Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania 2010 candidates

[Doug Leard]

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 Media-Relations@lppa.org or
Michael Robertson (Chair) at 1-800-R-RIGHTS / chair@lppa.org
 
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

[Brent Wingard]

I realize it is an uphill battle to get write-in votes as opposed to actually being on the ballot, but I think it might be helpful if the candidates provided a summary of their positions on the major issues that prospective voters could access to decide whether to support them. If you do some serious digging, you can find some info by "Googling" them, but even that is limited. For example, Doug Jamison's official site lists a few one-sentence bullet points at the bottom which basically amount to saying, "I will reduce spending." There is also what appears to be a German facebook page listing his answers to a few questions. Marakay has a bit more info out there, but it is scattered here and there with no easily-accessible central source for information. Without major media coverage, the best vehicle we have to present our case to the voters is the internet. Erik Viker's page is a model for what I think would be an effective communications tool. If Marakay, Kat and Doug each put together a page which listed at least a one-paragraph summary of their positions on a list of the so-called "issues" (what you typically find on many candidates' web sites), it might contribute to building a coalition of disenchanted voters to support them not just for this election but who become comfortable voting for Libertarians in future elections as well.

[Brent Wingard]

Here are the vote totals and percentages based on the Department of State returns:

U.S. Congress 5th: Vernon Etzel 5,654 3.1%

PA Senate 14th: Betsy Summers 3,685 5.6%
PA Senate 28th: Edward Gately 11,479 15.7%
PA Senate 45th: Leonard Young 2,650 4.8% (Allegheny county only, no details yet for Westmoreland county)

PA House 63rd: Michael Robertson 1,939 11.2%
PA House 64th: Vance Mays 2,470 15.8%
PA House 85th: Erik Viker 1,549 9.0%
PA House 109th: Thomas Anderson 899 5.5%
PA House 119th: Brian Bergman 739 4.5%
PA House 120th: Tim Mullen 2,858 14.9%
PA House 196th: William Kohler 1,305 5.9%
PA House 203rd: Michael Muhammad 336 1.8% (less than 100% of precincts reporting in Philly - not sure if any of those missing precincts are in the 203rd)

[Brandon Magoon]

I would like to thank all of our candidates for the hard work they did. You did a great job representing the party.

OK, now that I've been a nice guy - I hate to say I told you so but I did. Our state wide candidates were removed from the ballot, our party has been outlawed, all our candidates lost, our write in votes were not counted and we still are being denied the basic human right of representation in government.

I don't know what voter turn was state wide but here in Erie it was 44.35%. If we had done a boycott we would have been able to turn this whole election into a referendum on the whole rotten system. Instead we are once again left with nothing.

We need to stop being good boys and girls, playing by the rules determined by our enemies and start hurting them. Lets make them pay for screwing the voters over. Lets win for once!

[Eviker]

No.  A thousand times no. 

It's about leadership and good government, not just about "winning."  The entire problem with our current government is that two teams are so bent on winning that their individual members have become bent in their souls. 

Work to get into local offices and demonstrate over time that LP members can be trusted with leadership and representation, and then we'll be more competitive in statewide and legislative races.  The Viker campaign did not go negative.  And we did not win.  But we represented the LP with honor and integrity and that will be remembered.  We’re only 40 years old as an organization, competing with Republocrats in existence in one form or another since the 1700s.  Stop trying to rush a quick fix.  This is a lifetime commitment

Do not become the monsters we seek to supplant.

[vern]

Erik's absolutely right.

Our candidates are asking many, many people to cross party lines and support them with their votes.  That's a difficult process for major party candidates let alone us.  We'll have time to analyze the results in the coming week, but suffice that there is a distinct relationship between registration numbers and vote totals with only a (growing?) margin of cross-voters to win.

37% of voters in Venango county voted straight-party (including 52 Libertarian).

But as Erik said, this will be a long process, and will largely be driven by local growth, not just in registrations, but also in party leadership willing to take the responsibility of governing at the local level.

2012 will be a noisy mess.  There will be a 3rd candidate for President, whose ballot access in PA will be purchased.  Such is the nature of our ballot access laws in PA.  Let's look forward to the off-season 2011 elections and get more mayors & supervisors elected, maybe even a county commissioner.

3% for US Congress?  I'm encouraged by that result. 

