Category Archives: Libertarian

Morgan County voters are showing up to the polls early in higher numbers than expected ahead of the May 24 Primary Election. According to Morgan County Elections Director Jennifer Doran, a total of 584 ballots have been cast thus far as of press time on Tuesday, May 10.

Doran says there is a significant increase from previous early voting periods during Midterm primaries.

In 2018, a total of 768 ballots were cast in all three weeks of early voting. We are just one week and two days in and we are almost at two-thirds of that number.

Doran attributed the rise in voter participation to the publics ever-growing interests in electoral politics and several key races currently on the ballot, including the statewide primary race for Governor, which pits several Republican candidates against Incumbent Governor Brian Kemp.

The race for Secretary of State (SOS), which also includes several Republican challengers to Incumbent SOS Brad Raffensperger, is also a popular interest among voters. Both Kemp and Raffensperger came under fire from Former President Trump and his supporters after the 2020 Presidential Election when neither would agree to overturn the election results that handed President Joe Biden a narrow victory in the Peach State.

The only local election on the primary ballot is between two Republicans running for the Morgan County Commissioner Seat in District 2. As long-time County Commissioner Andy Ainslie retires from office this year, three candidates have filed to run for his seat in District 2 two Republicans and one Democrat.

Republicans Keith Wilson and Blake McCormack will face off in the upcoming primary election on Tuesday, May 24. The winner will run against Democrat Bob Baldwin in the Nov. 8 General Election for the open seat on the Morgan County Board of Commissioners.

Other key statewide races include Morgan County voters will be able to cast ballots on several high-profile statewide races in 2022, including the race for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, a U.S. House of Representatives seat, and one of Georgias U.S. Senate seats. Local voters will also decide two State Senate seats for District 17 and District 25 along with one State House of Representatives seat for District 114.

Early voting hours will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, with early voting available this Saturday, May 14, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. All early voting is done at the BOER office, which is located at 237 North Second Street in Madison. Your county polling location may have changed since the 2020 elections. You can confirm your election day polling place by going to mvp.sos.ga.gov or calling the BOER at 706-343-6311.

Morgan County voters will be able to cast ballots on several high-profile statewide races in 2022, including the race for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, a U.S. House of Representatives seat, and one of Georgias U.S. Senate seats. Local voters will also decide two State Senate seats for District 17 and District 25 along with one State House of Representatives seat for District 114.

Morgan County voters will have to make choices on several state and federal races, with no shortage of candidates running for the seats.

In the race for Georgia Governor, two Republican titans will face off in the May 24 Primary Incumbent Brian Kemp and former U.S. Senator David Perdue. Other Republicans have also qualified to run, including Catherine Davis, Kandiss Taylor, and Tom Williams.

The winner will take on Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams in the Nov. 8 General Election, as well as Libertarian Shane Hazel and Independent Al Bartell.

One of Georgias U.S. Senate seats is up for grabs, as Democratic Incumbent Raphael Warnock faces Democratic challenger Tamara Johnson-Shealey. Republican challengers have lined up as well for the seat, including Gary Black, Josh Clark, Kelvin King, Jonathan McColumn, Latham Saddler and Herschel Walker. One Libertarian has qualified for the Senate seat, Chase Oliver.

In the race for Georgia Lieutenant Governor, Democrats Erick Allen, Charlie Bailey, Tyrone Brooks Jr., Tony Brown, Kwanza Hall, Jason Hayes, Derrick Jackson, R. Malik, Renitta Shannon have qualified to run. On the Republican side, Burt Jones, Mack McGregor, Butch Miller, and Jeanne Seaver qualified. Libertarian candidate Ryan Graham also qualified.

In the race for Georgia Secretary of State, Republican Incumbent Brad Raffensperger will square off against Republican challengers Jody Hice, a former U.S. Congressman, David Belle Isle, and T.J. Hudson. Democrats running for Georgia SOS include Dee Dawkins-Haigler, John Eaves, Floyd Griffin, Bee Nguyen, and Michael Owens. Libertarian Ted Metz is also running.

