Libertarians select secretary candidate

INDIANAPOLIS -- Party officials announced Mike Kole as the de facto Libertarian candidate for the Indiana Secretary of State race before a conference of student activists Saturday. \nThe official nomination takes place at the party's convention in April, but the state leadership came out with an endorsement of Kole, the party's chair in Hamilton County, who is running unopposed thus far for the ballot slot. The state office -- held by Republican Todd Rokita -- oversees business regulations and elections, and a 2 percent showing in November guarantees four years of automatic ballot access for Libertarian candidates in all local elections.\n"I intend to deflect that stereotypical bromide that you're wasting your vote if you vote for a libertarian," Kole said. "You're wasting your vote if you believe in free speech and privacy, and you vote for a Democrat. And you're wasting your vote if you believe in small government and fiscal conservatism, and you vote for a Republican."\nStudents from far-flung reaches of the state descended on the University of Indianapolis campus to plot political organization. Of the dozens in attendance, only two IU students braved the early-morning snowfall to attend the day-long conference, which was scheduled during an IU men's basketball home game against top-ranked UConn. \nFeaturing Kole as the keynote luncheon speaker, the Libertarian Party of Indiana's 2006 Collegiate Conclave focused on ways to advance ideas of limited government and individual liberty on campuses and in communities.\n"People have this ridiculous perception of libertarianism as gay orgies on the front lawn with crack and 155 (millimeter caliber) howitzers," said senior Mark Christian, a Marine Corps veteran and self-described disillusioned Republican. "It's a perspective on and a philosophy of government on many of these unnecessary laws."\nKole resolved, if elected, to address gerrymandering in Indiana, the practice of redrawing districts to protect incumbent office-holders. He noted that no state senate seats in the General Assembly changed hands in the last election, with the closest margin of victory at 9 percentage points. \n"These districts look like they were drawn by someone who was drunk or by a child trying out Crayolas for the first time," he said. "It's nothing that Rand McNally would have ever imagined in his wildest dreams -- it looks like a series of Rorschach blots."\nParty activists were heartened by the November election of Michael Sessions as mayor of Hillsdale, Mich. An 18-year-old high school senior, Sessions won as a write-in candidate on a shoestring budget of $700 raised from a summer job.\n"His chief tactic was that he was not in office," said Jim Lark, a professor at the University of Virginia and the former national Libertarian Party chair, who was a featured speaker at the event. "He distinguished himself as a physical entity. These office-holders so often take their positions for granted, as though they're there as a benevolent act of God."\nThe libertarians focused on the lack of choices offered to voters.\n"The gerrymandering in this state is very bad for representative democracy," Kole said. "These politicians learn they don't have to be accountable to the public -- it disgusts me to be in a country where there's no opposition after the primary."\nKole pledged, if elected, to cut the operating budget of the office by 10 percent, to oppose the forced annexation of unincorporated townships and to relax the state's requirements for third party ballot access.\nDan Drexler, executive director of the state party, said it would settle for a strong showing in November, perhaps 10 percent of the statewide vote. Kole is more optimistic.\n"I'm running to win," he said. "We want to be a factor in this campaign."\nThe Libertarian candidate has hit the 2 percent threshold guaranteeing ballot access during the past three election cycles, dating back to 1994. \nRebecca Sink-Burris, a Monroe County resident who now serves as the party's state secretary, garnered 4 percent in the 2002 election, nearly 60,000 votes.\nFor more information, visit w\nwww.lpin.org/monroe/index.htm.