Santa Clara Libertarian
	Volume 27, Issue 8
	December 1999
	For Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Inside This Issue

• Annual Meeting January 12, 2000
• March Candidate Push
• Editor's Note
• Chair's Column -- Reality Check
• Significant Growth Has Started!
• Politics at the State Level
• Oh no! More Bonds
• Is Pouring Money into Schools the Answer?
• Homeschoolers Debate
• First High School Libertarian Group Formed
• Give Students the Message
• Libertarians Gain Foothold at San Jose State
• Schedule
• Officer List
• Membership Form

Annual Meeting January 12, 2000

Be sure to attend the annual meeting on January 12, 8:00 p.m. at Coco's Restaurant. Coco's restaurant is located on the corner of Oakmead Parkway and Lawrence Expressway. From 101, take the Lawrence Expressway exit South to Oakmead Parkway.

In addition to electing officers, the agenda includes a discussion on amending the bylaws (see http://www.lpty.org/bylaws) The changes incorporated into the proposed new bylaws can be categorized into three classes:

1. Language editing -- Eliminating typological, grammatical and redundancy.
2. Increased organizational positions with duties defined. This will help distribute work needed for publicity and membership growth so the tasks will not be overwhelming.
3. Allows shorter Excom voting turnaround times and faster response to unanticipated events. We need a quorum in order to elect officers. This is the one meeting you need to attend!

Delegates to the State convention will also be elected at this meeting!

March Candidate Push

LPSCC Makes Valiant Effort to Fill Most Partisan Positions in the March 7, 2000 Primary Election

by Ray Strong
Campaign Chair

Due primarily to the efforts of LPC Campaign Coordinator, Ted Brown, we have at least one potential candidate in each partisan race except the 21st Assembly District. A table of petition status for our candidates for the entire State of California can be found at http://www.lp.org/ca/lpc-petstat.cgi. Below lists the candidates and the signatures received/required for the Santa Clara County.

Mailing Will Get The Signatures

Following the lead of San Mateo County, Libertarian candidates in Santa Clara County mailed petitions to registered Libertarians. On October 29, petitions were mailed to two target groups: one group of 875 received petitions for Ed Wimmers (16th Congressional District), Jack Hickey (11th State Senate District), and Ray Strong (24th Assembly District); the other group of 777 received petitions for Joe Dehn (14th Congressional District), Kennita Watson (13th State Senate District) and Joel Johnson (22nd Assembly District). The first target group is located in the southern half of Santa Clara County.

As of November 4, we had received 26 responses from the first target group and none from the second target group. From these responses we obtained 32 signatures for Ed and 31 signatures for Jack and Ray. Six of these signatures for each candidate will probably not be valid because they are missing some required detail. The responses also contained $325 in membership dues and donations, with 6 new (dues paid) members and 8 registered Libertarians who filled out the membership application but did not send dues.

The reason for the petitions is that each of our candidates had to have collected at least 40 valid signatures of registered Libertarians in the appropriate election district, in order to appear on the ballot in the March 7, 2000, primary election. The value of each signature ranges from $6.69 to $12.38, depending on the number of registered Libertarians in the election district (the more, the cheaper) and on the office sought.

Since most candidates have full time jobs we would not get most of our candidates on the ballot without volunteer signature collectors. This is where the technique of mailing petitions to registered Libertarians comes in. Each registered Libertarian receiving a petition is asked to sign it as circulator (on the back of the petition) and collect signatures from other registered Libertarians (or at least their own). We asked each recipient to act as a volunteer signature collector to collect a few signatures. The LP of San Mateo County has used this method through two election cycles to supplement the signatures collected by volunteers. Their experience indicates a response in signatures that is around ten per cent of the number of addresses in the mailing target. Since each address averages more than one registered Libertarian, we can't count on the mailing exclusively to collect our required numbers. But a typical response is worth around a $24 reduction in the filing fees of three candidates.

Using a mailing is expensive. Mailing coordinator Jascha Lee reported over $1300 in expenses to mail to 1,652 addresses. For this investment we get three types of return: (1) a predicted $4000 worth of reductions in filing fees, (2) a projected $1000 in dues and donations, and (3) contact with lots of registered Libertarians who haven't heard from us in a long time, if ever (this newsletter goes only to members). If the actual results are close to the predictions, we'll get better organized next election cycle and be able to mail to more groups of candidates early enough to make use of all the signatures produced.

At last count, we received 59 signatures for Assembly District 24, of which 12 were invalid due to the person not signing the back of the form (as signature collector).

Editor's Note

by Jascha Lee
LPSCC Newsletter Chair

You may have been wondering, "where has the newsletter been?" Well it has been on a bit of a hiatus. This is the first one since the August/September issue. No good reason, I took a month off for a vacation in Costa Rica, and couldn't seem to get it together till now. Anyway, you may have noticed a slight change in the style. (Okay, slight is an understatement.) I hope you think the wait was worth it.

There are two reasons for the new look. First, a generous donation of PageMaker and Photoshop software by Adobe employee Mike Laursen (completely legit, no pirated software on my machine!) freed me from the constraints of Microsoft Word. Second, I was able to obtain an amazing printer from Tektronix for free! Check out http://www.freecolorprinters.com if you are interested in the details. With this printer, it is much less expensive to print than taking it to a low quality black and white offset printer (black prints for the cost of the paper!).

