A logical look at liberty by Stephanie E. Watson.

Last night at the NCSU University Club in Raleigh, Libertarians gathered in support of Mike Munger and other Libertarians running for state offices. Throughout the evening, there were cheers each time the number of precinct s reporting rose and Munger continued to have well over the 2% minimum requirement of votes for governor to keep Libertarians on the ballot through 2012. Spirits were high, and there was a great sense of relief and hope as Libertarians looked forward to dedicating time and resources to campaigns instead of another round of petitioning.

With 100% reporting, Munger appears to have received 2.87% of the gubernatorial votes, with 3.76% in Wake County alone. Also, state-wide, the lieutenant governor race showed even more voters taking a chance on Phillip Rhodes, who ended the night at 3.04%. Overall voter turnout rose from previous elections to 68.37%, and the voters have sent a message that they want change in the state, with a growing number seeing the Libertarian Party as representative of the kind of change they want to see.

View more of the (currently unofficial) State Board of Elections results

A message to Munger:
Mike, thanks again for running an effective campaign and conveying a Libertarian message that people in NC can understand as the party begins to break negative Libertarian stereotypes. I look forward to running alongside you for a General Assembly seat for 2010.

Running to win in 2010!

So, I discovered this week that according to the North Carolina Constitution, I will not have lived in my current NC Senate district long enough by November 3, 2008, to be eligible to run for that Senate seat. I moved over New Years, but to be eligible I would have needed to live in the district for a full year prior to the election day itself. Because my party is broke after trying to get on the ballot to start with, we don’t have money to front for our many candidates, and each candidate is doing his own fund-raising or personal contributions to pay for his filing fees… and I don’t have the personal funds or the time to raise them to get on the ballot for an office for which I *am* eligible.

So… the Watson campaign is on a two-year delay while I throw my GoLiberty.net efforts behind our gubernatorial candidate, Mike Munger. Look for the Watson campaign to revive in 2010!

My first campaign stickers arrived yesterday. I ordered them from MakeStickers.com, which is prompt and has a great web interface for seeing what you’ll get before you order it, but I wish it wasn’t so expensive. I gave away ten of each design tonight at the Wake LP meeting, but the rest I’ll probably give out with donations as I try to raise money for some yard signs.

I haven’t yet seen any campaign materials from my Republican opponent, John M. Alexander, Jr., but no one can drive around Raleigh without being inundated with signs from my Democratic opponent Josh Stein. Stein apparently has a fund-raising machine working for him, and the way he is running seems to indicate the style of prospective a career politician. I have saved all the mailings I got from Stein so far (mostly out of amusement) and hope I have the opportunity in debate to ask how much more he intends to spend on beautifying our county with his campaign. (I jest, of course)

Stein is smart in at least one thing, though: the earlier one gets name recognition in a campaign, the better. The average NC voter cannot tell you their NC House or NC Senate districts, let alone tell you who represents them in the General Assembly. Therefore, when a voter has a ballot in hand and finds a familiar name in such lesser-publicized offices, that voter will likely have formed an opinion about the candidate and know whether she wants to vote for the candidate. Stein is getting his name out and is likely to win based on name familiarity and proliferated propaganda alone, especially against his lesser-financed, lesser-publicized opponents.

Over the next few weeks, I will establish a fund-raising machine of my own and see where it goes. I dread the paperwork I’ll have to file with the State about the money, but I have a receipts folder and should be able to track the PayPal donations as they come in. The money will be spent for signs and brochures, and possibly a mailing (though I doubt I will raise enough for that), and anything remaining after the November election will be donated to the LPNC for support of our state party.

What I would like more than anything, though, is an opportunity to debate Alexander and Stein at least once so that the District 16 voters can get information from all of us, not just the biggest fund-raising machine. Here’s hoping! If you’d like to see us debate, I invite you to organize an event and invite the three of us… I’ll be there!

