According to the Lieutenant Governor's Office, county clerks in the State of Utah have been notified that voters may now change their party affiliation to or register as a Libertarian.
In addition, candidates desiring to file for elected, partisan offices up for election in 2008 -- whether county, state, or federal -- will be able to seek the Libertarian Party of Utah's nomination during the filing period which begins on Friday, March 7, 2008 and ends on Monday, March 17, 2008.
Before their party affiliation was stripped from the voter rolls after the 2006 general election, 2,404 Utahns were registered to vote as Libertarians in the State of Utah according to the January 2007 issue of Ballot Access News.
In the 2006 midterm election, Utah voters cast more than 41,000 votes among 14 Libertarian candidates. For the 2004 presidential election, at least 29 Libertarian candidates received more than 118,000 votes from Utah voters.
"On behalf of the Libertarian Party of Utah, I express our collective gratitude to all who circulated, signed, and financially supported our organizing petition for your help in continuing the campaign for liberty in Utah," says Rob Latham, chairman of the newly re-organized Libertarian Party of Utah.
"We invite Utahns dissatisfied with the two incumbent parties, Ron Paul supporters, independent/unaffiliated voters, and all others who wish to restore constitutionally-limited government, reduce taxes and spending, and reclaim the freedom to run our own lives to join us," adds Latham.
Utah Libertarians have created a presence on various social networking web sites, including Facebook, MySpace, and Yahoo!
]]>Many Utahns may not know that the LPUtah lost is ballot status in the 2006 general election because no Libertarian candidate received more than two percent of the vote cast in all three congressional races – about 11,400 votes.
The LPUtah needs 2,000 petition signatures by registered voters to re-qualify as a registered political party.
Petition forms may be downloaded online at http://www.lputah.org/LPUtahpetition and mailed to the Libertarian Organizing Committee at P.O. Box 526025, SLC, UT 84152-6025.
]]>"On balance, voter approval of education scholarships through Referendum 1 will improve educational outcomes for children compelled to participate in taxpayer-funded, constitutionally-mandated government education systems in Utah," says Rob Latham, chairman of the Libertarian Organizing Committee.
"Allowing parents to use some of the wealth extorted from taxpayers to place their children in voluntarily-attended learning environments will help decentralize the dangerous, gun-run school system that has captured a nation's highest 97 percent 'monopoly' share of K-12 students in Utah," adds Latham.
Latham also thinks that the educational scholarship program’s design will encourage many parents -- who don’t obtain additional funding -- to partly contribute toward the total tuition amount and stimulate more personal investment and involvement in their child’s learning, which has been shown to improve educational quality.
"Despite valid concerns that taxpayer-funded educational scholarships will perpetuate parental dependence on educational welfare," says Latham, "Referendum 1 is an important first step toward separating school and state."
"Therefore, Libertarians will continue to champion the right and responsibility of parents to educate their children, and advocate replacing taxes with non-coercive alternatives such as user fees to fund services," says Latham.
]]>SALT LAKE CITY – With one month to go before the primary election, candidates Jenny Wilson and Keith Christensen are leading an online demonstration election for Mayor of Salt Lake City.
Using the same ranked choice voting method implemented in San Francisco’s municipal elections in 2005, voters can choose a majority winner in one election, not two.
Because the demonstration election launched earlier this year is unscientific – as anyone can vote, and vote multiple times – the Libertarian Organizing Committee’s chairman Rob Latham is hedging the predictive quality of the mock vote.
"Ralph Becker was leading the poll, followed by Dave Buhler, until the middle of July," says Latham. "Then Wilson and Christensen received a surge of votes."
If the surge was artificial and not "organic," Becker and/or Buhler may advance in the mayoral primary, says Latham.
Wilson currently has a plurality of voter support according to the most recent opinion survey for the Salt Lake City mayoral race, but no candidate has shown support from a majority of voters so far. And to date no two candidates combined are supported by a majority of polled voters.