There was some grumbling about my decision to discontinue sending the newsletter to those people who didn't bother to reply to my "last call" request in the July issue. My hypothesis is that those people most likely don't read it, and it was costing us upwards of $450 per issue to line people's garbage cans. As you know, I think our money is better spent on growing the party. However, given this wonderful new Tektronix Phaser 840 printer (no they didn't induce me to plug them, I am simply in awe of their product), I will resume mailing to the non-respondents. Who knows, maybe the grumblers are right?

Chair's Column -- Reality Check

by Marv Rudin
LPSCC Chair

Discovering LP Reality From The Outside

From 1980 to 1996 I was a do-nothing LP member just paying my dues and occasionally reading the local newsletter, just like many of you readers are today. The newsletter never said the party wasn't growing and never asked me to do anything. Instead it contained entertaining pro-liberty puff pieces, described what few activities had occurred the past month without mentioning the results in terms of actual member/voter growth, put a good face on everything, and sometimes asked if I was "interested" in doing so-and-so, as if it were a fun recreational pursuit. Since there were a lot of other things I'd rather do for recreation, I never responded. For many years this kind of newsletter policy gave me the illusion that the party was doing well and growing, and didn't need my help. At the same time, I would get solicitations for money which never said what result I could expect per donated $. And before elections I would get letters from candidates confidently predicting they could win or hit a very respectable vote total if only I and others would give them the money they were requesting. Then reality set in. In the 80's and early 90's, I donated to various candidates with convincing letters from across the country who had very high expectations based on what appeared to be a sound assessment of the situation in their races. And as an added inducement, some of them promised to let donors know the result. In every case, when I learned the result from them, or via the LP News, it was minuscule compared to their expectations. Then one day I happened across data on the history of Libertarian registrations in California, and discovered that all during the 80's and early 90's, while I was led to believe the LP was growing, it actually had mostly shrunken and only bounced back a little since 1980. And when I saw that the registration level was under 1% of the electorate, it became apparent to me that trying to win with such a small committed base was the reason why promising LP candidates fell so far from the mark.

Discovering LP Reality From The Inside

So, in 1996, I decided to study what the national, state, and local parties were really doing, both with their money and their activists. The state and national parties were quite visible, especially after I studied the state LP's system for the state chair and gained access to her files on the state and national organizations. But the local LP activity here in Santa Clara County was still a mystery to me. I hadn't seen any stories at all about the LP in the local media ever. I called the local LP Chair, David Bonino, and learned that the Publicity Chair in 1996 had submitted not a single press release to the local media. No wonder there were no stories! So I volunteered to be Publicity Chair for 1997, to see what could be done in that regard, and to try to learn what might be done to increase our percentage of registered Libertarians. I called and visited various newspaper editors, including the political editor of the Mercury News, and although they gave no encouragement, I was able to get a paltry few things published and aired in the first year - not much, but infinitely more than in past years. While on the inside as an Excom member, I was able to observe what the other activities of the local LP were and its financial situation. I learned that the approximately $10,000 per year budget was nearly totally absorbed by $5260/yr for a seldom used office which was basically a storehouse for unneeded furniture and equipment and a small amount of needed outreach fixtures and literature that could easily be stored in a $50/mo storage unit. I learned that about 6 outreach activities took place per year. In '97 it was one day at a mall, three at gun shows, one at the gay pride celebration, and one April 15th tax day. The result wasn't more than 300 inquiries and 50 direct registrations (1% of our county total).

Trying for Growth as the '98 Chair

It was apparent that this level of local activity and money available for outreach couldn't generate significant growth. So when I was asked by the three officers still willing to carry on in '98 to take the Chair position (no one else wanted it) and reluctantly agreed, I decided to focus on registered voter growth, by eliminating the unneeded office expenditure, and by finding ways to make it so easy for you members to help that most of you couldn't reasonably refuse. Unfortunately, it immediately became apparent that that wasn't going to be easy. No one stepped forward to run for Publicity Chair, so I was saddled with two jobs - Publicity Chair and Party Chair. And the Membership Chair was committed to working only half the duties of his position - member database and sending of mailers to inquirers (and he did that for only half the year, after which he said his job duties precluded further work for the LP). Although those activities were important functions, the most important function of Membership Chair, organizing outreach and recruiting new LP voters, was all but abandoned. To add to the difficulties in '98, when a vote was taken to eliminate the office, two of the officers who asked me to be Chair, bolstered by several seldom seen members who came in for just that meeting, managed to prevail by 1 vote to force the retention of the office and eliminate all hopes of appreciable outreach funds and growth in '98! Despite that stalemate, '98 wasn't a totally lost year. The colleges program got launched, we returned to the SCC Fair after many years and recruited 25 new people as Fair reps, more publicity was gained, I became acquainted with our foremost resource - you members who showed an interest, and I used the year for learning and planning, enabling me to recruit a full slate of officers for '99 who agreed to support my plan, CEGAP (Cost Effective Growth Action Plan) and to get them elected on January 13th, 1999 by what Mark Hinkle said was the biggest turnout for a meeting in the history of the LPSCC.

