Regular readers will have long ago been introduced to ground-breaking Tarheel State Libertarians like Michael Munger and Chris Cole . Now [h/t Libertarian Republican ] you can add Matt Drew, the Libertarian candidate for Durham City Council, whose finish in the ward primary now entitles him to take on Democratic incumbent Howard Clement. A visit to Drew's website discovers a candidate who is both thoughtful, civil, and willing to challenge perceived wisdom. With respect to the idea that he cannot win the council seat in an overwhelmingly African-American population: If you are a voter, go look in the mirror and honestly appraise yourself and your reasons for voting. If any of the reasons you voted for me include the fact that I’m white, I have a message for you: Please stay home in November. I don’t want your vote. If you find yourself in this position, I strongly urge you both to re-examine yourself and your motivations for voting. You also need to re-examine what Libertarian...

Dr. Michael Munger did it! Unofficial counts give him 2.87% of the vote in the gubernatorial race, which guarantees the Libertarian Party of North Carolina ballot access through 2012 in one of the worst states for ballot access in the country. More to the point: Munger said in a released statement that although he had obviously lost the race for Governor of North Carolina, the Libertarians had won a victory by "enormous requirements to stay on the ballot and not have to get the damn signatures." "This is just the first step," Munger added. "We got the signatures and we satisfied the requirements of the State by playing 'Simon says' in just the way they want us to." Munger said he will seek the Libertarian Party nomination for a NC State Senate seat in 2010 and again will run for governor in 2012.

From MichaelDuchemin.com : Another case where the Republican and Democratic candidates are not even worth consideration. Dole is horrible, and Hagan will be worse. I spent a long time researching Chris Cole. I do have some serious reservations about voting for him in that he is openly homosexual and supports gay marriage. In looking at his positions, he believes that abortion is a state issue and opposes any federal involvement in the issue at all, whether it is funding, promotion, or banning at the federal level. He does not disclose what he thinks the states ought to do. As such, I think he would be far more likely to help end federally protected abortion than the “Pro-Life” Republicans in the federal government who want to keep abortion an issue forever by not stopping it. He is really solid on everything a senator might vote on. He wants to eliminate the fed, just about every federal department, and the income tax. He essentially has the same positions as congressman Paul...

Here's the new low in socially conservative GOP attack advertising, from the Fayetteville Observer : Sen. John McCain has figured out that when it comes to campaign strategy, bigotry is a cross to bear, not burn. He came to the defense of his opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, last week. During a town hall meeting, a McCain supporter said she was afraid of Obama because he was an Arab. Taking the microphone from the frightened woman, McCain said her fears were unfounded, Obama is not an Arab. He’s a decent American, a family man, with whom McCain just happens to have differences. Honesty like that has earned McCain respect from both sides of the aisles. Sen. Elizabeth Dole should take a lesson from McCain. A broadcast ad targeting her opponent, Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan, shows Dole ratcheting up her rhetoric, and probably winning the honor, so far, of fielding the nastiest, most misleading, negative ad of the campaign. Here’s part of the ad that portrays Hagan as a godless liberal:...

Now you can finally witness here the twin spanking that North Carolina Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Dr Michael Munger delivered on October 16 to Dem Bev Perdue and GOPer Pat McCrory. Spend an hour watching the man who's too sane to be elected Governor speaking a variety of unpalatable truths to power.

You can visit here to find the prevarications and empty promises from Democrat Bev Perdue and Republican Pat McCrory when asked three very specific questions about health care. What the hell, you've heard them all before. Like his responses or not, however, Libertarian candidate for North Carolina governor Michael Munger actually gave straight answers to the questions: 1. An estimated 1.4 million residents of North Carolina, including 250,000 children, lack health care insurance. What steps would you take in your first year in office to reduce those figures? 1. The premise of the question is false. The goal is NOT to maximize the number of people who have health care provided at no cost to themselves, and paid for by everyone else. That doesn’t add up. If I paid for your car’s upkeep, and you paid for mine, we’d both do a bad job with oil changes and maintenance. We’d spend more than we should, for lower quality autos. What is necessary is to ensure that health care is affordable...

