in ramming through an omnibus package expanding these laws yet further. As I've argued, this package, the so-called For The People Act, 1) put its thumb in the eye of libertarian and constitutionalist principle, and 2) was supremely irrelevant to the distinctive challenges of the events leading up to Jan. 6. Shouldn't we focus on reform efforts that have a chance of doing relevant good between now and the next grave election crisis down the road which we might find ourselves in the middle of by a date as early as, say, 2024?

Which brings me to some policy disagreements with Team Conservative. I can't say I'm persuaded by the idea of letting Congress override presidential vetoes by simple majority vote, as Tennessee does. The Founders meant to establish serious checks and balances against the dangers of hasty legislation, and gutting the power of the president's veto would knock out one of the most important of those checks. (For what it's worth, my home state of Maryland sets its veto-override threshold at three-fifths rather than two-thirds not that I'm recommending that, either.) On bringing back the legislative veto, I share the misgivings about that innovation expressed by Antonin Scalia, then editor of Regulation, many years ago.

Now on to Team Progressive. On one major point we agree strongly: it's incredibly dangerous when a controlling faction of one of the two great political parties wrongly contends that honest and correctly tabulated elections were stolen or rigged. The Progressive report gives this problem a central place in its analysis, and that seems right to me.

Yet there are differences of mood and terminology in our approaches as well. As I commented on Twitter the other day, I continue to search for phrases other than "Big Lie" and "election denier" that would let us criticize both these things without using terminology associated with you-know-what. Millions of persons sincerely believe the false claims in question. They are truly convinced that they, not we, are doing the right thing and standing up for fair and free elections. There are some genuine villains out there feeding them lies, as well as crazies irresponsibly stoking mass delusion. But the ordinary believers are also our friends, our relatives, and our neighbors. We cannot stop being those things to them if America is to gather back its wits and turn back down the road toward some semblance of unity.

As to policy, I'm a convinced advocate of ranked-choice voting, but I'd caution that its advantages are relatively subtle; it won't put out the fire of public disbelief in election results. The fact is that in some key states, election fabulists may presently be popular enough to win, or at least put up a strong contest, under whichever set of rules is used. (I also think the plain-vanilla version of RCV, sometimes called instant-runoff voting, is better suited to today's America than the more complex "round-robin" variant that Foley recommends.)

We and Team Progressive likely part company on some issues of federalism and decentralization. Ned Foley and Ilya Somin have already discussed this a bit as to foot voting, and I suspect that our teams may also diverge on to what extent the federal government should play a greater role in supervising the states in election administration; we caution against this at several points.

Also on the Foley-Somin exchange linked above, I'll mention for what it's worth that I'm probably a little more positive about civics education than Ilya is. Still, I do recognize there can be difficult problems in legitimately educating the public about how the electoral system works, on the one hand, while avoiding the specter of taxpayer-funded propaganda campaigns,on the other. (As an example of the challenges involved, here's how the Nebraska Secretary of State set about refuting myths and rumors about the 2020 count.)

Thanks to the National Constitution Center for making possible this summer's exchange of views with writers and scholars we respect, and to the Volokh Conspiracy for hosting this shorter symposium this week.

The rest is here:
Guardrails of Democracy, Extended: Comparing Notes On The Team Libertarian Report - Reason

CONCORD, NH Here are some share-worthy stories from the New Hampshire Patch network to talk about this afternoon and evening. Thanks for reading!

James Daniels of Manchester, a felon was arrested on Thursday, was accused of shooting another man in Eagle Square on Saturday.

Gubernatorial candidate Karlyn Borysenko of Merrimack, Senate candidate Jeremy Kauffman of Manchester filed thousands of petitions Monday.

Hampton woman arrested on crash charge; Deerfield man faces theft warrant out of Somersworth; Rochester man arrested on revocation charge.

No one was home at the Gilson Road house when responders arrived. The house was engulfed in fire with debris spread over a large area.

Teens face unlawful possession charges; pair charged with trespassing at Ballroom; Somersworth man arrested on disorderly, other charges.