"The plurality winner is very often the runoff winner," says Latham. "And the demonstration election shows that most of the votes cast for the defeated primary candidates will accrue to Wilson in the general election."
The LPUtah contacted each campaign for its candidate’s stand on ranked choice voting for the mayor’s race and proportional voting for the city council (see table below). To date, three of the candidates' campaigns have responded.
Will the leading campaigns' apparent netroots support translate into votes for the primary election? Observers will find out on Sept. 11th.
Where the 2007 Salt Lake City mayoral candidates stand on electoral reform*
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Candidate
Ranked-Choice Voting for Mayor Proportional Voting for City Council
Ralph Becker
"open to considering it" (6/5/2007 email) "open to considering it" (6/5/2007 email)
Dave Buhler
?
?
Rainer Huck
?
?
J.P. Hughes
"comfortable with it" (8/13/2007 telephone conversation)
"comfortable with it" (8/13/2007 telephone conversation)
Quinn Cady McDonough
"It sounds like a great idea and would love to learn more about it! New ideas that can make for a better process are always welcomed." (8/17/07 email)
"It sounds like a great idea and would love to learn more about it! New ideas that can make for a better process are always welcomed." (8/17/07 email)
Robert Muscheck
?
?
John Renteria
?
?
Jenny Wilson
"quite concerned about the state of our electoral process" "open to considering reform proposals" "do not know enough about how these specific proposals would affect our city government to say definitively whether or not I support them" "If I am fortunate enough to become mayor, I do pledge to study the issue closely and remain open to reform proposals. There a number of constitutional issues both related to the City Code and the State's
Constitution that would need to be examined very closely for these changes." (8/13/07 email) "quite concerned about the state of our electoral process" "open to considering reform proposals" "do not know enough about how these specific proposals would affect our city government to say definitively whether or not I support them" "If I am fortunate enough to become mayor, I do pledge to study the issue closely and remain open to reform proposals. There a number of constitutional issues both related to the City Code and the State's Constitution that would need to be examined very closely for these changes." (8/13/07 email)
*Positions based on communication from the candidate's campaign or public statements.
]]>SALT LAKE CITY – The Libertarian Party of Utah announced that -- for the second straight year -- no applicant claimed the $1,000 prize offered for the general scholarship fund of any Utah college or university by this year's April 20, 2007 deadline.
The prize was part of the LPUtah's second annual Fair Representation Challenge. Rob Latham, the LPUtah's Chairman, will ask his party's executive committee to authorize the award next year.
"The processes used to elect members to the student body governments at Utah colleges and universities present a great opportunity for students to explore more competitive and representative electoral systems," says Latham. "I will continue to encourage that exploration."
Many student governments at American colleges and universities, such as the Graduate and Professional Student Senate at the University of Washington (DOC file, The Elections Meeting) and the Student Association at Rice University (PDF file, By-Law E: Elections, Article E-1, Section 2 (g)(ii) and Section 4), have adopted ranked-choice voting to foster broader student participation and representation in student government.
Last October, the LPUtah notified student body government representatives at each eligible Utah college and university of the Fair Representation Challege by email. Announcements were also sent to the student newspaper of each Utah institution accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.
As in 2006, voter turnout for Utah college and university student body elections remained low in 2007.
"The demonstrated lack of student investment in their school elections calls into serious question the legitimacy of their 'leaders' and the relevance of the organizations they lead," says Latham.
Latham intends to announce next year's Fair Representation Challenge in the spring of 2008 following most student body elections.
]]>“Given that most registered voters choose not to affiliate with either incumbent political party, elected politicians forfeit any legitimate claim to the 'consent of the governed' or the 'will of the people' by excluding the voices of a significant number of Utahns with their ‘bipartisan’ schemes and rigged elections,” says Rob Latham, Chairman of the Libertarian Organizing Committee.
Latham encourages independent voters and taxpayers to return the disfavor to Utah’s political class by writing an “L” in section 3 of Form TC-40 (PDF file).
