The SEANC candidate questionnaire asked if I was going to be seeking their endorsement. My response was: “I’m not seeking any organization’s endorsement as I’m an individual running for office to represent individuals, not organizations. However, I welcome and encourage organizations to consider me for such endorsements if they feel that I represent their political interests.”

It’s because I’m not seeking an endorsement that I find it important for Libertarian candidates like myself to complete and return their candidate questionnaires. It’s not about coloring responses to get endorsements, though I’m sure there are some Ds and Rs that do that without hesitation. Instead, I’m providing informed and carefully constructed responses that educate readers about what I stand for as a candidate. It’s my hope that also translates into a positive representation of the Libertarian Party of North Carolina.

As I complete each questionnaire, I publish the responses here at GoLiberty.net. This is also important for Libertarians, not just as recourse if an organization says we didn’t respond, but also because organizations don’t typically post the responses from the candidates they don’t endorse. I want the voters to have all the information about my responses so they can make an informed choice, whether or not that agrees with an organization’s endorsement.

You see, if we as Libertarians don’t speak up for what we believe in, rest assured that an ill-informed media will be there to fill in the blanks. We don’t want that. We need to return every questionnaire, be available for every interview, and participate in every debate with researched and well-prepared responses. In fact, we need to create such opportunities where we haven’t been invited or where they just don’t exist.

That said… it’s impossible for most candidates who work for a living to research every topic thoroughly, attend every event, or promptly return every questionnaire. I’m working on it as I can, though, and my friends and family have been very patient and supportive. Volunteers can help with some things (and have already been helping a lot :-) , but they have jobs and families of their own. Unlike the Ds and Rs, I don’t have a pre-paid marketing engine at my beckon call, so my campaign, like many Libertarians, is about as “grassroots” as you can get.

Back to the questionnaires, though: I feel the questionnaires I’ve received deserve my well-informed responses and offer a great opportunity for me to structure my responses on related issues. It’s not easy to meet some of the requested deadlines, though: I’ve still got half a dozen to complete and return right now, some past due but still, I think, important for me to respond to. Add work deadlines and a programming project at school into that mix this week, and I sometimes wonder how I find time to make the occasional blog posts like this one.