Congressman Jody Hice is vacating the U.S. House District 10 to run for Georgia SOS. A crowded field of candidates has emerged to win his seat. Republicans running include Timothy Barr, Paul Broun, Mike Collins, David Curry, Vernon J. Jones, Marc McMain, Alan Sims, and Mitchell Swan. Democrats running include Jessica Allison Fore, Tabitha Johnson-Green, Phyllis Hatcher, Femi Oduwole, and Paul Walton.

In the local state representative races, candidates have lined up to compete for two State Senate seats and one State House of Representatives seat.

For State Senate District 25, currently held by Burt Jones who is vacating office to run for Lt. Governor, candidates running to replace him include Republicans Rick Jeffares, Leland Jake Olinger II, Daniela Sullivan-Marzahl, and Ricky Williams, and Democrat Valerie Rodgers.

For State Senate District 17, Republican Incumbent Brian Strickland is running for reelection, facing Republican challenger Brett Mauldin. The winner will go to run against Democratic challenger Kacy Morgan in the Nov. 8 General Election.

State Rep. Dave Belton will not seek reelection for District 114. Republicans Wendell McNeal and Tim Fleming will face off in the May primary election for their partys nomination. The winner will face Democratic Challenger Malcom Adams in November.

Georgians will vote on the next Attorney General, with Republican incumbent Chris Carr running for reelection, facing challenges from Republican John Gordon, Democrats Jennifer Jordan and Christian Wise Smith, and Libertarian Martin Cowen.

Georgians will also vote for Commissioner of Agriculture, Commissioner of Insurance, State School superintendent, and Commissioner of Labor.

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Early voting turnout higher than expected in Morgan County - Morgan County Citizen

A lesson from Croydon, NH: Using and abusing the tools of democracy

May 8 To the Editor:

One of the saddest developments in recent times is the expert use of the tools of democracy by those seeking to destroy the institutions democracy makes possible.

A recent example occurred in March in the tiny town of Croydon, New Hampshire. A combination of bad weather, indifference, and busy lives kept the vast majority of the towns 801 residents from attending the annual school district meeting. The key item? A vote on the local school budget.

Undeterred by bad weather and with a specific mission in mind, a member of a libertarian-leaning group whose mission includes eliminating public education across New Hampshire introduced a motion to cut the school budget in half. A majority of the 34 people present, who included other members of the Free State Project and their allies, voted to support the motion.

All of a sudden, a largely forgotten school board had the full attention of a previously sleepy community. The reaction at first was shock. Then shock turned to anger. How could something like this happen in a town so proud of its K-4 school and so committed to going the extra mile to educate its children?

The answer was obvious. It happened because people skeptical of and even hostile to public education showed up and voted. Meanwhile, the vast majority of residents who value public education and whose children depend on it stayed home.

Fortunately, Croydon residents had one more card to play the possibility of unwinding the vote if more than half the towns voters showed up for a special meeting. In the end, members of a chastened but wiser community voted 377-2 to restore the school budget to its original level.

While Croydons victory is worth celebrating, it also presents a cautionary tale of what can happen when civic engagement lags and distracted voters fail to understand that not all of their fellow residents or elected officials share their values or their commitment to community.

This year in New Hampshire weve seen elected officials use redistricting laws as an opportunity to tighten the grip of a single political party. Weve witnessed other laws passed to make absentee voting harder and to quash the ability of members of the public to fully participate remotely in public meetings. At the local level, weve seen vocal groups crowd into public meetings to make demands that often dont reflect the will of a majority of other members of the community and get the changes they demanded.

While we may not like the results, these outcomes all represent democracy in action. To win, you must show up and play. When you dont, you run the risk of ceding control over the issues that matter to you to a vocal minority adept at using the tools of democracy to unravel things you care deeply about.

Increasingly, many of us wonder if democracy is working or not working. But the truth is democracies dont take action or solve problems people do. For democracies to work, voters need to take interest, show up, make their voices heard, and most importantly vote.

Life rarely gives us the opportunity for a do-over. Our democracy offers multiple chances. But only if were willing to do our part.

Rep. David Meuse

Portsmouth

A recent letter to the editor headlined "Double standard on taxpayer liability"incorrectly characterized Gerald Duffy's campaign contributions in Portsmouth's 2021 city election. Correctly stated, Duffy donated money to Progress Portsmouth, which supported a slate of candidates.