Disappointments In '99

Well fellow Libertarians, it's nearing the end of '99, and maybe I ought to be discouraged. It's now 11 months since over 50 of you voted for our team of officers committed to growing the party by 25% to 40%. In this time we've small-scale tested several ideas to grow registrations that thus far either haven't worked as well as was hoped or are still in development:

1. Operation Everyone (under 20% participation, .5% web hits)
2. LIFE cards left on computer owner's cars (no web hits from 500 cards)
3. Speakers Bureau training and engagements solicitation (1 speaker, 1 appearance)
4. Organized weekly submittal of Letters to the Editor (LTEs) program (3 letters published in 9 months)
5. Organized talk show call-ins program (nothing done yet)
6. Organizing college groups (1 at SJSU, none yet at other 10 colleges & universities)

It looks like, unless a miracle happens and 10% of you 600 plus members get active, our chances of hitting even the lower end of that range aren't very good. My guess is that we'll hit a net increase of 10%, comprised of 15% new registrants, and 5% leaving the area or leaving for another party. Although below goal, this is still good for an odd numbered year when there are no major elections.

Also Full And Budding Successes In '99

But instead of letting the disappointments discourage me, I'm inspired by the following successes that have already occurred in '99 or are beginning to unfold:

1. Established regular local radio show on KSJS
2. San Jose State Libertarians club, the first LPSCC-sponsored university club was established by LP poly-sci major, Joel Jonhnson (see his interview below)
3. A reliable new Membership Chair Roger Ver was elected in May and has consistently sent mail packets and registration forms to all inquirers
4. DMV tests at Santa Clara and Los Gatos yielded substantially better registration results per member hour and $ than seen by any other method
5. Booth at SCC Fair to establish a presence with Dems and Reps for 2nd year in a row
6. Speakers practice meetings at Cocos, and first outside speaking engagement (Bill Carr at SJ Exchange Club) showed the way to build a future program of outreach by this method
7. Anti School Bond Ballot Arguments (Measures B, C, E) by Mark Hinkle and me kept the LP name before the public and showed we can have some clout even while small (see pages 10 and 11).

My Vision -- A Plan To Turn The Dmv Test Result Into Rapid Party Growth

Of all the above successes, the one I see as having the most potential to get us the growth we want, is the DMV test result. I would like a few more days at the DMV to verify that the 1 registration per hour seen for the two test days will occur using this method regularly in the future, and this will be taking place soon. But without more verification data at this writing, I'm going to have to assume for purposes of planning, that approximately the same level of registrations rate can be attained if different DMV reps use the same methods Roger used when he did the tests, provided we can find an efficient training method. With this proviso, I visualize creating the following system to exploit the DMV opportunity:

1. Create and develop a "DMV Kit" made up of:
1. a light, easy-to-carry-by-hand-and-car folding table
2. Special handout cards resembling OE cards, but that request the recipient to stop at our table to register after taking care of their business inside the DMV (card may also induce them to register inside under "Motor-voter Law")
3. Registration forms
4. Register Libertarian poster to hang on one side of table
5. Celebrities poster to hang on another side of table
6. Small supply of Libertarian Alternative tabloids and issues oriented brochures for few prospects who want more information
7. clipboards and cheap pens supply
8. Folding chair
9. 3 copies of a video (probably of Roger Ver) showing how to do the DMV repping effectively
2. Because the DMV operates during normal working hours, enlist Libertarians living near each of the 6 DMV offices in Santa Clara County, and who are often home during the day (e.g. retirees, housewives, and those with home businesses), to be "DMV Kit Custodians" (DKCs)
3. Organize telephoners to seek Libertarian students, the kinds of people who may be able to put in some work day time, and also 9to5ers who may be willing to sit a DMV table part time on a day when they may have some time off work to see the dentist, doctor or take care of other business, and returning to work wouldn't be necessary.
4. Appoint a DMV Program coordinator, who arranges with the DKCs to mail out the DMV instruction video to volunteers about 3 days prior to their shift at the DMV.
5. When the volunteer arrives at the DKC's location - home or possibly a business - he drops off the DMV video and picks up the DMV kit. This can be done in many instances, by leaving it out on the porch, or patio, even if the DKC has to be away from home. When the shift is over, he returns it.
6. The DKC then has to replenish the supply of cards and literature for the next usage.

How Much Growth Is Our Goal? Obviously we would like get to at least 51% of the electorate. But if we can grow 10 to 1 and reach 7%, it will ensure media coverage because we will affect the outcome of most election races. The following tables shows that if we can achieve 50% growth per year, it would take just 6 years to do it.

How Many People Will Be Needed? If all reps do only one half day shift in a year, it will require about 600 volunteers to grow the party by 50% in a year. Obviously if some do more than one shift per year, which is probable, fewer than 600 will be needed. For example, about 100 people doing one shift every two months would be enough. We have over 5000 registered Libertarians at this point in time. 100 people is just one out of 50. This seems possible to achieve, but I believe it will take someone persuasive talking to them. It will also take a reg-libn list with a lot more good phone numbers than the registrar's list has. I would guess that will take about 10 telephoners phoning regularly about one hour each week, assuming getting in 3 per hour, and that 1 in 20 agrees to do two shifts per year.

