News
By Len Flynn, NJ Libertarian Editor
This article contains interviews with NJLP members who have visited New Hampshire, the home of the libertarian “Free State Project .” (FSP). The FSP encourages libertarians to emigrate and establish residence in NH with the goal to facilitate libertarian political action and reforms there–or at least by preventing or limiting socialist/statist developments. After all, what libertarian could argue with the state motto: “Live Free or Die”?
New Hampshire has two FSP annual events where visitors and residents can celebrate freedom. From January 3 to Sunday January 6 the 2008 NH Liberty Forum will be held in Nashua, NH. This event is immediately prior to the primary elections on January 8, and the final scheduled speaker is Presidential candidate Ron Paul. The 2008 Porcupine Freedom Festival PorcFest 2008 will take place on June 9 to June 15, 2008 at the Gunstock Mountain Resort in Guilford, NH.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Candidates and Elections
Darren Young
Assembly, 21st District
Darren Young ran as a trademark candidate in District 21 this year. There were no debates, and his two Republican opponents were both very well-liked and very prolimited government. In any case they easily won with about 65 percent of the vote. He is hoping to once again run against pro-Bush, big-government Republican Mike Ferguson as the NJLP Congressional candidate next year from District 7. He has garnered significant positive publicity for the party by making numerous television appearances during the four other times he has run for this position.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
The NJ Libertarian recently interviewed John Paff asking him why Libertarians should care about the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). John's name and activities are well known to the regular readers of the NJ Libertarian. John is serving as the Chair of the Open Government Advocacy Council of the NJ Libertarian Party.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
On June 26, 2007, during a public meeting, the Evesham Township (Burlington County) suspended a kindergarten teacher, with pay, for "improper interaction with a student in her charge."
For the last several weeks, John Paff of the NJLP Open Government task force has been trying to learn the nature of the "improper interaction" so that he (and others--especially parents and taxpayers in Evesham) can be in a position to judge whether the paid suspension was appropriate. As expected, the Board has completely denied him access to any and all information regarding this matter.
See John's letter to the Board's attorney.- Details
- Written by: Mark Richards
- Category: Letters to Editor
By Mark Richards, resident of West Milford and guest contributor
Published in West Milford AIM on November 16, 2007 and also in Suburban Trends November 11, 2007
In a recent “Guest Contributor” column, a writer expressed are discussed with Congressman Scott Garrett’s voting record. She was also upset that three local candidates appeared in a photo in another newspaper with Congressman Garrett.
I have to be honest, I voted for Scott Garrett once in 2002, the first time he ran for Congress. I truly hoped that he would be another force for individual liberty, limited constitutional government and free market economics, like the truly great and principled Congressman Ron Paul of Texas (the only sane presidential candidate of those Republicans seeking the 2008 nomination.)
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- Written by: Mark Richards
- Category: Letters to Editor
By Mark Richards, Guest Contributor
Published in West Milford AIM on September 28, 2007 and also in Suburban Trends September 23, 2007.
Our U.S. Representative in Congress, Scott Garrett, has been taking a lot of heat lately by not supporting the animal fighting prohibition enforcement act, which grew out of the frenzy over the Michael Vick dogfighting case. Far from being attacked by “animal rights” groups and the press, Rep. Garrett should be praised for his clear understanding and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. I have before me my pocket size edition of the Constitution published by libertarian Cato Institute.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Policy News
On November 12, 2007 NJLP Chairman Lou Jasikoff and I attended the Eagleton Institute of Politics panel discussion on publicly funded elections in New Jersey. For this year’s experimental test of the so-called “fair and clean elections” (FACE) process, candidates in three state legislative districts were required to collect a minimum of 400 $10 contributions from residents of the district to qualify for “clean elections” labeling and funding. In the 14th District Libertarian Assembly candidate Jason Scheurer managed to meet that standard.
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- Category: Candidates and Elections
New Jersey 14th District Candidate for Assembly Jason Scheurer alledged that News 12 New Jersey News Director Randal Stanley was politically biased by excluding Jason from an infomercial that News 12 produced and aired promoting only the Republican and the Democrat candidates. Jason's allegations are based not only by Stanley's actions, but also his words.
Some in the media have questioned Jason's assertion, mostly because News 12 is a news organization. The media seems to have trouble believing that News 12 crossed the line by promoting only the two major parties. We have the audio stream recorded prior to the "forum" where Jason tries to reason with Stanley.
Listen for yourself as Randal Stanley says he would invite a Republican that has no chance of winning while excluding a certified candidate.
Click here to listen to the entire conversation.
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- Category: Latest News
NJLP Chairman Louis Jasikoff received a written apology today from Gerald Pomper of the Eagleton Institute. Pomper claims that he his "prone to extravagant language to promote discussion" and reasserts his preference to keep "dissidents" out of general elections. His advice to work through the primary elections does not explain his inclusion of Dr. Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich on his list, however.
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- Category: Candidates and Elections
In the 14th District, where Linda Greenstein has voted to give her campaign over $600,000 of taxpayer funds, News 12 NJ refuses to allow third party candidates into the debate. Libertarian Assembly candidate Jason Scheurer has filed for rescue funds as a result. See Press Release.
