For reasons both personal and professional that I won't (can't) detail, this letter to the editor (published by the Niles Michigan Daily Star ) by Jason Gatties, the Libertarian candidate for Lake Michigan College Board of Trustees makes me crave elected trustees in the First State for UD, DSU, and DelTech . Which ain't gonna happen. [Reading this, understand that millage refers to the LMC ability to raise taxes--ala our own public education system--to support itself via referendum]: To the editor: As both a candidate for Lake Michigan College Board of Trustees and concerned taxpayer, I urge your readers to once again reject LMC's millage proposal that will appear on the ballot this November. The Board of Trustees may try to justify the need by saying the millage increase will be less than $25 per year for those who own a $100,000 home. However, the Board of Trustees must stop "begging" for taxpayers money and stop "threatening" to end certain progra...

....like Jason Gatties in his race for Board of Trustees at Lake Michigan College. Jason managed to get both local radio and newspaper coverage for his race this week. What's really interesting is that he got the South Bend Tribune to do for him what newspapers usually only do for Demopublican candidates: cover his press release almost verbatim as if it were real news: ST. JOSEPH — Jason Gatties, of St. Joseph, is seeking a seat on the Lake Michigan College board of trustees. The nonpartisan election will take place on Nov. 4. Gatties is a member of the Libertarian Party of Southwest Michigan, where he has served as Berrien County representative, vice chairman and chairman pro tem in the past. He is employed by Rover Security Guard Agency in Benton Harbor, where he serves as business manager. "I'm 100 percent against the proposed millage increase," he said in a written statement. "We must find alternative means to help fund this institution without increasing t...

In the race for the Board of Trustees of Lake Michigan College, Libertarian Jason Gatties was originally one of five candidates for three open positions. Recently, however, one incumbent dropped out of the race, meaning that Jason now has a great chance to win one of the seats. Think of it this way: if four people are running from a raging lion, you don't have to be the fastest, you just have to be faster than one other person. By the way, what did Jason do when he learned of his opponent's withdrawal? He sent a letter to the local newspaper complimenting the man's career of public service: Editor, On July 2 it was announced that current Lake Michigan College Board of Trustees Chairman Steve Silcox will not seek re-election this year. He has served the Board of Trustees since 1990 and as board chairman since 1997. Even though I've found myself in disagreement with not only Mr. Silcox, but also the Board of Trustees in general at times, I do wish Mr. Silcox the best of...

I stole this great graphic from Jason Gatties' web page , where they are really in the spirit. (They will be less in the spirit if I only succeed in raising them my ten bucks.) Speaking of that, I put the checks in the mail today for my four candidates (I don't do the credit card thing for donations). Have you? If you go visit Last Free Voice and check out the post and comments for Who are all the LP Candidates? you will find what is probably the largest comprehensive list (with significant though incomplete contact data) for Libertarian candidates around the country. I bet you can find somebody you'd be willing to support with at least ten bucks. My four: Munger, Buckley, Boman, Gatties (and if I can scare up one more ten-spot--maybe next week--Tom Knapp). C'mon, as G. E. Smith said somewhere (I think it was on Scotty Boman's site), we don't need a Money Bomb ; most of our candidates would be thrilled with a Money Fart . You know what I'm really asking?...

Jason Gatties, Libertarian candidate for the Lake Michigan College Board of Trustees, has asked that this weekend, in lieu of donations to his campaign, people please send their money to cyclone victims in Myanmar (or, for old farts like me, Burma). [h/t to Last Free Voice ] Funny, I can't imagine Barack Obama, John McCain, Bob Barr, Ralph Nader, or Ron Paul doing the same thing. Oh, wait, I don't have to imagine it: they didn't do it, or anything remotely like it . Unfortunately, some Libertarians could not resist using Jason's principled call to indulge in their own partisan fund-raising activities. So Jason, I'm going to both listen to you and ignore you. I promise you I'll send at least fifty bucks to the relief campaign, but I'm still sending you the ten bucks I promised . We're Americans. We can do more than one right thing at a time. Think about what might have happened if all the presidential candidates had gotten together and announced that ...

Here's what I would like to propose to my fellow Libertarians, especially those who are skeptical/hostile toward the top of the Libertarian ticket this year. I'm cheap, and we've got a household of six people and two cats to consider, so large political contributions are out of the question. On the other hand, even I can pry loose a measly forty bucks on Independence Day (or the day before; see below). And here's what I plan to do with it: Send $10 to Dr. Michael Munger to support his campaign for Governor of North Carolina (but I'm sending it to him on July 3, because that's the date of his money grenade--see the left side of the blog). Send $10 to Allen Buckley to support his campaign for Senator in Georgia (hoping to offset the Barr PAC's $3,000+ donations to Saxby Chambliess). Send $10 to Scotty Boman to support his campaign for Senator in Michigan (if he gets $500 from this, maybe he can go to court to add a "W" to his name, which would be...