BURNET, Texas (April 12) – Potential Libertarian presidential candidate R. Lee Wrights donated $250 to the Arkansas Libertarian Party ballot access fund, fulfilling the promise he made when he first began his exploratory campaign. Wrights said that he was committed to insuring that the Libertarian message would be heard in all 50 states in 2012. He pledged to donate 10 percent of donations to state ballot access.
“There can’t be anything more important to any political party than ballot access,” Wrights told the party’s state convention Saturday. “Americans cannot vote for liberty and freedom if Libertarians are not on the ballot. Republicans and Democrats have proven to us they are not going to give that to us, in fact, they are going to take more from us at every opportunity.”
Thomas Hill, Wrights 2012 campaign manager, presented the donation to Rodger Paxton, the Arkansas LP state chair. “I’m very proud to be in this room with committed and dedicated Arkansas libertarians who are willing to do the hard work necessary so the residents of Arkansas can have the libertarian option come election day,” Hill said.
Hill told delegates that Arkansas is the first party to get an installment from the campaign and they were looking forward to helping other state parties.
Arkansas Libertarians have 90 days to collect at least 10,000 verified signatures from registered voters. They began the ballot access drive March 29. Arkansas is the only state where the Libertarian Party has never placed a candidate on the ballot for a partisan race other than president. State law only requires 1,000 verified signatures for a presidential candidate.
In order to retain ballot access and bypass the signature-gathering process for the 2014 election, the 2012 Libertarian candidate for president will have to get at least three percent of the vote.
R. Lee Wrights, 52, a libertarian writer and political activist, is considering seeking the presidential nomination because he believes the Libertarian message in 2012 must be a loud, clear and unequivocal call to stop all war. To that end he has pledged that 10 percent of all donations to his campaign will be spent for ballot access so that the stop all war message can be heard in all 50 states. Wrights is a lifetime member of the Libertarian Party and co-founder and editor of of the free speech online magazine Liberty For All. Born in Winston-Salem, N.C., he now lives and works in Texas.
WRIGHTS 2012 EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE
http://www.wrights2012.com
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