LIBERTARIAN PARTY
of Colorado
"Limited Government - Individual Liberty -
Personal Responsibility"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 6th, 2003
CONTACT: Mike Seebeck, Public Information
Director
PHONE: (719) 382-9529
EMAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WEB: http://www.lpcolorado.org/
PROBLEM
IS MAJOR PARTY SYSTEM, NOT MINOR PARTY SYSTEM
HB
1142 fixes the wrong problem, says LP
DENVER—According
to an article by the AP which featured HB 1142’s author, Republican Bill Crane,
he was unhappy that he had to go through the caucus and primary system as a
Republican in order to get onto the ballot when he first won office in
2000. In 2002, his Libertarian
opponent simply won the nomination at the party convention by popular vote of
the party membership. Representative
Crane obviously didn’t like how much simpler that system is. The AP article, written by Jon Sarche,
quoted him quite clearly: “They need to put something into it
and it didn't appear there was (effort).
"I just want to make it fair." So what did Mr. Crane do? He proposed HB 1142, which would, in his perception, make it
“fair”. “Mr. Crane is obviously missing the point here, “ said John
Berntson, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Colorado. “If he wants to make it ‘fair’, then why doesn’t he propose
to fix the system that made it hard on him, instead of the system that doesn’t
even affect him?” “We think the real broken system is not the minor party
convention system that we use, but rather the caucus/primary system that the
major parties use.” Continued Berntson, “The caucus and primary system are
simply a waste of candidates’ time and taxpayer money. The candidates have to jump through all
of these hurdles if they wear a D or R label, and it is all for naught if the
candidate isn’t ‘anointed’ by the party leadership. Their own leaders literally smear them. On the other hand, all a candidate has
to do under the convention system is simply file the paperwork and secure the
nomination by the party membership at the convention. The party leadership does no ‘anointing’, and there is no
good old boy network to smear good candidates. Plus, it costs no taxpayer money, is faster, and it allows
candidates to focus on the general election, instead of jumping through
needless hoops.” So whom should Mr.
Crane really be upset with? “Mr. Crane should
be upset with his own party! They are the ones who put that ridiculous system into
place. They are the ones who made
him jump through those hoops. They
are the ones who made him focus on all of those extraneous matters instead of
campaigning. And they are the ones
who are wasting taxpayer dollars while Colorado drowns in budget shortfalls
brought on by their irresponsible spending practices,” answered Berntson. “HB 1142 is a bad
solution in search of a non-existent problem, while the real problem
remains. Minor parties didn’t
cause Mr. Crane’s campaign hurdles.
His own party did,” concluded Berntson. The Libertarian
Party opposes HB 1142 in its entirety, and joins with the Green, Natural Law,
Reform, and Constitution Parties in calling for a quick end to HB 1142’s
wastefulness and foolishness. |
Title: LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF COLORADO