Donating to the election campaign fund does not change a taxpayer’s refund or the amount of tax due. The Libertarian Party of Utah receives two dollars for every "L" entered, and these contributions are a major source of the party’s funding.
Latham also reminds state income tax payers sympathetic to like-minded libertarians in the Personal Choice Party that every dollar intentionally or mistakenly directed to the election campaign fund of that party is kept by the State of Utah -- the very entity working to take away your personal choices.
]]>Voters can "Mock the Vote" for the 2007 Salt Lake City mayoral race by clicking here.
The demonstration election launched and administered by local Libertarians uses the ranked-choice voting method, which allows voters to indicate their preferences among several candidates instead of being limited to choosing just one.
"Ranked-choice voting has a track record of promoting positive campaigns and saving election administrators, participants, and taxpayers the significant costs associated with a separate primary election," says Latham.
Although the demonstration election for Mayor of Salt Lake City is unscientific and can be manipulated by over-zealous supporters, some patterns and insights into the 2007 race should emerge.
"Observers of 'Mock the Vote' should be able to see coalitions form around candidates with similar campaign platforms and bases of support," says Latham. "We may even be able to predict the eventual winner."
Ranked-choice voting is better suited to yield a result showing that the winner has the support of a majority of voters, as compared to the two-round runoff electoral system Salt Lake City and many other municipalities use.
Indeed, in 2001 the eventual general election winner Ross "Rocky" Anderson and second-place finisher Stuart Reid received less than half of the votes cast for all 11 candidates in the primary election for Salt Lake City mayor.
"Who knows if a majority of primary election voters that year preferred one of the ten candidates other than Anderson?" asks Latham. "And who knows if third-place finisher Dave Jones -- who received only 28 fewer votes than Reid -- might have picked up enough transfer votes under a ranked-choice system that would have lifted him past Reid and Anderson?"
The Salt Lake City mayoral election in 1995 provided another example of the uncertainty generated by the two-round runoff system, where Rich McKeown received more votes than Deedee Corradini in the primary election, but lost to her in the general election.
Through the primary election on September 11, 2007, local Libertarians will track the mayoral candidates' support -- or lack thereof -- for Salt Lake City's adoption of more competitive and representative electoral methods which are being implemented in increasing numbers of municipalities across the United States.
---
Where the 2007 Salt Lake City mayoral candidates stand on electoral reform*
-->
Candidate
Ranked-Choice Voting for Mayor Proportional Voting for City Council
Jenny Wilson
"quite concerned about the state of our electoral process" "open to considering reform proposals" "do not know enough about how these specific proposals would affect our city government to say definitively whether or not I support them" "If I am fortunate enough to become mayor, I do pledge to study the issue closely and remain open to reform proposals. There a number of constitutional issues both related to the City Code and the State's
Constitution that would need to be examined very closely for these changes." (8/13/07 email) "quite concerned about the state of our electoral process" "open to considering reform proposals" "do not know enough about how these specific proposals would affect our city government to say definitively whether or not I support them" "If I am fortunate enough to become mayor, I do pledge to study the issue closely and remain open to reform proposals. There a number of constitutional issues both related to the City Code and the State's Constitution that would need to be examined very closely for these changes." (8/13/07 email)
John Renteria
?
?
Robert Muscheck
?
?
Quinn Cady McDonough
"It sounds like a great idea and would love to learn more about it! New ideas that can make for a better process are always welcomed." (8/17/07 email)
"It sounds like a great idea and would love to learn more about it! New ideas that can make for a better process are always welcomed." (8/17/07 email)
J.P. Hughes
"comfortable with it" (8/13/2007 telephone conversation)
"comfortable with it" (8/13/2007 telephone conversation)
Rainer Huck
?
?
Dave Buhler
?
?
Ralph Becker
"open to considering it" (6/5/2007 email)
"open to considering it" (6/5/2007 email)
*Positions based on communication from the candidate's campaign or public statements.
