Libertarian Party of Arkansas seeks party status

Alternative political parties in Arkansas are going more than Green.

The Libertarian Party of Arkansas filed 16,144 petitions today with Secretary of State Mark Martin to qualify as a recognized political party in state. Ballot access would allow the Libertarian Party to field candidates from the local to federal levels in 2012.

Martin has 30 days to review the petitions to ensure that at least 10,000 are qualified, registered voters in Arkansas.

Jason Tolbert, with The Tolbert Report, visited with party spokesperson Jessica Paxton.

“It has taken almost a year, nearly $40,000 and thousands of man-hours to get here today,” Paxton said in the Tolbert Report story.” However, without the support of more than 16,000 Arkansans who signed our petition, it would have all been for naught. Arkansans have spoken and they want choice on the ballot, and that’s what the Libertarian Party of Arkansas is giving them.”

Paxton dismissed the notion that the Libertarian Party will take votes away from either Republicans or Democrats saying, “The Left/Right paradigm is misleading and politically flawed.”

She said the party will give voters “the option to select a candidate who represents what it means to support Constitutional limits to federal and state government.”

Rodger Paxton, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Arkansas, said politics has become nothing more than a choice between two parties that continue to fail.

“We put one party in power and then quickly become disgusted. Soon, we put the other party in power and again become disgusted. What will it take to end this cycle? It will take voting for principle, not party,” Rodger Paxton noted.

As an example that Libertarian values are more accepted than some might think, Rodger Paxton pointed to a 2010 Zogby Poll in which 44% of Americans said they were fiscally conservative and socially liberal, “also known as libertarian.”
Jessica Paxton also said the party plans to field candidates from the courthouse to Congress.