Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 11:18:45 -0700 From: ernesthancock@INFICAD.COM (Ernest Hancock) Subject: Re: [kempgroup] Travesty in Britain To: AZRKBA@asu.edu
>Work within the system, folks. Believe that all you have to do is
>bankrupt
>yourself to finance a campaign, survive the character assassinations,
>and
>then the real trick... avoid the *Colombian compromise*-- they are
>going to
>pay you to get out of the way, if you're effective... the compromise is
>whether they pay you in silver, r in lead.
>
>Deny any of the above, deny that we can predict our destination by
>observing
>the path up to now. Them's the facts, from this point of view.
>
>Mike Kemp
Agreed! My support of libertarians running for office is a FREE platform for spreading the freedom message. And sometimes the revolutionary message. Some of us are poor and do not have the resources to effect change any other way but to stand on a soap box and tell it like it is.
If you spend a dime on a political campaign in your believ that you'll WIN with a freedom message your on crack.
I want all of you to consider the following. I have sent this out to various libertarian list to help fill the vacant slots on the state ballot this election with Libertarian candidates. I remember when we filled up the ballot in 1994 how effective that was in getting the message out. If it was not for the Libertarian candidate on the ballot in 1994, at least 60 of the 90 legislative seats would have been decided in the PRIMARY.
By being on the ballot (which takes from 4 to 10 signatures of Libertarians, that's all folks) you get FREE coverage. You will at least get some ink on your positions. It's like being guaranteed to have your letter to the editor published and all you had to do was fill out a form and get 5 signatures. So I'm asking you guys on this list to help spread the message of freedom. It'll take less effort than what you've put into most of your emails and I'll help. I have the forms ready and list of libertarians in your area. Each Leg. dist. has 3 seat available. If we have too many then that's what primaries are for :)
I warn you all, do not get caught up in the hype that will turn your head and cause you to think that you have a chance of winning if you just soft peddle a bit. Compromise will get you the same treatment as the legislators got this session.
So, I am asking that all of you consider doing the following described in this post. It is very effective and will do the best thing I know to cause the politicians pain. You'll be aked to speak at all of the candidate forums (that mostly consist of teachers and governmnet workers of all kinds). Many candidate events are attended by more and more concerned people that are looking for a solution to big government. I have seen this transformation over the last 10 years. And you'll get to meet the very people that are the engine behind the political situation we are in now. You'll gain a great voice when you do write your legislator and will no longer be dismissed as only a keyboard.
Tipically you will be asked to do from 2 - 5 newspaper interviews that will result in at least 2-3 paragraphs of what your about and why. About 3-10 minutes of TV time on news stations and PBS (many that just turn on the camera and say "go" and you get to say what you want) and in selected races you may get to do some in studio talk radio.
A good clean and clear message is far more important that your appearance or speaking ability.
I can't stress how much fun it is to see a legislator squirm when forced torespond to your statements in a campaign and then see them avoid you like the plague,... then be forcd by the media to give a definate responce on YOUR main issues :) And all this fun is at NO CHARGE! All of the ground breaking effort and cost has been paid for with a great deal of money and effort by freedom loving libertarians over the years so you could have this opportunity to enjoy yourself. Vote totals don't mean shit. Hell, if we get more than 5% your breaking records on the national adverage (here in Arizona, double digits are common and when there is only a libertarian and one other party in a race like for state senate we get from 18-30+% - my wife got 28% in 1994 against Spitzer in Dist #18, the highest in the nation and all she got was one paragraph in the newspaper about her position of Separation of School and State. You'll get to address the editorial board and tell them what you really think of them - please do, it's not like they are going to endorse you :)
C'mon guys! A great deal of effort has gone into giving you this chance to REALLY be heard by all of the people that have been ignoring you, while making your case to new people as well. And all you have to do is get 5 Signatures.
Here is the post to one of the Libertarian list:
Hello.
Well,... you guys ready to rock and roll?
Last night 8 more candidates filled out their paperwork for their campaigns as Libertarians.
This election has 1 U.S. Senate seat & 2 Corp. Comm. for statewide races.
And 60 legislative seats.
Tucson has not made itself known for what they have planned. But most legislative districts have arms into the Phoenix area, so we can make sure many get covered here. We would like to fill the ballot as much as possible.
We've tried both ways; 1- Filling the ballot with paper and campaigning candidates & 2- Total focus on one great well funded candidate. In my opinion, the cause was best served with wider participation.
There are many reasons for this. But my favorite is that we had a lot more fun. Efforts over the past years have guaranteed at least some coverage for each libertarian in the races and quotes that can do us all a great service by providing a greater understanding of what Libertarians stand for.
All that is needed is the following for ballot listing:
1- Called a "triple form", it asks for your name, office you seek, that you are a county/Arizona/U.S. citizen, address & signature that also attest that you have read the campaign finance laws. This information satifies the requirements of the "Nomination Paper" - "Affidavit of Qualification" & "Campaign Finance Laws Statement".
2- Another form is the "State of Arizona Political Committee Statement of Organization". This form requires that you have a Committee Chairman (that can be you) and a Committee Treasurer (that has to be someone else). It didn't use to be that you had to have another's participation in order to run for office, but with the attention to money in campaigns (so the establishment can keep track of their opposition) thay now (unconstitutionally) require another person for you to exercise your 1st Amendment right to run for office (another battle to fight later). But, I can supply you with a treasurer if you need one. We do not take money nor do we spend any in these campaign if at all possible so that we can simply file a "No Activity Report" when the fileing deadline comes (one pager, real simple and your done). Then a termination of committee report at the end of the campaign and that's all there is to it.
3- You get the required signatures on a petition form that I can supply you or you can get from the Sec of St's office. 24 of 30 legislative districts require 6 or less signatures to get on the ballot as a Libertarian (compared to an adverage of about 300 for R's and D's :) The most needed is 13 in one district (#14). The maximum that you are allowed to turn in is about 10 - 30 (so names for competitors are left in the pool of libertarians to get signatures from). The first day that you can turn in your signatures isn't until May 15th, 2000 and the last petitions must be turned in by 5pm on June 14th, 2000 ( some people can get all their signatures inside their own home :)
4- Finance report - this is the most questionable form. It asks things like where do you work and what are other sources of income etc. (this is for the special interest' information to see if you are one of them). I suggest that you do not lie. But I put a lot of N/A's all over this thing and ask that they go ahead and take me off the ballot if they dare :)
So about 10 mins of filling in your name and address on two or three forms and getting about 7 signatures is all it takes. We can talk about when we want to turn them all in. In years past we have waited till the last few hours (or even minutes,... seconds) to turn them in so that the the single Republican doesn't get a friend to run as a Democrat because they fear going up against a sole Libertarian. They may even have a collectivist run as a libertarian to confuse the message. This is a real possibility since the state will TRY to force libertarians to allow 330,000 independent voters to help select the candidates of 15,000 libertarians in our primary (that's another story all by itself).
So most of you do not have a good excuse to sit on the sidelines when so much of the backbreaking work has already been done for you.
Ernest Hancock Maricopa County Chairman of the Arizona Libertarian Party 375-0060 www.arizonalibertarian.org (server was down this morning?) so try for now the county page at http://www.oocities.org/CapitolHill/Lobby/8786/mclp.htm