]]>SALT LAKE CITY – The Libertarian Organizing Committee released its post-general election analysis comparing the partisan allocation of seats in the State of Utah’s Senate and House of Representatives.
In all contested races for the Utah House of Representatives, Democrats received three fewer seats under the winner-take-all, single member district system than had the seats been allocated proportionally per the number of votes received, according to an analysis of data from the State Elections Office performed by Rob Latham, chairman of the Libertarian Organizing Committee.
Similarly, Democrats received four fewer seats in all races for the Utah House of Representatives under the winner-take-all, single member district system than had the seats been allocated proportionally. In the state senate, the votes vs. seats gap for contested races was one less seat for the Democrats.
"The representational disparity is the greatest since the last redistricting," says Latham. "This data shows how uncompetitively-drawn districts helped stifle in Utah what was a significant national shift in the electorate in 2006."
Charts illustrating votes-to-seats comparisons in Utah state legislative races since 1990 are available at the FairVoteUtah group’s web site.
Despite the growing distortion between votes and seats, Democratic state legislators in Utah continue to avoid proposing meaningful reforms that would result in a closer fit between voter behavior and electoral outcomes.
"One could admire the self-sabotage Utah Democratic leaders continue to inflict upon their political base by resisting electoral reforms that might undermine the single member district plurality system that advantages the Democratic Party in other states," says Latham.
"For their sake," says Latham, "I hope that over-represented federal and state Democrats are handsomely rewarding under-represented Utah Democrats for their solidarity."
Despite local Democrats’ use of the rhetoric of electoral reform, proposed legislation by Democratic state legislators would further entrench the status quo.
For example, Utah state house Democrats claim to offer political "balance," and retiring Democratic state senator Patrice Arent recently said: "Voters should pick legislators, and legislators should not pick voters."
Nonetheless, Democratic state legislators uniformly support Representative Roz McGee's bill to create a redistricting commission, which would merely insert one degree of separation between politicians and voters … who would then be picked by political appointees.
Data from the State Elections Office also shows that Utah Democrats did not field a candidate in 27 percent of state house races.
In a sign that increasing numbers of Americans don't trust political incumbents to implement more competitive and representative electoral systems, voters passed into law all four ranked choice voting initiatives on the ballot in 2006.
]]>For the benefit of Utah liberty-lovers, their friends and supporters, the list below highlights some of the news coverage that included Libertarian candidates, members, registered voters, and the Libertarian Party of Utah during the 2006 election season.*
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
*and that remains available via the internet at no charge as of this posting.
]]>In the 2006 midterm election, Utah voters cast 41,622 votes among 14 Libertarian candidates. Among all 14 Libertarian candidates, the average percentage of votes received was 5.25 percent. And more than half of all 14 Libertarian candidates received more than 2.99 percent of the vote.
The Libertarian candidate in Utah receiving the highest percentage of the vote was Iron County Sheriff candidate John Martineau, with 15.35 percent of the vote. Martineau was less than 200 votes and two percentage points behind the Democratic candidate.
“Kudos to John for running a strong campaign and congratulations on a remarkable election result for a non-incumbent party candidate in a three-way race,” said Libertarian Organizing Committee chairman Rob Latham.
Latham received the highest number of votes among Libertarian candidates in Utah in the race for Salt Lake County District Attorney. The 7,694 votes he received exceeded the margin of victory and were enough to deny a majority to the winner.
Libertarians also noted the following trends since 1986:
Although Latham attributes part of the decrease to fewer Libertarians filing declarations of candidacy, another reason is a law enacted after 1986 authorizing removal from the ballot those candidates who fail to file financial disclosure statements. The State Elections Office disqualified four Libertarian candidates, who likely would have reported modest campaign contributions and expenditures, from the 2006 general election ballot for failing to file financial disclosure statements.
“The fact that incumbents have imposed the electoral equivalent of the ‘death penalty’ upon challengers who engage in little or no campaign activity shows that these state legislators have no sense of humor or proportion when it comes to perceived threats to their power, however miniscule,” says Latham.