[Mik]

It appears the Tea Party has cost the Republicans a shot a controlling the Senate, ironically. That is a good thing, at least they had an impact. There were some Tea Party-backed candidates who did win, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, but those were places where the R's were likely to win anyhow.

I think what this shows is that we cannot pull voters from just one side of the current duopoly. We certainly cannot portray both R's and D's and enemies. We have to look at them both as colleagues if we want to work in the political process. If we don't want to work within that process and stand on the sidelines shouting slogans, that is an option, but I think one that has not worked very well in the past. The last option will not enhance our chances to win, and the option of treating them both as enemies will only work if we can supplant one of the parties in an ongoing duopoly, in my opinion.

This is about ideas. We still need to work to address the system because when the only way to get ideas through is to herd them into two camps, then good ideas often get lost along the way. That doesn't mean we should stop presenting good ideas until the system can be changed, though. I think we also need to work in other ways, particularly within our local communities, to begin to bring some of these ideas into the process. Once people can begin to see that these ideas do not leave hard-fought protections for people in smoking ruins and that our people can work effectively with others, making gains in the electoral realm will be much easier.

To do that effectively, we need reasonable approaches and positive, pragmatic alternatives to the way things are done now. Saying that income taxes are theft or that we must end the fed without having a positive plan for how things will be done is only a negative statement. This was where some of the Tea Party candidates had problems, and again this year we saw the LP platform used as a club to bash our candidates. We need to determine if we want to be the party of principle or the party of ideology.

[Eviker]

In my campaign I frequently reminded voters that the government mess we’re in is not the fault of the Republicans or the Democrats, but the fault of the Republicans VERSUS the Democrats. 

The problem is in the rivalry, the conflict, the partisan game replacing good government.  We need to present as partners, yes, but we must also be trustworthy and offer to serve as an alternative to the conflict.   And those who finally take a moment to consider liberty as the foundation of good government rarely disagree with the principles of the LP. 

We received the e-mail below just before midnight, which was a perfect way to end our campaign celebration last night.

“I am a registered Democrat in Union County and a resident of Lewisburg. At ...age 76, I was finally up to my neck with negativity. I made a decision to go to the polls today to vote for any candidate that stated what he believed and what he hoped to accomplish without having to resort to mudslinging. Guess what? I cast one vote and that was for you.

Thank you for the time and effort you put into your campaign. You have my utmost respect and admiration.”

[vern]

And that's an excellent dialogue to follow Erik.

I think what Mik is saying isn't to attack D/R candidates but to position ourselves as different from them.  I did that myself and it worked out well:  Always referring to "the leadership" of the 2 parties controlling politics from the top down, and never referring to my opponent's or even their positions directly.

By showing the similarities between R&D we can position ourselves as different.  The most effective difference is in the grassroots aspect of the LPPa, where we don't have the ability to control candidacies in a top-down manner (or do we?).

And as we grow, we should consider exactly what you said earlier... not to become the monster that we're fighting.

[joy4ls]

During my time campaigning across the state, I met many great people im our state.  A few weeks ago I wrote some letters and they are published on

http://www.parevolution.com/

They are titled "Letters of Liberty" and are located at the bottom of the page.

[Brandon Magoon]

SIGH

Once more from the top:

Pennsylvania has outlawed our party!

Our votes won't be counted!

Protesters get put on watch lists!

It is now illegal for most people to be candidates for us!

The few people who are permitted to run as our candidates will find them selves unable to jump through the new hoops we now face!

There is no justice from the courts!

Look, we have certain basic human rights. One of those rights is the right to be represented in government. I would like to know what that's like. It's a 2 party system. We can bring down one of the old parties or we can make theme reform so it becomes a multi party system like almost every other country in the western world. What we can't do is sit around, playing nice, waiting for somebody to hand us real elections on a plate! What we've been doing doesn't work. It's time to try something else.

[vern]

So go to the mall and start talking to random people, see how that goes?

Honestly, what do you expect?  It's the nature of democracy under the rules given to us.  Consider a State Rep race:  15,000 votes will win it for you, maybe less if it's a 3-way race.  1/3 of voters will go straight party, so you're trying to convince 2/3 of voters to cross party lines.  It's impossible unless you stack the deck ahead of time with your own straight party voters aka registered Libertarians.  We're growing.  At the rate of 3.5%/yr, we'll double our 38k registrations in 20 yrs, quadruple in 40, and have major party status in 80 years.... at a steady rate of 3.5%.