May 9 To the Editor:

On Nov. 8this year, when I have a chance to vote for governor of New Hampshire, I plan to vote for Dr. Tom Sherman, and heres one reason: I know that as a physician, Tom Sherman understands that there are many valid physical and mental health reasons for a woman to not want to continue a pregnancy.

Too many reduce that decision to an innocent baby vs. a sinful woman who shouldnt have been having sex, when the issue is much more complex than that. We need a governor who can understand when a bill has a valid medical reason for limiting human rights, or when it is using medical procedures as a pretense to a conclusion based on religion, not science. We need a governor that understands the damage that happens to her body when a very young woman is forced to carry a pregnancy to term, and that giving up a baby after giving birth is not as simple as handing it over to someone else. I trust that Dr. Sherman will have our whole health interests at the fore when New Hampshire legislation comes before him.

Robin Schnell

Portsmouth

May 8 - To the Editor:

Imagine if conservative male politicians, judges and religious leaders had their lives impacted by their own decisions.

Consider the following scenario.

You have been complaining to your drinking buddies that you would like grandchildren someday. Lucky for you, one of your trusted friends knows an unethical fertility specialist with some extra embryos in their cryogenic freezer. After getting you passed out drunk, they inject some embryos into your prostate and each testicle to see if they can make your dream come true. You wake up with a hangover, but nothing else seems different.

Over the next six weeks, nothing seems to feel different, but what you may not realize is that you have three growths the size of a grain of rice that have found blood supplies and are continuing to grow. Afew weeks later, you notice a couple of small lumps in your testicles and think about going to the doctor if they get larger. They do get larger and now you are finding it even harder to urinate, most likely due to your enlarged prostate, you think. By the time you see your urologist, you are in some serious pain. Maybe it is similar to the pain experienced by a woman with an ectopic pregnancy but just in a different place.

Your urologist schedules an ultrasound, one of which is trans-rectal to examine your prostate. The results show that you are pregnant and will definitely make history as the first pregnant man carrying triplets. That is when you might start pleading with the doctor to remove the fetuses, but the doctor responds that they cant, as it is beyond six weeks, and they would be arrested if they did. They would also have to arrest your wife, who drove you to their office. Yes, you might die if you are not willing to tough it out, and you were raped by needle spiking, but the law is the law. Clearly two children can be delivered with a modified Cesarean section from your full term thirty or forty pound scrotum. The third child may have to be delivered rectally, if you survive having your prostate burst before then and not die from septic shock. But think of it, if you survive you can be the proud grandfather/father of three and go down in the record books. If you die, you died for your beliefs, a clear win-win.

One more thing, since all of your treatments and procedures normally apply to women, your insurance company considers them experimental and denies all of your claims.

Don Cavallaro

Rye

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Letters: A lesson from Croydon, NH: Using and abusing the tools of democracy - Foster's Daily Democrat

May 11SANTA FE Four of the seven candidates running for governor this year have voluntarily released their tax returns for the last two years, though some candidates only provided partial returns or summaries of their taxes.

The Journal asked all candidates who have qualified for the June 7 primary election ballot to release their tax returns, in order to provide information to voters about income sources.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is unopposed in next month's Democratic primary, was joined in releasing her tax returns by Republicans Mark Ronchetti, Jay Block and Rebecca Dow.

The two other GOP candidates in the race Greg Zanetti and Ethel Maharg did not release their returns. Libertarian candidate Karen Bedonie also did not immediately comply with the Journal's request.

New Mexico state law does not require the release of tax returns by gubernatorial candidates, unlike some states like California and Vermont that do mandate such disclosure.

But there is recent precedent for doing so, as both Lujan Grisham and Republican nominee Steve Pearce released their tax returns in the run-up to the 2018 race for governor, though Pearce only released tax return cover sheets.

For this year's race, some candidates who did not release their tax returns indicated they might consider doing so in coming days or weeks.

"I prefer to do that after the primary," said Maharg, the former mayor of Cuba who is one of five Republicans vying for the party's nomination in the June 7 primary race.

