Michael Munger lays it all out today at Kids Prefer Cheese. The North Carolina anti-gouging laws, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, not only caused gasoline shortages , but spent nearly $200,000 of taxpayer money to collect $56,000 in fines . This, of course, makes really good sense to somebody. Just not to me.

He swore me to secrecy before the election. I said he was crazy, that this was the key to doubling, even tripling his voter turn-out. But apparently deep family secrets are too significant to be set aside lightly... Michael Munger and Meatloaf are ... twins, separated at birth. Photos don't lie, do they?

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...

Then go here , and vote for Michael Munger in ABC 11's online poll. He's currently getting 33%. We should be able to do better!

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...

...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...

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.

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...

CarolinaDem (from whom some other Dems who have attached state names to themselves could learn a bit about logical thinking) has posted one of the best analyses to date on the North Carolina governor's race that actually quantifies the impact that Libertarian Mike Munger is having on the contest: I n an election for North Carolina Governor today, 08/12/08, 12 weeks to the vote, Democratic Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue and Republican Mayor of Charlotte Pat McCrory finish effectively even, neither gaining ground, with Libertarian Mike Munger siphoning votes from both , according to this latest SurveyUSA election tracking poll conducted exclusively for WTVD-TV in Raleigh. Today, it's Perdue 47%, McCrory 44%, within the survey's 3.9 percentage point margin of sampling error. When Duke Professor Munger's 5% is added in, and combined with another 5% who are undecided, Perdue's slight advantage is not significant, at this hour. The contest is fluid. Compared to an ide...

This is huge. Survey USA shows the Liddy Dole-Kay Hagan face-off at 47-41% in favor of Dole, with Chris Cole taking 7%. For the first time the Libertarian candidate for Senate in North Carolina is capturing larger numbers than the distance between the two Demopublican candidates. Moreover, as we have consistently noted here, contrary to conventional wisdom , Cole continues to draw more support from Democrats than Republicans . He is also currently drawing an amazing 11% of male voters . The same survey also shows Mike Munger at a solid 5% in the gubernatorial race, also well inside the Bev Perdue (47%)/Pat McCrory (44%) split. These numbers have not only held steady for 2-3 months, they have continued to edge up for both candidates. When you consider that Cole has raised only hundreds of dollars versus the Dole/Hagan millions, or that Munger has been forced to scramble for any publicity at all after being shut out of all but one debate, there is every indication that in the Tarheel S...

I've been stressing local and State action for the last few days, and the Asheville Daily Planet's coverage of NC gubernatorial candidate Mike Munger's appearance at the annual convention of the LP of Buncombe County is instructive in a lot of ways. The LP of Buncombe County's meeting drew about thirty-five people, and reading between the lines suggests that Munger's appearance had a lot to do with turn-out. [The party had no candidate to replace the outgoing chair; at the meeting Robert Parket stepped up to take the responsibility.] Munger used the opportunity not only to give his stump speech covering his campaign themes — including a moratorium on capital punishment, control of municipal aggression against property, a broad-based education vouchers system and ending corporate welfare . . . . but also worked in an appearance on the local radio station for three hours on WWNC. [Hint: none of this occurs without building a solid working relationship with your loc...

These are the summaries for the health and financial profiles of the three ballot-qualified candidates for North Carolina governor. Note that only Dr Mike Munger responded to the request to provide his tax returns. Bev Perdue and Pat McCrory hid behind their required financial disclosure forms, which are much less specific. That said, here are the profiles, as published by the Raleigh News & Observer : BEV PERDUE, DEMOCRAT Health: Perdue, 61, has been "in excellent health," according to a letter from Dr. Neil Bender of Jones County, her physician since 2001. She has high blood pressure, for which she has taken two prescription medications, and high cholesterol that she has treated with diet, exercise and weight loss, Bender wrote. She smoked off and on from college until 2003, when she started working with teen anti-tobacco programs. "She never smoked a lot," spokesman David Kochman wrote in an e-mail message. Finances: Perdue has held elected office continuou...

This is probably the best two-minute introduction you could find of Michael Munger, Libertarian candidate for Governor of North Carolina, produced by NBC-17 [Raleigh/Durham]:

Public Policy Polling continues to find Libertarian Candidate Michael Munger garnering a solid 6% in the North Carolina governor's race. This Libertarian factor is becoming critical, because Democrat Bev Perdue has now opened a 9 point lead over Republican Pat McCrory, and Munger is capturing a full 8% of the GOPer vote, and he's also polling higher among African-Americans than McCrory [8% to 7%]. Munger's numbers are probably actually being deflated in this poll. Reason? He scores substantially higher among men than women (9%-4%), and the poll numbers are significantly biased toward women (54%-46%); this suggests that Dr Mike might do a couple percentage points better in the general election. (Besides, when NC voters really get the chance to see Munger in the October 15 debate, I'll bet his numbers among women go up. He presents well on issues that matter.) What's even more interesting is that this poll shows Munger's running mate for Lieutenant Governor,...

Two weeks ago I had the good fortune to interview Dr. Michael Munger , the Libertarian Candidate for Governor in North Carolina. My initial question to him involved the top three initial priorities for a Munger administration. I'd like to share the first two of them with you [the other one concerned attracting jobs]: First priority : I issue an executive order placing an immediate moratorium on capital punishment in the state. Then I commute the sentences of everyone on death row to life in prison without parole. Third priority : I would create a study commission to check over the cases of all citizens incarcerated in NC's prisons for purely nonviolent crimes. (Embezzlement is violent, by the way, even though it is theft by stealth.) These crimes would include: possession of small amounts of any drug, prostitution, etc. And then I would take the resulting list of nonviolent offenders, after it had been checked to make sure that NO crimes of violence had been committed by anyon...