Welcome to the Lorain County Libertarian Party

Welcome to the official website of the Lorain County Libertarian Party.

SOCIALLY TOLERANT,
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE

The Party With Principles

• Smaller Government
• Lower Taxes
• More Freedom

Since 2009, The Libertarian Party has had full ballot access and now shares the same rights and privileges of the other two parties.

The basic philosophy of individual rights and personal responsibility always remains at the forefront of our activism.

Libertarians are fiscally conservative and socially tolerant which appeals to voters who identify with both the “left” and “right.”  Discussion until now has been about what parts of your life the government should control. A Libertarian believes that less control is the answer.

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Photos from Candidate Forum

Photos from the Lorain County Libertarian Party candidates forum on March 9, 2010: » read more

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March 2010 Newsletter

Hello, members and freinds of the Lorain County Libertarian Party.  In this months edition we have some news about our recent candidates forum as well as information about upcoming meetings and events. » read more

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Drew Carey Promotes Libertarian Ideas for Cleveland

(AP) — “The Price Is Right” host Drew Carey showcases his hometown of Cleveland in an upcoming series of online videos suggesting remedies to the city’s problems.

The comedian argues for less government, more competition and less taxes to revitalize Cleveland in 10-minute segments that are scheduled to begin appearing next week on the Web site reason.tv. It’s affiliated with the Reason Foundation, a nonpartisan, libertarian-leaning organization which has Carey as a board member.

In an introduction to the six-part series, Carey says he loves Cleveland and says the city is going through “tough times” with a troubled economy, troubled schools and ongoing population losses.

The Web site says the series explores how Cleveland can learn from other places, like Houston.

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6 Libertarian Candidates to Appear in Lorain

Tuesday March 9th, 2010
7:00 PM
Emerald Valley Country Club
4397 N Leavitt Rd
Lorain, Ohio 44053

candidates appearing:

Governor – Ken Matesz (http://www.mateszforohio.com/)
Secretary of State – Charles Earl
US Congress District 9 – Joseph Michael Jaffe (http://www.jaffeforcongress.com/) & Jeremy Swartz (http://www.swartzforohio.com/)
Ohio Congress District 57 – Josh Robertson (http://www.votejoshrobertson2010.com/blog/)
Ohio Congress District 58 – Bob Williams (http://www.ohiowithoutdebt.com/)

The Lorain County Libertarian Party’s monthly social meeting for March will feature a candidates forum for the general public. Each candidate will have short opening statements, followed by a round-table discussion and questions for the candidates.

In the second year in which the Libertarian Party has shared equal ballot access as the two other parties, nearly 100 candidates will appear on the ballot in 2010. All state-wide races will be contested by the Libertarians, as well as the US senate, most US congressional seats, Ohio senate and general assembly, as well as county level positions.

During the primaries on May 4th, all voters will have the option of selecting a Libertarian ballot. This will be the first time most voters will have the choice between 3 parties on primary day. Part of the ballot will be dedicated to selecting local and state Central Committee positions, those who will continue to lead the Direction of the Libertarian Party.

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Six Reasons to Downsize the Federal Government

CATO-

1. Additional federal spending transfers resources from the more productive private sector to the less productive public sector of the economy. The bulk of federal spending goes toward subsidies and benefit payments, which generally do not enhance economic productivity. With lower productivity, average American incomes will fall.

2. As federal spending rises, it creates pressure to raise taxes now and in the future. Higher taxes reduce incentives for productive activities such as working, saving, investing, and starting businesses. Higher taxes also increase incentives to engage in unproductive activities such as tax avoidance.

3. Much federal spending is wasteful and many federal programs are mismanaged. Cost overruns, fraud and abuse, and other bureaucratic failures are endemic in many agencies. It’s true that failures also occur in the private sector, but they are weeded out by competition, bankruptcy, and other market forces. We need to similarly weed out government failures.

4. Federal programs often benefit special interest groups while harming the broader interests of the general public. How is that possible in a democracy? The answer is that logrolling or horse-trading in Congress allows programs to be enacted even though they are only favored by minorities of legislators and voters. One solution is to impose a legal or constitutional cap on the overall federal budget to force politicians to make spending trade-offs.

5. Many federal programs cause active damage to society, in addition to the damage caused by the higher taxes needed to fund them. Programs usually distort markets and they sometimes cause social and environmental damage. Some examples are housing subsidies that helped to cause the financial crises, welfare programs that have created dependency, and farm subsidies that have harmed the environment.

6. The expansion of the federal government in recent decades runs counter to the American tradition of federalism. Federal functions should be “few and defined” in James Madison’s words, with most government activities left to the states. The explosion in federal aid to the states since the 1960s has strangled diversity and innovation in state governments because aid has been accompanied by a mass of one-size-fits-all regulations.

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Breaking the Law on School Funding

To The Editor (PD) – I see that some Ohio lawmakers would like to require a supermajority to change Ohio’s constitution. Rep. John Domenick stated that, “To me, the constitution is a sacred document.” I would like to ask Domenick, if the constitution of the state of Ohio is sacred, then why has he and the rest of the state legislature been violating it for more than 10 years? » read more

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Ron Paul surprise winner of CPAC presidential straw poll

(CNN) — U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a stalwart foe of government spending, won a blowout victory Saturday in the annual Conservative Political Action Conference presidential straw poll.

With participants naming “reducing the size of federal government” as their top issue, the 74-year old libertarian hero captured 31 percent of the 2,400 votes cast in the annual contest, usually seen as a barometer of how the GOP’s conservative wing regards their potential presidential candidates. LINK

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The United States going by way of Greece?

Greece is the insolvent, bankrupt country that threatens to bring down the entire EU (European Union) with its exploding and toxic national debt. But it’s just one of the PIGS- Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. The EU is damned if they do, damned if they don’t. If they choose to bail out Greece in order to save the union, soon they’ll have much bigger bankrupt nations to deal with (Portugal and Spain are next in a long Conga line). There isn’t enough money in all the world to bail out all of them. The EU is in big trouble. » read more

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Area Libertarian Candidates On The Ballot

These are just the candidates that we will see on the May 4th primary in Lorain County and surrounding communities. Also on the ballot will be the LP state Central committee and Lorain County Central committee. There will be a Libertarian ballot when you vote in the primary. More information on the candidates will be posted on this site.

STATEWIDE OFFICES

Governor/Lt. Governor
Ken Matesz/Ann Leech

Attorney General
Marc Allan Feldman

Auditor
L. Michael Howard

Secretary of State
Charles Earl

Treasurer
Matthew P. Cantrell

US CONGRESS

Senate
Steven R. Linnabary

House District 5
Brian Smith

House District 9
Joseph Michael Jaffe
Jeremy Swartz

House District 10
Jeff Goggins

House District 14
John Jelenic

House District 16
Jeffrey Blevins

OHIO LEGISLATURE

District 17
David Macko

District 41
David Finley

District 42
John Hoover

District 44
Kurtis Liston

District 57
Joshua Robertson

District 58
Bob Williams

District 80
Judy Kayden

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US Census is Getting Personal!

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