Sharon Blanding leads the Libertarian Party of Comal County, Texas. Ms Blanding is recruiting members and scouting for candidates to run for office. She became a Libertarian while studying engineering at the University of California/San Diego and after exploring novelist Ayn Rand and her Objectivism, a movement based on individualism and self-reliance. A one time stock broker and writer, Sharon Blanding now lives in Fischer. She owns and manages properties and refits interiors. 

Why do people join the party? For Ms Blanding two flash point issues are welfare costs and crimes with victims. She also believes that Libertarian policies best fight corporate welfare and government waste. Libertarians know how, too, to deliver world-class education. 

Sharon Blanding’s party sees the Federal Government as our worst environmental polluter. Libertarians argue that social security must offer investment choices.They know vow to lift all willing Americans out of poverty and they start by abolishing anti-entrepreneurial regulations.  Americans deserve both safe, affordable health care and lower taxes. Libertarian Party foreign policy dismantles barriers to trade and only reluctantly and selectively intervenes in foreign quarrels.

Still small compared with Democrats and Republicans, the National and Texas Libertarian Parties (LPs) help form America’s third largest political organization. They are strongly supported both from headquarters in Washington, DC and Austin. A $25  fee buys membership in both National and State LPs. 

In the November 2002 elections, LP candidates ran in all 50 states, receiving nearly 12 million  of nearly 371 million votes for state-wide and local offices. That was 3.16% of votes cast. In Texas, Libertarians contested 131 elections. Nationwide more than 300 Libertarians now hold  office. A typical winner is twenty-something Bruce White, elected to the city council of Kent, Washington with 59% of the vote. 

A recent Texas Libertarian candidate for the Legislature, Michael Badnarik, an Austin-based computer business consultant and candidate for President of the USA, came to New Braunfels February 19th to help launch the Libertarian Party of Comal County. 

At that meeting, Rick McGinnis from Austin, introduced Sharon Blanding as the appointed Chairman pro tempore of the Comal County Libertarian party. The audience was small, fewer than a dozen people. But all the local attendees were from around Canyon Lake. In a telephone interview, Ms Blanding saw this start as a mandate to pay special attention to Canyon Lake. She will organize local meetings with an eye to electing permanent party officers, educating the public and finding strong Libertarian Party candidates for coming elections. 

Great movements start small. Jesus began with disciples like Andrew who recruited his brother Simon (John 1:40-42). Someone else invited a prominent Whig politician in Illinois named Abraham Lincoln to join the new anti-slavery Republican Party. The Libertarian Party of Comal County is also starting small but in a mood to win.

Sharon Blanding’s first Comal County recruits look forward to a TUesday March 11th follow-up during a 6:00 p.m. supper at Luby’s Restaurant in San Marcos. They will meet the elected Chairman of the National Libertarian Party, Geoffrey Neale who lives in Austin. They will create Central Texas Libertarians--an alliance of party faithful from Caldwell, Comal, Hays and Guadalupe Counties. People wishing more information should phone Sharon Blanding at 830-935-3065 or email sharonb@moment.net.

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For Canyon Lake, Texas TIMES-GUARDIAN

Canyon Lake, TX 02/26/2003