Here are synopses of tax returns released by the candidates who complied with the Journal's request:

Michelle Lujan Grisham

The state's Democratic incumbent governor, who is seeking reelection this year, released her entire tax returns for both 2020 and 2021.

Specifically, she reported making $79,629 in 2021 adjusted gross income after deductions, with the bulk of that figure coming from her $110,000 annual salary as governor set in state law. Lujan Grisham also made about $8,200 in investment earnings and interest.

Story continues

After paying $11,151 in federal taxes and $3,036 in state taxes, the governor received a $1,134 federal tax refund and a $30 state refund.

Lujan Grisham's income level was similar in 2020, her second full year of governor, when she made $76,144 in total income, according to her tax return provided to the Journal. She also received slightly larger tax refunds that year.

"Governor Lujan Grisham is committed to transparency and that's why she believes it is fundamental to release her tax returns," her campaign spokeswoman Kendall Witmer told the Journal.

While Lujan Grisham filed her taxes as a single individual, her filing status could be set to change. That's because the governor is set to marry her longtime fianc Manny Cordova later this month.

Mark Ronchetti

Ronchetti's campaign released a letter from his accountant that detailed the 2020 returns Ronchetti filed jointly with his wife, Krysty O'Quinn Ronchetti, but did not release the actual tax returns.

The Ronchettis have not yet filed their 2021 tax returns, as they applied for an extension due to a delay in receiving income tax documents, a campaign spokesman said.

In 2020, the Ronchettis reported an adjusted gross income of $78,410, which includes wages from both Ronchetti's job as a KRQE-TV meteorologist and his wife's work with a communications firm, according to their accountant.

Ronchetti only worked for part of 2020, as he stepped down from his meteorologist job that year in order to run for an open U.S. Senate seat. He won a three-way GOP primary, but was defeated in that year's general election by Democrat Ben Ray Lujn.

After the election, Ronchetti returned to KRQE for most of 2021. He stepped down again in October shortly before announcing his campaign for governor.

Meanwhile, the Ronchettis also reported 2020 income from pensions and annuities, investment earnings and from a pass through entity, or a business that passes its income and losses on to the business' owners or investors.

That entity is SJ Communications Inc., an Albuquerque-based company that was founded and is led by Krysty Ronchetti, according to state business records.

The firm has done public relations work for the state Tourism Department's "New Mexico True" marketing campaign, among other clients.

Rebecca Dow

Dow, a three-term state lawmaker from Truth or Consequences, filed taxes jointly with her husband in both 2020 and 2021.

Dow's campaign released only her state and federal tax return cover sheets not the attached tax schedules that showed the couple had an adjusted gross income of $178,851 for 2021 and $98,888 for 2020.

They also reported receiving, selling or exchanging virtual currency in both years, though her campaign manager Josh Siegel did not respond to a Journal question about the transactions.

Dow, who reported loaning $40,000 to her campaign in April, said on a mandatory state financial disclosure form in January that she is self-employed. She previously founded an early childhood learning center in Sierra County.

Her husband, Aaron Dow, is the president of Dow Technology, a software development company, and Rebecca Dow is listed as the company's vice president, according to state records.

He also worked for the state Department of Health, but quit his job due to COVID-19 vaccine and testing requirements, Dow's campaign has previously said.

Meanwhile, the Dows gave $6,150 in charitable contributions in 2020, her campaign manager told the Journal.

Jay Block

Block, who released his entire tax returns for both years, reported making $192,330 in adjusted gross income in 2021, with most of that income stemming from his work as both a defense consultant and as a Sandoval County commissioner.

He also received $43,203 from his military retirement as a U.S. Air Force officer for more than 20 years.

Those income levels represented an increase from 2020, as Block reported making $131,580 in adjusted gross income that year, with $29,336 coming from his military pension benefits.

Block faced a 2021 federal tax bill of $36,122 and a state tax bill of $8,503, which were both higher than his tax payments from a year earlier.

Block, who filed his returns as a single taxpayer, also reported a charitable contribution of $3,715 to Gospel Light Baptist Church in Rio Rancho in 2021.