I'm pretty sure the natural reserves of oil on planet Earth will be exhausted by then

Or, we can embark on a strategy of massive, increased registration-- which has never been the focus of our party's organization.  No, the LPPa has been small for a long time because it has reached the limit of what it's inside people can control.... the limits of its leadership.  This started to change when Mik revived its corpse back in 2006 or whenever it was.  This new focus on local growth isn't being embraced by most of our leadership.  It should be.

We had some good numbers come out of this election.  We had a good impact as candidates.  It's something to grow on.  I agree that the game is rigged.  I also think 2012 will be a mind game of epic proportions.  Either we settle into a strategy that will carry us over a 10-yr period to possible victory, or we throw our hands in the air and stop pretending.  I choose the 1st option.

Have courage.

[vern]

During my time campaigning across the state, I met many great people im our state.  A few weeks ago I wrote some letters and they are published on

http://www.parevolution.com/

They are titled "Letters of Liberty" and are located at the bottom of the page.

Regarding the Marcellus article:  Consider your savings account.  At 2% interest, you'll double your money in 35 yrs, quadruple it in 70 yrs.  The same goes for energy consumption in the US:  at 1.95% increase per year, we will double our energy consumption in 35-50 yrs, quadruple it in 70-100 yrs.  There's simply no way to continue running our society on fossil fuels.

And once that shale is burned, it's gone forever.  How arrogant are we that this generation should bleed that dry?  What rules are we using for determining "ownership" of that shale?  I'm 100% for free markets.  I'm absolutely 100% against royal titles to nature's resources.  We should be moving away from income and sales taxes, toward severance and pollution taxes.

[Mik]

I think what Mik is saying isn't to attack D/R candidates but to position ourselves as different from them.  I did that myself and it worked out well:  Always referring to "the leadership" of the 2 parties controlling politics from the top down, and never referring to my opponent's or even their positions directly.

Yes, that and we need to be sure we don't focus too much on ideology and dogma internally. I have seen too many people get frustrated and leave because they would try to do things and they would be berated for not towing a particular line. We won't get anywhere if we spend all of our time excommunicating each other.

SIGH

Once more from the top:

Pennsylvania has outlawed our party!

Our votes won't be counted!

Protesters get put on watch lists!

It is now illegal for most people to be candidates for us!

The few people who are permitted to run as our candidates will find them selves unable to jump through the new hoops we now face!

There is no justice from the courts!

Look, we have certain basic human rights. One of those rights is the right to be represented in government. I would like to know what that's like. It's a 2 party system. We can bring down one of the old parties or we can make theme reform so it becomes a multi party system like almost every other country in the western world. What we can't do is sit around, playing nice, waiting for somebody to hand us real elections on a plate! What we've been doing doesn't work. It's time to try something else.

I agree with the first part of your assessment, but some things are working. We have a bill for ballot access reform in committee, we have one of the major parties considering a resolution to support ballot access reform, we have a federal lawsuit that may actually get some traction based on what happened this year and we have a court ruling that affirmed our ability to substitute candidates. That is a lot better off than we were four or five years ago. Much of that was achieved by working with others, something that we have not been very good at doing because we always used to treat not only everyone in government, but everyone else in politics, as enemies.

[Eviker]

What we've been doing doesn't work. It's time to try something else.

Forty years is not a very long time compared to the history of two-party politics in the U.S.  And we've spent much of those first few decades of LP's existence as the adolescent on the scene, trying to figure out our identity, a phase we’re only now growing out of.  Flapping around "trying something else" would keep us in that phase indefinitely. 

We should concentrate on four basic initiatives:

Combating ballot access injustice through the courts, in public opinion and with our few allies in the state legislature;

Running reputable, mainstream-friendly top-ticket candidates, for public awareness and ballot access purposes;

Winning as many local and regional elected offices as possible, so we can demonstrate to our fellow citizens that LP members are trustworthy stewards of government, which will, over time, make LP candidates more attractive to non-LP voters choosing candidates for increasingly more responsible public offices.

Recruiting registered Libertarian voters and organization members.