There will be a $2 billion bond issue on the March 15 ballot called Connect NC. This is another bipartisan boondoggle with a deceptive name. The loan request is not for transportation funding or K-12 education projects.

The $2 billion will go into the “Connect NC” fund, a committee chaired by a whole host of politicians, who will divvy up 66 percent of the money to the NC college systems, and hundreds of millions of dollars to parks, zoos, agricultural “research,” and other political pet projects across the state. 

The only thing this bond will connect is your wallet to the special interest groups that support it. As with most programs touted as bipartisan, the more bipartisan support a bill has, the worse it is for your liberty and your well-being. 

Bonds are just deferred taxes. They are taxes on our children and grandchildren. It is simply a lie that this bond issue will not result in a raise in taxes. Someone will have to pay for the the interest when the bonds are repaid, and you can bet it won't be the Democrats and Republican legislators, or the lobbyists and special interest groups who support this bill. 

Since tyranny is usually better organized – and funded – than liberty, the effort to promote this bipartisan boondoggle program to increase the debt is well funded by special interest groups. 

But a grassroots referendum committee, NC Against the Bond, is organizing a petition drive to oppose this debt increase. Go to AgainstTheBond.com and sign the petition to oppose this debt increase. Follow them on Facebook. 

Vote no on the bond issue in March. 

by Brian Irving

North Carolina will continue its tradition of unopposed elections in 2016. Seventy-two General Assembly candidates were either "elected" at the close of filing Dec. 21 or will be elected in the March primary. So in November nearly half of North Carolina voters will have no choice about who represents them in Raleigh. 

This is one of the reason I and six other Wake county Libertarians have decided to run for the General Assembly. 

The typical reaction from political groups is to blame gerrymandering for this perversion of representative government. The News & Observer had several stories with that theme. While it's true gerrymandering is a cause, there's another more significant reason – highly restrictive ballot access laws. It's very difficult for a party – other than the Democrats or Republicans – to get on the ballot. It's nearly impossible for independent candidates to do so. 

Political commentators and the mainstream media generally ignore this cause. Perhaps it's because they are invested in perpetuating the “two-party” system. North Carolina's highly restrictive ballot access laws effectively disenfranchise nearly a third of North Carolina voters, the unaffiliated, the fastest growing voter block. These barriers are more effective at voter suppression than any other method. 

Most voters don't realize how the establishment parties manipulate the system through gerrymandering and restrictive ballot access. To qualify for the ballot a “new” party must collect in excess of 90,000 signatures. To run for statewide office without a party label you must hurdle the same barrier. Anyone who wants to challenge an unopposed incumbent in a legislative district or local office, needs to collect anywhere from 2,000 to 20,000 signatures from registered voters. 

It's not gerrymandering, voter IDs, or early voting limitations that disenfranchises NC voters. It's our ballot access lockout. 

There will be 18 Libertarians on November ballots across the state, including candidates for the state's top three officers, governor, lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate.

Lon Cecil, 69, of High Point, a retired engineer, is the Libertarian candidate for governor. J.J. Summerell, 58, of Greensboro, a benefits communications and enrollment firm manager and state party chair, is the party's candidate for lieutenant governor.

Sean Haugh will run for the U.S. Senate against Richard Burr and a Democrat candidate to be determined. Also at the Federal level, C.L. Cooke is the Libertarian candidate for U.S. House District 1. 

A dozen candidates will run for the state General Assembly, six in the Senate and six in the House. In Wake, Libertarians  will contest seven of the county's 16 state legislative districts. Two Libertarians are running for county commission.

In an interesting twist, Wesley Casteen is the Democratic candidate for U.S. House District 7. Casteen was the Libertarian candidate for that seat in 2014. He will face Republican incumbent David Rouzer.

Full list of candidates here.

The state's distressful history of unopposed elections will continue in 2016. Nearly one-third of the General Assembly candidate who filed were effectively elected when the filing period closed. After the March 15 primary, that "unopposed election rate" will increase to 43 percent. 

In the 120-member House, 41 members have no primary or general election opponent. In the 50-member Senate, 13 Senators will also get a free pass for both the primary and general elections. The primary will decide an additional 16 House and 2 Senate seats. So essentially in 57 state House districts and 15 state Senate districts the voters will have no choice in November. 

Lon Cecil, 69, of High Point, a retired engineer filed today for the Libertarian nomination for governor. He was joined by J.J. Summerell, 58, of Greensboro, a benefits communications and enrollment firm manager, who filed the Libertarian nomination for lieutenant governor.

Sean Haugh, 55, of Durham, also filed for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Richard Burr. Haugh was the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate in 2014.

Several Wake Libertarians also filed for state General Assembly seats in the county today. They are:

• Susan Hogarth, Senate 17 
• Brian Lewis, House 11 
• Brian Irving, House 36 
• Olen Watson, House 38 
• David Ulmer, House 49

Two more Libertarians plan to file Friday: Brad Hessel, Senate 15 and  Rob Rose, House 37  

If no one else files for these offices by noon Monday, Dec. 21, they will be declared the official Libertarian candidates.