Election results for Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania candidates

Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania (LPPa)
3915 Union Deposit Road #223
Harrisburg, PA 17109
www.lppa.org

For Immediate Release: November 8, 2010

Contact: Doug Leard (Media Relations) at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or
Michael Robertson (Chair) at 1-800-R-RIGHTS / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Harrisburg -  The Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania is pleased to announce that many of  our 2010 candidates received very strong voter support in the general elections despite our statewide candidates being challenged off the ballot this year.

- General Assembly 64th District Rep candidate Vance H. Mays (Venango County) received 15.8% of the votes in his district.
- General Assembly 28th District Senate candidate Ed Gately (York County) received 15.7% of the votes in his district.
- General Assembly 120th District Rep candidate Tim Mullen (Luzerne County) received 14.9% of the votes in his district.
- General Assembly 63rd District Rep candidate Michael J. Robertson (Clarion County) received 11.2% of the votes in his district.
- General Assembly 85th District Rep candidate Erik Viker (Snyder County) received 9.0% of the votes in his district.

Other Libertarian candidates throughout Pennsylvania generally received 5-6% of the votes in their districts.

Libertarian candidates did well despite being at a heavy disadvantage running against two old party machines that benefit from public funding and legal privileges. Despite this challenge, many voters recognized that these Libertarian candidates could improve the quality of government in Pennsylvania.

The Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania is grateful to these candidates for the time and effort they committed to running for office. We hope that more voters in the future will see the need for limited government.

The Libertarian Party is the third largest political party in Pennsylvania and the United States. More than 200,000 people across the country are registered Libertarians, and Libertarians serve in hundreds of elected offices. Please visit www.LP.org or www.LPPA.org for more information.

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Harrisburg responds with tax increase proposals

Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania (LPPa)
3915 Union Deposit Road #223
Harrisburg, PA 17109
www.lppa.org

For Immediate Release:  October 11, 2010

Contact: Doug Leard (Media Relations) at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or
Michael Robertson (Chair) at 1-800-R-RIGHTS / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Harrisburg – The Office of the Auditor General, Jack Wagner, has estimated that Pennsylvania’s budget deficit for 2011-2012 will be at least $5 billion.   The estimated deficit more than doubles last year’s deficit of nearly $2 billion.
The 2011-2012 deficit stems from a loss of $2.5 billion in federal stimulus funds and $3 billion in unemployment payments owed to the federal government. The state also faces an increase of at least $800 million in rising government employee pension costs.

Noting the state budget has ballooned 33.5 percent since Governor Rendell took office, Mr. Wagner stated, “It appears to me and to most others we have grown excessively beyond our means.”

Wagner’s statement is backed up by the 2010 Fiscal Report Card on America’s Governors recently released by the Cato Institute (a Washington based public policy research organization).  Not surprisingly, Governor Rendell earned a D due to his support for tax and spending increases during his tenure. 

Instead of cutting spending, Rendell and the state House of Representatives seem intent on taking Pennsylvania’s financial woes as an opportunity to increase taxes.  Last week, the House passed a bill that would impose heavy severance taxes on natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania.  Through a spokesman, Rendell said he was happy to see the bill pass and that the dollar amounts were in line with his proposal.  The bill would suck hundreds of millions of dollars from the natural gas industry for use by Pennsylvania bureaucrats.

Len Young, who is running for State Senate in Pennsylvania’s 45th district (includes parts of Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties), recently coined a simple expression for addressing Pennsylvania’s budget issues.  “Lower taxes + Less regulation = Increased business development for Pennsylvania.”

"We need to re-examine the way government operates in Pennsylvania,” added Michael Robertson, LPPa Chair. “We cannot continue to shovel money into a machine without evaluating the justification for the taxation and the effect that it has on the economic and living conditions for the people of the Commonwealth."

The Libertarian Party is the third largest political party in Pennsylvania and the United States. More than 200,000 people across the country are registered Libertarians, and Libertarians serve in hundreds of elected offices. Please visit www.LP.org or www.LPPA.org for more information.

