A party officer for the Keystone Party, a statewide libertarian political party that emerged in 2022 as a response to the direction of the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania, will appear on the ballot as the sole challenger to an incumbent Republican later this year.
In a press release shared with online third party journal Third Party Watch, Keystone Party Secretary John Waldenberger announced that he would appear on the Borough ballot later this year as the Keystone Party nominee following no challenges to his nominating petitions. In doing so, he becomes both the sole challenger to Republican incumbent Robert Jacobus and the first Keystone candidate of 2023 to qualify for the election ballot.
In the announcement, Waldenberger pledged to “stop censorship” and fight “extremist attempts to defund the Indian Valley Public Library.” The latter refers to statements made by Jacobus, who has come under fire for his position on the library’s inclusion of LGBTQ+ materials. Waldenberger also called out the polarization of modern politics and said he would work with other council members, regardless of affiliation, to focus on municipal services like public works, streets, and emergency services.
According to Waldenberger, his opponent has “pushed a divisive personal agenda fueled by bigotry and extremist ideology.”
“During his short tenure on Council, Jacobus has made outrageous and unsubstantiated accusations about the Indian Valley Public Library and has encouraged people from outside the Borough to attend Council Meetings, some of whom have been disruptive and intimidating to Borough residents,” the release reads. “Jacobus routinely interrupts the normal business of the Council, breaking protocol, and engaging in behavior that may violate Pennsylvania’s Open Meetings Law, known as the Sunshine Act.”
Incumbent Council member Robert Jacobus has served in the position for one year. He was appointed last September following the resignation of former member Miles Arnott. In his time in office, Jacobus has faced criticism from council peers and residents for his views on police interactions with transgender individuals and LGBTQ+ content in the public library. Calls for his resignation arose when it was alluded on social media that he might back defunding the library due to these materials. He also released a report alleging the library’s involvement in “facilitating Apps for child sex trafficking” and distributing “medically damaging” materials, among other criticisms.
The Telford Borough Council called for his resignation in May, but the vote was non-binding.
The Borough of Telford, located forty miles north of Philadelphia, has a population of just under 5,000 residents. Unlike in other states, municipal elections in Pennsylvania list the candidate’s political affiliation on the general election ballot, so voters will know they’re voting between a Republican Party candidate and a Keystone Party candidate. The general election will take place in November.
[EDITORIAL NOTE: This article previously and incorrectly listed John Waldenberger as the Treasurer of the Keystone Party. Waldenberger is the Secretary of the Keystone Party. – JWE 8/18/23]
Publicly funded libraries aren’t Minarchist. Minarchists support police, courts, national defense, and MAYBE stretch to some universally available infrastructure, like roads. It’s debatable to even put publicly funded libraries in the camp of Classical Liberals. Benjamin Franklin founded the first public library, but it wasn’t public as in ‘tax-funded’, it was public in that it was open to the public for a fee. Taxpayer funded libraries didn’t come around for more than a hundred years after Franklin founded his.
Taxpayer funded libraries are more clearly in the Modern Liberal camp. Modern Liberals are borderline libertarian. They’re Bill Weld level libertarian.
The term for a group fundamentally supportive of involuntary taxation isn’t “libertarian”. “statist” would be better. To the extent that any libertarians support publicly funded taxation that covers more than Minarchism (police, courts, national defense), they do so through user fees, like toll roads, postage stamps to mail letters, and utility metering.
Ted : Some are. A lot aren’t. Even minarchists agree to a certain quantity of tax funding for critical institutions or those with long proven returns on their costs.
The term for a group fundamentally opposed to any taxation or government spending whatsoever isn’t ‘libertarian’. “Anarchist” would be better.
In response to Ted- the Keystone Party is NOT a “libertarian party”.
We are a party focused on common sense solutions to reform government and make it work better for the people.
Feel free to view our platform at http://www.keystone.party
I thought libertarians were against government funded libraries.