Lone Star Liberty The Official Monthly Newsletter of the Libertarian Party of January 2006 Interest in LP Is Up As More than 200 File for '06 When filing closed on Janu- tal to at least 211. (Chairs have until than one individual seeking the nomi- ary 2, many LP activists breathed a January 12 to send their lists so this nation. Among these are three candi- sigh of relief as it became apparent that number may increase.) dates filed for U.S. Senate and five the Party will not face a petition drive Libertarians filed for 30 of the candidates seeking the Texas House next cycle. Libertarian candidates filed 32 US House seats, 11 of the 16 Texas District 97 nomination. for every statewide race except Pre- Senate seats, 97 of the 150 Texas Activists around the state have siding Judge of the Court of Criminal House seats, and 4 of the 8 State Board reported that there has been more cov- Appeals. Six of our statewide candi- of Education seats. erage of LP candidate announcements dates will be in two-way races mak- If nominated six of our candi- and listings including our candidates ing it extremely likely that at least one dates for U.S. Representative will face than in the past. News organizations candidate, but probably all, will secure only one major party candidate. All of including radio, television, newspapers more than the five percent required to our State Board of Education nominees and online resources have carried in- maintain ballot access. should be in two-way races and three formation on our candidates and the AP As predicted the LP will field of our State Senate nominees can ex- carried a party press release that was a record breaking number of candi- pect two-way races. then widely distributed. dates with 187 Texans filed for fed- Another sign of increased in- An unofficial list of candidates eral, state and district offices. County terest in the Party is the number of con- is found at www.lptexas.org/ Chairs have confirmed at least 24 more tested races. Twenty-three of the races candidates.shtml filers for local offices bringing the to- filing with the State Chair drew more . A Libertarian View of the 2005 Texas Legislature By Robert "Rock" Howard

