Libertarians Win 17% of Local Elections

Libertarians won 14 of their 81 slots in local races across the country Tuesday, which included mostly small-town mayors and city council positions; all incumbents were kept in office. They won four out of five races in Michigan, and others in Iowa, Idaho, North Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. More information on the individual elections can be found at the LP website.

Washington, D.C. – In an exciting conclusion to the 2007 off-year election, Libertarian Party candidates won an impressive 17 percent of all known races in the United States that included the Libertarian Party. Additionally, all Libertarian incumbents won re-election. The Libertarian National Committee counted 81 known races for the Nov. 6, 2007 elections and had 14 victories spread across seven states. "Last night's election once again proved that the Libertarian Party offers a viable third option that many Americans take advantage of when selecting the leaders of their government," says Libertarian Party Executive Director Shane Cory.

Libertarians were elected in Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania—54 percent of the states in which Libertarians ran. Libertarians in Michigan won four of the five known races in that state where Libertarians were involved—a stunning 80 percent rate of victory.

"The saying goes that all politics are local, and that's exactly where the Libertarian Party has its greatest influence," says Cory. "Decisions made by leaders at the local level are often the ones that have the most impact over people's lives, and the Libertarian Party wants to make sure that it's there when these decisions are made. The Libertarian Party's call for less government, lower taxes and more freedom doesn't change depending on what level of government it's made from. Liberty is liberty no matter what public office you hold."

While the Libertarian Party does not have any elected officials at the national level, the party does have Libertarians elected to local offices across the nation.

"The idea we want people to take from this election is about more than numbers and elected positions," says Andrew Davis, media coordinator for the Libertarian Party. "We want people to see that the Libertarian Party has been a viable third option in American politics for the last 35 years. The Libertarian Party exists as a real choice for voters who have long grown tired of picking from only Republicans and Democrats. This is democracy at work. It doesn't get any clearer than a Libertarian getting elected to office."

'Supreme Disgrace' Is Right

That was the title of an op-ed in today's New York Times opinion column after Tuesday's ruling the slimy U.S. Supreme Court made in the case of Khaled el-Masri, the German citizen of Lebanese heritage who was allegedly kidnapped by the CIA in a case of mistaken identity, where he was then tortured extensively, interrogated, and sent to Afghanistan where he was detained for months. Since extraordinary-rendition was allowed to grow thanks to Clinton, it has become increasingly clear that the government wants to use the "war on terror" as a way to gain full control over anybody and everybody they deem fit.

They ruled in the case that this man's human rights were less important than disclosing "state secrets." That is what you call an admission of guilt, but they're just not willing to pay for their own actions like they want us to. They don't even want us to have the chance. How is the world going to view this, not to mention adding it to our already scarily bad foreign policy? Our administration wants the world to follow their orders, and follow their ideas of how they should live and run their countries, but yet they pull something like this. This administration has a stranglehold over our judicial system, and it has to stop. The Supreme Court turned down an appeal without a single comment, and the use of the state secrets doctrine is all they could come up with in not even willing to hear the case. Our judges no longer represent law or the common citizen, but lawbreakers in our own country who hide under the phrase "national security." What national security? They are taking that away whether we like it or not. While they have the typical sheep here terrified of other groups of people, they're destroying our sovereignty right under our own eyes daily in cases like this.

This proves that the majority of our judicial system has no desire to grant the will of the people in this country, or follow the rule of law as the constitution states. This is no longer a democracy. We're living in slave-state of tyranny under ruthless dictators, and if some citizens of this country feel the need to vote in another dictator candidate, they deserve the same tragic fate that should ultimately come down to their rulers. Judges Thomas Selby Ellis III and Robert King, CIA director George J. Tenet, and CIA director Porter Goss are all fully to blame for this atrocity (can't forget Bush), but definitely not limited to, and all anger should be directed towards them. Germany should further release all names they have found involved in this illegal act for all to see, and against the will of our increasingly unstable government. If we're supposed to pay for our actions, they should be too, right?