Dear Fellow Libertarians, Friday, August the first, we turned in signatures for three candidates, John Burd, Charles Martin, and me. Betsy Summers turned in her signatures for State Representative earlier in the week. Ken Krawchuk and Henry Haller managed to gather roughly 5,000 signatures when put together with everyone else’s, but they needed closer to 17,000 to achieve ballot access. For State Representative, Paul Rizzo did not obtain enough signatures to achieve ballot access; neither did George Brown, Chuck Boust, Alex Humanick, Michelle Grove, David Vesely. While I thought I had enough with slightly over 400, due to problems with the way that my paid petitioner handled the paperwork, I wound up being 15 signatures short. Sadly, because of this, none of us will be on the ballot this November. I will not characterize this petition drive as a failure, but I will definitely say that it was a learning experience. On Thursday, July 31, 2014, I was scheduled to be testifying, in court, as to the burdens experienced as Chairman of the LPPA, and to answer questions like: “Why was it difficult to recruit candidates?” and “Why was it difficult to achieve ballot access for all candidates across the state?” etc. It turned out that my testimony was unnecessary, because the arguments went in a different direction. However, while preparing, I thought about all of the conversations I had with people since beginning the 2014 election cycle, and it can all be summed up with two e-mails: What is the deadline for a Libertarian to get on the ballot for State Senate this year? Also how many signatures would a Libertarian candidate need to get to be able to be on the ballot for a State Senate race? I am incensed about the liquor privatization effort being thwarted by Senate Republicans, especially my State Senator. Now I hear that the Democrats are trying to replace their candidate as well in that race. When I offered to pool resources to get him on the ballot, and at least try to motivate the people in his County Committee to come out and go to work, I received this response. I am not saying I want to run for State Senate. I just wanted to see what the deadline was. If it is August 1st then it is pretty impossible to get the signatures if 700 is needed. I thought it might be September 1st. But thanks for the reply. It is a shame there is not a libertarian or independent candidate. One could read this and conclude that the lesson here is that while Pennsylvania Libertarians are very enthusiastic about having candidates run against this politician or that politician, they are not all that enthusiastic about helping to make that happen. But I know that we are better than this. I know that we believe in smaller government, lower taxes, and more freedom for Pennsylvania. I also know that the Libertarian Argument, is the superior argument across the board! On a personal note, I would have loved to run in this year’s campaign, but I ended up being a handful of signatures short. I suspect other candidates feel the same way. Whether we were 15 or 15,000 signatures short of what we needed, the fact is that what we really needed was for more people to step up to the plate. I know that we are capable of it. Moving forward, and looking toward 2016, I am extremely hopeful that Libertarians all across Pennsylvania will help the LPPA raise money to help fund paid petitioners. We are not a sizable organization, which is part of the problem with recruiting volunteers. However, we do like to have a good time! Perhaps we can capitalize on that through fundraising BBQs, Dinner, Beef & Beers, etc. As your Chairman, I’m willing to travel across the state to attend these functions, but I need the leadership of the county committees (and our individual members) to help make this happen. We have a tremendous opportunity to continue to reach voters, particularly younger voters (aka “Generation Liberty”), in 2016. But we need to begin now. Finally, I am calling a board meeting for September 20 at the Wegman’s in King of Prussia. We will be meeting in the back room at 1PM. I would encourage all members to attend and help us lay the groundwork that will enable us to become more effective over the next 5 years. We will be streaming live throughout the meeting as well as recording. Sincerely, Steve Scheetz
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 01:13:17 +0000
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