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LPM OnlineMay 20, 2008 |
Major party candidates running in the August primary were required to file by May 13, and withdraw by May 16. Hence, now is the time for you to visit the Bureau of Elections website at http://miboecfr.nictusa.com/election/candlist/08PRI/08PRI_CL.HTM to see whether your local state representative or Congressman is running unopposed, and needs some competition, in the form of you running as a Libertarian candidate. For offices wholly within your county, such as county clerk, sheriff, treasurer or commissioner, check your County Clerk's website to see if any are running unopposed. One of the benefits of deferring our State Convention to June 7, with a candidate filing date of Monday, June 9, is that for the first time we can pick and choose races where there is only one major party candidate, or it appears to be a particularly competitive race. Those are two types of races where a Libertarian candidate has great potential for more media attention, either because they will be the opposition, or the media may consider them a spoiler. Check it out today! University of Michigan student Eric Plourde, running for Mayor of Ann Arbor, has already been the subject of front page news stories, been mentioned in US News and World Report, and gained the endorsement of Ron Paul. Not bad for a 19-year-old Libertarian politician. He's running against the 4-term Democratic Mayor, John Hieftje. He was the subject of a front page article in The Ann Arbor News, which can be seen here: http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2008/04/libertarian_candidate_for_ann.html Eric is president of the College Libertarians at U-M. He's a political science major who hopes to go to law school. He's working hard on his campaign and generating a lot of excitement in Ann Arbor. Eric's campaign web site is www.EPforAA.com. Please consider supporting his campaign with your time and money. (You can donate on his web site.) Young Libertarian activists such as Eric are the future of our party, and this young man is sure to be a good investment! The May/June issue of the Michigan Libertarian is now available online at: http://www.michiganlp.org/Past%20Newsletters/Michigan%20Libertarian%20Vol%2037.3%202008%20May-June%20COLOR.pdf Mailed copies will be delivered this week. We have a unique opportunity in Wayne County this year. Every race in Michigan that features one major party candidate is right here in Wayne County. There is no Republican running against John Conyers for Congress this year in his quest for his 22nd term in office. In Westland, incumbent Democrat Richard LeBlanc will be unopposed due to GOP candidate Sam Durante dropping out because of health concerns. In Detroit where the GOP is nonexistent, State House seats 3 though 12 feature only Democratic candidates, including 17 of them in district 7 alone. It is up to us, the Libertarian Party of Wayne County to not allow Conyers and LeBlanc a free ride to re-election. We still have a few weeks before our state convention on June 7th to recruit Libertarians to run in these races. Ironically, I was the chief proponent of moving our state convention later in the year, even getting the bylaws changed in order to make this happen. It’s time I put my money where my mouth is and deliver on this opportunity. The upside of running in a two-way race is you will receive more media attention than normal and you may find yourself being listed more often. When I ran against John Dingell in 2006, I was the only Libertarian in Michigan that had my name on the CNN and MSNBC ticker because there was no Republican that year. Unfortunately, I got beat by a Green once the Ann Arbor vote came in, but for a while I was a strong second place. Let’s take a closer look at these districts: • US Congress District 14 (John Conyers - D) This district covers west Detroit, Hamtramck, Highland Park, west Dearborn, Melvindale, Allen Park, Southgate, Riverview, Trenton, Gibraltar, and Grosse Isle. • State House District 18 (Richard LeBlanc - D) This district is the entire city of Westland. • State House Districts 3-12 These districts lie within the city of Detroit. |
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