To the Left of me, To the Right of me...
One of the biggest buzzes at the Porcupine Freedom Festival was how many liberty-centric individuals are running for the State House this year... by some rumors, the number is upwards of two dozen or better. I think that's a bit high... but the number is certainly at least a solid dozen or more.
Some running as Democrats: John Babiarz (LP Chair) has made news due to his filing that way, much to the chagrin of Kathy Sullivan.
(I'd link to a Concord Monitor story on it, but for some reason, it doesn't look like they covered this despite that it made the AP as news). Update on 6/28: Concord Monitor coverage
Some running as Republicans, with the blessings of some within the Republican party: Rosalie Babiarz (John's wife) is running against Peter Burling for his Senate seat. Should be interesting to watch, as Peter's silver spoon background meets Rosalie's hard-working woman sensibilities, topsy turvy from the typical way you'd expect the Democrat vs Republican class warfare to fall out.
Some are still running as Libertarians: Rich Kahn, running for Governor, being at the top of the ticket. It's clear though, that due in large part to the current ballot access issues, the major parties have created a situation they now might regret. Having found it harder and harder to be a third party candidate, both to file and then to get votes, many are now filing in one of the 2 major parties because they plan on winning elections, not just collecting piles of signatures in order to appear on a ballot and gain 3% of the vote.
More tales of PorcFest over the next few days...