The 2005 legislative session co-authored the bill. Sadly some Re- nual legislative ratings published by the felt different for Libertarians. For the publican Party insiders decided (incor- Young Conservatives of Texas. Their first time there was genuine interest in rectly in our view) that the bill was not survey identified a number of useful our viewpoints. Most of this new re- good for their cause and so the bill was votes that rounded out the list that we spect was due to a simple dynamic: bottled up in committee and never re- had developed on our own. Libertarian candidates held the balance ceived a vote. We decided to split our survey of power in several House Districts The Texas Legislature has ex- into economic and social questions and (HD) in 2004. Libertarians were cred- perienced a huge increase in filed leg- then score the results on the familiar ited with defeating incumbent Jack islation over the last few sessions. Well Nolan Chart that is employed by the Stick in HD 50 and the lack of a Lib- over 3,500 bills were filed this time. World's Smallest Political Quiz. This ertarian candidate was the key factor The vast majority of these were unin- was easy to do. Each legislator was that allowed Todd Baxter to win his teresting to Libertarians, but several given an initial score of 50/50 and each HD 48 race. were quite interesting covering areas correct vote added a few points to the Our main effort in the 2005 including taxes, eminent domain, appropriate score while an incorrect main session was to get a vote on medical marijuana, concealed carry vote lost points. In most cases abstain- House Bill 1721, a bill to end "Primary rights, police technology, marriage and ing or missing votes had no impact on Screenout." Todd Baxter filed the bill more. We decided to create a the score, although in some cases we and Mark Strama, the Democratic win- Scoreboard to rate the legislators and knocked off some points for those who ner of HD 50, was joint author. Two uncover any existing libertarian voting were unwilling to go on the record with of the best libertarian leaders in the tendencies. This was a difficult task a particularly important vote. Special House, Tery Keel and , that was aided immensely by the bian- acts such as filing or signing on as a Lone Star Liberty Around the State:Activist Update Volume 16, Issue 1 January 2006 At least 8 media outlets ran an County organized an OPH booth held Available monthly AP story on the record breaking num- December 17 and 18. He reports 105 online at ber of LP candidates filed this cycle people took the quiz with 30 scoring www.lptexas.org; according to News. Many in the libertarian quadrant. Of those 18 more included the information in ar- left contact information and two agreed Publisher: ticles about candidate's filed or in- to be candidates. Libertarian Party of Texas cluded lists of local Libertarians who Williamson County Chair P.O. Box 27932 filed. Bryan Bracamonte announces that , TX 77227 The Kilgore News Herald ran the county has a new website at www.lptexas.org a story including LP Governor's can- www.txwclp.org. 1-800-422-1776 didate James Werner. The Avalanche Several candidates report hav- Journal in Lubbock included a Decem- ing websites. U.S. Representative Dis- State Chair: ber 20 story on LP Lubbock County trict 3 candidate Christopher Claytor Patrick Dixon Commissioner candidate M.J. has a website at www.claytor 5200 Sundown "Smitty" Smith. The Austin Ameri- forcongress.org. U.S. Representative Lago Vista, TX 78645 can Statesman had a notice on LP can- District 10 candidate Michael [email protected] didates on December 28. KSHN radio Badnarik has a website at 512-771-3936 reported on Kris Overstreet's cam- www.badnarik.org. U.S. Representa- paign announcement for State Repre- tive District 20 candidate Michael Executive Director: sentative District 18. Idrogo has a website at Wes Benedict KUHF radio in Houston re- www.ilikemike.50megs.com. U.S. 1403-B Kenwood Ave. ported on our record number of can- Representative District 22 candidate Austin, TX 78704 didates as did the Fort Bend Herald. Stan Norred has purchased the do- [email protected] Brazos County Chair Christopher main name for www.norred4congress. 512-442-4910 Jagge reports coverage on TV news com, but he is in need of a web de- stations WTAW, KBTX, and the ABC signer. Anyone interested in helping Lone Star Liberty Editor: affiliate. The Eagle newspaper also ran can contact him at windstalker@ Laura Coker-Garcia an article headlined "Libertarians windstalker.com. U.S. Representative 9835 Sagedowne Lane showing record ballot presence." District 25 candidate Grant Rostig has Houston, TX 77089 Wes Benedict was selected as a website at www.grant4congress.com. [email protected] the new Travis County Chair at a De- U.S. Representative District 32 candi- 281-997-8141 cember 6 County Executive Commit- date N. Ruben F. Perez has a website tee Meeting. Robert "Rock" Howard at //voteperez.freeservers.com. State Database Manager: resigned at the meeting in order to run Representative District 18 candidate James VanBeek for State Senate District 14. Kris Overstreet has a website at 2739 San Felipe Drive Marvin Rutledge, Vice Chair www.voteoverstreet.org. College Station, TX 77845 for Polk County stepped up as Chair David Richards had a letter [email protected] so Kris Overstreet could run for office. on the eroding of our Bill of Rights 979-696-9766 Marvin can be reached at gold@ printed in the Athens Daily Review on eastex.net. January 4. Brent Sullivan had a letter Website Manager: State Chair Patrick Dixon in the Houston Chronicle. Daniel Falconer appointed several new County Chairs LP Publications Chair and [email protected] in December. Larry Nickerson is Lone Star Liberty editor Laura Coker- Chair for Tarrant County. He can be Garcia has announced that she will be Candidates please note: reached at hlarrynickerson@hotmail. resigning her position effective after Submissions of party news, com. Bill Burkhart is Chair for El the April 1 LSL edition and she will meeting minutes, photographs, bi- Paso County. He can be reached at not be seeking re-election as State Sec- ographies of candidates, suggested [email protected]. Rodney retary. Anyone interested in joining the websites, letters to the editor, etc. Ramsey of Red Oak is Chair for Ellis Publications Committee and helping is encouraged. Please send to County. He can be reached at out with any of our publications includ- [email protected] to submit. [email protected]. ing the newsletter can contact me for Clyde Garland of Brazos information [email protected]. LSL January 2006 page 2 Are There Any libertarian Views in the Legislature?

