Are you ready to take North Carolina in a libertarian direction? Filing for the 2010 election begins February 8 and runs through February 26. Are you interested in running for office yourself or helping a great candidate? If so, join us on February 6th, 2010 at the Quality Inn (2444 Maple Avenue) in Burlington, 9am to 6pm, for a training opportunity that will help you learn how to run as a successful candidate or become a more effective local organizer.

Our seminar will cover requirements for filing for office and steps to build the foundations of a solid campaign or local organization. These fundamentals will prepare you to be successful as the year builds to Election Day 2010, when we ask our fellow citizens to help us take our government back! Speakers will include Barbara Howe, chair of the LPNC, and Mike Munger, 2008 candidate for governor.

Pre-register online or by mail for $15.00. Registration at $40.00 includes a copy of Catherine Shaw's highly recommended book, The Campaign Manager(4th edition). Pre-register by January 29 to receive the book.

Same day registration will be available at the door for $20.

For more information contact Matt Reeps at lpncpd@gmail.com

RALEIGH (Oct. 20) — The N.C. Appeals Court decision upholding the state's restrictive ballot access laws is "a shameful day for our state," said Dr. Mike Munger, 2008 Libertarian Party candidate for governor.

"I am sympathetic to the position the judges find themselves in," Dr. Munger said. "While we wish that the other two members of the panel had voted with Judge (Ann Maria) Calabria, the core problem here is in the General Assembly."

Dr. Munger, chair of Duke University political science department agreed that judges properly show substantial deference to the legislature in these sorts of 'time, place, and manner' of elections.

"But at some point our justice system is going to have to take up the cause of the citizens, because right now the General Assembly is letting us down," he said.

"The North Carolina Constitution guarantees a citizen's right to vote for the party or candidate of their choice. Right now, that right is being denied. The courts are bending over backwards to give the legislature a chance to make this right. So, for now, the ball is once more in the court of the General Assembly."

"The problem is that neither the Democrat nor Republican power-brokers want to let anyone else in on their duopoly," said Barbara Howe, Libertarian Party state chair.

Howe said that in the next election cycle, North Carolina will probably have the largest signature requirement of any state, an estimated 90,000 signatures just to be able to put a name on the ballot.

"Our question to the General Assembly is: Are you going to continue to shame North Carolina with some of the most restrictive laws in the nation," said Howe.

"Or are you going to bring laws in North Carolina into balance with those of the rest of the states? States like South Carolina, which require only 10,000 signatures to get on the ballot? Or Tennessee, which requires only 25 signatures."

Since this was a 2-1 decision the full court will automatically hear the case if one of the parties requests it. Howe said the Libertarians will almost certainly make such a request.

Howe said Libertarians were heartened by Judge Calabria's dissenting opinion, in which she said, "North Carolina's two percent statewide requirements for both ballot access and ballot retention place too onerous a burden on the fundamental rights of members of third parties under the State Constitution."

Judge Calabria noted that the state permits ballot access under far less burdensome requirements for unaffiliated candidates, and thus has proven that it can accomplish its "compelling interest" in ballot regulation in a less restrictive fashion.

The "… compelling interests of the people of North Carolina … are thwarted by the ballot access statutes," the judge said.

While it is ultimately the role of the legislature, rather than the court, to determine a precise method of ballot access and retention, she said. "However, ballot access statutes must, at the very least, allow both political parties and unaffiliated candidates equal access to the ballot," she said.

The law is especially unfair because it forces a new or previously unqualified party to either qualify statewide, or not at all, Judge Calabria said.

The majority decision included a comment that Texas' ballot access law had been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, and that Texas law also requires a party to qualify statewide or not at all. This is an error, according to Ballot Access News.

"In fact, Texas has always had procedures for a party that is not qualified statewide to get on the ballot in a single county," reported Richard Winger, a nationally-recognized ballot access expert. Winger testified on behalf of the Libertarian Party at the trial.

"This decision, like the original decision by the Superior Court, completely fails to mention any of the other issues we raised, including the issue of whether the state should let voters register with parties that aren't ballot-qualified," said Howe.

The case was filed in 2005.

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LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF NORTH CAROLINA
PO Box 28141 Raleigh NC 27611-8141 * 877.843.5762 * www.LPNC.org
Contact: Barbara Howe, 919.475.2371

The Court of Appeals today filed their opinion in the LPNC's lawsuit challenging the Constitutionality of North Carolina's ballot access laws. Judge Calabria's dissent from the majority means the NC Supreme Court will now have the opportunity to affirm all citizens' rights to equal ballot access.

