Former Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Endorses Barry Hess

Apparently Mike Harris, who lost the Republican primaries down in Arizona, is supposed to endorse Barry Hess at noon today at the Arizona State Capitol courtyard.

If you’re there, check it out-the look and feel of fed-up Republicans is going to become familiar, but you can say you got in on the ground floor.

Hess is only polling 3% according to a SurveyUSA poll that his site disputes but he seems to be gaining plenty of traction regardless. He basically won a debate against the other candidates since that questionable poll was released, so even if it was absolutely right… it’s probably not right any more.

He’s got another apparent endorsement from another former Republican gubernatorial candidate here, a slew of professional wrestlers endorsing his candidacy, and it looks like he’s doing all this while being marginalized by the local paper and having only $4000 to his campaign’s name.

So go on, show the man some love. His campaign is fixing to be one of many solid Libertarian campaigns this cycle.

posted Oct 9th, 2006 by Stuart Richards
  • undercover_anarchist

    I know it must be politically tough to take a principled stand on immigration in a state like AZ, but Hess fails to do so and should thus be condemned as a faux-libertarian. Does he really think that by compromising libertarian values he will the support of racist border zealots?

  • Immigrant

    undercover_anarchist

    Let them all in, the more the merrier and I am not writing only about Mexicans. Three-hundred million people is nothing with the size of this country. When we hit 3 billion, then we worry.

    What is it with all these people trying to stop people from coming here? The newbies bring in new ideas and can totally change us from dumb Anglos to smart dark people.

  • Stuart Richards

    UA: Can we just like get you and Eric Dondero in a cage match somewhere? Because that would be fucking sweet.

  • Derrick

    I like Hess, but I wasn’t impressed by how he handled the debate. His answer to every question was basically that government is bad, and by getting government out of the way everything will magically fix itself. Now, most of us here believe that to be true, but it just isn’t a convincing argument to the general public. I’m not suggesting that he should compromise libertarian principles, just that he should do a better job of explaining them in terms the general public can understand, and of making a practical case for them.

    As an exercise in contrast, watch Connecticut Congressional candidate Phil Maymin smoke some Republicrats in a debate. By no means is his performance perfect (he gets better toward the end) but he at least doesn’t come across as an anti-government wacko.

  • http://www.ilovephysics.com Chris Moore

    I believe this is the first time I’ve ever seen Barry Hess’s Libertarian credentials challenged! He’s always been more “pure” than Ivory soap.

  • Sandra Kallander

    I still haven’t seen his Libertarian credentials challenged. I heard his communication and outreach credentials challenged.

  • Sandra Kallander

    I guess Chris may have meant the border issue.

    In that case, there is room for argument. But it doesn’t matter, because he’s not running for emporer, he’s running for governor, and the whole issue won’t be decided by one person, anyway. We don’t need to be distracted by such a little thing.

  • http://www.mainstreamlibertarian.com Eric Dondero

    Eric Dondero here. I’m game for the cage match. Name the time and place. Perhaps we could use it as a fundraiser for Barry Hess for Governor?

  • Seth

    Derrick, I just watched Phil’s debate. Not a bad job at all, he had some good bits in there, and a few good zingers… but I disagree that he “smoked” them, or that he didn’t come across any more or less ‘government bad, private good’ than Barry did.

    Don’t get me wrong, having a libertarian in the debate alone makes a huge difference, but we need more of them, and more often…. right now, we have the problem of explaining libertarian positions from scratch every time.

  • http://www.mainstreamlibertarian.com Eric Dondero

    This is a big coup for Barry Hess. With Goldwater out of the race, libertarian Republicans might want to consider Hess.

    This Republican endorsing Libertarian Party candidates is gaining steam. Check out http://www.gopprogress.com, a mainline Republican site. They have an editorial today calling for the Republican Party to take another look at the Bob Smither, Libertarian for Congress Campaign.

    Libertarians should occasionally return the favor. For instance, backing good libertarians running under the GOP banner like Butch Otter for Idaho Governor or Sarah Palin for Alaska Governor.

  • Seth

    Disclaimer: as the Hess webmaster, I am paid for services to the campaign.

