Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Petersen.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Libertarians strongly oppose any government interference in their personal, family, and business decisions. Essentially, we believe all Americans should be free to live their lives and pursue their interests as they see fit as long as they do no harm to another.
Founded in 1971, we run many hundreds of candidates every election cycle. These candidates seek positions ranging from City Council to President of the United States. Each of these candidates helps to give liberty a voice.
I have been a libertarian philosophically since my late teens, but only got involved in politics around 2007. Since 2008, I have served as the Dallas County Chair for the Libertarian Party.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ballot access has often been a challenge for the Libertarian Party. Election laws vary from state to state, but the Republican and Democrat parties behave like established dominant players do in any industry, working to erect barriers to entry that prevent new upstarts from challenging their position. We have to achieve a certain degree of success in terms of statewide votes cast each election in order to automatically be able to place our candidates on the ballot. If those levels are not achieved, we have to engage in difficult, time-consuming petition drives to collect a large number of signatures to be allowed to place our candidates on the ballot.
Please tell us about Libertarian Party of Dallas County.
As a political party, our primary objective is to recruit and run good candidates who can get elected and affect policy in a manner consistent with our goals and objectives. However, we also have lots of fun social events and get involved in various community projects and activities.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My family lived for a couple of years in Petersburg, Illinois. I was in 4th through 6th grade at that time. There was a Dairy Queen nearby, and my older brother and sister would walk there, cutting through on a driveway that went through the local high school. It’s kind of hard to describe but it made essentially a short tunnel we would walk through.
Upon our return, without fail the family cat Rascal would be waiting in the middle of the tunnel, demanding his lowly subjects pay tribute in the form of a finger full of ice cream from each of us. Such carefree, simple times!
Contact Info:
- Website: lpdallas.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dallaslibertarians/
- Other: www.meetup.com/dallaslibertarians
NCPA (with Allen West) host Glenn Greenwald (author of book “No Place to Hide”; Edward Snowden story) for the Hatton W. Sumners Distinguished Lecture Series at the Omni Mandalay Bay Hotel in Irving, Texas on April 3, 2016
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