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NM governor candidates split on releasing tax returns - Yahoo News

Very occasionally a party leadership race will turn on some burning question of policy. More often, they are brute contests of organizational muscle and name recognition, with little in the way of substantive issues at stake.

But this Conservative leadership campaign is something else again, one that appears to be about neither the leadership the party gives every sign of having made up its mind already nor policy. Rather, at least to judge by last weeks candidates debate, the only issue is who can take the most unhinged positions on the fringiest topics.

Im not talking here about the combative, that is, vicious tone of the debate, the personal attacks and what not, the subject of much commentary afterward. It would be nice if politicians would occasionally take the high road, but lets be serious: its like asking a death metal band to sing La Traviata.

Neither is my complaint that the candidates are not centrist enough, or too ideologically conservative. Those, such as current interim leader Candice Bergen, who advise the party to avoid attempting to pass itself off as Liberal-lite are right, not so much because it cant win that way stranger things have happened but because it wouldnt much matter if it did.

Its precisely the opposite: the campaign, like the party, is not nearly ideological enough. This has been a problem for many years. In the Harper years, the party renounced most serious ideological differences with the Liberals in favour of mindless partisanship.

In its current incarnation, it leans more to out and out wackjobbery: conspiracy theories of various kinds is it George Soros who is secretly controlling our lives, or is it the World Economic Forum? vaccine denialism, and cheering on the lawless mob that took over Ottawa earlier this year.

Oh yes, and shilling for bitcoin, as an alternative to the dollar.

Three of the five candidates on the podium last Thursday represented some hue of this sort of thinking. When Leslyn Lewis took Pierre Poilievre to task for his support of the illegal blockade, which paralyzed the city centre and terrorized many of its residents for weeks on end, it was only to rebuke him for not being early or enthusiastic enough in his endorsement.

Meanwhile Roman Babers main claim to fame seemed to be that he was turfed from the caucus of Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford last year over his opposition to the provinces lockdown policy, to which he has since added opposition to mask and vaccine mandates: the denialist trifecta.

What will be noted about all this is how little it has to do with conservatism. There is nothing conservative about endorsing massive and sustained breakdowns of law and order, especially where these are coupled with assaults on the public: quite the contrary. Neither is a conservative doctrinally obliged to sign onto bizarre theories that an annual celebrity talking shop in the Swiss Alps is somehow ruling the world.

There is a libertarian streak of conservatism that would reflexively question the need for lockdowns or vaccine mandates but having indulged the reflex, a thinking libertarian would take into account the exceptional circumstances that compelled such extraordinary measures: a lethal pandemic that has killed in excess of 15 million people worldwide, and would have killed many times that number in their absence.

By contrast, consider the conservative issues and policies that have gone all but ignored through the campaign to date. There has been next to no discussion of the federal deficit and debt, at least in terms of concrete measures to address either. No serious proposals have been advanced, likewise, for improving Canadas anemic productivity growth whether by reforming our sclerotic tax laws, or opening the protected sectors of our economy to competitive stimulus.

In the face of a Liberal government that, for all its talk of carbon pricing, depends on costly and ineffective subsidies and regulations for two-thirds of its emissions reductions, the Conservatives say only that they will lean even more heavily on subs and regs. In the midst of the worst international security crisis since the Second World War, is even one of the candidates talking about reform of our disgraceful military procurement program not just to spend more, but to spend better?

There is a constituency for conservative thinking on these and other issues; there is another constituency that would be willing to try any responsible alternative to the Liberals. But neither of these are being addressed while the candidates focus on the 7 per cent of the adult population who remain unvaccinated, or the smaller minorities still who buy bitcoin or worry about the World Economic Forum.

But perhaps the candidates are just getting warmed up. There are still weeks to go until the cutoff for membership sales. Theres another debate Wednesday night. Maybe things will turn around. Maybe. But why do I think they wont?

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Opinion: Vaccine refusal? Blockades? Bitcoin? What does any of this have to do with conservatism? - The Globe and Mail

A former state board of education member, best known for invoking the "n-word" at a board meeting in 2013, is running for state treasurer.

Steve Roberts, who served on the state board until 2020, confirmed his candidacy in an interview Monday. He filed in Marchwith the secretary of state's office to run in the race as a libertarian.

