I had lunch with mayoral candidate Mike Powers and his campaign
manager Stefanos yesterday. They apologized for missing our meeting
on Saturday and said it was a miscommunication between them. I let
them know that we would be doing a candidates' event, and that we'd
let them know when that would be. We had a good, though too-brief,
discussion, and I was favorably impressed both by Mike's libertarian
leanings and his willingness to work with us. He specifically asked
me what we would like from him for his support, and I mentioned our
candidates pledge about not expanding the size, cost or power of
government and instead seeking to shrink it. He immediately jumped in
to agree with me. He seems to have a strong common-sense approach to
government. He mentioned attending a PUC hearing earlier that day
where they were talking about how to save energy. It was in a room
with skylights and there was plenty of natural light, yet they had
tons of lightbulbs burning. He also complained about getting a $50
ticket for not having a front license plate on his car, pointing out
the window to an Audi waiting at a nearby intersection without a
front plate or even a place in which to mount one, and estimating
that a serious fraction of the cars on the road are in violation of
this law.
I told him that Chicken John is a registered Libertarian, and he
seems to like what he's seen of Chicken and be open to working with
him as well. He doesn't plan to change his Republican registration,
though he seems to have no love for where that party is, generally
speaking. It sounded like partly he doesn't want it to look like he
changed just for the purposes of running for office, and partly
because I think he genuinely is a sort of Ron Paul Republican who
feels that the GOP has strayed from its pro-freedom heritage but that
true republicanism means, more or less libertarianism. In fact I gave
them some Ron Paul fliers, and Mike knew who Ron was and said he was
happy to see me promoting him. I explained a bit about the Nolan
Chart and the Non-Aggression Principle, and how things like coercive
taxation are at odds with non-aggression, and Mike appeared to agree.
Stefanos, who said he leans a bit more to the left, said he
personally saw a need for some government regulation.
Love & Liberty,
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