Successes

On Monday, February 26th, the Public Safety Committee of the Macon City Council held another hearing on the Young Adult Ban. The meeting was scheduled at 4:00 pm in the afternoon to discourage participation of business owners and college students. Many bar owner, LP activists and college students still managed to take time out of their day to attend the meeting.

Libertarians David Corr (BCLP Chair) and Ashli Axtell spoke against the revised ordinance. Several bar owners and other concerned citizens also spoke out against the Young Adult Ban. After listening to the citizen's objections, the Public Safety Committee voted down the ordinance 3 to 2.

Filomena Mullis still has the right to put the proposal in front of entire City Council so we must continue watching the City Council agendas for the Young Adult Ban.

On Tuesday, January 16, the Macon City Council allowed business leaders and concerned citizens to address them about the recent crime wave. Several Libertarians were present, and David Corr addressed the Council. He presented the council with several recommendations:

2) Off-duty Macon police officers should be allowed to serve as security in establishments which serve alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises. Currently, they are not allowed to do so.

3) He suggested that it is time to look at our current gun laws, especially the Georgia concealed carry laws. Current law would not allow someone to carry a concealed weapon into places like Rio Bravo or Jim Shaws.

No stranger to presenting politically incorrect views to the Macon City Council, Corr's remarks were met the general quiet indifference they provide him. However, the crowd in the chamber reacted very positively to Corr's comments.

Amy Fleeman was covered on Chan 13 news. Great job, Amy! Troy Tarpley added some significant information on the floor. The crowd loved us, and the points we made. Several people expressed interest in the LP. The flyers and 11 of us showing up really helped a lot. Again, thanks everybody.

Great press in the Telegraph this morning. Front & center with big color picture. Good quotes from Jim Baldwin and David Corr. The party was mentioned favorably.

Jim Baldwin had a front page photograph and caption which is not on the internet version of the Telegraph. This caption reads "James Baldwin speaks out against the proposed ordinance at Monday night's hearing. Baldwin called the ordinance 'a rape of our freedom.'

Fox24 and WMAZ-13 both covered the story, but focused on the father-son thing which occurred. It provided an interesting story, but did little to inform the public about reasons to not enact this ordinance. The coverage was not balanced, in my opinion, and no member of the press is challenging the distorted statistics presented last night.

We got the message out! Now we have to wait and see what the Safety Committee does. One new avenue of resolution was opened which Libertarians will have no problem. A possible outcome of this is that bar owners will once again have the ability to hire moonlighting police officers as security officers. Imagine that, a free-market solution to combat an oppressive ordinance.

Good job everybody, and thanks for all of your hard work.

The campaign in Georgia has been an overwhelming success

Harry Browne received over 1.4% of the vote, more than any previous Libertarian Presidential campaign in Georgia, and more than in any other state in the nation for this 2000 campaign. He established a new baseline in Georgia, nearly twice as high as his previous 0.8% of the vote.

In addition to our success with Harry, substantial coattails followed him.

The two Libertarian candidates for Public Service Commissioner, Wayne Parker and Dick Withington, each received over 130,000 votes. This was a distant first of more than three times the vote count required for maintaining ballot access in future state-wide races, including President. This was a burden that rested solely on their candidacy. They also established a new baseline in Georgia, their 6.0% percent of the vote far exceeding the previous best of 4.5% (79,174 votes) in a similar race.

A special award was given to Tony Thompson, of Metter, during the Election Night Gala on November 7th. He was named the Volunteer of the Year by the Browne2000 staff. Thompson was unable to attend the event, but Tracee Avery of Atlanta accepted the award in his place. It will be officially presented to him at the Bibb County Libertarian Party meeting on November 14. Mr. Thompson was also previously named Volunteer of the Week for the week of May 13 to May 19.

Michael Quinn, webmaster of the Middle Georgia Friends of Harry Browne was recognized by the national campaign office as the volunteer of the week.

The Mercer Cluster printed a GREAT front page piece about the Harry Browne event. This was in their special election edition. Also, there were 3 or 4 other appropriate places to list Libertarian party stuff, they got them all. Great press, great coverage, ton's of quotes from Michael Quinn, Bryan Gordon, as well as lesser knowns like Paul MacGregor and Harry Browne. I

Hitting both the official and the underground Mercer papers so well during an election season is awesome. Not only do we influence votes for this election, but we also influence minds for the future.

We had some success with this event. We missed each other at the entrance, but several of us met inside. There were several people from the Middle Georgia Friends of Harry Browne. Deborah Mooney, Amy Fleeman, Dave Whitaker, Brian Thomson, and I were there. Ed Knight was on the opposite side of the room trying to recruit new Libertarians. There was no opportunity to ask questions of Saxby or Charlton Heston.

After the event Brian, Dave & I did a wave and smile in front of the Warner Robins Civic Center. A reporter from the Macon Telegraph noticed us on the way out and interviewed us. He was surprised to hear that we thought the NRA was soft on gun rights. Both Dave & I explained that we are current NRA members considering resigning because they compromise too much on gun rights. Brian mentioned that he is a former NRA member for the same reason. Surprisingly he asked us our opinion on the Bush DUI story. Thanks to everyone that attended.

We were quoted in an article in the Macon Telegraph about the Bush DUI conviction.

Steve Gordon was recognized by the national campaign office as one of the volunteers of the week. Steve worked countless hours to help make the "More than Gore" Rally a success. He also coordinated the formation of the new Libertarian Party of Bibb County. Good Job Steve!