Continued from Page 1 co-author of a particularly good or bad far was Terry Keel of HD 47 in Aus- already earned us some attention in- bill also earned or lost points. tin. Sadly Terry is leaving the House cluding face-to-face meetings with the The results are shown on the although we can wish him well in his frontrunners as well as some useful accompanying graphs. The graph for race for Place 8 in the Texas Court of media coverage. the House is particularly compelling. Criminal Appeals. Also stepping down In November 2006 we see the We see the vast majority of Republi- is long time libertarian favorite possibility of impacting up to 10 Re- cans near the crossroads of the Cen- Suzanna Hupp of Lampasas. She will publican incumbents be demonstrating trist, Conservative and Libertarian be missed. The only other House mem- that they are weak on economic issues. ber with demonstrated liber- There are also 8 Democratic incum- tarian tendencies is Debbie bents who we might be able to help Riddle of District 150 in defeat by running to the left. There are Houston, however Ms. also a few open seats up for grabs and Riddle is more of a Reagan some two-way races where Libertar- Republican as demonstrated ian candidates can pick up the protest by her authorship of several vote. bills that crack down on so- Detailed tactics for the general cial freedoms, but were election must await the end of primary missed by our survey. season and for the petitioning process Compared to the to play out, but at least we know that Texas House, the Texas Sen- our candidates will be armed with spe- ate is a true basket case. Only cific information on incumbent voting Senator Kevin Eltife votes in records. This, together with the increas- a manner that is somewhat ing dissatisfaction of both Republican Libertarian (although his and Democratic voters for their own track record for cutting taxes parties, bodes well for our vote totals and spending when serving in 2006. If we also see increased par- quadrants. Meanwhile the Democrats as Mayor of Tyler makes him are mostly near the intersection of the someone that we need to know Centrist, Liberal and Authoritarian better.) Interestingly our sur- quadrants. There are also some inter- vey suggests that there are no esting exceptions including a few Re- clearly conservative Texas publicans that vote as moderate liber- Senators! The scores are scat- tarians. tered all over the place with What does this mean? First we Republicans scoring just as see that Republicans generally agree bad or worse than Democrats and Democrats generally disagree with in many instances. Clearly we Libertarians on economic issues. This have better support for our per- is not a surprise but it is interesting to spectives in the Texas House. see the individual House Republicans What does this mean who are weak on economic freedom for the future? We have been as well note that the group as a whole lucky in the past that some is much less financially conservative friendly legislators were will- than we would prefer. On social issues ing to work with us, but the we see that almost everyone comes in real trend is clearly towards near 50%. Looking closer we see that more costly and more intrusive gov- ticipation of independent voters, then Republicans tend to be strong on gun ernment. Now that some of our best our large slate of candidates should rights and property rights and weak on friends are leaving office, it is time for benefit further. Finally, a tactical ap- practically every other social freedom us to turn up the heat by impacting proach to impacting specific elections issue. Most Democrats are exactly the more and more election outcomes. We can help us further increase the respect opposite. have started by running a candidate in for the Libertarian Party and the inter- The most libertarian voter by the HD 48 special election and that has est in our approaches to governance. LSL January 2006 page 3 Stacker Favors Consumer Empowered Education

Press Release: sions made locally the better” said education might bring Stacker said stu- Lubbock resident, Brandon Stacker. dents with similar interest would still Stacker, has filed an application for the Stacker said he would also meet in person for club activities, sport- District 15 State Board Of Education advocate the use of virtual classrooms ing events and other activities. nomination with the Lubbock County in which students learn by reading Stacker said he is also an ad- Libertarian Party. online books and taking internet based vocate of charter schools and vouch- Stacker says he will run an classes thus reducing the need for ers. “We need a charter school in ev- active campaign focused on empow- physical classrooms, which will in turn ery community to foster competition. ering students and parents. save property tax dollars. Stacker said We need a competitive free market for “We need to follow the ex- by using the internet students could education dollars ” said Stacker. amples of private enterprise by em- actually take most of their classes at Stacker said " my proposals powering the consumers of education home thus eliminating the need for will face strong resistance from en- which are parents and children. Pub- brick and mortar public buildings and trenched bureaucracies but failed lic education must be brought into the paper books. Stacker said progressive policy's should not be held hostage by 21st century using free market prin- countries like Brazil are successfully those who implemented the failure" ciples,” said Stacker. making the change to internet-based Stacker is self-employed as a Stacker said he would advo- education and many American colleges disc jockey. cate having local school boards and are internet based such as the Univer- For More Information Con- parents make decisions about which sity Of Phoenix. tact: Brain Stacker @ 806-535-6341 textbooks are used as opposed to the Addressing concerns about the or David DeLamar @ 806-773-6382. state board deciding. “The more deci- lack of social interactions that internet Jefferson County Chair Dispute SLECT Report

A dispute between Jefferson Bylaws and that he suspended meet- The main outcome of the De- County Chair Dean Tucker and the ings after a tax-roll back petition drive cember 10 State Libertarian Executive former County Chair Alan Lee went December 2004, because local activ- Committee of Texas (SLECT) Meet- public this month with an article in the ists were "burnt out." Alan reports he ing was the creation of an Operations area's largest newspaper The Beaumont was planning to resume local activity Committee (OpComm) that will em- Enterprise. when Hurricane Rita hit the area de- power a small group of individuals to Alan, who was elected County laying his efforts. make operational decisions on behalf Chair at the March 13, 2004 County Alan asked the State Party in of the Texas SLECT between quarterly Convention, was considered inactive early December to look into the mat- meetings. by the County Executive Committee ter, because he was not given due pro- Serving on the OpComm are after he failed to attend six consecu- cess in being removed from office. the State Chair Patrick Dixon, State tive monthly meetings. State Chair Patrick Dixon re- Vice Chair Nancy Neale, State Trea- At their June 22, 2005 meet- viewed the documentation sent by the surer Geoff Neale, State Secretary ing the Jefferson County Executive current Jefferson County Executive Laura Coker-Garcia and Christopher Committee voted to declare the office Committee and determined that there Jagge, who serves as an elected non- of Chair vacant as allowed by their was "no cause to intervene and over- officer member. A standing Policy Bylaws. Their Bylaws state that "The turn the decision of the Jefferson Manual was also approved. CEC shall meet at least once a month" County Libertarian Party." In other action the SLECT and that "If any CEC member fails to However, Alan does not accept approved a budget for 2006, chose attend two successive meetings, the the decision and is determined to pur- Wichita Falls as the site for the 2006 other members of the CEC may declare sue the issue. To this point he accepted State Convention, and for the second the office vacant for that reason." as Chair an application from a candi- time failed to pass a resolution support- The Executive Committee date for County Judge and turned in ing the FairTax. voted to appoint Dean Tucker as the paperwork to the County Clerk on that John Shuey was added as a new County Chair. candidate's behalf. Dean also accepted representative for Dist. 9 and T. Evan Alan contends that he was not an application for office and this issue Fisher was added for Dist. 23. aware that the Jefferson County had was reported in the newspaper. The next meeting was not set. Events of Interest to Texas Libertarians