GREENSBORO (Sept. 8) --Dr. Michael Beitler (pronounced Bite-ler) will announce his candidacy for the Libertarian Party's nomination for the U.S. Senate September 17 at a press conference in the Piedmont-Triad International Airport Marriott Hotel at 7:30 p.m.

Dr. Michael Munger, 2008 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate and Barbara Howe, North Carolina Libertarian Party chair will also speak at the press conference.

As a U.S. Senator, Beitler promises to dramatically reduce the size of the Federal government. "The big-spending, big-government advocates, both Democrats and Republicans, must be stopped. We are beyond the point of simply reducing government program budgets; now we must abolish entire government programs and agencies," he said.

Beitler is a business practice professor in The Bryan School of Business and Economics at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. "I tell my young students, I am ashamed of what the baby-boom generation is doing to the futures of young Americans. An inheritance of tens of trillions of dollars in debt is a disgraceful legacy," he said.

He is the host of Free Markets With Dr. Mike Beitler, an internet-radio show that airs on the VoiceAmerica Business Network. Beitler is the author of three business books used in MBA programs and Rational Individualism: A Moral Argument for Limited Government & Capitalism, a book about his libertarian political philosophy.

Beitler believes his experience as a chief financial officer in banking and his current work as business consultant will allow him to quickly see which government programs and agencies must be eliminated. "I will have a contract with the citizens of North Carolina. If I cannot accomplish the goal of abolishing government programs and agencies, the citizens of North Carolina can fire me mid-term," Beitler promised.

Beitler has three adult children. He and his wife, Danielle, live in northwest Guilford County.

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MIKE BEITLER Libertarian for U.S. Senate
Contact: Brian Irving 919.438.4548

by Barbara Howe, LPNC State Chair

Democrats in the General Assembly are engaging in the typical political version of "bait and switch" in dealing with the state's self-imposed budget crisis. First, they propose supposedly dramatic cuts in programs that are important to powerful special interest groups, then when there is an outcry from these lobbyists, they propose new taxes.

They simply don't have the courage to face the real issue — spending. The problem is not that we don't have enough money to run state government. The problem is we have a state government that tries to run everything — and fails.

The proposed budget cuts were calculated to arouse opposition from groups dependent on government handouts. Then, politicians can claim they are responding to the "will of the people" when they raise taxes. They supported this hoax by allowing the only public hearing held on the budget to be commandeered by a swarm of state government bureaucrats and "private" groups dependent on government handouts. These tax and spend sycophants played a variation of the NIMBY (not in my backyard) gambit by suggesting cuts in the other guy's budget.

House Democrats showed contempt for the State Constitution by ramming the tax hikes through in the middle of the night, dismissing the constitutional mandate of voting on two separate days by holding one vote and 11:30 p.m. and the other 38 minutes later, at 12:08 a.m.

Comments like those of Rep. Hugh Holliman (D-Lexington) are typical of the way politicians label anyone who opposes government handouts as uncaring. According to the News & Observer, Holliman told legislators "I don't think there is anybody in this room that feels like we don't need teachers in the classroom, who feels like we don't need to help our elderly, who feels like we don't have to help our developmentally disabled."

Sure libertarians want to help teachers, the elderly, the developmentally disabled. We just prefer to do it ourselves, personally and directly, and with our own money. We do not believe it is moral or charitable to force other people to pay for things we believe in.

Libertarians believe government should be limited to protecting life, liberty, and property. All other matters are best handled by voluntary associations of individuals.

We propose a positive alternative to the failed welfare state. Our vision is a society based on individual responsibility and private charity. Once people are free to keep all the money they earn, they will be able to offer direct individual aid that is truly compassionate.

That's the way America used to be.

The LPNC will participate in the Take Back Our State Tea Party, a protest against the billion dollar state tax increase. The rally is scheduled for Wednesday, June 3 from 4:30 to 7:30 pm on the Halifax Mall in Raleigh. (Halifax Mall is the large lawn behind the General Assembly Building and beside the Legislative Office Building, on Lane Street between North Salisbury and North Wilmington Streets). Americans for Prosperity and the Take Back Our State Coalition are the rally sponsors.

On June 3, join others in downtown Raleigh to tell our legislators we are Taxed Enough Already!

