Its been a week since the primary here in Arizona. And as many of you know I was running for Governor under the Libertarian ticket. I have to say, if the issues weren’t so serious it could have been a lot of fun. Today I thought I would reflect on the primary and what I’ve learned now that its over. First lets look at my primary. I lost by 692 votes. Now that don’t sound like very many until you look in the weeds for the details. There are only 24,143 registered voters in the Libertarian Party, of that total 4,400 are inactive. To continue, out of 19,743 active voters only 3003 took the time to vote in the gubernatorial primary. There were 299 write-ins, my primary opponent, a fella that has run for Governor the last 4 cycles and the vice chairman of the party gathered 1303 votes or 43.39% of the votes cast. I came in second with 611, third place 547,& fourth came in at 243. The results were interesting, because during the campaign debate, the third place candidate had no clue about any of the issues of the day. And since we never saw him at any of the events. We have assumed that he was in the race to split the rural vote. And looking at the voting demographics somehow that is exactly what happened. My guess he was working with the Vice Chairman of the party.
The bottom line is that Libertarians say they want smaller government, they want the government out of their lives. However when it comes time to stand up and do something about it they stay home. The 611 votes that I did receive were undoubtedly votes that I met on the campaign trail and or were former Republicans and Democrats that I converted to the Libertarian Party. And to those folks I tip my hat . During the signature collection process. I discovered while trying to locate Libertarians, that they give the wrong phone numbers or will reverse a couple of numbers , when they fill out their voter registration forms. Or they will put down the address wrong or reverse the house numbers. Thinking I guess that they wont be bothered by politicians looking to collect their signatures, so they can get on the ballot. Stupid is the only word that comes to mind here.
At the end of the day , the Libertarian Party in Arizona has done a terrible job in growing the party. Instead of capitalizing on the Reagan /Goldwater Libertarian ideology. They have concentrated on Liberalism , especially in the area of drugs , such as marijuana , heroin and cocaine. And that was a common fear , when talking to Conservative voters. To make matters worse , they closed off their primary so that only Libertarians could vote for a Libertarian. I can’t tell you the numbers of people who were ticked off about that. Talk about shooting your party in the foot.
Libertarian does not represent Liberalism, it stands for Liberty and Freedoms , those rights granted by God, as spelled out in the Declaration of Independence , the Bill of Rights and our Constitution.
When I registered as a Libertarian to run for Governor. I thought I had found a political home. Ronald Reagan said “Libertarianism is at the heart and soul of Conservatism” If that were true in Arizona. We should see a party with several hundred thousand active voters. We should have seen even with these numbers at least 65% of the registered voters at least vote, given the condition the state is in. So based on the results of the primary, in my view the Libertarian party has been taken over by the drug community and Liberals. Once again this Constitutional Conservative is looking for a political home.
Now lets look at the Republican side of the gubernatorial primary. It was obvious to me even from the beginning that there were only one or two committed conservatives in the republican primary. Both dropped out early , which in the end left two candidates, one of which was really a democrat and the other our current Governor. So now the Republicans are left with a tax and spend candidate that has a history of raising taxes, in fact sold our Capital , House and Senate buildings, and has another 7 on the list to sell. Are these the actions of a Conservative, I don’t think so. Lets look at some numbers. There are (1,001,256) one million one thousand ,two hundred fifty-six registered republicans in Arizona. Ninty eight thousand of those are in-active. I think its fair to say they are fed up Republicans, undoubtedly Conservative. In the primary, 478,819 voted for our current governor. In my view those votes are the Rinos in the party. Or in other words there were 426,437 no votes. Are you seeing a picture here. What that tells me is that there are more Rinos in the party than there are Conservatives,. So the question is where does a Constitutional Conservative go??
Now lets look at the Senate Race. We all know that McCain is no Conservative, in fact the term RINO fits him to a T, right there next to Progressivism. There were a total of 594,208 votes cast. McCain gathered 333,494. JD received 190,095 /Deakin received 69,233 and there were 1,386 write-ins (duh?). So once again, the Rinos out numbered the Conservatives by 74,166 votes. But the positive side of the equation is this. The real number of no votes for McCain must include also those that stayed home. The total number of 668,000 no votes for McCain. That’s right you don’t have to vote to be counted. Staying home sends a major message. So here we are 668,000 Conservatives left out of the political landscape. They need a home. So what do we do? Do we just pull the sheets up over our heads and pout , or do we get out of bed , stand up, turn a scar into a star, think out of the box, do what no Rino would ever expect us to do. If you think that as a Conservative you will be able to compete with the Rinos in the 2012 election, think again. How has that worked for you so far?
If Glenn Beck can convince a million or so Americans to come to Washington to bring honor back to our country. Surly to God 668,000 Conservatives here in Arizona can come together, and form their own political party. That’s right, if there is no more room at the Inn ,. Lets build another Inn. Lets call it what it is. “ The Conservative Party” with the guidance of the Constitution. In 2012 let’s be ready to present true Constitutional Conservative Candidates to state and federal seats. And the good news is I havent even begun to address the Conservative Democrats and Independents that are out there in the political wilderness.
Home Home on the Range , where the Deer and the Antelope play. Were seldom is heard a discouraging word and the Sky’s are not cloudy all day.
The effort has begun, any and all Conservatives around the state and the country are invited to get involved. This will be a state-wide grass-roots effort. Interested parties should contact us at AZConservParty@aol.com. You folks in the other 49 states, should grab the bull by the horns and run with it. Its Time. The hard part is already done:http://theamericanconservatives.org/cms/
For those of you that supported my campaign , thank you. We stayed positive, we took no money from anyone, and we are debt free. I would do it again in a heart beat.
Bruce Olsen former and one time candidate for Governor of Arizona.
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