NH AG: From oversold flights to operational disruptions, too often, airlines shift their problems onto their passengers.

Plus: DUI charge on Borough Road; assault and theft arrests; woman cited after dog attacks; teen charged with unlawful possession.

Chanphanou Pou, of Hudson, NH, who owns Tutti Frutti locations in Manchester, Salem, Peabody and Auburn, faces violation of privacy charges.

Read the original post:
Attempted Murder Arrest; Libertarians On The 2022 Ballot? PM Patch NH - Patch

Providing Georgians with the information they need to participate fully in democracy is our highest goal. AJC reporters strive for fairness and accuracy. They do not support political parties and are not allowed to endorse, contribute to or campaign for candidates or political causes.

Reporters and editors are members of the communities they live in and are encouraged to vote, but they work to be aware of their own views and preferences and carry out their jobs in an independent, non-partisan way. As we scrutinize public officials and issues, we hold each other accountable for doing so from a position of independence.

We work hard to be evenhanded and fair, and we invite you to let us know how were doing.

In an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll conducted last month, Warnock led Walker 46% to 43%, which is within the surveys margin of error. Oliver drew support from 3% of respondents. About 8% said they were undecided.

History shows that support for Libertarians tends to erode by Election Day. In 2020, Libertarian candidates received between 1% and 3% of the vote in Georgia.

In a tight race, that can be enough.

Oliver was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and moved with his parents to Snellville when he was 7. He described his childhood as a standard middle-class existence. His dad was a salesman who at different times peddled postage machinery, suits and magazine ads. His mother held different jobs and now works in retail.

Early on, Oliver was interested in politics and public service. He was 14 when he manned phones for Al Gores 2000 presidential campaign.

But he said his real political awakening came during the Iraq War, which he vehemently opposed.

I felt very strongly that the evidence wasnt there (to support the war), he said. I was at an age where the people who were going go over there and fight this war were the same people I had just been in class with.

He became an avid supporter of Barack Obama, who had promised to extract the United States from the conflict and also to close Guantanamo Bay, but Oliver became disillusioned when, as president, Obama didnt move quickly on either. Politically, he was adrift.

Then, at the Atlanta Gay Pride Festival in 2010, he came across the Libertarian booth. Oliver, who is gay, was impressed by the partys early support for gay rights in the immediate aftermath of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York. His views on limited government and restrained foreign involvement also aligned with the Libertarians.

I said, You know, I think I found a political home here, he said.

Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Chase Oliver worked as a teenager in Democrat Al Gore's campaign for president in 2000, and he backed Barack Obama for president in 2008. But he liked what he learned about the Libertarian Party after visiting its booth at the Atlanta Gay Pride Festival in 2010. He eventually gained a seat on the party's executive committee. Miguel Martinez / miguel.martinezjimenez@ajc.com

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Chase Oliver worked as a teenager in Democrat Al Gore's campaign for president in 2000, and he backed Barack Obama for president in 2008. But he liked what he learned about the Libertarian Party after visiting its booth at the Atlanta Gay Pride Festival in 2010. He eventually gained a seat on the party's executive committee. Miguel Martinez / miguel.martinezjimenez@ajc.com

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Credit: Miguel Martinez

He became increasingly active in the state party, rising to a seat on the executive committee.

His first run for elected office was in 2020 when he was one of seven candidates who ran to fill the remainder of U.S. Rep. John Lewis term in the House after the congressman died. Oliver said he was running to honor Lewis legacy and to highlight how Georgia laws still limit ballot access for third-party candidates. He placed sixth with 2% of the vote, bested by all five Democrats in the race.

When it came time to select a candidate for the 2022 Senate race, Oliver threw his hat in the ring.

Oliver, who worked in logistics but recently took a job as a liaison between businesses and lenders, said he was drawn to the Senate because he enjoys coalition building and working as a team.

I would love to go to a UGA football game with Herschel Walker on a Saturday. I would love to listen to Rev. Warnock preach on a Sunday, Oliver said. But I am the only one in this race who would be an honest broker for the people of Georgia.