Jan. 7 (Sat.) Noon Brazos County LP Meeting, C&J Feb. 11 (Sat.) Filing opens for candidates for non- BBQ, 1010 S. Texas Ave., Bryan. For information con- partisan local political subdivisions holding elections tact Chair Chris Jagge at [email protected]. in May.

Jan. 9 (Mon.) Candidate Lists Due: State LP Chair March 3 (Fri.) County Chairs Post Notice. Each will deliver to county chairs list of statewide and dis- County Chair should post a notice on the County trict candidates. Commissioner's Bulletin Board listing the time and location for all precinct conventions. A copy should Jan. 10 (Tues.) 7 p.m. Williamson County LP Meet- also be given to the County Clerk. Deadline to post is ing, Hunan Lion Chinese Restaurant, Round Rock. For March 4 on Saturday. You may also post County Con- information contact Chair Bryan Bracamonte at ventions at this time, but deadline is not until March 8. [email protected]., March 7 (Tues.) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Primary Election Jan. 12 (Thurs.) Candidate Lists Due: LP Chairs Day. required to turn candidate lists in to local and state elec- tion officials. March 13 (Mon.) Filing closes for candidates for non-partisan local political subdivisons holding elec- Jan. 14 (Sat.) 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. John Taylor Gatto's tions in May. speech "The Trapped Flea Principle and Other Weap- ons of Mass Instruction," United Way Center, Hous- March 14 (Tues.) Libertarian Party Precinct Con- ton. Gatto is a former NY State Teacher of the Year ventions. You must be a registered voter who has not and author of "The Underground History of American voted in the primary in order to participate. By rule all Education." Tickets $15. Benefit for the Brazos Val- participants are delegates to the County Convention. ley Sudbury School. Call Mimi for information and to Precinct Conventions also elect Precinct Chairs and reserve your spot at 713-876-7705 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. may pass resolutions.

Jan. 17 (Tues.) Special Election Dist. 48, parts of March 18 (Sat.) Libertarian Party County Conven- Travis County. LP candidate is Ben Easton. tions. Conventions will elect County officers, nomi- nate candidates for local office, and choose delegates Jan. 17 (Tues.) 7 p.m. Bexar County LP Meeting, to the District and State Conventions. Contact David Alter at davydoodle_ @hotmail.com. March 25 (Sat.) Libertarian Party District Conven- Jan. 17 (Tues.) 6 p.m. Polk County LP Meeting, The tions. Time and location is set by the Chairs for coun- Custom Shop, 220 E. Denham St., Livingston. Call 936- ties within the district. State Party Secretary will no- 685-4992 for information. tify Chairs of the need for a District Convention. These Conventions will select the nominee for district offices. Jan. 28 (Sat.) Parker County LP Meeting. Contact Chair Daniel Barker for time and location at parkerlpt May 13 (Sat.) Election Day for non-partisan local po- @yahoo.com. litical subdivisions.

Jan. 28-29 (Sat.-Sun.) Youth Leadership School in June 10 (Sat.) Libertarian Party State Convention, Austin. Tuition for the 30 hour course is $30, which Wichita Falls, TX. Time and location to be deter- covers all materials and meals for the weekend, as well mined. Election of Party officers, and District Repre- as lodging for out-of-town students. Contact A.E. sentatives for the Executive Committee, consideration "Fonz" Smith ASAP at [email protected] or 512-517- of rules and changes to the Platform, nominations for 4389 for information or to register. statewide offices.

Feb. 6 (Mon.) Last Day to Register to Vote for par- Oct. 10 (Mon.) Last day to register to vote for No- ticipation in Precinct and County conventions. vember General Election.