Indy Star Notes

I scan many Indiana media websites every morning, to see what is, or isn't, being said about Libertarians. Given the recent hatchet job done on me by Matt Tully, it was interesting to do a search on the word "Libertarian" today on the Indy Star's website and find a new article link. Did the Star maybe provide some coverage for our convention? Perhaps a letter to the editor with my positions on the upcoming primary elections? Maybe- a guy can dream, right?- a follow-up to the Tully smear piece with a counter-article?

No. A nice, favorable article by Dan Carpenter on Bill Stant, who is trying to get the Green Party on the ballot by securing the needed signatures.

I was happy enough for Bill. His task is difficult, and thankless. I know because the Libertarian Party of Indiana has successfully done what he is trying to do, twice- in the 1980s, and then in 1994. It happened twice because the Ds & Rs in the state legislature increased the threshold by 4x after the Libertarian Party secured the necessary signatures and attained ballot access the first time. Moreover, I carried petitions for the Libertarian Party of Ohio when I lived there. Ohio's ballot access is even more difficult, with the threshold being a 5% result in the Presidential elections.

So, I have deep sympathies for Bill Stant and the Greens. My campaign manager Rob Place recently put in a call to Bill to wish him well, and offer our support for his cause of ballot access.

So, it was curious to read this line in the Carpenter article:

Breaching the gates without money has "quixotic" written all over it. The Libertarian Party, the only third party with Indiana ballot status, has negligible policy impact and has actually fought the Greens rather than seeking to coalesce.

Let me repeat that my campaign called Bill Stant to personally offer support. So, how is that we are fighting with them?

Another Star hatchet for the Libertarians? You make the call.