Jason and State Party chair Lou Jasikoff confront several other candidates over this issue in the video below.
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- Category: Latest News
Joint Press Release
GREEN PARTY OF NEW JERSEY
NEW JERSEY CONSERVATIVE PARTY
NEW JERSEY LIBERTARIAN PARTY, INC
NEW JERSEY APPLESEED PUBLIC INTEREST LAW CENTER
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2007
JUDGE'S ORDER GRANTS EQUAL TREATMENT TO ALTERNATIVE POLITICAL PARTIES IN NEW JERSEY
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- Category: Press Releases
Newark, NJ – Last October, New Jersey Appleseed Public Interest Law Center and Emery Celli Brinkerhoff & Abady, LLP filed suit against the State of New Jersey on behalf of three alternative political parties, arguing that state statutes barring their clients from official “political party” recognition were unconstitutional and discriminatory. On October 17, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Neil H. Shuster, Presiding Judge of the Chancery Division, Mercer County, signed a Consent Order granting equal treatment to alternative political parties in New Jersey. The Order eliminates some of the structural advantages long enjoyed by the Democratic and Republican Parties. The State conceded that New Jersey election law should treat alternative parties as official “political parties” for the purposes of campaign finance, lobbying, and voter registration.
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- Category: Candidates and Elections
Jason Scheurer, our candidate in the 14th district, has filed suit to be treated fairly in the so called "Clean" Election district. Currently the Democrats and Republicans are given over a half a million dollars of taxpayers' money for their campaigns while third party candidates are limited to only $50,000. The Libertarian Party opposes the financing of political campaigns with tax dollars, but until the law can be changed, the only way the party's candidates can be competitive is to receive the money on an equal footing with the Democrats and Republicans. See the Star Ledger article .
Note that our platform section 9 states that:
We urge repeal of the New Jersey Campaign Contributions and Expenditure Reporting Act (NJSA 19:44A-1), which suppresses voluntary support of candidates and parties, compels taxpayers to subsidize politicians and political views which many do not wish to support, invades the privacy of New Jersey residents, and protects the Democratic and Republican parties from competition. Disclosure laws are particularly offensive, because anonymity protects the contributor from scrutiny and reprisal. This law is particularly dangerous as it enables the state government to control the elections of its own administrators and beneficiaries, thereby further reducing its accountability to the citizens.
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- Written by: Fred Stein
- Category: Letters to Editor
By Fred Stein, Dayton section of South Brunswick
Published in The Sentinel newspaper for June 21, 2007.
It seems that the government on all levels is out of control. While high property taxes are driving the exodus of people out
of the state, our politicians are dealing with frivolous issues. Our local politicians are wasting time on creating new ordinances for massage parlors (“Chief hopes to rub out illegitimate massage spas,” June 7). Is this the number one problem facing the people in South Brunswick?
The state legislature is debating gay marriage. Marriage should be classified as a private contract involving consenting adults. Government should get out of the business. On the federal level, we are being destroyed by our occupation of Iraq. Our soldiers are being killed and crippled. Our civil liberties are quickly disappearing as we grow further in debt.
The question now is what to do. Stand up and be heard. Act as if the next election is your last, because it could be. Do not forget to buckle up your seat belt.
Subcategories
NJ Libertarian Blog
Imported from NJ Libertarian News from the published feed
Videos
This is a page of various videos that we have either created or found interesting. Be sure to check out and follow our YouTube page.
Open Government Advocacy Project
The Open Government Advocacy Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to ensure transparency and accountability at all levels of government. Articles posted here are a subset of the work of the committee. For more information visit the Open Government Advocacy Project blog.
If you would like to demand accountability and ensure that your local governing body or school board adheres to the Open Public Records Act we can help you request information from them. Contact John Paff, the project chair here.
Insight New Jersey
NJ government is huge and complex. Private industry is shrinking while the size and cost of government bureacracy continues to grow. The articles posted here provide a guide of the NJ State Government and can be used by citizens and candidates for office to evaluate what departments can be reduced drastically in size.
We'll start with just some of the departments and provide a breakdown on what they do (or purport to do), how many employees they have and how big their budget is.
Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
The New Jersey Libertarian Party's Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project (“the Project”) seeks to get New Jersey municipalities to repeal loitering ordinances that should have been -- but were not -- repealed when the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice was enacted in 1979. The Project has successfully had loitering ordinances repealed in over 30 towns. For a summary listing of all the towns see Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project page.
Police Accountability Project
The Police Accountability Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to search out cases of police misconduct, file former Internal Affairs (IA) complaints when appropriate, and to publicize violations of rules and laws by the police. There may be other stories posted on the NJLP Police Internal Affairs Complaint Blog page.
If you would like to help or know of a case we should be looking at, contact the committee at
Legislative Affairs Committee
The Legislative Affairs Committee was created to allow a select core of Volunteers to take action on legislation and policies which directly affects the people of New Jersey.
[INTRO VIDEO - HOSTED ON NJLP STATE YOUTUBE AND EMBEDED HERE]
Staff
Legislative Director and Committee Chair
Volunteers: