This piece originally appeared at Freedom Gulch here authored by C. Michael Pickens.
he closest win for the Libertarian Party of Washington in 2015 came out of the small city of Moses Lake, located in central Washington with a population of around 20,000 people.
Don Myers grew up in Moses Lake until leaving after high school. After being gone for 7 years, he returned to find his hometown in crisis mode:
“This is my home town. I left to go to school and explore different areas of Washington. I came back after 7 years, excited to be back. But my town was different; gang activity was high. Theft and aggressive violence in the area skyrocketed. I started digging into the political scene and found our city was in a big financial crisis— shutting down a lot of the recreation programs. The citizens started to get angry with city government, so I offered to help straighten things out.”
Even though he had a full time position working construction and part time job as a personal trainer, he decided that he needed to run for City Council and needed to run on a Libertarian platform. Myers was introduced to Libertarianism through Ron Paul’s Presidential run and when Ron Paul did not get the nomination, Myers found Gary Johnson and the Libertarian Party. Even with his more than full time work schedule, he dedicated over 20 hours a week to his campaign and even when he was working, he wore a campaign t-shirt and had his personal vehicle painted with his campaign logo. Successfully running for office takes time and effort but the extra energy needed is only temporary.
Myers knew that defeating his well known, well liked, and well financed incumbent opponent Jason Avila was not going to be easy. Not only was he up against an incumbent, but he had to make it through Washington’s “Top Two” primary since it was a 3-way race.
Myers definitely had an uphill battle in front of him. However, he understood the importance of building relationships and offering common sense, liberty–based solutions to the problems plaguing the city (the Reason Saves Cleveland Series featuring Drew Carey is a great example of those solutions). Myers invested most of his campaigning time to meeting leaders in the community and attending as many public events as possible.
Going into the August 4th primary, Myers really didn’t know what to expect. Fortunately he finished in 2nd place! Only 33 votes behind the incumbent in first place. This guaranteed his spot in the general election in November.
Fast forward to General election night, Myers closed out the night only 5 votes behind with more absentee ballots needing to be counted. We would all have to wait another 24 hours for an update.
With the final vote count in, Myers ended up pulling ahead of Avila by 16 votes, securing the City Council position and a win for the LPWA and liberty in Moses Lake.
With his recent win, Don said, “I’m going to use my new position to help Moses Lake. I will cut spending where it is not needed, help develop a good volunteer base for the city (police/fire/parks and rec) and repeal unnecessary ordinances that require permits and licenses. I’m going to make our city as business friendly as possible. I’m also going to use this position to promote the Libertarian Party and Libertarian solutions, and help other candidates get elected in Washington State.”
I asked Don what his best advice would be to other Libertarians looking to get elected and he had a great response, “My best advice would be to stop looking for issues to argue about or how we are different. We need to find common ground and things we can agree on. Connect with people and they will listen and respect you. That doesn’t mean you have to agree with everything they believe, but don’t dwell on the differences.”
Don has shown great Libertarian Leadership by stepping up and running for office. We had a total of 17 races for the LPWA in 2015. Each and every candidate deserves applause and recognition for their work to advance the cause of liberty. Even though Don won on his first try, that is not usually the case.
It took Libertarian Susan Marie Weber four tries to get elected to the Palm Desert City Council in California. The key is to just go for it! Run for office or take action to help a Libertarian candidate already running near you.
If you appreciate the hard work we are doing in Washington State, please consider joining with a donation large or small. We are currently ramping up our 2016 campaigns and set to have a record year, but only if we have the resources necessary. You don’t even need to live in Washington to support us! Please join here.
C. Michael Pickens is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cannaire, Inc. (www.Cannaire.com), former Northern Vice-Chairman of the LPCA and Chairman of the LPWA, author of the book, “Libertarian Leadership” and co-author of the upcoming book, “Libertarian Lion.” (www.LibertarianLion.com) Speaking inquiries, questions, or general comments- [email protected]
Congratulations to Don Myers!
Minor parties don’t need to win elections in order to influence policy. The Prohibition Party cost the Republican Party the presidency in 1884 and 1916. The first time, Republicans were so angry they burned John P. St. John in effigy, or hung him in effigy, in hundreds of places. A county in Kansas that was named St. John County changed the county’s name. But after it happened the 2nd time, the Republicans in Congress realized the issue would not go away, so they passed the prohibition constitutional amendment in Congress in early 1917. It had been sitting in Congress since 1875 and had never before made any headway.
