Patrick McKnight,
LP New Jersey candidate running for state Assembly
in the 16th District
Four Libertarians running for state legislature in New Jersey will give voters a choice on Nov. 5 to vote to lower taxes and expand personal freedom.
Patrick McKnight takes on two Republican and two Democratic opponents in the state Assembly race in the 16th District. He wants to use that authority to cut both state and federal government down to size.
“New Jersey was the crossroads of the American Revolution,” McKnight said. “Yet today we are the most overtaxed, over-legislated citizens in the country. We deserve better.”
Pointing out that, today, total New Jersey government debt and liability has reached $282 billion, or $90,000 per family living in the state, McKnight argued that it’s time to stop spending money that the state does not have.
“Our politicians sidestep laws that require legislative approval of deficit spending,” McKnight said. “We must put an end to it.”
As a former history teacher, McKnight aims to take on the public schools, which he said spend the lion’s share of the state budget yet “fail to teach children the necessary skills” to be successful in the modern world.
McKnight supports banning red-light cameras, restoring Second Amendment rights in the state that has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, and eliminating the federal Transportation Security Administration that has a large presence in New Jersey.
“Our families should be able to travel freely without illegal harassment from the TSA,” McKnight said. “The TSA is invasive and indecent. It has no constitutional jurisdiction.”
McKnight recommends fighting the TSA from the New Jersey Assembly by invoking the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, under which states have the right to fight authority that the federal government has unconstitutionally attributed to itself.
McKnight also aims to introduce the Liberty Preservation Act, which nullifies provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 and other federal laws that authorize indefinite detention.
Sean O’Connor, Steven Uccio, and Don DeZarn,
LP New Jersey team running for state Assembly
in the 14th District
Three Libertarian candidates in the 14th District propose to eliminate or drastically cut whole categories of taxes to make New Jersey much friendlier for business.
The team is led by Don DeZarn, a veteran of the War in Afghanistan, who is running for the New Jersey state Senate on the promise of putting the power of government “back where it actually belongs, with the citizens, as our Founding Fathers intended it to be.”
DeZarn called for reducing taxes, as well as eliminating burdensome regulations and bureaucracy that stifle entrepreneurship. He believes that corporate welfare policies that offer incentives to big companies to move to New Jersey are not only bad economics, but also “a slap in the face” to small business owners who must compete with those getting taxpayer-funded subsidies.
DeZarn intends to go after laws that drive up state spending.
“Just like you and me, our government must live within its means,” DeZarn argued. “We simply can’t keep spending money we don’t have. Much of the money our government spends each year is through enforcing needless laws and regulations that hold back our free-enterprise system and severely limit the growth of private businesses, especially small, locally owned ones.”
DeZarn believes that Americans should be free to educate their children as they see fit and marry whom they love. DeZarn has also been an outspoken critic of marijuana prohibition, calling for its repeal.
Sean O’Connor is running for one of the two state Assembly seats in the 14th District. One of his main goals is to lower the tax burden of state residents.
“The top issue in New Jersey is the astronomically high property taxes,” O’Connor noted. “Neither the Republican nor the Democratic candidates have a solution to the problem.”
According to O’Connor, the Libertarian team is offering a four-step plan that will help lower the property tax without increasing any other taxes. The plan provides for a freeze on spending and tax rates by all local governments in the Garden State, eliminating all unfunded mandates that the state imposes on local government, cutting wasteful spending, and consolidation of all local government on the county level.
“New Jersey has the fifth-highest income tax. We also have the highest property tax, and the highest per capita debt in America,” O’Connor said. “It’s no wonder more people left the state of New Jersey last year than any other state.”
Rounding out the 14th District team is Steven Uccio, a staunch advocate for small government, who is running for the second Assembly seat.
“I think I can sum up the Libertarian mindset with three values: personal freedom, personal responsibility, and adherence to the Constitution,” he said. “We want the government to do the most basic of things.”