Susan Hogarth has a post up at Last Free Voice regarding Michael Munger, the Libertarian candidate for Governor in North Carolina. Part of it covers the same ground I did yesterday, but there is a wonderfully ironic segment regarding Dr Mike's appearance in front of the NC Greens: Mike spoke last night at a Green Party forum focused on North Carolina’s hideous ballot access laws (and other issues), and I noted this morning that a GP activist posted this to a Green list: As we witnessed last night with Mike Munger, the Libertarian gubernatorial candidate, we will have more in common with Libertarian values than we do with either the Dems or Repubs, this election cycle. Mr. Munger would support a tax bailout for mortgage holders and NOT for lenders. He also supports a very constitutional interpretation of individual liberties and responsibilities. This election cycle I will vote Lib to support them in ballot access and because of his thoughtful application of policy during these ti...

...and also points out that negative campaigning is actually benefitting the Libertarian candidate for North Carolina's Senate seat: “Despite relentless negative TV ads attacking her accomplishments in Washington, Senator Dole is able to hang onto a slim, two point lead. It appears that all of the negative attacks on Senator Dole have aided Libertarian Chris Cole not Senator Hagan ” said Francis De Luca, Executive Director of the Civitas Institute. This is critical: a Libertarian Senate candidate who is now both (a) outside the margin of error; and (b) being credited by a major polling organization as a factor in the race. Cole's numbers: May – Dole 45, Hagan 43 June – Dole 48, Hagan 38, Cole 1 July – Dole 47, Hagan 38, Cole 2 August – Dole 44, Hagan 41, Cole 4 September - Hagan 41, Dole 40, Cole 6

Here [courtesy Last Free Voice ] are excerpts from Dr Michael Munger's education commentary after he was again excluded from a major gubernatorial debate in North Carolina. First, on the debate itself: The Democratic and Republican candidates held another alleged debate today, sponsored by a supposedly non-partisan group, which excluded the third candidate in the race. Predictably, their answers focused on how they are going to fix the problem by using government power. The event was ironically held under the banner: “Education: Everybody’s Business.” Everybody, that is, except those who challenge the status quo, including a professor with nearly 25 years as an educator. Compounding the irony was the fact this “public” forum was held on private property and attendance was by invitation only. The program was recorded by the NC Telecommunications Association, another supposedly non-partisan group, and will be aired by WUNC on cable systems across the state. News14 Carolina aired the ...

...demonstrate that the message appears to be breaking through for Michael Munger and Chris Cole. Public Policy Polling's latest numbers show both the Libertarian Gubernatorial and Senatorial candidates drawing 6%. In the Governor's race, the difference between Bev Perdue and Pat McCrory is 1%. In the Senatorial race the difference between Liddy Dole and Kay Hagan is 1%. The devil, naturally, is in the details. Munger is pulling down 10% of all male voters; Cole draws 8%. Cole, an openly gay candidate, draws 8% of the GOP vote. Both Munger and Cole are scoring 16% of the critical young voter 18-29 demographic. On specific issues, Munger gets 21% of those who think taxes are the most important issue; Cole gets 23% [Dem Kay Hagan only gets 4%]. Munger gets 13% of those who think health care is the most important issue: Cole gets 22% [GOPer Liddy Dole gets 26%]. Munger gets 12% of those who think the War in Iraq is the most important issue; Cole gets 23%. These are impact number...