Federal candidates are not required to file financial disclosure statements until more than $5,000 is either raised or spent.
For example, in 1986 Libertarian candidates for state and federal office received an average of 366 votes. In 2006, Libertarian candidates for state and federal office received an average of 1201 votes.
“It’s noteworthy,” says Latham, “that in the 2006 midterm election all eight Libertarian candidates for federal and state office received only 2,388 fewer total votes than all 42 Libertarian candidates for federal and state office received in the 1986 midterm election.
Similarly, the median percentage of the vote received by Libertarian candidates in 1986 was 2.05 percent; in 2006 it was 2.12 percent. These figures are also below the party’s historical average in intervening midterm elections.
Since 1986, Libertarian candidates for federal and state office in Utah have received an average of 5.46 percent of the midterm election vote, and more than half of those candidates have received 3.23 percent of the vote or higher.
Despite these numbers, no Libertarian has ever been elected to a single seat of the Utah House of Representatives – which represents 1.3 percent of the population – or a single seat of the Utah Senate – which represents 3.4 percent of the population.
Surveys show that between nine and 18 percent of Americans are libertarians.
“The under-representation of Libertarians and others shows that the two-party system continues to cheat Utahns out of fair representation,” says Latham.
“Although Libertarians reject aggression and advocate peaceful change," notes Latham, "many people are increasingly frustrated by the barriers that members of the two incumbent political parties have erected to prevent meaningful electoral competition. In this era of pre-emptive self-defense, it would be lamentable if more of those who believe that they cannot be heard effectively through ballots begin to communicate to elected officials through bullets.”
Earlier this year Movimiento Libertario, the equivalent of the Libertarian Party in Costa Rica, won six of 57 (10.5%) seats in that nation’s legislature because of elections which use proportional representation methods. At the behest of the U.S. government, the nations of Afghanistan and Iraq have joined most of the world’s democracies in using proportional representation electoral methods to elect representatives to their legislatures.
---
Because no Libertarian candidate in Utah received enough votes in the 2006 midterm election that exceeded two percent of all votes cast in all three congressional races, the Libertarian Organizing Committee has also launched a petition drive to re-establish the Libertarian Party of Utah’s ballot status for elections conducted by the State of Utah.
“I’m excited about yet another opportunity to reacquaint Utah voters with the liberty movement and re-establish the Libertarian Party of Utah,” says Rob Latham, chairman of the Libertarian Organizing Committee. Latham is calling on all Utahns who support a Libertarian choice in the ballot for help in accomplishing both of these goals.
Under its bylaws, the Libertarian Party of Utah becomes the Libertarian Organizing Committee if it loses ballot status following an election. According to Ballot Access News, the last time the LPUtah lost ballot status was after the 1994 midterm election.
“In 2004, the LPUtah was one of only two non-incumbent political parties in Utah to retain ballot access following the election,” says Latham. “Now it’s our turn to petition to re-establish Utah’s only consistent political voice for smaller government, fewer taxes, and more freedom.”
The committee’s organizing petition can be downloaded from www.LPUtah.org.
---
2006 General Election Results*
-->
Candidate
Race % Votes
Mr. Dave Starr Seely
U.S. Senate 0.78 4,428
Ms. Lynn Badler
U.S. Congress, District 1
1.38
2,376
Mr. Austin Lett
U.S. Congress, District 2
0.72
1,620
Mr. Phil Hallman
U.S. Congress, District 3
1.77
2,080
Mr. Brent Zimmerman
Utah Senate, District 21
2.47
355
Mr. Gary Shumway
Utah House, District 53
6.57
781
Mr. Bryan Livingston
Utah House, District 56
5
518
Mr. Russ Zimmerman
Utah House, District 59
14.99
747
Mr. John Martineau
Iron County Sheriff
15.35
1,425
Mr. Don Johnstun
Salt Lake County Council At-Large C
1.8
3,932
Mr. Charles Bonsall
Salt Lake County Clerk
2.01
4,424
Mr. Rob Latham
Salt Lake County District Attorney
3.5
7,694
Mr. Kelton Baker
Salt Lake County Treasurer
3.52
7,548
Mr. Aric Cramer, Sr
Washington County Attorney
13.6
3,603
*All results but those from Iron and Washington counties are official.