Roberts said he was running for the office in an attempt to improve education policy, saying his principal goal was to"build bridges between the governor's office and the state board of education."

"The public is ready for an upgrade (on education)," Roberts said. "And as a treasurer, I think I'll have a unique position to help move the needle."

The state treasurer's office has a number of roles, though the office does not play a major partin education policy. The treasurer operates the state's 529 education savings program and serves more broadly as the caretaker of the state's cash deposits and other assets.

State Treasurer Lynn Rogers, a Democrat, is running for re-election and he has drawn two Republican opponents, Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker, and Rep. Steven Johnson, R-Assaria.

While Roberts has a website touting his campaign, he appears to have done minimal campaigning. Rogers, by contrast, has a considerable public profile that comes from advertising the treasurer's office and Johnson and Tyson may well air television ads of their own.

Still, Roberts insisted his intent was not to disrupt the race and draw votes away from the Republican candidate.

The election, he said, was his for the taking, even though a third party candidate has not won statewide office since 1899.

"I'm not in it to be a spoiler," he said. "I'm in it to win it."

Serving as a Republican on the state board of education from 2012-2020, Roberts burnished a reputation as a conservative who made provocative comments.

That includes the 2013 controversy stemming from his use of the "n word" during a debate over new state history standards. Democrats, including some of Roberts' colleagues on the board, called for his resignation over the matter.

Roberts said he felt the new standards were too "politically correct" in some areas. He said the racial slur had become anathema, even though it is in Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter From a Birmingham Jail."

"I would almost do a test to see what the effect on Twitter would be. You know that Roberts guy said (expletive)in a school board meeting," Roberts said at the time."'And he said it as, its probably the ugliest word in our vocabulary. Its an utterly repugnant, absolutely horrific word that we should rise above. But I did get it out there, and I appreciate the opportunity to do that..

He also drew statewide attention for a speechwhen the board of education debated an executive order fromGov. Laura Kelly delaying the start of the 2020-21 school year because of COVID-19.

The remarks did not mention the pandemic but touched on topics ranging from teacher pay to eliminating the federal free-and-reduced price lunch program.

Roberts also ran in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in 2020, earning 2% of the vote in the race won by current U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall.

Andrew Bahl is a senior statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at abahl@gannett.com or by phone at 443-979-6100.

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Controversial former state board of education member Steve Roberts running for state treasurer - The Topeka Capital-Journal

Ric Edelman is a futurist. Yes, hes also one of the most successful financial advisors in America, but what hes really passionate about is the intersection of how well live our lives in the future and the current technologies that will get us there.

The first time I ever saw him speak at a live event, he had the whole room in thrall to the ideas he had about robotics and the singularity. The next time I saw him on stage he was explaining how the next generation would be more likely to have two or even three separate careers during their lifetime rather than ever fully retire. He sees a new world where the last remaining diseases of the 20th century are stamped out by science and software-driven innovation unlocks the potential for people to spend more of their time how theyd like. In this version of the future, wealth management firms and financial advisors would be radically shifting their service priorities from retirement planning to life planning.

And blockchain technology figures prominently into the story.

I spoke with Ric yesterday (were planning our chat for his live Vision event in Austin next month) and we got to talking about his new book, The Truth About Crypto. Ric didnt write it for technologists or crypto industry experts. He wrote it for the rest of us. For people who want to understand it enough so that they can keep up. Or people who would like to become experts but, for now, simply need a background and a good grasp of the basics.

The biggest challenge, he told me, was that he didnt want to write a book about an emerging technology that could become easily outdated. So The Truth About Crypto keeps it high-level and fits in a lot of detail on the broader concepts that will be applicable now and a year from now. Ric has written ten books, many of them bestsellers and he is a great communicator. He knows how to explain this stuff.

This is not a book about anarcho-capitalist ideologies or the latest crypto-libertarian utopian fever dreams spreading on Twitter. This is a book with purpose and practicality. Its for investors, advisors, asset managers and other professionals in related fields. A glance at the chapter listing makes it clear youre going to learn some essential stuff here: Major Base Layer Protocols, Digital Assets Exchanges, Qualified ITA Custodians That Hold Digital Assets, Digital Assets Portfolio Tracking Services, Tax Record Keeping and Reporting Services for Digital Assets, etc.