Today, I was asked, “Do you favor a repeal of the motorcycle helmet laws?” I thought I would post my response here for everyone:

Yes.

I agree with the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) which states, “Although the Association strongly encourages helmet use by all motorcyclists, it maintains a long-standing fundamental belief that adults should continue to have the right to voluntarily decide when to wear a helmet.”

One of the reasons such laws exist is because of the state-funded portion of emergency services provided to those with severe trauma following a motorcycle accident. Helmets can reduce head trauma, but as the AMA states, “helmet use alone is insufficient to ensure a motorcyclist’s safety,” and forcing cyclists to wear helmets is not going to reduce the need for emergency services when cyclists have accidents. Education on safety, required by a road test or safety course to obtain a motorcycle endorsement from the NC DMV, goes a longer way to creating a safe cyclist than requiring specific equipment.

Therefore, it is my stance that the government should not spend its valuable financial resources enforcing this liberty-violating restriction against adult cyclists. Additionally, the government should protect the rights of others from being held accountable for that individual rider’s decision, forcing the rider to be responsible for his own safety choices.

Read the AMA’s complete statement, including regarding minors who are motorcyclists or motorcycle passengers, at the following link: http://www.amadirectlink.com/legisltn/positions/helmet.asp

So, my campaign has started. Tonight at our Wake LP business meeting those of us in the room who were running for office were asked to speak and answer questions. I was happy to do so, and I was grateful for the support of those in attendance.

As my campaign is in its infancy, and as I carefully word my positions before posting them at goliberty.net, NC is being bombarded by all the Democrats (and a few Republicans) in our state pouring campaign money into colorful glossy mailings, hundreds of yard signs littering the roadsides of Raleigh, and TV ads that air every 5 minutes. We have primaries on Tuesday, May 6th… well, I say “we” as a registered voter, not as a candidate, as Libertarians in NC are not part of this state-funded primary process. For me personally, I grow frustrated at the campaigning of Democrats who sell so many socialist ideas as “the right thing to do” for North Carolina, and I hope to convert that frustration into thought-provoking prose for my own campaign that helps to fix this misleading message.

I don’t know why I should be bothered by the media barrage and primary mayhem, though, when I know we can rest for a while after next Wednesday. It could just be residual frustration over the struggle the Libertarians and libertarian supporters have had to get on NC ballots to start with. Then again, maybe it is just leftover irritation at the State Board of Elections that insists that the Wake LP, of which I’m currently Treasurer, file detailed paperwork on its modest donations and spending every six months despite our lack of access to the ballot.

While the Dems/Reps concentrate on primaries, though, the Libertarians in NC, who have already made their party nominations, can concentrate on the ballot access lawsuit which goes to trial Monday and Tuesday. I hope that the attendance is as good if not better than the hearing, both from the Libertarians and from the NC Green Party which, despite differing political views, shares in the third party efforts to lower ballot access restrictions. If the judge sides for lower restrictions, there is sure to be an appeal from the state, but in the meantime the judicial system would be checking bad legislation from the past three decades and reducing state spending required to validate so many thousands of petition signatures.

Mike Munger once said that one problem we have as Libertarians in North Carolina is that because we spend so much time and money to get on the ballot to start with, we arrive at the starting line of a race out of breath. For me, I’m definitely out of breath, but probably more because of venting frustrations such as those I have taken time to vent here.

Thanks to colleagues, friends, family, and blog readers for letting me vent over the last couple of years, and apologies for occasionally testing your patience in the process.

The venting is over now, though… it is time to look ahead with confidence that people are hearing the Libertarian message and starting to remember what it means to have liberty for all.

I decided to use www.goliberty.net as my campaign website for the duration of 2008. I am looking forward to the Libertarian Party being on the ballot in North Carolina very soon thanks to extensive petitioning efforts of the LPNC and the contributions (toward paid petitioning) of many who want more choices for NC on election day.