Total votes of federal, state, and county candidates: 41,622
Average percentage of federal, state, and county candidates: 5.25%
Median percentage of federal, state, and county candidates: 2.99%
To promote its state and local candidates, while bringing attention to the disparities between incumbent political parties and non-incumbent political parties, the Libertarian Party of Utah reprised the cast of caricatures featured in its full-page advertisement in the 2006 Football Preview in a new ad for the 2006 Utah Election Guide published October 25, 2006 by the Newspaper Agency Corporation.
According to mid-2006 voter registration data compiled by Ballot Access News, most Utah voters aren't registered with either of the two incumbent parties (900,784 are unaffiliated, 376,096 are registered Republican, and 117,958 are registered Democrat).
Several Utah Libertarian candidates are advocating for the adoption of more competitive and representative electoral systems in their campaigns.
---
Libertarian Party of Utah members and friends will also participate in a news conference and rally outside the offices of the Salt Lake Tribune, near 100 South and 400 West in Salt Lake City, on Friday, November 3, 2006 at 5:00 p.m.
"Libertarians champion free speech, which includes the right to include and exclude the content of that speech. And I have no ethical objection to allocating political coverage in rough proportion to a political constituency's popular support," says Rob Latham, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Utah.
"But strictly bipartisan election coverage and analysis that omits any mention of candidates nominated by non-incumbent parties -- essentially treating us as Orwellian 'unpersons' -- violates journalistic ethics."
"And the Tribune's apologist 'reader advocate' Connie Coyne needs to come clean about whether her newspaper has gone 'pay-to-play' in its political coverage, and explain why the Tribune reports political news the way it does," says Latham.
]]>In an Associated Press article profiling Libertarian Hamilton and the incumbent, Utah Republican Party Executive Director Jeff Hartley says “My guess is most Republicans would side with a Libertarian over Ralph Becker – although they might have a hard time swallowing the legalization of polygamy and marijuana.”
The article also notes that although the incumbent Democrat "courts Republican voters, Hartley said many would probably prefer Hamilton. That’s because libertarians favor reduced taxes and limited government, he said."
Libertarian Party of Utah Chairman Rob Latham says there are at least two takeaway lessons from this article.
"First, the lack of a Republican challenger in the race illustrates the uncompetitive and unrepresentative nature of the winner-take-all, single member district electoral system the incumbent political parties use to cheat Utah voters out of fair elections," says Latham.
According to the State Elections Office, of 75 state house races, Republicans aren't contesting two seats (districts 24 and 69) and Democrats aren't contesting 19 seats (districts 2, 7, 13, 34, 39, 41, 50, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 70 and 73). And Republicans aren't contesting one (and possibly two) state senate races (districts 5 and 18) in Utah this year.
"Second," adds Latham, "because elected Republicans can't or won't reduce taxes and government in Utah, Republican voters who favor reduced taxes and limited government should vote Libertarian."
Mr. Hartley isn't the first or only Republican to recognize Libertarians as the genuine champions of smaller government, fewer taxes, and more freedom.
Earlier this year, Republican Utah House District 27 Representative John Dougall asked on his blog what former U.S. president Ronald Reagan -- who once said "I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism" -- would think about the "out of control spending," "entitlement culture," and "bloated bureaucracies" that characterize modern conservatism.
Libertarians favor decentralizing the two-party system by adopting the multi-party electoral systems used in most of the world's democracies. Those systems employ multi-member districts and proportional representation to elect a broader cross-section of the community to legislative bodies, from school board to the state legislature, says Latham.
Hundreds of Libertarians hold elected office across across the United States, the newest being Sara Chambers, who was elected to the City of Juneau, Alaska's assembly earlier this month.