In these difficult economic times, our State Representatives are considering over a billion dollars in new taxes. North Carolina taxpayers are losing their jobs and their homes. Come to Raleigh to tell them: "Not another dime!"

Register here. AFP will operate a bus shuttle from several points throughout the state.

If you can help at our table, please contact Brian Irving.

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical." (Thomas Jefferson)

The "voter owned elections" bills currently circulating in the General Assembly will do nothing to end corruption in government. Like most legislation, the title belies the real intent. Rather than insure voter ownership of elections, the bills will strengthen the grip of the Democrat-Republican duopoly that controls our state government.

No doubt many sponsors of these bills are sincere in their desire to end corruption. They're well meaning -- but misguided. In their quest to legislate morality, they entirely miss the real problem.

The problem is not the abuse of power; it is the power to abuse.

Government regulates every part of our economic, social, and personal life. It regulates the amount of water in our toilets, dictates what we can do on our own property or in our own homes, and bestows millions of "incentives" paid for with taxpayer's dollars on huge companies like Dell, Google, and major league sports stadiums.

Now they want to add politicians to the list of those who feed at the taxpayer's trough.

Why are we surprised when groups of people realize that since government controls everything, they must organize to get something done and bend the rules -- or the rule makers -- to their side?

Government is no longer about protecting the life, liberty, and property of each person, it's about "what's in it for me."

Our forefathers understood power corrupts. They also understood that, while you cannot avoid corruption so long as you have government, you can limit it and mitigate its harm if you bind it "from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."

Unfortunately, Democrat and Republican politicians consider any constitution a minor speed bump on their road to creating a "fair and just" society, at least, their vision of a fair and just society as revealed to them by special interest groups.

"Voter-owned" election bills may be unconstitutional. They probably will be ineffective; we've seen many examples of politicians, unions, businesses, and the well-connected finding loopholes in any law.

The most egregious consequence of taxpayer-funded elections is that they further restrict freedom of speech and place added burdens on independent and third party candidates. General Assembly races are already so stacked in favor of the duopoly that nearly half of the seats went unchallenged in the last three elections.

If Democrats and Republicans truly want "voter-owned" elections, they can begin by reducing their power and tearing down the barriers they've imposed on independent and third party candidates.

All candidates should be held to the same requirements. The people should have easy access to state their will to the government through as many democratic methods as possible, including, but not limited to, initiative, referendum, recall, proportional representation, and write-in votes.

The right to freedom of expression must include the unrestricted right to pay for dissemination of one's opinion. When the government controls the funding of campaigns, it controls the campaigns themselves, and thus the elections.

Rather than letting government control the finances of candidates, end all limits on a person's right to support the candidate of his choice.

Take away the oxygen, and the fire will die. If you reduce government power and restore the concept of limited government our nation was founded on, you eliminate the opportunity for corruption.

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LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF NORTH CAROLINA
PO Box 28141 Raleigh NC 27611 * 877.843.5762 * www.LPNC.org
Contact: Brian Irving, Communications Director, 919.538.4548

"We applaud Governor Perdue's tough statement that she will reduce and cut state programs," said Barbara Howe, state party chair. "We're glad she finally is on board with what Libertarians have been saying all along and anxiously await to see if she has muscle behind her decision to cut the fat."

Libertarians were slightly disappointed that the only specific action Governor Perdue promised was to drive a truck to South Carolina to pick up Federal recovery funds.

"The governor is an educated woman, so I'm sure she realizes there's no 'pot at the end of the rainbow.' Those funds are taxpayer funds from her fellow North Carolinians and all Americans."

But Libertarians were heartened to hear the governor say that "cutting the fat" didn't go far enough and that the budget she'll present next week will reduce and cut state government programs and services the state simply cannot afford. "We can't wait to see that budget," Howe said.

Governor Perdue's call to "stand up to the sweet seductions of special interests, the temptations of politically popular pork barrel spending, and end the practice of back room dealing" also echoed Libertarian values.

The governor said that education is the engine that drives the economy, is essential for economic recovery and would not be sacrificed. "We hope that means she'll be open to genuine 'out of the box thinking' to improve our educational system," Howe said.

For example, the governor said no parent has a free pass from the responsibility to be fully involved in their child's education. "Libertarians would add that this means parents should have authority to school their children as they see fit — for example at home or in charter or private schools," Howe said.

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LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF NORTH CAROLINA
PO Box 28141 Raleigh NC 27611 * 877.843.5762 * www.LPNC.org
Contact: Brian Irving, Communications Director, 919.538.4548