    UA, have you read Barry’s position papers on Immigration?
    He’s not in favor of closed borders, nor 100% open borders.
    He’s spelled out his views clearly, and it took a few pages to do so, since it’s a complex issue, especially in Arizona with it’s southern border…

    If you are basing your negative opinion solely on the debate soundbite, please don’t. That simplifies the issue too much, as of course you do for a soundbite in a debate where you only have a minute or 2.

  • http://360.yahoo.com/pong_god Robert Mayer

    Eric Dondero vs. undercover_anarchist: Non-celebrity Death Match. Excellent!

  • michelleshinghal

    Hess did a fine job in the AZ debate.

  • IanC

    I live in Phoenix, AZ. I have regular correspondance with Mr. Hess. There are a number of areas where Mr. Hess is failing abysmally on the libertarian quotient.

    Take, for example, his absolute rejection of “Arizona Together” on the basis that it has some tenebrous connection to NAAMBLA. Arizona Together, by the way, is the association fighting State Proposition 107, the so-called “Arizona Marriage Protection Act” that will, in a state that has already banned homosexual marriage, also abolish the practice of domestic partnerships.

    Something like half (my estimate) of all domestic partners in AZ are heterosexual senior citizens. (AZ is the dry version of FL there; our population doubles in winter.)

    In conversations with Mr. Hess, his stance has always been something similar to, “Well, they have their proclivities and they should live with them. I don’t personally support Prop 107, but won’t make that public.”

    UA — Barry also *SUPPORTS* Prop 103 (The English-Only Prop.)

  • IanC

    In summation: The “Hardcore” WLA people here in the southern desert at least are all great when it comes to the fiscal aspect of libertarianism. But their answers on the civil aspect are all cutting off the nose to spite the face; they deny 107 because it ‘endorses’ the concept that the state can control marriage. Fuck the gays in the mean-time; let them be 20th class citizens. (There are others in this state whom *endorse* 107.) 103 they support for the most convoluted of reasons: “I speak english, so why do I pay for spanish speakers?” — despite the fact that the now (barely existant) majority of *legitimate* tax-payers are spanish-language preferent.

    Barry seems like a great guy, don’t get me wrong. But as of yet his candidacy is no Guthrie, Smither, or Pierce. I for one am hoping that he will turn that around “hardcore.”

  • paulie

    Let them all in, the more the merrier and I am not writing only about Mexicans. Three-hundred million people is nothing with the size of this country. When we hit 3 billion, then we worry.

    I wouldn’t really worry too much even then, but why would you think that many people would immigrate? LOL.

    What is it with all these people trying to stop people from coming here? The newbies bring in new ideas and can totally change us from dumb Anglos to smart dark people.

    All the dire predictions about Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants are being repeated today about Asians, Middle Easterners, Latinos and Africans. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now.

    Freedom is for everybody, not just white English speakers.

  • undercover_anarchist

    People come here to work. The more people that come, the more consumers there are, the more demand for work. That’s how an economy works. Don’t blame immigrants – who come here to be doctors, computer programmers, entrepreneurs and yes, day laborers – because of our socialist programs. IF EVEN ONE IMMIGRANT of 1 million came here to work, then 999,999 freeloaders would not justify violating the one “good” immigrant’s right to come here. End socialism. Promote capitalism. Capitalism is the free flow of labor and capital. If you don’t support it, you are a straight up fucking commie and you should be deported.

    Let’s also recognize that we had hundreds of years of open immigration FOR WHITES ONLY. The first immigration laws were designed to stop non-whites, or even the wrong kind of whites from coming here. Non-whites have never been given a fair shake at coming into this LAND OF OPPORTUNITY.

    Anyone who opposes open immigration is both a racist and a communist… (contd)

  • undercover_anarchist

    Historical justifications for barring free immigration have all been racist in nature. Only recently has the right tried to cloak its racist nationalism in more Marxist language – “they’re stealing OUR jobs.” Listen, commie, you don’t have a right to a job. Let the market determine the value of labor, not repressive immigration measures. And as for immigrants who come here and commit crimes – penalize the lawbreakers. How hard of a solution is that?

    FACT: Immigrants pay more in taxes than they consume in social services.