Will You Participate? Wise men have said that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. Jefferson felt that freedom probably couldn't last without repeated revolution and bloodshed, we Libertarians hope to do it peacefully with the ballot. To have a chance to do that we desperately need a 10:1 increase from present numbers. I have outlined a way based on actual data to do it in Santa Clara County. If we can do it here, the method can be replicated all over the country - all states have DMV offices - and the whole party can get on a rapid growth curve that the media won't be able to ignore. If you and other Santa Clara County Libertarians will help to carry out this vision, Silicon Valley would become the cradle of not only world technology, but also U.S. and, ultimately, world freedom.

Significant Growth Has Started!

by Marv Rudin
LPSCC Chair

Congratulations to new Membership Chair Roger Ver! Since he came on, a surge in membership growth appears to have begun.

LP registrations have risen more than 4 times faster than normal in July, just as they did in May! From January to May we averaged +11 per day. But in June it was +56, and with two days at the Fair left to go, it was already 45 in July. That's around 1% per month for those two months. Compare this with the record growth of 11% (about 1% a month) for the state in '98 - an election year.

While we've still got a good way to go to reach the target rate of 25% to 40% growth per year I arbitrarily set as a goal at the start of the year, this news for a non election year when registrations traditionally decline is very encouraging.

It's particularly encouraging because it came at a time just after our local party stopped dissipating our funds on an office (we moved out the end of April) and began using them for outreach efforts (OEM cards April, May, and June; and DMV tables twice in June). In addition, Roger has been consistently mailing literature and a registration forms to all local inquirers, which no doubt has been contributing some of the growth, and wasn't done before he came on. We won't know for sure what is causing the much higher rate of registrations until our Telephone Team conducts a thorough poll of the new LP registrants, but the OE cards and DMV tables probably have had a lot to do with it.

Thanks to all of you who have been leaving your TVs, computers, and other favorite pursuits on occasion and are passing out Operation Everyone cards, helping Roger at the DMV,. and who helped Frank Groffie at the Fair, to grow our local party. If you keep this up, the Republocrats had better watch out!

Registered Libertarians in Santa Clara County

Politics At The State Level

by Thomas Spielbauer
LPSCC State Executive Committee Representative

As you may be aware, the State party is in the red. Back earlier this year, when a rosy picture was painted, the LPC cut a sweetheart deal with Jack Dean of Web Commanders to create and then maintain the 215now web site. The site was to have been created at $2,500 and then maintained at $2,000 per month. The results of the web site are disappointing, to say the least. This deal passed over opposition by our alternate Representative to the Executive Committee Joe Dehn. The terms of the agreement were subsequently modified to the same total amount stretched out to reduce the payments to $1,000 per month and then to deferred payments as the LPC sailed into troubled financial waters. At the last Ex-Com meeting, the Ex-Com voted to terminate the operation of the 215 Web site so that the LPC would incur no additional financial obligation beyond the deferred debt that it had so far encumbered.

In addition to this boondoggle, Juan Ros, the state Executive Director was given a pay increase. The pay increase was approved by the Executive Committee based on assurances by Mark Hinkle, the State Chair, that it would result in additional monies coming in due to increased party effectiveness, etc. However, this has not come to pass. The State has spent all its money and it has spent monies due to the regions as well. Two months of our money.

As part of the UMP, National distributes a portion of each membership to the State for distribution to the Regions. Our State organization has spent two months of our money, and is now two months in arrears. (The LPC will also forgo printing the December and February newsletters as a direct result.)

At the last Executive Committee meeting, two motions were defeated. I supported one and opposed the other.

I brought one motion, which called for the placement of UMP money into a separate trust account and then immediate distribution to the Regions. This motion mandated that the Treasurer was a trustee of the monies received from National. The stated intent was to create a fiduciary relationship of the Treasurer to each of the regions so that the LPC would not use Region money again to pay its bills. Amazingly, the motion was defeated. The door remains open for the LPC to help itself to our money.

A second motion was brought which sought to indemnify the Treasurer against criminal charges if he wrote checks that bounced in the future. I vociferously opposed that motion. Amazingly, the other lawyer on the Ex-Com supported it. In order for bounced checks to be a criminal act, the issuance of the insufficient funds check must be a deliberate and intentional act. The Treasurer can simply decline to issue a check based on the fact that there are insufficient funds. Yes, exactly what you and I are supposed to do!

The worst is yet to come.

The LPC is now looking to our region's bank account! That's right, in classic communist style, we are being accused of "hoarding" money. The Southern Vice Chair, Ted Brown, has written saying that we should turn it over to the state. His email communique to me (from tebrown@earthlink.net) was:

"Let's look at Santa Clara County's LP organization, however. Correct me if I'm wrong, but what I've heard is that Reg. 43 has $12,000 in the bank, yet has closed their office, doesn't have a newsletter, and declined to pay filing fees for a couple of candidates who were really close. What is Reg. 43 hoarding this phenomenal amount of money for? Frankly, given that the state party is actually accomplishing something, Reg. 43 should give about $10,000 back to the LPC, where it will be put to good use, and decline the 60% split until the region has some sort of raison d'etre."

