Wednesday's Report

Now this is the campaign trail! New LPIN executive director Kyle McDonald would be with me all day. We started in Lebanon, to meet with Rod Rose of the Lebanon Reporter. The Reporter carries southern Indiana libertarian Debbie Harbeson's regular column.

Rod knew quite a lot about our ballot access issues, and we discussed those items at leangth. He asked for my take on the GOP illegal immigration plan, and then we returned to my platform of Secretary of State issues. I'll look forward to seeing what is published.

Heading out of the interview with Rod Rose. A great interview and fun to see the old front pages throughout the offices.

From Lebanon, we went to Frankfort, for a sit down with the Frankfort Times reporter Marci Wright. This interview was very in-depth on the various outcomes related to the SOS results, ranging from the ballot status to the appointments to boards and commissions at the county and municipal levels, and also my platform points.

Frankfort Times reporter Traci Wright gets the details about our non-competitive elections.

Kyle & I zipped quickly from Frankfort to Kokomo, so that we could meet with a variety of business owners who are feeling the sting of their city's recently imposed smoking ban. As usual, we learned that the city council did not seek the input of business owners, their employees, or patrons, instead relying on the lobbyists who promote such bans. The most interesting comment to come out of this, "Haven't we shuttered enough businesses in Kokomo yet?" Apparently, this predictable effect never crossed the minds of the council members who voted in favor.

With Dean, the owner of Ned's Corner Pub

Dean advised me that his business may not make it through 2007. It has been open since 1964. He said it's goofy to see, but often times there will be more people standing around in the parking lot (the "outdoor smoking section") than there are inside the bar. True to form, he echoed the too-common theme that government doesn't listen. We urged him to make them listen by replacing them. We advised that the Libertarian Party will be delighted to run candidates in 2007 that specifically target city council that vote for policy that cripples small businesses.

(See Part 2 for continuation...)