First U.S. Senate campaign debate will include Libertarian Mike Beitler
Submitted by libertypoint on Fri, 06/25/2010 - 2:06pm
In what may be a first for North Carolina politics, the first debate of the 2010 U.S. Senate election will include all ballot qualified candidates. The N.C. Bar Association is sponsoring a debate in Wilmington tomorrow which will include Libertarian Mike Beitler, incumbent Republican Richard Burr and Democrat Elaine Marshall.
News 14 Carolina will carry the debate live at 11 a.m. The channel is only available to Time Warner Cable digital customers.
In previous elections, organizers have usually exuded Libertarian candidates, claiming they did not meet the criteria for inclusion. This criteria is generally based on polling rates, even though most polls do not always include Libertarian candidates.
In the 2008 gubernatorial race Dr. Mike Munger, the Libertarian candidate, was included in three debates sponsored by the state’s television stations, but only the last one had all three candidates appearing. Democrat Bev Perdue, who was elected, declined to participate in all but the last debate.
Barbara Howe, current state chair and the party’s 2004 gubernatorial candidate filed a FCC complaint against WRAL TV for not including her in the debate they sponsored in that campaign. The FCC has never issued a ruling on her complaint.
During the primary campaign, Beitler participated in a candidates forum sponsored by the NAACP which included several Democratic candidates. Sen. Burr was invited but did not attend.
Since he began his campaign in September 2009, Beitler said he's been picking up support from frustrated Democrats and Republicans, which he said was demonstrated in Tuesday's low voter turnout.
"And it's because they're saying, 'We don't want more of the same. We want to see jobs created. We want to see government shrinking in size. We want to be reducing the debt, not increasing it,'" he said.
Beitler is a great guy
He'll be getting my vote in November. If that means that Burr loses as a result, so be it. I almost hope that he loses by a smaller margin than the amount of people who voted for Beitler. I can see the folks at the NC GOP headquarters fuming already...and that alone makes the vote worth it.
Also, I can't see this as anything but a positive thing for the democrats here. Sure, Beitler may steal a few dems, but he'll probably steal far more republicans in a year like this. But you never know considering that nearly all democrats will agree with more than 50% of the issues on his platform page.
I'm just happy that a third party candidate is actually getting some media exposure.
Voter Turnout
Most of the voter turnout predictions I saw were in the 75k to 150k range. And the actual turnout as 158,475 for Elaine or Cal, and 212,847 ballot casts total so voter turnout certainly could have been lower.
Low voter turnout I think has more to do with it being an off year election, primary, run-off with low media coverage, significantly less early voting sites, summer vacations, and few races actually being voted on rather than being proof of support of Beitler.
That said, I'm glad to hear the debate is open. Will the Green candidate Richard Weir be included?
Campaign website:
http://www.newmenu.org/richardweirforsenate
Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110610732283739
Mentioned on state party website. Listed as an "Eastern North Carolina Green Party" person:
http://www.ncgreenparty.org/NCGP%20Brochure.pdf
Mentioned on national party website. "North Carolina Green declares write-in campaign for US Senate"
http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2010/04/08/north-carolina-green-declares-...
Another mention on their national party website:
http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2010-green-party-candidates/#North%20Caro...
green party watch is not the official GP page
Green Party Watch is a lot this page, just a gathering place. The official GP page can be found at www.GP.org.
Thanks
for the corrected information.
He still had mention on the state parties site. I wonder if he was offered an invitation?
probably not invited
Sounds like only the ballot qualified candidates were invited. The Green Party is not ballot qualified.
NC's ballot access laws are rated third toughest, only behind Georgia and Oklahoma in the nation. Richard has to petition just to get his write in votes counted.
Maybe
I don't know a Democrat outside of the people here at BlueNC who have even heard of Beitler, but I wish him luck. I figure he'll pull 4:1 from Tea Party Republicants who think Richard Burr is too liberal.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Bailout Burr
If I had to guess, Tea Partiers will abandon Burr because he supported the bailouts.
I'd love to support Beitler, but I wish he came from the pragmatic Libertarian camp instead of the idealistic one. There is no way an ideal libertarian would ever win, you have to be willing to at least make some compromises.
Saying you are against the Civil Rights act may be nice for pure libertarianism, but it ain't gonna help you get elected.
I kind of liked
Beitler's presence. Between Beitler's attacks on Senator Burr as a Wall Street pro-lobbyist "crony corporatist" (think Goldman Sach's maxed out campaign contributions), as a Washington incumbent, and Elaine's going after Burr for taking money from big oil (which includes BP & Haliburton), I think it did some real dents to Burr's image to anyone who watched.
I'm not that anyone came out a clear winner, but I think Burr was certainly the loser.
Beitler made some good points...
...as 3rd party candidates often do. They are able to inject a refreshing level of truthfulness and candor (think about Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel during the Dem primary for 2008). But pure Libertarianism doesn't get past the fun-to-have hypothetical scenario thought exercises. The philosophy doesn't do it in the real world. I like Thom Hartmann's bottom line on Libertarianism-- he often says, "Try living in that Libertarian paradise of Somalia."
I thought Marshall came off quite good, Burr was totally flat with his parroting old, stale conservative talking points. I only wish Marshall has beaten Burr over the head with his despicable vote (only 48 hours before the debate) to END unemployment benefits for a million Americans who have been outsourced and downsized in this second Republican Great Depression that we're in.
Yeah, those stupid libertarian scenarios.
Yeah, those crazy libertarian hypothetical scenarios...like getting the government out of marriage, ending the war on drugs, not preemptively bombing countries, or stamping out misguided legislation like the PATRIOT Act. People should move to Somalia if they want any of that!
... :-/
Also, go read up on the history of Somalia and the definition of libertarianism to see why that "lol Somalia" argument is nothing shy of laughable.
Net loss
Of course there are parts of an anti-government platform that would resonate with virtually any ideological group. It's all the other parts that stick in the craw, like abolishing federal statutes concerning issues like civil rights, doing away with safety nets, relying on the market to correct polluting industries, etc.
I once had an (online) argument with a guy about all the specific bad ideas included in the overall Libertarian platform, and his final thrust went something like, "I agree there are some poorly thought-out ideas in there, but you don't need to worry about those, because they'd never survive the legislative process."
Which is merely a reflection of a core fault in the movement itself: The belief that problems will somehow fix themselves in the absence of our (collective) efforts.
Steve makes a good point
The Libertarian party could really make a difference if half the stuff you advocate wasn't over the edge into la-la land.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Job Creation
Jobs are created in response to demand for goods and services. Demand for goods and services
areis created by people who have money in their pockets to spend for those goods and services. Reducing the debt in the midst of an economic "Great Recession" with nearly 10% unemployment doesn't create jobs. I suggest a heavy dose of Paul Krugman for those who still think that "supply-side" economics does anything more than concentrate wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people.______________________________________________________________________
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. -- sign on Einstein's office wall.