Lone Star Liberty The Official Monthly Newsletter of the Libertarian Party of Texas 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 Suzanna Hupp, 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 Google 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 Houston, 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.