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CEDAR RAPIDS The politics-as-usual approach to state government by Republicans and Democrats is unsustainable and hurting vulnerable Iowans, according to Jake Porter, a Libertarian who is joining the race for governor.

Were having this huge budget crisis, and I dont see other candidates proposing real changes, Porter said Tuesday.

Instead, Statehouse lawmakers and the governor are using the budget as a weapon, according to Porter, who will formally announce his candidacy on The Simon Conway Show on WHO Radio between 4 and 7 p.m. Thursday.

Theyve decided were having a budget crisis, so were going to cut the services people use most, whether its mental health services, sexual abuse hotlines, domestic abuse shelters (or) hearing aids for kids, Porter said.

Theyre not actually going after any of the waste that could easily be cut. Theyre going after the things that are going to hurt the most people, probably as an excuse to raise the sales tax next year.

Porter, 29, a Council Bluffs business consultant long active in the Libertarian Party, previously ran for secretary of state. He thinks his views and priorities are more closely aligned with voters than either the Democratic or Republican platform.

He wants to make medical cannabis available, restore voting rights for felons who have served their time, end corporate welfare, return Medicaid to its pre-privatization status and phase out the state sales tax.

He opposes corporate welfare on libertarian principles. Its wrong, Porter said, to ask Iowans to pay millions of dollars to financially sound corporations. He singled out the Research Activities Credit that refunds tax money to corporations even if they have no tax liability.

Theyve put the tax bill on the smallest Iowans and smallest companies, he said. I dont think the state should favor one business over another.

Porter called turning over Medicaid management to private companies an example of big government cronyism by former Gov. Terry Branstads administration. He would return management responsibility to the Department of Human Services and then make improvements.

The state has messed around for far too long while people who could benefit from medical cannabis have suffered, Porter said. While he would favor legalization of marijuana for recreational use, I dont think the Legislature is going to pass that.

Despite the changes the Legislature has made, current law makes it difficult, nearly impossible, for Iowans who need cannabidiol to get it, he said.

As a Libertarian, Porter said, he would have the advantage of being able to work with and around the major political parties by using the governors bully pulpit to open a dialogue with voters and pressure lawmakers to act on his priorities.

As governor, you can go around and talk about issues and you can pound the issues until (lawmakers) basically have to do something about it, he said.

Porter said his campaign website, jakeporter.org, will go live Thursday afternoon.

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Libertarian gubernatorial candidate calls for 'real changes ... - Quad City Times

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NorthJersey Published 4:42 p.m. ET July 18, 2017 | Updated 4:42 p.m. ET July 18, 2017

Peter Rohrman(Photo: Mitsu Yasukawa/ Staff Photographer)

Regarding Residents invite gubernatorial hopefuls (Page A4, July 14):

Is there any reason why this story did not mention the Libertarian Party candidate Peter Rohrman for governor, who is on the ballot, in your voting block article today? Is there a reason why the media continually give plenty of free press to the Democrat and Republican candidates and yet rarely mentions any other choices on the ballot? The Record should be informing readers about all the choices on the ballot for governor, not just those from the two parties that have created all of the problems our state currently faces?

Please provide information on the real choices for governor in New Jersey, not just the two disaster parties.

Mike Mazzeo

Waldwick, July 14

Read or Share this story: https://njersy.co/2vfSiXm

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Letter: Give Libertarian candidates more coverage - NorthJersey.com

Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Thoreau Best Fits With Libertarian Ideas Wall Street Journal (subscription) Thoreau Best Fits With Libertarian Ideas. Crispin Sartwell notes that the traditional, left/right paradigm has no place for political philosopher Henry David Thoreau. July 18, 2017 12:17 p.m. ET. Save Article. Sign In to Save Subscribe to WSJ. Text ...

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Thoreau Best Fits With Libertarian Ideas - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Brian Early bearly@seacoastonline.com @briantemprano

DOVER Another Ward 1 resident has declared his candidacy to fill the state representative seat that was vacated last month with a resignation.

Brian Shields, an active member of the Libertarian Party, announced his intention to file for the special election as a Libertarian to fill the seat held by Isaac Epstein before he resigned last month.

Im looking forward to this election, Shields said in a statement. Ward 1 hasnt had a real choice for a representative in quite a few years. I am ready to get out there, shake some hands, meet new people and talk about what the people of Dover need from their representation in Concord.

Shields said he became inspired to run for the seat from the passion of the three elected members of House of Representatives who recently switched to the Libertarian Party. Shields was the communication director for the House Libertarian Caucus.

How can you not want to be a part of legislation that will change lives for the better? Shields said in a press release. The ability to vote on bills that will give people more choice in how to live their lives, save them from higher taxes, and protect their civil liberties? Who doesnt want to be a part of that?

Shields, 37, is currently a student at Southern New Hampshire University working to obtain a communications degree. He also works as an in-store representative for News America Marketing and is a member of the membership committee for the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire and is the vice chair Libertarian Party of Seacoast New Hampshire, a local LPNH affiliate covering Rockingham and Strafford counties. The state's Libertarian Party achieved ballot access in 2016 when gubernatorial candidate Max Abramson achieved more than 4 percent of the total vote.

Shields joins Casey Conley, who announced his intention to run for the seat as a Democrat.