]]>The challenge will measure which student body government does the most to promote the use of more representative electoral systems in student body elections, such as those used at Stanford University and Lewis & Clark College (PDF file).
Although this year's prize went unclaimed by any of Utah’s colleges and universities, Latham has again pledged at least $1000 to be donated to the general scholarship fund of the winning school.
All of Utah’s colleges and universities accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities are eligible.
By April 20, 2007, the Libertarian Party of Utah must receive proof of a college or university's efforts to make its student body elections more competitive and representative.
Such proof might consist of legislation introduced by a student legislator, audio of a student debate about alternative electoral systems, articles in the college or university newspaper about efforts to implement alternative electoral systems, or an oral presentation by student leaders about efforts to improve student body elections at a Libertarian Party of Utah meeting.
The Executive Committee of the Libertarian Party of Utah will determine the winners of the Fair Representation Challenge.
On May 1, 2007, the Libertarian Party of Utah will announce which college or university, in its judgment, did the most to make its student body elections more competitive and representative.
]]>Appealing to that sense of fairness, Utah Libertarians have placed a full-page advertisement (see below) illustrating the unfairness of the two-party system to taxpayers and voters in the 2006 Football Preview published in the Deseret Morning News and Salt Lake Tribune by the Newspaper Agency Corporation.
"Libertarians are asking fans to translate their appreciation for fair play in sports into a demand for fair play in politics," says Rob Latham, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Utah.
The ad depicts a muscled elephant and donkey, wearing robbers’ masks and bearing "Born to Spend" and "Born to Tax" tattoos, with caricatures representing "Taxpayers" and "Voters" in their stranglehold.
The masks allude to a quote by Libertarian Murray N. Rothbard: "What is the State anyway but organized banditry?"
Below the bipartisan banditos are three more caricatures bearing syringes, labeled "Mainstream Media," "Special Interests," and "War."
The text above the caricatures reads: "The two-party system is to politics what steroids are to athletics."
The text below the caricatures reads: "Both cheat us out of fair play."
The remaining text notes that most of world's democracies use more competitive and representative multi-party electoral systems, identifies the Libertarian Party of Utah and its platform of "Smaller Government, Fewer Taxes, and More Freedom," and its non-federal candidates for the 2006 general election.
To avoid reportable "federal election activity" under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, the LPUtah does not include federal candidates in its advertising.
"Earlier this year, union goon Wayne Holland for the Democrats and corporate welfare pimp Joe Cannon for the Republicans approached leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to encourage voter turnout," notes party chair Latham.
Thanks to public disgust with the appearance of collusion and bipartisan culture of corruption fostered by both "Republicrooks" and "Democons," statewide voter turnout for the primary election was 13.4 percent.
Despite feigned concern, incumbent politicians and the mainstream media rarely place responsibility for low voter turnout at the feet of the winner-take-all system, or discuss electoral systems used in most of the world's democracies that create more robust candidate competition, and greater voter participation and representation.
"Each reporter or commentator who uses the exclusionary terms 'both parties' or 'either party' reinforces the myth of the inevitability of the two-party system, and simultaneously performs a disservice to voters while journalistically fellating the members of the bipartisan political class," says Latham.
Instead of distracting the public with gimmicks like voter lotteries, campaign finance restrictions, and redistricting commissions, political correspondents should be educating voters about the unfairness of the two-party system, claims Latham, and the higher turnout that accompanies more competitive and representative electoral systems.
"That's why Libertarians are identifying the mainstream media along with special interests as enablers of political business as usual," he adds. "With few exceptions, most reporters don’t have a left- or right-wing bias, but a statist bias."
The third enabler identified in the ad is "War." "Libertarian Randolph Bourne put it succinctly, 'war is the health of the State,'" notes Latham. "And so long as the bipartisan War Party rigs elections, it will continue to feed American lives and resources into the State’s gaping, blood-stained maw."
]]>