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Libertarian’s ‘Realistic’ View
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Libertarian’s ‘Realistic’ View
By
Shannon Snow
Oct.
7, 2004
Mike
Laursen wanted to start his political career right. The 43-year
old Mountain View resident wanted to run for a small office,
perhaps city council, and work his way up the political ranks.
But his career received an unexpected jump-start last March,
when John Webster, a perennial Libertarian Party candidate
who has been convicted of a sex crime, showed a lead in the
party's primary for the state Senate District 13 nomination.
In an act Laursen described as "damage control" for
the party, he entered the race. He beat Webster by four votes,
285 to 281.
Now
on the ballot alongside Republican Shane Patrick Connolly
and heavily favored Democrat Elaine Alquist, Laursen must
answer the question: What next? Speaking by phone from the
office where he works as a software engineer, Laursen takes
a realistic view of his campaign. He doesn't expect to win
the seat, now filled by Democrat John Vasconcellos, who has
served in the Senate eight of his 38 years in the legislature
and is retiring because of term limits.
"I
am an unknown quantity," said Laursen, who has been
a Libertarian since age 18. He said he is "doing
his best to run a real campaign."
Laursen,
a Redondo Beach, Calif., native who moved to Santa Clara
County in 1991, has largely focused his platform on local
control of the school system.
"Imagine
you are a parent," said Laursen, who is unmarried and
has no children. "You don't like something and you want
change, so you go to the local school board." While
they may listen to your concern, he continued, "they
can't do what you say because of the federal and state systems."
Laursen
says he wants to leave school money at the local level and
eliminate what he calls the "pot system" -- predetermined
pots of money allocated for certain spending by the state,
often causing administrators to play accounting games to
get the funds they need.
The
candidate's views are part of his larger scheme of fiscal
responsibility for the state.
"Lots
of programs lose control over their spending," said
Laursen, adding that state programs need to do a better job
of keeping track of where their money goes.
In
some cases, they never had it. According to Laursen, unfunded
state mandates to the local level as a large part of the
problem.
"Governor
Schwarzenegger has been addressing some of this," Laursen
said. He later added, "Fiscal responsibility is
something that every candidate talks about. What matters
is whether you mean it or not."
Despite
meshing with the popular governor on certain fiscal issues,
Laursen's platform may be a tough sell for voters in the
heavily Democratic district, who are unaccustomed to the
Libertarian mix of economic conservatism and social liberalism. He
supports reducing taxes for businesses and opening borders
to immigrants. He supports a free market economy and also
California's Proposition 66, which would liberalize the Three
Strikes law. He is pro-choice, pro-civil marriage, and pro-medical
marijuana.
Laursen
was asked if he plans to use the election, which he concedes
he has little chance of winning, as a way of publicizing
his issues? Is he hoping, as a Libertarian, to push for a
multiparty system?
"Either
way," said Laursen. "If we can push major parties
towards more liberal economic freedoms, that's great." And
if his candidacy can help strengthen the Libertarian Party
in the future, "That's great too."
Laursen
recently finished shooting a three-minute campaign video
on Mountain View cable access (KMVT Channel 15), which will
run Monday through Friday, Oct. 18 to Nov. 2.
Contact Shannon Snow at ssnow@stanford.edu