Dover City Manager Michael Joyal said in an email on Monday that the City Council will vote a resolution next week to petition the governor and executive council to hold a special election in the fall to fill the vacancy. With the approval of the governor and council, Joyal said the filing dates for interested candidates would be between Aug. 7-11. If there is more a primary is needed, a primary will occur on Oct. 3, and the general election will then occur on Nov. 21. If not, the general election will be held on Oct. 3, he said.

Ward 1 is comprised part of downtown north of the Cocheco River and runs north to Glendale Avenue and east to the Rollinsford border. It includes neighborhoods off Broadway, Central Avenue and Sixth Street.

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Brian Shields announces run for state rep seat - Foster's Daily Democrat

Americans for Prosperity, the Koch group that will be most involved in the push, says it has spent nearly $1 million so far on lobbying and advertising efforts, including more than 500 meetings with lawmakers and their staff members on Capitol Hill and ads directed at Republicans on the Senate and House committees responsible for tax policy. By the time debate begins on a tax bill, expected later this year, the group will most likely have spent several million dollars more, its strategists said.

The American Action Network, another conservative policy group, expects to invest more than $20 million in an advertising campaign promoting tax changes, more than it spent pushing for the health care bill.

The American Action Network spent $15 million on health care reform since Jan. 1, said Corry Bliss, the groups executive director. Looking ahead to the tax initiative that were all waiting for, he added, $15 million from our perspective is the starting point.

Underlying this kind of spending on a policy, no less, that was once expected to be a relatively easy lift for Republicans is a rising sense of urgency. Republicans fear they could be looking at a worst-of-two-worlds scenario in which they have a historically unpopular president dogged by persistent legal and ethical questions, at the same time they remain unable to restore a semblance of functionality to Capitol Hill.

Watching efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act fall apart was more than just a setback for conservatives who disliked the law, which expanded the governments role in health care and created an expensive new entitlement program. For some, it was a demoralizing glimpse into a future in which Republicans have all the power in Washington but they are powerless to do anything with it.

Anytime a party is given this kind of opportunity, youre judged by the product you produce, said Josh Holmes, a Republican strategist and former aide to Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader.

The inability to produce is especially problematic for the Republican Party, which portrays itself as more capable and efficient when it comes to running an unwieldy federal bureaucracy. Where Republicans have their biggest problem, Mr. Holmes said, is when all of a sudden they look like they dont have their hand on the wheel.

In that sense it is competence and not the accusations of corruption or collusion that have led to various investigations into the Trump campaigns ties to Russia that most worries many Republicans.

A perception of ineptitude could be especially damaging for President Trump, who portrays himself as a master problem-solver and deal maker who promised voters that the country under his leadership would be run so competently, Youre going to be so sick and tired of winning.

Many conservatives brushed aside doubts about Mr. Trumps readiness to be president and his true commitment to conservatism and voted for him because he represented their best shot at pursuing an agenda that would begin rolling back what they saw as an egregious expansion of government under President Barack Obama.

And while conservatives have much to cheer under Mr. Trumps presidency so far a decidedly conservative new Supreme Court justice, a rollback of regulations on business, and plans to withdraw from the Paris climate pact he has yet to fulfill some of his biggest campaign promises.

Planned Parenthood has retained its federal funding, despite Mr. Trumps repeated vows to cut the group off, a promise that has died, for now, with the health care bill. Just this week, Mr. Trump recertified the international agreement with Iran that curtails its nuclear program, despite having repeatedly said it was the worst deal ever and that he would renegotiate it. And construction of the wall he promised along the countrys southern border has not begun.

The governing party has to govern, said John Shadegg, a Republican former congressman from Arizona. And especially when you make the case for eight years that you can do it: Give us the House; we can fix this. Give us the Senate; we can fix this. Give us the White House and we can fix this.

You cannot make a promise for eight years, he continued, and simply say, Eh, when push came to shove, our promises turned out to be wrong or too difficult.

Mr. Trumps supporters have demonstrated a tendency to forgive. But Republican lawmakers may find voters far less sympathetic. And as conservatives digested news on Tuesday of the failed health care effort, their disgust was evident.

We may well be witnessing one of the greatest political whiffs of our time, said Rich Lowry, editor of National Review.

In an editorial on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal described the weeks events as one of the great political failures in recent U.S. history, going as far as endorsing efforts to unseat the disloyal senators. If the Obamacare Republicans now get primary opponents, they have earned them, the paper said.

As the radio host Hugh Hewitt took calls from irate listeners, he predicted political ruin for Republican senators like Dean Heller of Nevada who had opposed the bill. Boy are people mad, he said. They are mad as hell.

But banking on a tax overhaul as a springboard for a dispirited Republican Party may not be a sure thing. The issue does not have the potency and emotion of the Affordable Care Act, which also had an easily demonized antagonist in Mr. Obama. Democrats will be waiting to pounce with criticisms that the Republican plan is a big giveaway to the rich. And the conservative grass roots may find the policy lacking in populist appeal.

Either way, said Levi Russell, director of public affairs for Americans for Prosperity, Republicans need to move in unison on this issue.

Clearly thats what we lacked during the health care debate, he added. Republicans were not unified around a solution.

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Health Care Has GOP Down. Tax Cuts May Be the Cure. - New York Times