Libertarian Party to Open Campaign HQ

3/6/00
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Tim O'Brien
313) 562-5778

DEARBORN. The Libertarian Party of Michigan will open a state campaign headquarters in Hazel Park next month for the duration of the 2000 election season, according to state chair, Stacy Van Oast.

"We have simply grown too big," Van Oast said, "to try and coordinate races across the entire state without any kind of central office."

The LPM expects to nominate more than 150 candidates for public office to appear on the ballot under the party banner next November.

In addition to our presidential candidate [to be nominated at LP's national convention in California next summer] we will be contesting all U.S. Congressional seats, as well as all of the state-wide races," Van Oast continued, "including U.S. Senate, Sate Board of Education, and all the university boards."

The LPM's last candidate for U.S. Senate, Jon Coon, got nearly 5% of the vote -- drawing hundreds of volunteers and coordinating his campaign from a headquarters in nearby Madison Heights. Michael Corliss, the leading contender for the LPM nomination in the senate race this year has said he hopes to run as active a campaign as his predecessor.

"In addition," the LPM chair said, "we will be contesting more than half the state rep seats and fielding candidates for numerous county and local offices.

"We want to be able to make available literature, yard signs, and general campaign support for all of our candidates. And it only makes sense to have a central location from which all of our activities can be coordinated.

"We're also going to want a place where we can do get-out-the-vote phone banking," she added.

"After seeing the results Jon Coon was able to get by spending a few dollars to have a campaign office -- and considering that our membership has doubled again since then -- we decided that it was the cost-effective thing to do."

Ms. Van Oast said that the new Hazel Park location would simply be a campaign headquarters through the election with the party offices remaining at their present location in Dearborn. However, the LP's executive committee is considering the possibility of moving to the location permanently, if the party does as well as expected next November.