In Georgia, Libertarians get to stay on the ballot in statewide races as long as at least one of the partys candidates received at least 1% of votes cast from the total number of registered voters in the previous general election. That requirement was satisfied in 2020 by Shane Hazel in the U.S. Senate race, along with two Libertarian candidates for the state Public Service Commission.

Libertarians are the nations largest third party but have failed to get more than about 3% of the vote in national races.

Christopher Devine, a political science professor at the University of Dayton who has written about Libertarians, said the party has long cast itself as the fiscally conservative, socially liberal alternative.

They want to be the Goldilocks option, Devine said.

But he said studies shows Libertarians tend to be right-leaning, and if they pull support from other candidates, it is most likely from Republicans candidates.

Some have speculated that Republicans, unsure about Walker as a viable candidate, could cast a ballot for Oliver as a protest vote.

Georgias election law requires candidates to win 50% plus one vote to win outright. So, in races that are tight, just one third-party candidate can throw things to a runoff.

And the state has had some memorable ones. In 1992, Republican Paul Coverdell ousted longtime Democratic U.S. Sen. Wyche Fowler, a harbinger of the GOP wave to come, because of third-party votes in the general election. U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss trounced Democrat Jim Martin in a 2008 runoff. The Republicans win effectively ended Democratic hopes of securing a 60-seat, filibuster-proof Senate majority that year. Then there were the twin runoffs in January 2021, where the wins by Warnock and Jon Ossoff handed control of the Senate to Democrats.

U.S. Sen. Chambliss, shown with his wife, Julianne, figured in one of Georgia's most memorable runoff elections. He trounced Jim Martin in 2008, denying Democrats a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

Credit: Jason Getz / jgetz@ajc.com

Credit: Jason Getz / jgetz@ajc.com

U.S. Sen. Chambliss, shown with his wife, Julianne, figured in one of Georgia's most memorable runoff elections. He trounced Jim Martin in 2008, denying Democrats a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

Credit: Jason Getz / jgetz@ajc.com

Credit: Jason Getz / jgetz@ajc.com

Runoffs are costly and require each side to work frantically to turn their voters out again.

Partisans from both sides are hopeful this years Senate race wont come to that, especially if control of the chamber hangs in the balance, as it did in 2021.

I dont think anyone looks forward to a runoff, said Jason Shepherd, former chairman of the Cobb County Republican Party and a professor at Kennesaw State University. We want to win this thing outright and have a quiet, peaceful holiday season.

Former Democratic U.S. Rep. George Buddy Darden agreed.

People can say it benefits this candidate or that candidate, he said. But the truth is, its a crapshoot.

Continue reading here:
Chase Oliver could send Georgia's Senate race to a runoff - he's OK with that - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

1 / 2

Rep. Stephen Handy, a Republican, announces his plans to wage a write-in campaign for the District 16 seat in the Utah House at a media event on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022. Trevor Lee defeated Handy at the Davis County Republican Party convention in March and is the official party nominee for the post.

Photo supplied, Stephen Handy

2 / 2

Trevor Lee, the Republican candidate for the District 16 seat in the Utah House in the 2022 cycle.

Photo supplied, Davis County Clerk/Auditor Office

LAYTON Itll be Republican versus Republican versus Libertarian in the race for the District 16 Utah House seat.

As he had previously said was a possibility, Rep. Stephen Handy the six-term incumbent defeated by Trevor Lee in the Davis County Republican Party convention last March will wage a write-in bid to hold onto the Davis County post. That makes the race a three-way contest heading to Nov. 8 Handy, Lee and Libertarian Brent Zimmerman duking it out.

Handy held a formal kick-off event to his write-in bid in Layton, his hometown, on Tuesday. He told the Standard-Examiner on Wednesday that his decision stemmed in part from feedback from constituents. He initially indicated he was mulling a write-in bid last May after news emerged that Lee had used language in an April podcast subsequently deemed transphobic by the Davis County Republican Party, which Lee later apologized for.

I want to give the people the opportunity to vote, Handy said. Even though its a write-in, thats the option thats before me. Im listening to the voters who feel disenfranchised.

