According to this story, former Massachusetts Governor William Weld may seek the Libertarian Party vice-presidential nomination, if the party nominates Gary Johnson for President. He was the Republican Governor of Massachusetts 1990-1998.
Weld has a history with the Libertarian Party. In 2006 he was a candidate for Governor of New York. He accepted the Libertarian Party nomination for that office, but he was also seeking the Republican nomination. When he failed to get the Republican nomination for Governor, he then withdrew entirely from the race, and the Libertarian Party had to find a new nominee.
I would not vote for anyone to be on the Libertarian Party’s presidential ticket who jumps in the race this late unless they have a long, verifiable record of being a libertarian activist.
Tom Woods is going to be a speaker at the upcoming LP national convention. If he decided to jump into the race for the presidential or vice presidential nomination, I would probably vote for him. The same would go for Adam Kokesh (if not for the fact that he will not turn 35 until after the new President swears into office in early 2017, therefore disqualifying him from running this time).
I’d vote for late entries from the likes of Wood or Kokesh based on their long, verifiable records as libertarian activists.
How libertarian is William Weld? If the answer is that he is about as libertarian as Bob Barr and Mike Gravel were in 2008, then no thanks.
As the post explains, the New York Libertarian Party nominated him for Governor on April 29, 2006. He accepted, but then he changed his mind and withdrew on June 6, 2006.
Just because he was once nominated by an LP affiliate to be a candidate for the party (which he later declined), it does not mean that he is “libertarian enough” to be a candidate for our party by my standards.
When people at the LP convention hear the phrase “Weld in 2006”, he not going to stand a chance.
William Weld as Governor of Massachusetts balanced the budget without raising taxes, at a time when California Governor Pete Wilson agreed to tax hikes pushed by Democrats. Weld is pro-choice on abortion, supports gay rights, opposes gun control, and signed the nation’s first state-wide medical marijuana bill as Governor. In the 1990s Weld clearly served as a model for the “fiscal conservative, social liberal” brand of limited government libertarian.
In the 1980s and 1990s there were a number of Republicans who combined a commitment to free market policies with social liberalism – Ed Zschau & Tom Campbell in California. Weld in Massachusetts and Gary Johnson in New Mexico. There is no room in Republican politics these days for social liberals, so they might find a home in The Libertarian Party.
For his part, former Congresman Tom Campbell has written an article about Gary Johnson and The Libertarian as an alternative for libertarian Republicans who don’t like Trump
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/libertarian-715844-republicans-trump.html
Unlike Tom Woods, Weld has never been associated with neo-Confederate groups. Unlike Adam Kokesh Weld has never made violent threats against his opponents or government officials.
Sounds good to me.
So Massachusetts must have been a real bastion of liberty, right?
Also, if Weld was really serious about the Libertarian Party, why is he waiting until now to jump in the race?
I will stick with Woods and Kokesh.
Mass happens to be most likely THE most Donkey communist State (for many decades) — even worse than Calif.