On behalf of Region 43, I protested Mr. Brown's comments and demanded a formal apology. No apology has been forthcoming. What particularly caught my attention, however, were his comments about the accomplishments of the LPC. I wrote to him asking what those accomplishments were other than lavishly spending money. No one from the LPC has bothered to respond.

As you know, Region 43's officers have taken concrete steps to reduce our expenditures, primarily by closing our unused office and publishing the newsletter electronically. We have also conserved our assets and nurtured our resources. All of this has allowed us to fund a number of activities. These activities include advertising and printing outreach materials to hand out at the DMV, county fair, flea markets, colleges, high schools, and at other events to publicize our party, and grow, by attracting new Libertarians. Due to these efforts, the number of registered Libertarians in Santa Clara County has grown past 5,000 to 5,125 registered voters, a landmark record. These efforts would be rendered virtually impossible if we spent money like Mark Hinkle and Ted Brown suggest, unless Region 43 was somehow able to wring more donations from our local members, and these solicitations were more effective than what the LPC has accomplished.

It's this money that our local party has conserved for growth projects that the State party covets.

It brings to mind Aesop's fable about the grasshopper and the ants.

The ants (Region 43) work like crazy through the summer and store up a lot of food to get them through the winter. The lazy grasshopper (LPC) works enough to eat and spends the rest of his time at leisure, saving nothing for the coming winter. When winter comes the ants have plenty and support the spendthrift grasshopper through the winter. The grasshopper learns his lesson, works hard, and saves from then on.

The story has a twist, however. In this current reality, Hinkle, Brown and the LPC is eyeing the fruits of Region 43's thrift with a greedy eye and coveting Region 43's coffers (which would likely be empty if we followed their example). Unlike the grasshopper, they're demanding and belligerent instead of humble and supplicant. Like the government, they want to punish the profitable and frugal and reward the unproductive and profligate. Additionally, Hinkle, Ted Brown and the LPC have not learned their lesson. As a Region 43 member asked me, "They're libertarians?"!

All of this brings us almost full circle. Earlier this year, particularly in February 1999 at the State Convention in Santa Clara, the Santa Clara County Chair, Marv Rudin, proposed his RGP (Reality Growth Plan). Mark Hinkle and his supporters lambasted the plan for a variety of reasons, most particularly its frugality. And now the report card is in. Region 43, under the leadership of Marv Rudin, is prosperous, effective, and robust. The LPC under the captainship of Mark Hinkle is floundering in a sea of red ink.

It is time to revisit the RGP. See for yourself by pointing your browser at http://www.lpty.org/RGP. It is also time for Mr. Hinkle, Mr. Ted Brown and others to stop their insults, personal attacks, avarice, covetness and other similar actions on the officers and membership of Region 43. It is time for them to reconsider the RGP, regardless of any personal animosities. It is also time to recognize the excellence that each of our officers, particularly Marv Rudin, has brought to the leadership of Region 43.

I stand, and proudly so, for Region 43.

Oh No! More Bonds

[Editor's note: These articles were submitted too late for the last issue and although they are not as timely, I think they are worth reading. Unfortunately, all the bond measures passed. Berryessa bonds 71.5% to 28.5% (4,199 to 1,671). Campbell bonds 68.1% to 31.9% (12,838 to 6,007). Morgan Hill bonds 67.2% to 32.8% (2,624 to 1,279). De Anza bonds 72% to 28% (34,549 to 13,423).]

by Mark Hinkle (mark@garlic.com)
LPC Chair

Libertarians Fight Measure B

I've got some hot and juicy news. The following argument against Measure B, which is slated to be on this November's ballot, has been accepted by the Santa Clara Registrar of Voters. But, it gets better. The school district apparently forgot to submit an argument in favor, so unless they go to court and can convince a judge to put one on, it'll be on the ballot with only the text below.

Even if they do go to court and even if they can convince a judge to excuse their missing of the legal deadline, we can beat them up for being incompetent for missing a simple deadline. If they can't be trusted to meet a simple deadline, how can they be trusted to spend $48,000,000 wisely?

We'll eat them alive!

Thanks to Ray Strong for alerting me to these issues. Thanks to Marv Rudin for doing some of the coordination work and research and for putting me in touch with Kim Adams, my co-signer of the measure and a resident of the district. Also, thanks to Richard Rider for the core arguments.

I hope and trust the local Santa Clara LP will mount an active campaign to defeat this bond issue. Because of the 2/3 vote requirement to win, it's much easier and less expensive to win one of these battles. To my knowledge, every time the Santa Clara LP has launched an active campaign against a bond issue, we've won. Here's another golden opportunity to show that the LPSC isn't a paper tiger.

If you'd like to help in the campaign, please let me know.

What? Another Special Election To Raise Our Taxes? Incredible!

The same bond was defeated in 1998, you'd think the big spenders wouldn't come right back with another expensive, anti-democratic election specifically targeted for low voter turnout. After squandering millions of dollars over the years, the education establishment is seeking a huge tax increase to do what taxpayers thought bureaucrats had been doing all along -- building and maintaining safe schools.

Total public funding for education exceeds average private school costs by over 50%. If we ever get serious about improving education AND dramatically cutting costs, we need to adopt choice in education. There is a solution, elect a new school board in November 2000 that will spend your money wisely.