If youre looking for an easily readable book about the current state of investing in crypto, this is the one Id grab. Im in chapter 4 and learning something on every page so far.

The Truth About Crypto (Amazon)

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The Truth About Crypto - The Reformed Broker

Everything you need to know about the biggest political races in Arkansas for the May 2022 primaries.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. Voters across Arkansas will choose on May 24 who will advance in several key races for the 2022 elections. Among those races is whether Sarah Huckabee Sanders will become the Republican nominee for the gubernatorial race and which Democratic challenger she will face in November.

Incumbent U.S. Senator John Boozman is facing tough competition from Jake Bequette and Jan Morgan for one of two Senate seats in the state. And six Republicans are facing off for the lieutenant governor ticket.

Statewide election dates

Governor

Because current Governor Asa Hutchinson has reached his term limits, the state will hold a general election on November 8 to determine the next governor.

On May 24, Republican frontrunner Sarah Huckabee Sanders will go up against Doc Martin as the Republican nominee for governor. Sanders expected to win that race.

Democrat candidates include Dr. Chris Jones, who is leading the party's candidates in a recent poll by Talk Business & Politics, will face off against Supha Xayprasith-Mays, Jay Martin, Anthony Bland, and James Russell.

Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. is the Libertarian candidate for Arkansas governor.

On Nov. 8, the winners of the Republican and Democrat primaries will go up against Harrington in the race.

Lt. Governor

A total of six Republicans are facing off in the race; Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, state Senator Jason Rapert, Doyle Webb, Joseph Wood, Chris Bequette, and Greg Bledsoe.

The winner of that race will face Democratic candidate Kelly Krout and Libertarian Frank Gilbert.

Attorney General

The race will be against Democratic candidate Jesse Gibson, independent Gerhard Langguth, and the winner of the Republican primary.

Current Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin is facing off against Leon Jones Jr. for the Republican ticket.

Secretary of State

Incumbent John Thurston will face Eddie Joe Williams in the Republican primary race.

And Joshua Price will go up against Anna Beth Gorman in the Democratic ticket.

U.S. Senate

Incumbent Senator John Boozman, who has been in the seat since 2011, will be contested by Jake Bequette, Heath Loftis, and Jan Morgan in the Republican primary on May 24, 2022.

The Democratic candidates for Boozman's seat are Natalie James, Jack Foster, and Dan Whitfield.

Kenneth Cates is the Libertarian candidate for the US Senate seat.

U.S. House

For local measures, issues, and other races either visit your county's election page or the Secretary of State's website.

Read more here:

Arkansas May 2022 primaries: What you need to know - THV11.com KTHV

Everything in our politics and society today seems stuck, hanging, thrusting forward in a foreboding moment of transition in which essentially nothing seems good but just where its all going isnt at all clear. One of the big transitions is the shift of the tech world from its general indifference to politics in the first decade of the century, to a generally D-aligned engagement, to one that is increasingly but by no means universally aligned with the right and the hard right. In general many of us are accustomed to think of the tech high flyers as reflexively laissez-faire on economics while being cosmopolitan/libertarian on social issues. That latter stance isnt liberalism, though its fairly close in the context of U.S. politics. This is changing rapidly, however, and I want to note some particulars about a development you may have heard about.

Blake Masters is a Trumpite candidate for Senate from Arizona. Hes not the frontrunner but hes definitely in the mix. He wants states to again be able to outlaw contraception, though he says he has no personal opposition to contraception and would not support laws banning it. But he posted on his website that if he is elected he will only vote to confirm judges who understand thatRoeandGriswold andCaseywere wrongly decided, and that there is no constitutional right to abortion.

Well, Masters is another of Peter Thiels favored candidates, like JD Vance. Indeed, hes the President of Thiels foundation and coauthored a book with him. Hes a VC himself. As near as I can tell his entire career from law school has been tied to Thiel.

