Thanks....

First of all, let me thank you for your support in my campaign for the Indiana District 54 House of Representatives seat. Needless to say I am disappointed that we didn’t win, but someone who was a lot smarter than me once said that all things are relative, so I decided to examine the outcome of the election in that light.

Obviously we didn’t do as well as the 33% an earlier poll had predicted for us. The poll was based on decided voters, and perhaps the undecided voters were persuaded by the $150,000.00 that my opponents spent the last week of the campaign. It could be that the poll didn’t include a diverse enough cross-section of the district, or it could be that people in voting booths often revert to old voting habits at the last minute. We have a couple of years to figure out what went wrong and how to correct it. Right now I’d like to examine the positives.

In Wayne County, we received 23% of the vote. We won 5 precincts, and finished 2nd, ahead of the Democrat, in 3 precincts. We also won a precinct in Henry County.

Our total for the district was 14.4%, up over 10% from our 2004 showing in this particular race.

One of the most positive outcomes was the amazing amount of support we received from around the country. The moral and financial support that came in was just amazing. It truly is a great time to be a Libertarian, and it gets better every election.

It can only go one of two ways.

There are two ways that government can change. We know it's not going to stay the same size. It can grow bigger, more obtrusive and more expensive, or it can get smaller, less obtrusive and less expensive.

I've been around for 54 years, and the government has grown by leaps and bounds in that amount of time. In the last 25 years I've seen the property taxes on my home increase by over 450%. In the past 10 years I've seen my property rights dwindle as governments claim to my property became stronger.

It doesn't really matter if the Republicans or the Democrats were in control, or if they shared control. Government has continued to grow, and I have no reason to believe that it won't continue to grow as long as the Republicans and Democrats retain control.

I'm running for District 54 Representative on the Libertarian ticket because I believe we can live a better life with less government and lower taxes. That is something that you can count on from Libertarians. A desire for smaller government. Not all Libertarian candidates agree on every detail of the Libertarian philosophy, but to the candidate they agree we must cut the size, cost and intrusiveness of our government.

When was the last time you could count on that from a Republican or Democrat?

I'll be publishing comments and positions on this portion of my blog. If you have specific questions or concerns, you can list them in the comments, or contact me at lpwc.com.

Habits of old.......

I started smoking when I was eighteen. I’ve never really figured out why, but it didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. After a few years I gave some thought to quitting, but decided it probably wasn’t worth the effort.

After I was married, and decided that it might be worth the effort to quit, I began to realize just how hard it was to break an old habit. I tried several times, and I failed several times. Then came my three children, and breaking the habit became a little more important, if not easier. In fact, just about every event in my life made breaking the habit more important. When the importance of quitting outweighed the difficulty of quitting, I finally managed to stop smoking. But it still wasn’t easy.

We have an election coming up next week where the stakes are pretty high, and a lot of old habits are going to come into play. For years people have been walking into the booth and voting for Republicans and Democrats. Even when both parties have repeatedly broken their promises of property tax relief, or smaller government, or lower taxes, or when their programs have resulted in runaway healthcare and education costs, voters continue to vote the way they have for years.

We know it’s a hard habit to break, but we also need to realize the importance of once again taking control of our government and it’s spending. This November, please cast your vote for the Libertarians, the party that truly supports lower taxes and less government.

I know it won’t be easy, but I know you can do it, because it is important.

Say, there's a good idea....

I received a flyer through the mail yesterday from my Democratic opponent, touting his plans to create jobs, provide affordable health care, and to give us some property tax relief. It looked a lot like the flyer I received from my Republican opponent a couple of weeks ago, which also touted his plan to create jobs, provide affordable health care, and to give us some property tax relief.

That sounds like some of the things I would like to see, so I had to ask myself why I was running for this office at all.

But then I went back through some of the campaign literature I have collected over the years, and I discovered that every election the Democrats and Republicans claim to want more jobs, affordable health care, and property tax relief.

While I don't doubt their good intentions, I would have to call their methods into question.

The other two parties believe the way to create jobs is to take money from the working class and give it to businesses to entice them to locate in our area, and then hope that politicians from another area don't take even more money from their working class and give even more money to the business to entice them to move.

James Bovard once said, "If you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it's free". Restrictions, mandated coverages and the fact that nearly 65% of all health care dollars are spent by the government doesn't help provide affordable health care.

And there is no possibility of tax relief of any kind as long as the government continues it's spending spree.

I believe the way to attract real businesses and real jobs is to provide a business friendly enviroment of lower taxes and reduced regulation, that the key to affordable health care is less government intervention instead of more, and the only way to make property taxes fair is to eliminate them.

And the only way to do that is to send some fresh ideas for some new methods to Indianapolis this November.

Fiscally conservative and socially tolerant...I like that.

There seems to be a growing amount of discontent from traditional Republicans concerning the spending habits of current Republican officeholders. Yet those same voters are leery of putting a Democrat in charge of handling the money.



May I suggest casting your vote for the Libertarian candidates, who maintain the fiscal conservancy once held by the Republicans, along with the social tolerance that at one time was deeply ingrained in the Democratic Party. And Libertarians will be able to consider bills on their merit, without the partisan pressure to ‘follow the leader’ that our current representatives face. Doesn’t that make more sense?

Stop by and give a listen...

Just a brief note about what's going on. If you get really bored and really need something to do, I will be at the following debates and forums in the next couple of weeks:

October 10th, 6:00 P.M., Richmond/Wayne County Chamber of Commerce Debates, IU East, Vivian Hall

October 16th, 6:00 P.M., Randolph County Farm Bureau Meet the Candidates, Winchester, Fair Grounds, Husted Hall

October 17th, 7:00 P.M., Friends Fellowship Forum, Richmond, Community Room

October 19th, 6:00 P.M. Winchester Chamber of Commerce Forum, Winchester, Fair Grounds, Husted Hall

October 24th, 12:30 P.M. IU East Forum, Library

The October 10th debate will be televised and rebroadcast several times before the election.

Skating on thin ice...

I attended a meeting at the Hagerstown Town Hall last night, mostly out of curiosity. A group of parents and children, along with the local Optimist club, are trying to figure out a way to build a skateboard park in Hagerstown. I have to admit I've never understood the attraction of skateboarding, but then there a lot of things I don't understand, and I certainly have no problem with somebody enjoying something that I don't understand, and neither do I have a problem with them wanting to have a place to practice that enjoyment.

I do, however, have a problem with some of the opinions expressed at that meeting. The person running the meeting is one of the leaders of the Republican Party in Wayne County. He has already announced that he will seek the nomination for County Commissioner in 2008. He stated at the meeting that it was the responsibility of the taxpayers and the government to provide and maintain a park for people that wanted to ride skateboards.

This is the same Republican that is such a staunch defender of forced annexations, the Economic Development Income Tax and the Economic Development Commission.

I think I've figured out why there are so few Democrats in Hagerstown and Wayne County. They're just not needed anymore