Money is fungible -- money not spent in one place can be spent elsewhere. We already pay enough for all the items in the bond proposal. The problem is that the money is spent elsewhere, primarily on salaries for the education establishment that far exceeds what the market would dictate. This bond measure is really another attempt to free up EXISTING capital funds so that they can be spent on salaries, perks, bureaucracy, consulting contracts of all kinds and other unnecessary expenses.

School funding is primarily a state priority problem. We pay plenty of taxes. Funding must be prioritized, shifting wasteful spending to where it's really needed.

There are only three voter tax positions:

1. Taxes are too high.
2. Taxes are about right.
3. Taxes are too low.

If you agree with position "3", then you should support this tax. However, if you agree with position "1" or "2", then you should oppose measure B.

Vote "NO" on Measure B!

Please visit our web address: http://www.sc.ca.lp.org/

Is Pouring Money Into Schools The Answer?

by Marv Rudin
LPSCC Chair

Nov. 2 Balloting Brings Party Media Coverage on Bond Issues

The media-government complex does its best to promote and expand big government most of the time, but a little much needed exposure for the LPSCC has slipped through because of anti-school-bond ballot arguments submitted by me and Mark Hinkle versus Measures B (Berryessa) and E (Foothill-DeAnza) before the Nov. 2nd elections. I've also received calls from citizens about unsavory and probably illegal practices by the Campbell School District bond proponents (also known as the Campbell school board and school district staff).

I was interviewed by the Berryessa Sun on B and the Cupertino Courier on E and also submitted opinion letters to 6 papers, two of which ran them - the Palo Alto Daily, and the Mercury News. In both interviews, I explained that we don't trust government schools to spend tax money wisely, because they are a virtual monopoly.

In the case of Berryessa I pointed out that public school cost is far higher per student than free market educational services, averaging over $7000 per year versus $3000 to $5000. I also mentioned the state budget surplus should be used first, and that the district management had wasted $1 million on lawyers and consultants, and not budgeted properly for the needed maintenance over the years, so why give them more -- instead replace them. Only a brief summary of my words got published in the Sun article, which was loaded with bond proponent material including a picture of one of their campaign workers stuffing envelopes. Also there was a full page pro-bond ad and an adjoining puff piece about acting superintendent Stelwagon.

In the case of Foothill-DeAnza, I said many of the same things , but added that they were asking for much more money than needed to serve community needs considering the large percentage of foreign and non district students, and the fact that they advertise heavily to attract students for a service that costs students about 10% of actual cost.

The letters said the Foothill DeAnza bonds would cost $3,000 per voter over the 25 to 40 year term allowed. Mercury News editor John Swartley insisted "show me the math" before he would print the sentence about the $3000, forcing me to prepare and email him the analysis, which I did.

The calls about unsavory practices in the Campbell district were about using school property and school children to promote voting in favor of the bonds. One lady called to complain that although she's pro bond, it was unfair that her child had brought home a pro-bond letter or flyer (wasn't clear) from school. A young man called and said he and his father had both visited Westmont High to complain about a pro-bond sign posted on campus property to face out and be seen by passing street traffic.

Homeschoolers Debate

by Sheryl Lee

At a recent debate on repealing the 16th amendment I looked around the audience and didn't see the businessmen and women one would expect. Sure they were all attired in suits and business apparel, but most of the 100+ attending were 13-18 years of age. These impressive homeschooled students were preparing for a debate tournament sponsored by Homeschool Legal Defense. The students gather in city, county and statewide clubs to practice the art of debate. Today, they came to see various members of our local political community debate on this year's national debate topic: "Should the 16th Amendment be repealed?" This exercise would help them gather facts for their own upcoming debates.

Robert Arne, Founder of "School of Choice" Speaking for the Libertarian Party

Robert Arne, representing the Libertarian party and Paul Hale, from the Reform party spoke for eliminating the income tax. Mr. Arne is the founder of the School of Choice, which offers an enrichment education in all subjects K through 12th grade. With much eloquence, he engaged the audience making the following points:

1. The income tax violates a person's liberty of conscience; particularly when it forces people to finance an education they despise. (Most of the people in the audience were Christians who left the public schools because they weren't learning what they felt was important or true.)
2. The principle of force behind the income tax; give us your money or go to jail, is unethical.
3. If people can keep the product of their labor they will be motivated to work and be more productive.
4. The tremendous amount of time spent on record keeping is time we give to the government as 'slaves'.
5. Critical government services could be supported through usage fees or some sort of other lesser taxation such as tariffs. Other noncritical government services should be privatized or supported through the charities.
6. Without taxation you would see a much higher level of charitable giving. Charities could be supported through private contributions and individuals should be able to choose their charities.
7. The Income tax system is designed to support big government.
8. One should only pay for defense, justice and services received.

Joseph Rose

The Democratic representatives were detained, so Trevor Haskell representing the Democratic Party and Joseph Rose representing the Republican Party were recruited just before the debate started. Both did excellent jobs and gave well-crafted speeches, using analogies, introductions and conclusions that cohesively packaged their arguments. This is the first debate that I have attended and I was very impressed with how well the opposing team spoke. The main points made were:

1. It's not possible to get the services government provides and not pay taxes.
2. Income tax makes up 89% of the federal income, counting corporate and social security.
3. We could not maintain an army or federal police (FBI) without the income tax.
4. Services which cover a tremendous scope; such as transportation, need a large pool of resources. The government is the only institution that can successfully maintain the standards, safety, and resources necessary to make these large services possible. Income tax is the basis for these resources.
5. Federal Agencies, funded by the income tax, protect us from unsafe practices in areas such as food standards and airplane safety. These agencies would not exist without the income tax and the public's safety would be compromised.
6. The current income tax laws are flawed, but we should work to fix the problems rather than eliminating the tax.