I generally dont think of even the far right folks from the tech world being terribly hung up about banning contraception. And Masters isnt necessarily representative of tech or VCs in this sense. But hes no exception or outlier either. I assume Masters must just be a conservative in ways that predate his involvement with Thiel and even with the tech and VC world. But this is still the direction of things. Anti-democratic thinking, authoritarianism and embrace of rightist revanchism are building rapidly in this milieu which controls enough capital to have a thundering voice in our politics going forward. What seemed like outliers almost a decade ago, the acolytes around Curtis Yarvins blog and the like, now seem like theyre moving to the center of the action.

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Thiel, Tech and the Hard Right Turn - TPM Talking Points Memo - TPM

By Rep. David Meuse, D- Portsmouth

One of the saddest developments in recent times is the expert use of the tools of democracy by those seeking to destroy the institutions democracy makes possible.

A recent example occured in March in the tiny town of Croydon, New Hampshire. A combination of bad weather, indifference, and busy lives kept the vast majority of the towns 801 residents from attending the annual school district meeting. The key item? A vote on the local school budget.

Undeterred by bad weather and with a specific mission in mind, a member of a libertarian-leaning group whose mission includes eliminating public education across New Hampshire introduced a motion to cut the school budget in half. A majority of the 34 people present, who included other members of the Free State Project and their allies, voted to support the motion.

All of a sudden, a largely forgotten school board had the full attention of a previously sleepy community. The reaction at first was shock. Then shock turned to anger. How could something like this happen in a town so proud of its K-4 school and so committed to going the extra mile to educate its children?

The answer was obvious. It happened because people skeptical ofand even hostile topublic education showed up and voted. Meanwhile, the vast majority of residents who value public education and whose children depend on it stayed home.

Fortunately, Croydon residents had one more card to playthe possibility of unwinding the vote if more than half the towns voters showed up for a special meeting. In the end, members of a chastened but wiser community voted 377-2 to restore the school budget to its original level.

While Croydons victory is worth celebrating, it also presents a cautionary tale of what can happen when civic engagement lags and distracted voters fail to understand that not all of their fellow residentsor elected officialsshare their values or their commitment to community.

This year in New Hampshire weve seen elected officials use redistricting laws as an opportunity to tighten the grip of a single political party. Weve witnessed other laws passed to make absentee voting harder and to quash the ability of members of the public to fully participate remotely in public meetings. At the local level, weve seen vocal groups crowd into public meetings to make demands that often dont reflect the will of a majority of other members of the communityand get the changes they demanded.

While we may not like the results, these outcomes all represent democracy in action. To win, you must show up and play. When you dont, you run the risk of ceding control over the issues that matter to you to a vocal minority adept at using the tools of democracy to unravel things you care deeply about.

Increasingly, many of us wonder if democracy is working or not working. But the truth is democracies dont take action or solve problemspeople do. For democracies to work, voters need to take interest, show up, make their voices heard, and most importantlyvote.

Life rarely gives us the opportunity for a do-over. Our democracy offers multiple chances. But only if were willing to do our part.

Visit link:

Op-Ed: Using and Abusing the Tools of Democracy - InDepthNH.org

The following is a lightly edited transcript of remarks made by Nick Gillespie during a Newsweek episode of The Debate about COVID-19. You can listen to the podcast here:

Vaccines were a game changer because they allowed people to set their own personal risk level and get on with their business. People who want to wear masks and remove themselves from society can do so, but [vaccines] also allow you to be essentially free from bad outcomes. If you're vaccinated, you're not going to die or be hospitalized, with very rare exception. COVID in that sense is over, it should be over, and we should be working to get back to what life was like before the pandemic.

I'm a libertarian, not an anarchist, so I believe that there are certain public health moments where it will make sense for the government to impose mandates for some limited period of time. But other than speeding up production and distribution of vaccines, the federal government made terrible decisions. Between the FDA asserting monopoly control over testing, the conflicting information coming from the CDC and Dr. Fauci about mask wearing that was misinformation. I also don't like the idea of state and local governments deciding what is an essential business and what is a non-essential business. All of this is in the rear-view-mirror for the most part, because people can internalize their cost-benefit analysis of how to move forward.

Dr. Nick Gillespie is editor-at-large for Reason Magazine and host of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie.

The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.

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COVID-19 Is Over for the Vaccinated | Opinion - Newsweek