Where Bob Barr promises, Chris Cole is delivering--at least in the Tarheel State. The Libertarian candidate for Senate is posting 5% ( PPP ) or 7% ( Survey USA ) in a race between Liddy Dole and Kay Hagan where the numbers for both women keep jumping around in the mid-40s. This despite the fact, as I have noted before, that there appears to be virtual in-state news black-out on Cole's candidacy. Moreover, Cole is giving the lie to the idea that Libertarians are some sort of Republican lite party. The openly gay candidate is drawing 11% of the male vote in North Carolina, and polls have consistently shown him drawing as many--if not more--votes from Dems as GOPers. In the same polls, Gubernatorial candidate Michael Munger is holding steady at 5%, despite being closed out of the WRAL debate. But Munger is included in three upcoming forums/debates; I'm waiting to see if this has an impact. [One thus far unnoticed factor in the gubernatorial race: Munger is the only candidate wh...

....particularly when the race between Liddy Dole and Kay Hagan is all knotted up and he holds the key votes : Now that we’ve moved past Labor Day, the local news blackout on Libertarian Senate candidate Chris Cole from Huntersville is getting down right odd. The Washington Times has no problem calling Cole a potential “spoiler” in Elizabeth Dole’s re-election bid, a notion that Democrat Kay Hagan of course happily amplifies. Yet News14 has not done one of those lengthy, somnambulant interviews with Cole while the Uptown paper of record omits any mention of his candidacy even when reporting poll results that include him. Just weird. As I do not think there is any secret pro-Dole bias at work, it must just be that including Cole in the story messes up the clean woman vs. woman narrative editors and reporters want to present to the public. Well, sometimes life is a little messy and the big picture more complicated than the pitch. Now that voters are paying attention, let’s see if those c...

From the Munger campaign : On Saturday, an invitation arrived from UNC-TV. Mike has accepted the invitation to participate in two debates on public television, Sept. 24 and October 8. This adds momentum to the effort to include Dr. Mike in ALL the debates. Previously Dr. Mike was invited to one debate, in October, at Queens College in Charlotte. The campaign staff was apprehensive that one candidate would cancel at the last minute and thereby scuttle the event. So the UNC-TV invitation is especially welcome: the terms of the debate say that the event goes on, even if “not all” candidates accept. This means it would be very risky for Bev (say) to decline, giving Mike and Pat a show of their own. We still have other debates and events that are excluding Dr. Munger. Please visit the campaign website for information on how you can help. Meanwhile, BlueNC, the leading Progressive Blog in the Tarheel State, finds itself now taking a Libertarian candidate seriously , even when they disagree...

I know, I know, Libertarians aren't supposed to use the "W" word, and we're wackos who only play the part of spoilers. Except.... I've already covered a commenter on the Progressive blog BlueNC coming out for Dr Michael Munger, the Libertarian candidate for Governor of North Carolina, over Democrat Bev Perdue.... ...and the GOP-leaning Meck Deck discussing why Perdue should be happy Munger wasn't invited to the last debate. Now, two other sources chime in. Here's Bryan C. Hanks of the Kinston Free Press : It does in North Carolina. According to this SurveyUSA Election Poll, Libertarian Mike Munger is “complicating” the governor’s race. While Bev Perdue leads Pat McCrory 47-44 percent, Munger is pulling down 5 percent (with 5 percent undecided). My take: And yet, they’re not allowing Munger to debate with Perdue and McCrory. The Libertarian Party is an official party again in North Carolina — despite what the Republicans and Democrats have done to destroy t...

...is explained in Meck Deck's review of the last North Carolina gubernatorial debate between Democrat Bev Perdue and Republican Pat McCrory: Forget that there was a live debate between two of the three candidates for governor of North Carolina last night. Here’s the take-away quote for the evening: “I was not in the last eight years part of anybody’s elite circle.” That is what Bev Perdue told reporters after the debate, desperately trying to undo Pat McCrory’s linkage of her time in public office in Raleigh to Raleigh’s various scandals and ineptitudes. Perdue willingly told voters that, contrary to the campaign message she has tried to hammer home, she has been completely ineffectual and powerless as an elected leader to statewide office. Coming on top of a weak and disjointed debate performance, Perdue’s declaration was a staggering gaffe, one that must shake all but the most die-hard of her supporters. The only saving grace for the Democratic candidate is that Libertarian Mik...

