By Buddy Nevins, BrowardBeat.com, for SouthFloridaReporter.com, June 29, 2015 – Veteran political consultant Roger Stone’s Libertarian campaign for U. S. Senate is slowly getting underway.
Stone opened an exploratory committee (below) in Hallandale Beach earlier this month.
Stone was a well-known Republican operative and political trickster since the Watergate era. He also had a key role in the 2012 campaign of Broward Sheriff Scott Israel.
In recent years, Stone decided the GOP was on the wrong path and became a Libertarian.
Libertarian candidacies are a long-shot — to say the least. Libertarian candidate for governor Adrian Wyllie received 223,386 votes or 3.8 percent last year.
While Stone is campaigning for U. S. Senate, he will also be peddling his latest books. The author of The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ and Nixon’s Secrets: The Rise, Fall and Untold Truth about the President, Watergate, and the Pardon, he has a book about Hillary Clinton out September 1 followed by a book about Jeb Bush.
Stone made the following announcement last month:
“I want to thank the many Libertarians, liberty-minded Republicans and not a few progressives who have urged me to seek the Libertarian nomination for the U. S. Senate in 2016. As many of you know I considered running for Governor and decided that a intra-party contest would drain resources the eventual nominee would need in the general election. I am proud to have endorsed and voted for Adrian Wyllie and celebrate the fact that our nominee while underfunded worked very hard got a quarter of a million votes.
I have a book which will be the definitive expose on the Clintons in book stores Sept 1. I have a contract for a book which exposes the Bushs to publish Jan 2. The Clintons and Bushs and their parties represent the exact same pro-war, pro-debt, pro-spending, pro-spying, big government policies. If the Republican nominee is Ron Desantis and the Democratic nominee is Patrick Murphy, this will also be true of them. I would love to debate them. In truth they are identical.
I believe I could be an effective candidate for the Libertarian Party in 2016. I will adhere to whatever rules and screen process the party sets. I will campaign in every part of the state. I believe I could raise substantial funds. I know how to get press coverage.
I would run on a liberty message. I favor the repeal of the NDAA and the Patriot Act. I would reclassify marijuana and then legalize it. I would end the failed expensive war on drugs. I would oppose sending more troops to the middle east. I am not an isolationist, but I am a non-interventionist.
I will outline my own odyssey from being a Goldwater Republican and former Young Republican National Chairman and aide to two Presidents to being disgruntled Republican to being a proud member of the LP. I also am proud of my role as a Senior Adviser to Gov. Gary Johnson in our effort to get on the ballot in 48 states and our legal efforts to get the LP nominee into the Presidential debates.
Let me make clear my affection for my ex-boss President Nixon is personal and not ideological. My book on Nixon makes this clear .I have written and spoken as a critic of closing the gold window, the war on drugs and the expansion of government.
I am under contract to finish two books and will become a formal candidate later in the process. In the mean time I have asked Jo Ann Vaccarino and Alex Vidal to head an Exploratory Committee to begin planning the campaign. I will authorize this committee with the Federal Election Commission immediately
I look forward to seeing many of you in June. Live Free !”
