Robert Sarvis announces bid for Warner’s Senate seat

[TaftFan]

http://www.roanoke.com/news/politics/article_cc5a4ce2-8959-11e3-a074-001a4bcf6878.html

Gee I wonder if he will win this time.

[Lucille]

http://reason.com/blog/2014/05/14/brian-doherty-on-robert-sarvis-libertari


Robert Sarvis made the biggest splash for the Libertarian Party in many years with his surprising 6.6 percent—nearly 145,000 votes—total in 2013's Virginia gubernatorial race. The former tech entrepreneur and lawyer did this even while making Republicans angry that he was allegedly stealing votes from their man Ken Cuccinelli, dodging bogus accusations of being a secret Democratic Party plant, and annoying some of the Libertarian hardcore by answering questions about health care by taking about policies that stymied competition rather than just repeating "repeal Medicare!"

Sarvis is trying politics again, running for U.S. Senate in Virginia, in a race likely to include incumbent Democrat Mark Warner, vying for his second Senate term, and Republican Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee (RNC) chair and consummate insider. (Gillespie does not yet have the nomination, which doesn't come officially until a state Republican convention in June, but seems to have it locked.)

Sarvis, who tells me he won't be working any other jobs for the duration of the campaign, is a calm, rational guy, not given to the emotionally charged side of the small government message. This served him well in the statewide race; we'll see how it plays in a Senate race that might get more national attention. It is telling that he treats "rational" and "freedom-centric" as synonymous. True, but does it play at the voting booth? We'll find out in November. Reason Senior Editor Brian Doherty interviewed Sarvis by phone last week.

Reason: Running for office again—why are you putting yourself through this?

Robert Sarvis: The same thing that motivated me last year. I see policy being pretty abysmal and see both Republicans and Democrats not at all moving toward more rational policies, more freedom-centric policies. The front runner in the Republican race and the Democratic incumbent are not going to change their offerings, so I just felt the opportunity was here to build on the momentum from last year and reach more people with a message of freedom in economic and personal lives.

Reason: What's the story with your major party opponents?

Sarvis: Mark Warner, he's a former governor and completing his first term. He's pretty much been a big government guy, going along with all Obama's major spending programs and new programs. As governor he was responsible for a very large tax increase in 2004 and as senator he's been behind all expansions of government.

The Republican likely is Ed Gillespie. He is basically a big government lifelong Washington GOP insider, a former RNC chair, a former lobbyist on behalf of large companies. He was a subordinate in the George W. Bush administration, was big on Romney's campaign. He's the status quo in the GOP.
[...]
Reason: How will you deal with liberty-minded Republicans worrying that your presence or vote totals might harm the Republicans' chances of regaining a Senate majority?

Sarvis: I think last year's results are fairly clear: I probably brought to the polls a lot more people that if I hadn't been there would have voted for the Democrat than the Republican. This whole "stealing votes" issue gives me an opportunity to bring up things like instant runoff voting and range voting.

I think that liberty-leaning Republicans have no reason to invest in another big government Republican. Similarly on the Democratic side, people in favor of getting rid of corporate welfare and cronyism, if they want real drug policy reform, immigration liberalization, they should vote for me.

If the Senate is up for grabs, looks close to 50-50, that increases the importance of looking outside the two-party system. I'm just gonna make the argument that we are one out of 100 senators and what difference would it make sending another Republican or another Democrat? The way to make the biggest difference is to send a Libertarian. That immediately changes the game.

Lots more

[fisharmor]

Well, if the Republican is a dirtbag prosecutor who wants to create felons out of married couples for non-missionary sex, then Sarvis will probably be a spoiler again.

[jkob]

Virginia Democrats must love Robert Sarvis

[eduardo89]

Well, if the Republican is a dirtbag prosecutor who wants to create felons out of married couples for non-missionary sex, then Sarvis will probably be a spoiler again.

1) No one wanted to do that.
2) Even if someone wanted to, sodomy laws have never banned 'non-missionary' sex.

[RandallFan]

Ed Gillespie and Karl Rove still have to fight the people who ousted Cantor's Cobb at the convention.

[Keith and stuff]

http://reason.com/blog/2014/05/14/brian-doherty-on-robert-sarvis-libertari
Sarvis: Mark Warner, he's a former governor and completing his first term. He's pretty much been a big government guy, going along with all Obama's major spending programs and new programs. As governor he was responsible for a very large tax increase in 2004 and as senator he's been behind all expansions of government.

In all fairness, the tax increase Mark Warner (D) called for as governor was much smaller than the one that some Republicans wanted, and smaller than what eventually passed.

After more than 100 days of a bitter legislative session, Virginia lawmakers on April 28 approved a two-year budget totaling $60 billion. The budget includes a record tax increase of $1.6 billion, nearly 38 percent higher than what Governor Mark Warner (D) had originally sought from the Republican-controlled legislature.
http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2004/06/01/virginia-passes-16-billion-tax-hike-voters-may-not-forget

Of course, since Mark Warner (D) campaigned on not increasing taxes, any major tax increase proposed by him (and passing) after he got elected, is a big problem. Then again, the tax increased just championed by VA Republicans is about as large :(

Robert Sarvis has a point. Both the Democrats and Republicans in VA have been working overtime to pass tax increases. Of course, it is expensive to expand highways and commuter trains so tax increases aren't unexpected.