    Non-immigrant Americans are fat and lazy. Most have an unjustified sense of entitlement. They are threatenned by the fact that Mahmoud and family are willing to work their asses off and delay gratification to build a business.

    I’ll tolerate an orderly immigration process, with no no limits, that screens for criminals and terrorists. But if you want a wall or an embargo on the free flow of labor, then you are a racist and you should go back to Mother Europe.

  • undercover_anarchist

    IanC: Thanks for the additional info on Hess. Now I have no regrets in saying that he’s a scumbag. He opposes the free flow of labor and he opposes equal rights for gays and lesbians. That is NOT a libertarian by any definition. That is the typical theocratic racist that the Democrats produced in the past, and that has made a home with the GOP ever since the Dems embraced the Civil Rights movement. Barry Hess stands for moral imperialism and a command economy. If you want to call that “libertarian,” then I guess our definitions differ.

  • Andy

    Immirgration Rally Tied To Marxist Organizer
    http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060410-094710-4817r.htm

    “FACT: Immigrants pay more in taxes than they consume in social services.”

    FACT: Their children are purposely kept out of these statistics (because if they are born here they are counted as Americans) to skew the results. Add in the costs for the healthcare, education, and other forms of welfare for these children and the figures go WAY up.

  • Andy

    “Non-immigrant Americans are fat and lazy. Most have an unjustified sense of entitlement. They are threatenned by the fact that Mahmoud and family are willing to work their asses off and delay gratification to build a business.”

    Yes, it is true that there are a lot of lazy Americans. This is mostly because of the welfare state and the welfare state is doing the same thing with the immigrants and their offspring.

    “I’ll tolerate an orderly immigration process, with no no limits, that screens for criminals and terrorists.”

    All most people are asking for is to keep out the free loaders and criminals or to at least cut out the incentives for them to come here.

  • paulie

    http://www.reason.com/links/links091906.shtml

    Chickening Out
    Some details the macroeconomic statistics on immigration can miss
    Brian Doherty

    http://catallarchy.net/blog/archives/2006/07/04/rothbardians-cannot-consistently\
    -support-increased-enforcement-of-immigration-restrictions/

  • paulie

    Last link got cut off. paste 2nd line for the full URL.

    As John Lopez writes:

    the “borders” of the United States are most assuredly not “private property”. “The Government” doesn’t rightfully own anything: not roads, not rivers, not borders. So by what right can government agents keep the US’s borders closed?

    Hoppe, on the other hand, would have us act as if the government were the rightful owner of the United States: “The best one may hope for, …is that the democratic rulers act as if they were the personal
    owners of the country and as if they had to decide who to include and who to exclude from their own personal property.”

    And why should this apply just to immigration? After all, the “personal owner” of a plot of land may wish to charge rent for it. He might also wish to restrict the activities of those who rent from him. If we accept the premise that the State should act as the personal owners of the country, how can we argue against taxation or drug prohibition..

  • http://www.mainstreamlibertarian.com Eric Dondero

    Yoh Robert, “non-Celebrity Death Match”???

    You calling me a Non-Celebrity?!

    I’ll have you know, I’m a legend in my own mind.

  • paulie

    continuing quote from Lopez:

    LRC and Hoppe can’t consistently advocate liberty and at the same time wish for the State to act like the “personal owner” of all of the land. They can’t eat their cake and then have it, too.

    (end quote)

    At least, Larry darby understands that the implication of his racist anti-immigration position is total regime ownership/control of the whole country (or state, if he advocates secession – would he then deport immigrants from Tennessee and Georgia?) and openly calls for martial law and genocide.

    George W. Bush also understands this; so there is no hypocrisy in his crackdown on immigrants, since he believes he should rightfully be the dictator of the US and is doing everything he can to become one. In his own mind he is already the Emperor and owner of the country, and quite probably the whole world. He also believes he is the messiah and has kids at “jesus camp” committing idolatry by worshipping his picture. The concentration camps he plans..

  • paulie

    ..to use to roundup domestic dissenters have already been built by Halliburton and the legislation to authorize the roundups has just passed Congess.

    Oh yeah, it was authored and signed by Dondero’s GOP.

  • http://360.yahoo.com/pong_god Robert Mayer

    Eric, of course I meant “celebrity” in the broader, household-name sense. But, I will grant you that you are indeed “legendary” within libertarian circles.

