Folks: It may be the day after election day, but the phone is still ringing. E-mails are still coming in. Facebook is still hopping. People want to know: what are the results? How did it all come out?? What happens next??? Well, let me fill you in... Unfortunately, we won’t know anything definitive for at least several weeks. Thats because we have to wait for the counties to send their certified election results to Harrisburg. Once that happens, well be able to get a better picture. Unfortunately, many counties--1/3 of them typically--don’t bother to report write-ins. So the reported total is pretty much guaranteed to be lower than the actuality. Unfortunately, when it comes to elections many people just look at the win/loss column and stop right there. But theres a second level of victory we Libertarians look toward in the even-numbered years, and thats retaining our official party status. In order to do that, we need to garner a certain number of votes in a statewide election, specifically, 2% of the highest vote getter. This year, that would be 2% of Wolfs 1,892,193 (unofficial) votes: 37,843. Call it 38,000. Did Henry and I get that many? Beats me. But to get a rough idea of how close we may have come, I looked at a half dozen counties that posted the total number of write-ins for governor. The reported totals are: 1,014 - Allegheny County (county.allegheny.pa.us/elect/201411gen/el45.htm) 97 - Franklin County (franklincountypa.gov/Election%20Results/summary.HTM) 61 - Mercer County (mcc.co.mercer.pa.us/election/summary.htm) 501 - Montgomery County (montcopa.org/DocumentCenter/View/8112) 228 - Philadelphia (phillyelectionresults/Citywide_Election_Results.html) 350 - York County (yorkcountypa.gov/Election/county.htm) ---- 2,851 - Total. Next, to get a feel for the whole state, I extrapolated that total to all 67 counties by multiplying by 11, which comes out to 31,361. Its a sure bet all those write-ins werent for us, so the bottom line is that the odds are low that Henry and I received the 38,000 votes necessary to retain our party status. Boo! But had we been on the ballot, it would likely have been a done deal; in 2002 we received 40,936 votes. Since we likely fell shy this year, we Libertarians lose party status. That means that the state Libertarian Party loses its monopoly on the Libertarian name; anyone can now run as a Libertarian, even if theyre a communist. It also means that we lose the Libertarian check-off box on the voter registration forms, and the state is not obligated to record or count Libertarian registrations (although most counties usually do). Losing party status also makes it harder for us to get into special elections because well need to petition rather than just being able to appoint a candidate. One thing doesnt change: party status or not, the number of signatures well need to collect to get on the statewide ballot will still be about ten times more than what the two old parties need. Thats just plain unfair -- and unconstitutional, too, because Article 1 Section 5 of the Pennsylvania Constitution say that All elections shall be free and equal. Apparently some citizens are more equal than others. Thats why were lobbying for SB-195, the Voters Choice Act, which would level the playing field for challenger parties like us Libertarians. Our prime sponsor, Senator Mike Folmer, won his re-election bid and has said hell be re-introducing the bill in the next legislative session. Its great that we have friends like Senator Mike. Theres more good news that came out of this years election. One of our veteran campaigners, Betsy Summers, received a whopping 32% of the vote in her state rep race up in Wilkes Barre, a record percentage for that office for the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party. Yay, Betsy! Also, one of our former Libertarian state rep candidates, Russ Diamond, went the Ron Paul route and switched his registration to Republican... and he WON his state rep race! That means therell be libertarian ideas echoing though the state house for the next two years, even though the Libertarian name wont be. Hows THAT for great news! So where do we go from here? Speaking as something of a veteran campaigner myself, one thing I can say for certain is that its already time to start gearing up for 2016 and 2018. One of the main reasons Henry and I didnt do better this year is because we started very late in the campaign season--less than a year before the election! Its nigh on impossible to get an effective campaign up and running in so short a time frame, especially considering how difficult it is to get on the statewide ballot. To put it in perspective, when I ran for governor in 2002 I started campaigning and fundraising in 1999, and the result was a record-breaking campaign. So if youre thinking of running for anything higher than any of your local town offices, NOW is the time to start planning for it. Along those lines, Ive been asked many, many times if I would consider running for governor again come 2018, and the short answer is Yes. However, the longer answer is that I refuse to do it without lots of help. Volunteers are needed to step forward and begin building a campaign, and the time to do that is NOW. So if you want to see a Libertarian gubernatorial campaign in 2018, lets get started. And I mean get started starting right now. Today. Contact me by phone, by e-mail, by Facebook, or drop by my Toastmasters meeting (WeTheSpeakers.org), and well begin that building process. Best bet is to sign up as a volunteer via KenK.org/volunteer, because thats where all the action will be happening first. The sooner we start, the better the odds that we can make the 2018 campaign something that will easily overshadow the record-breaker from 2002. Want to see that happen? If so, I ask you to remember the mantra of the grass roots activist. Its easy to remember; only 10 words, two letters each: If it is to be, it is up to us. I leave it up to you. In closing, let me offer my sincerest thanks to all those volunteers and donors who helped build the 2014 campaign, and especially the thousands of you who took the trouble to write in Henry and me on November 4th. Despite a difficult year, we still accomplished much, and it would not have happened without each one of you. Well done! In Liberty, - Ken -------------------------------------------- Ken Krawchuk Libertarian for Pennsylvania Governor Championing the Separation of Society and State Krawchuk 14 (18?) c/o PO Box 260 Cheltenham, PA 19012 224-Krawchuk (224-572-9248) [email protected] Campaign website: KenK.org Campaign e-mail: [email protected] Facebook: Facebook/KenK2014 Twitter: Twitter/KenK2014 Platform novel: AtlasSnubbed
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 01:38:42 +0000
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