Candidate forum

Last night I and several other LP candidates attended a political forum for all candidates hosted by Families for Change, here in Springfield. All three parties were represented by different people in different districts. The web page for this group is www.familiesforchange.com. This group is comprised of concerned citizens that are fed up with the abuses of DFS(department of family services).

The meeting started with a prayer and then on to the introductions. All candidates were invited to participate in this forum, however many didn't show up. There were a few that allowed the moderator to know they couldn't attend the event, the others just blew off this organization of concerned parents.

The introductions seemed destined to pit republicans against democrats in a political bickering contest. Our very own Kevin Craig running in the 7th district against Roy Blunt brought out many failures of the so called conservative legislator.
GREAT JOB Kevin as I believe you woke up a few in attendance.

Many of those in attendance talked about their background and why they decided to run for public office, there were only 3 of us that informed the attendees that we weren't going to continue the bloated government theme.

MediScare was the first topic brought up and I was quite surprised how many in attendance were of the essence that they should be able to rely upon government services for their well being. This topic became a political hot potato(e)(thanks Dan) between the detractors of the two political parties NOW in POWER. The talks of funding cuts of the MediScare program were rampant. All one needs to do is look at the budget for that program over the past decade or two and you won't find any spending cuts. The Democrat hopefuls once again used the tried and true method of scaring our elderly without the facts to back up their claims, but then again the two major political parties have never had to prove anything since they are both destined to have POWER.

We did have one actual current representative on hand and that was Bob Dixon. Bob is a nice enough guy, and it seems his heart is in the right place, but he just like most republicans realize the only way to get re-elected is to bring the bacon back to your own congressional district. This is why many have become addicted to government services.

By the way Bob the states budget isn't balanced, technically you can say it is, however there is a 400 million dollar loan floating around in Jeff City which allowed for you to be able to make that comment last night. Call it a slight of hand, a technicality, or a lie either one you chose would be correct. You can't possibly balance a budget on BORROWED money.

There was one particular person at this event which brought back memories of Hillary to me. Yes he was brash, passionate, and a defender of government programs, but his demeanor will probably cost him the election. The trend of the evening was how some people have helped others since they got involved in the campaign process, I wonder why they don't do that even when they aren't running for political office??

All things being equal I learned much from my first foray into the political world and will use this knowledge to help me when I finally learn who my competition is going to be for the general election.

Vote Libertarian it's the only way to change the government of status quo.

Tom Martz
district 139 candidate