Lee, seeking election to office for the first time, defeated Handy 59 votes to 35 at the March 26 Davis County GOP convention, which Handy maintains isnt reflective of broader GOP sentiment in District 16. Nearly 12,000 registered Republicans live in the district, which has 21,000 registered voters in all.

Lee, for his part, rebuffed Handys move and focused on his status as newcomer to the political scene. Lee is a more conservative Republican while Handy is more moderate and the situation seems to have unleashed some of the tensions between the varied party factions.

I dont think Steve has accepted the results of our convention race, Lee told the Standard-Examiner. We need a new, fresh perspective on things.

Write-in candidacies typically have a tough row to hoe. Voters favoring Handy who registered his intent to wage a write-in bid with election officials will have to actually write his name on a line on the ballot section corresponding to the District 16 race. District 16 covers north Layton and small parts of South Weber and Clearfield.

Still, Handy thinks the mail-in balloting system will help him. Registered voters will get ballots mailed to their homes three weeks or so before Election Day, Nov. 8, and, he said, theyll have time to get to know the intricacies of how to vote for a write-in hopeful.

Plus, Handy has a financial edge, at least for now. Handy said hes received some $50,000 in donations, with more coming in since he announced his write-in plans on Tuesday. Lee reported $3,482 on his latest financial disclosure statement filed last June with state election officials.

As for messaging, Lee, operator of a finance company that handles wealth management, said he sides with families fighting to get by as inflation pushes prices up. I want to help struggling families. Im just like they are. Im an average citizen, he said.

Handy, a marketing consultant, put a focus on his service to the Layton area and connections to the people of District 16. Aside from his tenure in the Utah House, he served two terms on the Layton City Council.

My message is that I have a long, long history of tremendous service to the legislative district, said Handy. He called himself a considerate conservative.

Lee sparked headlines last May after it emerged he had used a disparaging word in referencing transgender people as a guest on a conservative podcast. He also expressed a measure of aversion in the podcast to the LGBTQ community. I wouldnt want to be associated with those people, he said.

In a statement at the time, the Davis County Republican Party said it unequivocally condemns the transphobic comments by Lee. Lees comments were also the spur that got Handy mulling a write-in campaign.

Lee posted a statement on Facebook soon after the April podcast saying he hadnt known the term he used referencing transgender people was derogatory and that hed stop using it. He told the Standard-Examiner at the time that he was sorry for the flare-up over the comment.

That wasnt the end of things. Lee subsequently condemned Handy for his statement to KSL Radio at the time that Lees commentary during the podcast in question comes off to me as almost white supremacy.

Handy subsequently offered an apology for his white supremacy comments. I walk that back and I apologize for saying that. I do not think hes a white supremacist or racist, Handy told the Standard-Examiner at the time.

As winner of the Davis County Republican Party convention last June, Lee gets party backing. The DCRP bylaws require the county party to recognize the will of the delegates and the party will continue to support our nominee, Trevor Lee, in the General Election, reads a message posted Tuesday on the party Facebook page.

Whatever the case, responses to the Facebook post indicate the Lee-Handy situation has spurred sharp discord among Republicans.

Andrew Badger, who unsuccessfully ran for the GOP nomination in the 1st District U.S. House primary last June, took aim at Daniela Harding, chairperson of the Davis County Republican Party. Harding was forced to make the message of support for Lee against her will, Badger wrote in the Facebook message string.

The party rebuffed the charge, saying Harding had been the force behind release of the statement of support for Lee. We will not tolerate personal attacks or baseless accusations. We are focusing on helping Trevor and other Republicans win this November, reads the Facebook response.

Another poster alluded to social media messaging from Harding in support of Handy in his successful 2018 Utah House campaign. Harding responded, saying she has had no role in Handys write-in bid and wont play any part going forward.

Steve Handy has honored my request and has deleted all the videos off his website and social media I did in 2018 in support of his campaign when I served as the (House District) 16 Legislative Chair on the DCRP Executive Committee, Harding wrote in response.

Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter.

Follow this link:
Rep. Stephen Handy, ousted at GOP convention, to wage write-in bid - Standard-Examiner