This is how a Libertarian (at least my kind of Libertarian) answers the question of immigration and citizenship . I am not going to excerpt the entire editorial, because it is too well-written to cut up into pieces . It is possibly the best piece on this issue that I have read all year. That being said, it's also going to piss off a lot of people--and it should. What I have learned about Dr Michael Munger--more as a man than as candidate for Governor of North Carolina--is that he subscribes the ancient and honorable creed of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison : I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. . . . I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD . With luck I will be able to go to North Carolina on October 15 and watch him show Bev Perdue and Pat McCrory what happens when career politicians run into a citizen with a conscience and real ideas.

. . . is because he is making substantive statements on real policy issues. Here's his take on the recent request by university presidents that the Feds consider lowering the national drinking age to eighteen years: Christopher Cole, Libertarian for US Senate, agrees that such a move should be a no-brainer: If 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds are trustworthy with automatic weapons, driving tanks, or standing toe-to-toe with terrorists in Iraq, only a deranged busybody could claim that they are unable to handle a beer. However, Cole believes that, while the academics are right about the problem, they are wrong about the solution. He points to three dirty little secrets about the Federal drinking age. Dirty secret #1 : There actually IS NO Federal drinking age. Rather, Congress put a limitation on Federal transportation funds, cutting disbursements to states that had a drinking age LOWER than 21. They understood that they had no authority to set a standard directly, so they used money as...

[h/t to NC Senatorial candidate Chris Cole for alerting me to this ] Thanks to NC Legislative gerrymandering, the part of Iredell County included in State House District 95 is about as Republican as you can get. In 2002 , 2004 , and 2006 , GOPer Karen Ray ran unopposed for the seat, usually picking up about 11-14,000 votes. In 2004, although I can't find the exact number in the time I'm willing to spend tonight, she certainly got more, as Bush bashed Kerry 38,674 to 18,065 county-wide. This year, Ray succumbed to a primary challenge by attorney Grey Mills, who garnered 3,613 votes to Ray's 3,499. Here is how Mills describes himself : A staunch fiscal and social conservative, Mills supports the right to life, the protection of traditional marriage, and the protection of our Second Amendment rights of the Constitution. He believes that our state government must curb its wasteful spending, and do a better job in setting priorities. Additionally, Mills believes that Iredel...

Independent Political Report notes in a round-up of poll numbers that Bob Barr is pulling down 3% in North Carolina and "just under" 5% in Texas. Although it has generally escaped comment, this is the latest evidence that down-ticket Libertarians are carrying Bob Barr on their coat-tails , and not the other way around. Let's think this through. Here are the most recent numbers for the three prominent LP candidates in North Carolina : Senate: Chris Cole--7% Governor: Mike Munger--5% President: Bob Barr--3% North Carolina, by the way, is where we have Bob Barr on record claiming in a radio interview that his candidacy would prove to be a boon for (wait for it) . . . down-ticket Republicans . In Texas, the Libertarian Party has been surging into the 5%-range across the State for months, prompting GOP pressure on LP candidates to drop out of State House races, because in 5 or 6 key districts the LP vote may cause previously safe Republican seats to be in jeopardy. The ...

Now that I have been properly schooled in the distinction between liberals and progressives, I can say with some confidence that BlueNC is a progressive blog. Which makes it all the more interesting to find James Protzman posting this regarding Democrat Bev Perdue's nativist stand on the children of immigrants pushing him toward Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Mike Munger: Dear Bev. . . . I'm sure you and your staff agonized about whether to sell out poor brown people for political advantage, but agony or not, you came down on the wrong side of an important moral issue. Which makes your campaign irrelevant to me. Don't bother calling. Don't bother writing. Don't bother me at all. You don't need progressives, and progressives don't need you. I'm heading for Mike Munger. RALEIGH - Leaders of the state's community colleges voted today to close their doors to illegal immigrants until they complete a study and come up with a permanent policy. The de...