  • Stuart Richards

    LOL glad to see my suggestion was received in the spirit it was made. :)

  • Devious David

    Robert, is that “legendary” or simply infamous? Or legendarily infamous?

  • Seth

    UA: Barry doesn’t oppose the free flow of labor, and made that point clear in the debate even.

    Barry feels the state should not be involved in marriage at all, and again is on record for that. If you oppose the state being involved in the first place, of course the rest follows from there.

    As for English only, once AGAIN, the debate proves that he’s sensitive to Spanish speakers: watch the end of the debate in his closing remarks. He also feels that a single language is important for uniting people (he says so in the debate).

    If you are going to make accusations, at least make ones that stand up to basic scrutiny.

  • http://360.yahoo.com/pong_god Robert Mayer

    DD, of course the word “legendary” doesn’t necessarily imply that he’s well-known in a good way. “Infamous” is closer to what I meant. But, as much as I disagree with Eric’s foreign policy views and a few other miscellany, I must say that I admire his perseverance and commitment to his beliefs. As long as he limits his efforts to moving more Republicans toward the libertarian quadrant, then hopefully he won’t do any irreparable damage to the LP.

  • Stuart Richards

    His activism is also fantastic, you gotta give him that. Even if I often disagree with him, the man has done a lot to push libertarian causes.

  • IanC

    Seth — the argument that government shouldn’t be in marriage at all does absolutely nothing to support the equinamity of treatment for those of “subversive” status.

    Mr. Hess’s actions/stances would relegate gays to being more economically oppressed than heterosexuals. Fact.

    As to the English Only proposition — read what I said again, Seth. He may be willing to reach out to the hispanics in public forums, but at the same time he endorses the bill that will suppress their right to benefit from the taxes taken from them.

    Libertarianism must by definition endorse egalitarianism *AND* capitalism. All parties treated equally, with equal *OPPORTUNITIES UNDER THE LAW*, be it social or economic endeavors.

    Period.

    Barry’s great on the economic scale. But the answers in the social are badly skewed.

  • IanC

    Seth wrote: “Barry feels the state should not be involved in marriage at all, and again is on record for that. If you oppose the state being involved in the first place, of course the rest follows from there.”

    Endorsing this is the fact that legally Barry is not married. (His ceremony was religious only, no state license.) Against this fact is the simple fact that gays are being legally restricted from marriage at all, and now a proposition is on the table to prevent them from being able to be considered in *relationships.* (this affects domestic abuse laws for all relationships as well; only married couples would qualify — that’s how the law is written).

    Proposition 107 isn’t likely to pass. But Barry’s silence on the issue is unacceptable from the position of a libertarian leader. The paltry argument that “marriage shouldn’t be regulated by the state” is simply verbal obfuscation. That’s the end result, and sure — it’s good.

    But justifying treating ANYONE as lesser? NO.

  • IanC

    Corrolary (Sorry for the multi-post!)

    Equal opportunities under the law is a negative right, not a positive/normative one.

  • http://www.lpalabama.org/blog/14 paulie cannoli

    His activism is also fantastic, you gotta give him that. Even if I often disagree with him, the man has done a lot to push libertarian causes.

    Honestly, I don’t know how he has time to post on all the internet sites he’s on AND do all that activism AND maintain an active social life – let alone also sleep, eat, etc. Is there more than one Eric Dondero?

  • http://360.yahoo.com/pong_god Robert Mayer

    Honestly, I don’t know how he has time to post on all the internet sites he’s on AND do all that activism AND maintain an active social life

    All that activism must not leave much time for swinging!

    Is there more than one Eric Dondero?

    I sincerely hope not!

  • http://www.lpalabama.org/blog/14 paulie cannoli

    Perhaps, he’s just a better multitasker than most people?

    He can be simultaneously typing on separate blogs with the fingers of each hand and the toes of each foot while getting a double header blow job from his wife and a hooker and eating breakfast, all at the same time as he is working a speed-dialer raising funds for a candidate with his butt cheeks?

    Yes, that would explain it.

