Libertarian Rob Hodgkinson, 2018 candidate for Kansas Secretary of State
Rob Hodgkinson, former chair of the Kansas Libertarian Party, was featured on WIBW radio’s News Now program, discussing his 2018 candidacy for Kansas secretary of state.
From the written synopsis of the March 27 interview, “Minor party status gives Secretary of State candidate unique perspective,” by WIBW news director Nick Gosnell:
Libertarian Kansas Secretary of State candidate Rob Hodgkinson believes he is uniquely qualified to run that office because of his minor-party status.
“I’ve been doing election things for many, many years, especially as a third party, minor party,” said Hodgkinson. “When I was elected state chair originally back in 2005, I had to learn all the rules. Nobody really knew what happens with small parties or independents. I dug into that, went crazy. I’m probably one of the two people in the state that know those rules as good as I do. The other person knows because I drove him crazy asking him questions.”
Hodgkinson sees the elections functions of the office as a three-legged stool.
“You’ve got the candidate side, we need that part of it,” said Hodgkinson. “We’ve got the voter registration side and then we’ve got the actually show up and participate and vote side.”
Hodgkinson sees the candidate side as lacking under current Secretary of State Kris Kobach, but he also sees it getting better in some ways this time around.
“We just don’t have enough candidates,” said Hodgkinson. “We’re going to get lucky this year in 2018 in that we’re going to have the normal Republican, we’re going to have the normal Democrat running for Governor. There’s two Independents filed the last I saw. Plus, you’re going to have a Libertarian more than likely. We’re going to have for the first time in Kansas in this regard, at least five choices, and then we have the Party of the Center out there trying to get a petition signed in their thing. We might actually have six candidates for Governor and that’s wonderful. That will help tone down the animosity that we see in elections today. The more candidates you have, the less you’re going to be able to pick on one guy.”
Hodgkinson also thinks it would be great to have the person appointing election commissioners in the state’s largest counties not be someone who is tied to one of the major parties.
“If you need to settle a dispute between either/or, you need to settle a dispute between Republican or Democrat, who better than somebody in the middle, like me, a Libertarian? That’s somebody that can actually be neutral.”
Kansas’s primary election will be held on August 7. There will be no incumbent running in the general election on Nov. 6, 2018.
Learn more about Hodgkinson’s campaign at Rob4Kansas.com.
Click here to listen to the full interview.
