Hardy Machia, our state party chair, has been working very hard to find good Libertarian candidates to run this year for Vermont state house. The goal is to get 10, he has already found 8 interested candidates. Good job!
Hardy has been trying hard to located some good candidates in Burlington. 
He wanted me to run this year, but at this time, I don’t feel I can. Today, we met with Chris Haessly, who’s a progressive who’s open to the possibility of running as a fusion candidate, where he would be running as a Progressive-Libertarian. We’ve known him for a while now and I respect him and feel he’s a committed activist for causes he believes in, but after discussing the possibility it was obvious to most of us that we just have different principlies and ideology that doesn’t fit.
Haessly strongly believes that many important services in life are far to important to be left to the free-market and we believe that many important services are far too important to be left to the governement. Haessly believes in things like single-payer universal healthcare, government-run affordable housing, mandatory liveable wages, stronger public education, strong zoning and code enforcement, more government-run services such as Burlington Telecom, along with increased taxation.
These are the kind of things that as Libertarians, we fear very much. I feel it just wouldn’t make sense for Haessly to run with a Libertarian label. However, we would be very happy to work with Haessly on any specific issue that we all agree on as we did with the some Greens and Republicans on the Fluoride issue. I think its just good strategy for members of different parties to collaborate on issues where they do agree.
Please contact me if you have a passion for liberty and have an interest in running for something in Burlington as a Libertarian or fusion candidate. If elsewhere in Vermont contact Hardy Machia.
August 11, 2006 @ 12:00 am
I started reading this and I was wondering how in the world a Progressive-Libertarian would exactly work out. No offense to Chris, he’s a great guy, but that’s like a fusion of two polar opposites that are mutually exclusive. (As you explained in the rest of the post.)
August 18, 2006 @ 12:00 am
There is a lot of overlap with Progressives and Libertarians. We could talk about all of the areas where we are in agreement, too. Against the war, in favor of electoral reform (IRV, proportional representation…), support death with dignity, supporting medical marijuana and hemp, opposed to corporate welfare… Libertarians and Progressives will have plenty to work together on down in Montpelier.