  • undercover_anarchist

    Hey, even I have to begrudgingly give some respect to Mr. Dondero. He has a good attitude. I’ve called him every name in the book and he’s kept his cool. But enough celebrating this fascist bastard.

  • http://www.lpalabama.org/blog/14 paulie cannoli

    LOL, I didn’t realize I was celebrating.

    But, hell, just the sheer internet posting volume alone – look around a few other libertarian sites to see what I mean – is impressive.

    I couldn’t type that much even if that was all I did all day every day.

  • undercover_anarchist

    “…while getting a double header blow job from his wife and a hooker and eating breakfast.”

    Republicans don’t believe in blow jobs. They call that “sodomy” and support laws against it.

    Only the LP supports blow jobs. Here are the other parties’ stances:

    DEMOCRAT: Ban them – except in the case of interns.

    REPUBLICAN: Ban them – except in the case of hot male pages.

    GREEN: Ban them – except in the case of GLBT – after all, all penile penetration is rape and degrading to women.

    CONSTITUTION: Ban them – except in the case of colored women, goats, and other forms of private property.

  • http://www.lpalabama.org/blog/14 paulie cannoli

    Darn it, I guess I’ll have to stay with the LP – Reform Caucus or no Reform Caucus.

  • Stuart Richards

    LOL

  • IanC

    But paulie — don’t you want that criminal ‘edge’? It’s great with the goats these days… >:)

  • http://alaskapride.blogspot.com Anchorage Activist

    To Eric Dondero – Thanks for your plug for Sarah Palin in comment #10. Compared to her taxoholic statist Democratic opponent Tony Knowles, she looks libertarian. Besides, the official libertarian candidate for governor, Billy Toien, is a non-entity.

    The latest Rasmussen Poll shows Palin still leading, but only by 7 percentage points over Teflon Tony. Recent Dittman and Ivan Moore polls showed her with 12 and 11-point lead, respectively.

  • http://www.lpalabama.org/blog/14 paulie cannoli

    Well, if you got the nazis on your side, you’re sure to win.

    Click on Anchorage Activist to see what I mean.

  • http://www.mainstreamlibertarian.com Eric Dondero

    You’re welcome Anchorge Activist. You forgot to mention that Palin attended the May meeting of the Libertarian Party of Alaska and is a close personal friend of libertarian state legislator Vic Korhing.

    Hey, good job on the smoking ban petition. Keep up the good work there. Let’s hope it makes the ballot!

    Best petitioning location in Anchorage? Downtown public library. Whoops the secret is out!

  • http://www.mainstreamlibertarian.com Eric Dondero

    Undercover Anarchist, LOL!

    Hey, you can’t even begin to come close to what liberal leftist blockers who have tried to stop me from gathering signatures for libertarian causes and the Libertarian Party have called me over the years.

    Whatever you’ve said about me, compared to them bastards, is small potatos.

  • IanC

    Eric — I think people would be far better with you if you were able to freely admit that the theocratic minority has an absolute stranglehold on centrist republican ideology.

  • http://www.lpalabama.org/blog/14 paulie cannoli

    Hey, you can’t even begin to come close to what liberal leftist blockers who have tried to stop me from gathering signatures for libertarian causes and the Libertarian Party have called me over the years.

    Most of them can dish it out better than they can take it. We had one old lady in Omaha towards the end of the petition. She was waving to customers in what looked too much like the nazi salute, so we started to mock her and do the sieg heil, telling people she “hates us for our freedom” and mentioning Stalin and Hitler a lot. She actually went and complained to the store that we were harassing her (!!)…and this after the store offered to have the police remove her, and we said no, she has free speech rights too.

    In California I had one community college professor for whom I suggested a new union – the California Community College Professors (CCCP).

  • http://www.DownsizeDC.org/ Alex Peak

    Interesting debate. It’s especially interesting to see the Democrat trying to show that she is cozy with Bush. Here in Maryland, Republicans are distancing themselves from Bush as much as they can. Very interesting, indeed.

    Alex Peak
    Membership Chair, College Libertarians of Towson
    wwwnew.towson.edu/clt

  • http://c4ss.org/ paulie cannoli

    http://antiwar.com/justin?articleid=9869

    Election 2006:
    A War Referendum
    It’s all about Iraq