2010 Massachusetts Gubernational?

[matthew_m_robare]

Massachusetts is overwhelmingly Democratic and despite the success of a few very-well financed Republicans (Weld, Celluci, Romney) it has remained so. Take a look at the General Court. Republican state senators can't even muster a filibuster. Most Representitives get sent back to Congress every two years without opposition. Libertarians are not going to win a gubernatorial election in Massachusetts in the near future.

What Massachusetts Libertarians can do, however, is run for local office. Completely ignore Senate and Congressional and even General Court elections. Democratic biasses are so ingrained in voters here that they don't even recognize them. Get elected to town meetings, to select boards, to school boards. Blog and encourage people to follow them. Take every opportunity to educate people about libertarianism. Sew the seeds of knowledge in as many minds as you can.

Eventually the harvest will come, but we can't reap without first planting.

[atorrey]

Lots of ways I agree, and as an elected Libertarian that got that way by following your advice, I can certainly say there are advantages to running low effort / low budget campaigns in places where it is possible to do so.

I certainly say that any libertarian living in a town w/ a Representative Town Meeting form of gov't should run for Town Meeting rep (My office), it is definitely winnable, low budget (my most expensive race cost me about $20, and I totally outspent my 7 opponents combined...) and fairly low commitment for time and energy.

The problem is, that it is very easy to get frustrated as one of the few voices for freedom and fiscal responsibility in a TM session. I am one of a very few dissenting votes on most issues...

To run for offices higher than TM Rep, gets very expensive, very quickly, and runs into the same party mindset and political machine issues that a run for the Statehouse does - but without the big paycheck if by some miracle you win, and without getting much of the minimal publicity given to minor candidates by the press...

So I see it as somewhat of a mixed bag to try and make the run for higher than TM rep office, as the expense gets almost as extreme, and the odds aren't much better than doing the Statehouse run...

ART

[Phillies]

Our State Committee has more-or-less agreed that for 2012 our statewide candidates should run on the "Liberty" line, just as Joe Kennedy did.

ALL OUR OTHER CANDIDATES WILL BE ABLE TO RUN AS "LIBERTARIAN"!

We'll keep re-using the line but only for our statewide candidates until we accidentally get major party status for it, and then will cross over--the current alternative line is "Freedom", or perhaps "Free Massachusetts". It is likely that two years later "Liberty" will go back to being a minor party, and then it can again be the statewide line.

Having said that, the state Association did set aside $1000 toward 2012 ballot access for statewide candidates, if someone was willing to come forward and run the petitioning effort. We also said that all targeted donations for Presidential ballot access would be set aside and used for that purpose, or for fundraising for that purpose.

So far, donations for 2012 Presidential ballot access have been ...

ZERO

and volunteers for running the effort number

ZERO.

We do need eleven volunteers to serve as Federal electors.

By the way, if any Libertarian here wants to run for US Senate in 2012, there is a real opening so far as I know.

[atorrey]

As mentioned in my post to the mailing list, I'm willing to do the elector thing again if needed (and again with the proviso that I'm not willing to support a Barr clone or other anti-libertarian. (I am favourably inclined towards Gary Johnson, and neutral about the others that I know of, so this might not be an issue...)

Ditto, I will do the US Senate thing if folks are really desperate for a warm body, as long as I don't have to put personal money into it... (BTW, I will (hopefully) be getting my drivers license back on April 19th, so that I'm going to be mobile again soon.)

ART