Marv Rubin with student

There was a question-and answer-session after the debate. Marv Rudin sat with the debaters and was able to answer questions from the audience. Hopefully his and Robert Arne's responses successfully countered the erroneous points made by the opposing team. Marv also handed out plenty of Libertarian literature to assist in the fact-finding mission.

What are your impressions of the debate and stance on the issue?

Kayla Andruss

"Long. As I’ve gotten into more studying about it, I don’t think it should be repealed but then there are some really good reasons to repeal it. So it depends. It’s there and it works but there are a lot of problems with it. One major pro, it’s there and provides for the government for what it needs. A con is it’s extremely complex."

Nathan Sunukjian

"There were a lot of interesting things said. I’m not sure that a conclusive resolution was met by any of the sides but I guess that’s kind of the nature of politics, That you are going to have a hard time. I don’t think there is any reason to repeal the 16th Amendment. The government needs money some way and they might as well get it through income tax. It seems like a fair enough method."

Mathew Silva

"I liked it. It was pretty neat. I think I would like to see it repealed. It’s getting too complicated and it’s too intrusive."

Noella Alkhato

"Everybody articulated their views very well and even though everybody has a biased opinion, I think all the speakers made it easier to consider other sides of the issue. The Libertarian Party for instance, made it easy to understand their point of view, especially with the income tax. I enjoyed it very much. There are some issues which need to be changed but I think there are advantages and disadvantages on both sides and personally you would have to sit and weigh those out."

For more information on the School of Choice, view the web page (http://www.schoolofchoice.com) or call (408) 260-2675.

First High School Libertarian Group Formed

Program is Launched by Monica Silva at Presentation High School

by Marv Rudin
LPSCC Chair

At a time when some Libertarians are decrying the lack of balance between women and men in the LP, the first high school Libertarian group formed from efforts of the LPSCC's Schools and Colleges Program turns out to be all female!

Monica Silva, a senior at Presentation High School, has signed up 20 classmates -- more than the minimum of 15 -- and formed an official Libertarian association at the Catholic all-girls school in Willow Glen. Because the group is not allowed to be affiliated with a political party, "Students for Liberty" was chosen to be its official name. But Monica said they will be engaging in activities which are allied with and helpful to the Libertarian Party. "As an example," she said, "I have arranged for Membership Chair of the LPSCC, Roger Ver, to give talks to all the civics classes at our school during the coming year." No doubt Roger will use this opportunity to register those who will be 18 before the next election.

She said her biggest hurdle in starting the group wasn't finding Libertarians among her classmates, but finding a faculty member to act as sponsor. "In fact, I could have signed up many more girls who would have signed to be helpful, if I hadn't insisted that those signing really believe in the Libertarian principles," Monica said. She had frequently been vocal in advocating Libertarian positions in her class, Peace and Justice, and her teacher, Mrs. Edson, out of respect for Monica's zeal agreed to be the sponsor, although she was a Democrat in college days and is an Independent now.

Asked how she originally became interested in the LP, Monica said

"I learned about the LP from my friend Anthony Gregory (He was recently active in helping the LPSCC and is now with the Libertarian Club at Cal-Berkeley) less than a year ago, and after looking into it decided that it is the party that best fits my philosophy of government. After his interest tended to wane, I pushed him to go to meetings with me and get active. I wanted to start a group the end of last semester, but it was too late. This semester I was determined, and lost no time in lining up a sponsor and getting the other members to sign up."

The Students for Liberty have already conducted their first meeting to set up their organization, administrative procedures, and communications in preparation for future activities. To provide some ideas for activities of the group that would be of value to the LPSCC, your reporter has written a list for Monica on which the LPSCC needs help. The last item may be an exception -- "celebrate your successes." But hopefully, with the help of Monica and her friends and other young people we can get active in the quest for more freedom and less government, we'll begin to have more successes to celebrate.

Give Students The Message

by Jascha Lee
LPSCC Newsletter Chair

Monica Silva has shown the interest high schoolers have in libertarianism, do you want to give them the message? These soon to be registered voters are not going to get this message on TV. Most likely it won't be promulgated by government schools. It's up to us!

One of our most promising growth "vehicles", is the DMV. In trials, we were able to get 1 registration per man hour, the highest rate we've demonstrated in any of our out reach activities. High school age kids often complain of nothing to do. This coupled with their energy and enthusiasm could make them effect booth staffers. Imagine our growth if we had a small army of eager high schoolers staffing DMV booths! But first, we need to get our message out there to tap into that latent libertarianism you've heard this generation ascribed with.

