On Wednesday, April 20, 42nd State Senate Candidate Mark Rauterkus spoke to the Allegheny County Libertarians at Carnegie Mellon University.
Rauterkus gave a joint interview with Libertarian Party Chair, Tim Crowley, on third party politics. Rauterkus agreed with Mr. Crowley’s assertion that new parties are important for citizens, particularly because they expand the opportunities and choices of voters. Strengthening democracy is a priority for Rauterkus, demonstrated by his position on the elimination of the undemocratic institution of authorities and the merger of the city and county park system to ultimately allow for more citizen participation in their management.
Rauterkus presented an update on the campaign for the open seat in the PA Senate. Coro Fellow, Tim Aldinger, 29, joined the campaign this past week on a fulltime basis. Coro fellows are working on various electoral elements within the fellowship curriculum. Tim’s first campaign experience presents interesting insights for learning the unique pressures of third party candidates. Furthermore, joining Rauterkus given his past professional background as a journalist and publisher of a small-press imprint, gives other rich advantages for real-world learning and experiences. Aldinger is to focus on media outreach.
Rauterkus also spoke on the material development of the campaign, in the form of buttons, sticker-signs and CDs (both audio and multimedia). Hands to help create of these materials is greatly appreciated. Mark's slogan to invite others is, "Some assembly required."
New flyers for the campaign were distributed by campaign supporters and Libertarian party members. Both four-panel and a six-panel handouts are hitting the streets. Rauterkus departed early to attend a community meeting in East Carnegie.
Campaign Manager Katrina Brabham was in attendance at the event and briefly spoke on the finances of the campaign and the need for financial contributions. The meeting members then decided to donate some party money to the PAC in order to further help Libertarian candidates in the area.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Allegheny County Libertarian Meeting
Tim, the new media relations campaign worker, wrote the following. He'll be posting to the blog shortly.
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Meeting Minutes - LPPGH (JMC) April 2005 Board Meeting
April 20, 2005
LPPGH Chair, Tim Crowley, called the April 2005 meeting to
order at 7:30 PM. Four board members were in attendance.
Mark Crowley took the minutes in the absence of the
Secretary.
Mark Crowley read the minutes of the March meeting and they
were approved without objection.
Rich Loether provided the Treasurer's report in which he
said the LPPGH balance is $1,066.
Tim Crowley provided a brief Chair report. He thanked the
CMU Libertarian Club for hosting this month's LPPGH meeting.
He also introduced Jeff Maxwell, a local high school
student, who recorded a video-interview with Mark Rauterkus
and Tim Crowley before the start of the meeting as part of a
school project on third parties.
Tim Crowley led the Outreach report. Mark Rauterkus said
that the Johnsmith concert, an event tied to Mark's State
Senate campaign, was a success. Besides being a campaign
event, it helped to promote the local LP.
Dave Eckhardt (CMU) and Dave Powell (Pitt) provided College
Libertarian reports for their respective institutions. On
4/20/2005 the CMU Libertarians sponsored a showing of the
movie "Grass" about the war on marijuana. On 4/21/2005 they
are also hosting a speaker from Pennsylvanians for the Fair
Tax organization. Pitt Libertarians are currently focusing
on registering for the Pitt Activities Fair. They are also
considering sponsoring another movie. Harold Kyriazi also
mentioned that Stephen Zarlenga (author of "The Lost Science
of Money" and founder of the American Monetary Institute)
will be speaking at Pitt on Saturday, May 7th from noon to 2
PM in Posvar Hall.
Mark Rauterkus provided a Candidate report. On his state
senate campaign, Mark listed several recent and upcoming
campaign speaking engagements, media events and debates that
are important to the campaign. Mark asked for support in
terms of both financial contributions and time
contributions. Immediate needs are for literature
preparation and distribution along with supporters and party
members to accompany him to events. He and his staff are
planning a post-election party sometime in mid-May.
In addition, Tim Crowley noted that Mark Rauterkus recruited
Robert Olbensky to run for Sala Udin's Pittsburgh City
Council seat. Also, Randall Forester will run for school
board in Armstrong County and will consider a run for county
commissioner there next year.
Tim Crowley provided a Technology report. He mentioned that
the PghLibertarians YahooGroup has an underutilized files
area that can be used for storage of campaign materials and
other documents. This could become a "reference library"
for the LPPGH.
Harold Kyriazi provided a SW PA Liberty PAC report. The PAC
has $695 and will be assisting the Rauterkus campaign and
other local libertarian campaigns. There was some
discussion about the LPPGH contributing to the Rauterkus
campaign directly, but after discussion the preference was
to contribute to the PAC and let it distribute to the active
campaigns. To that end, Rich Loether made a motion for the
LPPGH "to allocate up to $400 [to the SW PA Liberty PAC] for
support of local libertarian campaigns." This passed
without objection.
Dave Powell moved to adjourn the meeting at 8:35 PM and that
passed without objection.
Submitted by Mark Crowley
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