Statewide candidates banned from ballot, so write-in:
   Marakay Rogers for Governor
   Kat Valleley for Lieutenant Governor
   Douglas M. Jamison for U.S. Senator
 
Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania
3915 Union Deposit Road #223
Harrisburg, PA 17109
www.lppa.org
 
For Immediate Release: October 6, 2010
 
Contact: Doug Leard (Media Relations) at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or
Michael Robertson (Chair) at 1-800-R-RIGHTS / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 
Harrisburg, PA – The Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania (LPPa) reiterated today that it is offering all Pennsylvania voters with statewide libertarian choices instead of those from the two incumbent parties.  Because of a shameful, heavy-handed Republican challenge, voters will have to write-in those choices.
 
LPPa Chair Michael Robertson remarked. “Despite the major-party assault on democracy, the LPPa will provide all Pennsylvania voters with write-in alternatives to the two-party incumbent syndicate that has brought our commonwealth to the brink of bankruptcy.”   For 2010, Libertarian candidates for elected office in Pennsylvania include:
 
Statewide Candidate Write-Ins

Governor:  Marakay Rogers
Lieutenant Governor:  Kat Valleley
United States Senator:  Douglas M. Jamison
 
Candidates on  Ballot
 
Representative in Congress 5th District: Vernon L. Etzel
 
Senators in Pennsylvania’s General Assembly
14th District:  Betsy Summers
28th District:  Ed Gately
45th District (special election):  Len Young
 
Representatives in Pennsylvania’s General Assembly
63rd District:  Michael J. Robertson
64th District:  Vance H. Mays
85th District:  Erik Viker
109th District:  Thomas Anderson
119th District:  Brian Bergman
120th District:  Tim Mullen
196th District:  William Kohler Jr.
203rd District:  Mike Muhammad
 
Further information on the candidates can be found at their campaign websites, available at www.lppa.org.
 
Given recent events such as Bonusgate, Twitter subpoenas, looming budget shortfalls and exploding state spending, the two major parties continually demonstrate that they are ill-equipped to serve Pennsylvania and its taxpayers.   From 2005's PaCleanSweep to today's Tea Party movement, grassroots anger in Pennsylvania is growing and is clearly noticed and feared by the political establishment.  It is not surprising that in 2010 the two incumbent parties used their considerable resources to deny ballot access to challenger candidates perceived as threats.  In the process they denied Pennsylvania voters ballot choice at a time when choice was needed the most.
 
Marakay Rogers, the LPPa's write-in candidate for Governor, reflected that “2010 clearly shows the disastrous consequences to Pennsylvania from continually electing two-party incumbent politicians. Let’s start to repair the damage this November by electing Libertarians."
 
The Libertarian Party is the third largest political party in Pennsylvania and the United States. More than 200,000 people across the country are registered Libertarians, and Libertarians serve in hundreds of elected offices. Please visit www.LP.org or www.LPPA.org for more information

Polls show trend toward libertarian principles

Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania (LPPa)
3915 Union Deposit Road #223
Harrisburg, PA 17109
www.lppa.org

For Immediate Release:  August 27, 2010

Contact: Doug Leard (Media Relations) at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or
Michael Robertson (Chair) at 1-800-R-RIGHTS / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Harrisburg - For the first time ever, the number of registered Libertarian voters has exceeded 37,000 in Pennsylvania!

The numbers available as of August 16, 2010 indicate

37,310 registered Libertarians in the Commonwealth. This is up from 36,473 registered Libertarian voters as of March 29, 2010, an increase of over 2% in that time period.

In that same time period, the number of registered Republicans increased by less than 0.1% and registered Democrats decreased by a little over 0.2%.  The number of non-affiliated voters is also up a little over 2% in that time.

The numbers mark a continuation of a trend over the past couple of years, and documents the increasing dissatisfaction of voters with politics-as-usual.

A recent Rasmussen national survey supports the trend toward libertarian principles. The survey found that 75% of Likely Voters prefer free markets over a government managed economy.  Among main stream voters, 90% prefer free markets.
 
Michael Robertson, LPPa Chair stated “The fact that Libertarian Party and non-affiliated voters registration is increasing while big party registration is stagnant or declining is a sign of increasing dissatisfaction with politics-as-usual. Registration with alternative political parties shows that voters are supporting new ideas and candidate choices as we move our commonwealth forward.”

We hope more people will change their voter registration and send the message that you want to see some real changes in the way government works in Pennsylvania!

The Libertarian Party is the third largest political party in Pennsylvania and the United States. More than 200,000 people across the country are registered Libertarians, and Libertarians serve in hundreds of elected offices. Please visit www.LP.org or www.LPPA.org for more information.