Roger Ver, our Membership Chair, is scheduled to speak at Presentation High civics classes. We have an education expert, Robert Arne, who has volunteered to do presentations to high schools if we can arrange engagements. Do any of you have high school age kids? Would you consider arranging for such a presentation at their school? How about volunteering to give such presentations? Either way, please contact Marv Rudin or Bill Carr. Marv can be reached at (408) 736-5626 or rudin@lpty.org. Bill Carr is at (408) 973-8571 or william_r_carr@yahoo.com

Libertarians Gain Foothold At San Jose State

by Jascha Lee
LPSCC Newsletter Chair

Another milestone for growth has been achieved with the establishment of a Libertarian club at San Jose State University. Joel Johnson has completed the paperwork and corralled four people to form the nucleus of this new group.

I spoke with Joel recently about his activities:

Jascha: "How did you come to join the party?"

Joel: "I worked for a drug policy reform organization on the internet. I knew that there was more wrong with our political culture than our drug policy, and I wanted to extend my thinking on that towards other areas and through research on my own came across the Libertarian Party and almost instantly became a dues paying member."

Jascha: "Tell me a little bit about this group you founded."

Joel: "All last year I wanted to do this and I set up booths on campus, did the quiz, and tried to get people interested but I didn't have much success getting people to register. It's a difficult university, the average age is 27. Everyone who goes here has to work to support themselves while they're in school. It's not like the typical university where everyone is supported by their parents, people just don't have a lot of free time. People are extremely busy so they don't have a lot of time to show interest in stuff. And also by just setting up a booth on campus it was too all encompassing for most people to be interested. I have a feeling that if we pick specific issues that we will get better interest. People don't want to stop and talk politics in general. But if we pick specific issues, be it drugs or guns, we will get a better response. Last spring semester Marv and Bill Carr got behind me and tried to motivate me to try again [to start the club]. So with the help of some friends, I got through the bureaucratic aspect of starting the club."

Jascha: "Are you planning on any activities?"

Joel: "We met just the other day to talk about things we want to do for next semester. We are thinking about some speakers and events. We basically want to do as much as our busy lives allow. We are beginning something right now, an advertising campaign. Our plan is to continuously have flyers and advertising all over campus. We're making flyers right now. This semester the whole plan was to try and recruit some people so I'd have some help, so I created the web page and wrote a little essay to explain what we're about. I was launching the web site the same week as the radio show [Libertarian night on KSJS]. So I did a massive advertising campaign. I put up flyers all over campus, put an ad in the Spartan Daily. I dubbed it the Libertarian Invasion to make it appear like we were all over campus. And through that effort, I got three people who wanted to join."

Jascha: "Do you have regular meetings, or is it still pretty ad hoc?"

Joel: "Ad hoc. We actually had our first meeting just the other day. We're bouncing ideas off of each other. Right now we're buried in papers and we have finals in two weeks. So we're all just scrambling to stay afloat. But we are going to do the flyer idea, because it's something we can do just walking across campus. We're hoping that continuous exposure to the name will help. We plan to kick off next semester with some events."

Jascha: "Such as?"

Joel: "That we don't know yet. We're just talking about it. I think probably we are going to do something about guns. On gun control or something. My hot button issue is drug policy, but we have two people interested in guns. I think we are going to do something like that. We want to pick those hot button issues such that we can get a lot of attention on campus, maybe get in the paper, maybe get lots of people to show interest in it and introduce our position on those things to a lot more people than if we just sat out there with a Libertarian booth. That's our plan."

Joel can be reached at (408) 241-5371 or jwjohnson@netmagic.net. Check out their Web site at http://www.sjsu.edu/orgs/libertarians

Schedule

Annual meeting January 12, 2000

Be sure to attend! 8:00 p.m. at Coco's Restaurant.

Directions To Coco's

Coco's restaurant is located on the corner of Oakmead Parkway and Lawrence Expressway. From 101, take the Lawrence Expressway exit South to Oakmead Parkway.

Libertarian night on KSJS

Don't forget to tune into 90.5 F.M. on December 16th from 5 to 7 p.m. for Libertarian night on KSJS. This is a talk show which features us the third Thursday of each month.

Officers

This newsletter is the publication of the Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County, a non-profit political organization. For further information, call (408) 243-2711. Or see our web page at http://www.sc.ca.lp.org. Do you have something to say, and want it to reach all the Santa Clara county Libertarian members? Submit a newsletter article! lpnews@sebastian.com or 2301 Shibley Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125-4068. We especially appreciate articles related to local Libertarian news or activities.

The Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County Membership Application

Please print out and mail with payment to:

Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County
663 South Bernardo Avenue
PMB 107
Sunnyvale, CA 94087

Please Print

I choose to set my dues at:
$25	Basic	________________
$100	Sustaining	________________
$250	Sponsor	________________
$500	Patron	________________
$1000	Life	________________
Plus an additional contribution to the LPSCC:
$___________	Monthly pledge	________________
$___________	One-time donation	________________
Total:		________________

Payment Method
___________	Check payable to "Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County"
___________	VISA
___________	MasterCard
Credit Card #:	____________________________________
Expiration Date:	____________________________________
Cardholder Name:	____________________________________
Signature:	____________________________________

The Libertarian Party is the party of principle. To assure and affirm that our party never strays from its principles, we request our members to sign the pledge below. (Non-signers cannot vote on party business).

I hereby certify that I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals.

Signature: ______________________________________________