The Big Water. Utah thing was a long time ago, and it obviously did not last.
The approach that Libertarians have been taking has not been working. 44 years and not one Libertarian “run” city/town or county, and ZERO Libertarian state legislators. The LP has not elected anyone to a seat in a state legislature in almost 16;years.
Libertarians ran Big Water, Utah, for quite a few years. Libertarians were a majority on the city council and had the Mayor’s position.
Libertarians only played a small role in those victories.
I am not saying that Libertarians should not be active, I am saying that Libertarians should start playing the political game in a more intelligent manner.
“There are thousands of local governments in this country, yet after more than 44 years, Libertarians still “run” nothing.” – Andy
So? Don’t try? Resign from office if you get elected but are outnumbered by the “bad guys” since you can’t get anything positive accomplished?
yet Marijuana is now legal in Washington and gay marriage is now legal… sometimes those lone voices build up enough to change policies.. or we could all just stay home and drink our tea.
Those were all nice accomplishments in California in the past, and I am well aware of them, but my point remains that none of these victories resulted in Libertarians “running” anything. Getting a token Libertarian elected to a local government office, where they are outnumbered by Democrats and/or Republicans in local government, has not resulted in freedom anywhere.
I’d like to be able to point to one city/town or county, and be able to say that Libertarians “run” that city/town or county, and that they have made it a more free and prosperous place thanit would have been otherwise.
There are thousands of local governments in this country, yet after more than 44 years, Libertarians still “run” nothing.
Can Don Myers be effective?
Well Grant county looks pretty conservative. in 2012 they voted 64% for Mit Romney, 55% to 45% against legalizing pot. 69% to 31% against legalizing gay marriage.
He might be out voted but at least he will be able to debate the policies. I wonder how persuasive he can be?
In California alone, Libertarians have been elected to District Attorney of Mendocino County, county supervisor in Calaveras County and Placer County, and city council or mayor in Arcata, Bellflower, Clovis, Moreno Valley, Mountain View, Palm Desert, Ross, San Gabriel, Saratoga, Simi Valley, and Villa Park.
Well for Moses Lake (population a bit over 20,000) it looks like people are interested in running and voting for city council. Three seats were open (there are 7 total) and in the primaries had a total of 13 candidates. In the primaries 6,700 votes were cast. The candidates were then down to a total of 6 for the general election almost 9,200 votes were cast so in this off year election it looks like the people of Moses Lake do care about the City Council election.
You might wonder why? well one reason might be that city council reps get $500 per month + $30 per meeting up to 10 meetings per month. With 2 regularly scheduled meetings that would be an additional income of $6720 per year as a base.
The non-partisan elections that Libertarians have won have been for offices that most of the public does not care about or follow.
The term “top-two” was invented by the Washington state press in 2004 to describe a system with party labels on the ballot, in which all candidates run in the primary and then the top two candidates run in November. It causes confusion to use the term “top-two” to non-partisan elections. Non-partisan elections are the dominant form of elections for local office in the U.S. and they have been around since the 19th century. No one ever thought to refer to non-partisan elections as “top-two” until recently, when some supporters of top-two decided to use that term for non-partisan elections as well. It is bad word usage to use one term to describe two different things. Voters react very differently when party labels are missing. That is why Libertarians have probably won well over 1,000 non-partisan elections in the U.S., but probably about 100 partisan elections.
What you call a downer I call a reality check.
The Free State Project has the right idea, but so far it is being poorly implemented. Libertarians need to gain a majority somewhere, so we can “take over” the local government.
Wow Andy, what a downer! You could have stopped after the first 8 words.
It is nice that this guy got elected, but reality is that he is the lone Libertarian on this city council, which means he will be out-voted and will not be able to accomplish much.
Libertarians have gotten elected to local government councils/boards/commissions for a long time, but it does not accomplish much because Libertarians have always been a minority on these councils/boards/commissions, as in they are still run by Democrats and/or Republicans.
Libertarians need to gain majorities on a local government council/board/commission, then they can actually accomplish something.
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