Jeff Cannon Call Jeff Cannon at 336-846-6425 Email: JeffCan542@skybest.com Other: www.lpnc.org Send Contributions and offers to volunteer to: Elect Jeff Cannon 303 Bare Ave West Jefferson, NC 28694

My name is Jeff Cannon, and I am the Libertarian candidate for the NC House of Representatives seat for the district that includes Ashe and Watauga counties. I am a happily married father of two sons, ages 19 and nine. I live in West Jefferson, where I hold down a fulltime job as a computer programmer. I like sports, reading and the simple pleasures of home life. I am not a professional politician.

Why, you may ask, would someone like me, a man who enjoys a settled, peaceful existence, want to involve himself in a thing as time-consuming and treacherous as running for public office? Well, it's quite simple: I want to help bring a fundamental change to the legislature of this state. I want to help create a government in which the two great pillars of Libertarian thought - freedom and individual responsibility - become the primary guide for conducting the business of the people.

A pipe dream, you say. An impossibility? Perhaps...but I see no other choice. The government of this state is wasteful, intrusive and arrogant. It is chained to a massive bureaucracy that siphons off billions of dollars from businesses and private citizens. Its courts are clogged, its prisons are overcrowded, and its schools are failing. And while the good folks in Raleigh experiment with one program after another, the true economic potential of the citizens of North Carolina waits to be tapped.

As your representative, I will do everything in my power to reverse these trends, to return North Carolina to the kind of state its founders envisioned. I will defend your right to protect your property, regardless of whether the threat comes in the form of a burglar with a crowbar or a bureaucrat with a piece of paper. I will work to create a justice system that is sensitive to the needs of victims and will hold criminals financially responsible for their crimes. I will sponsor legislation to simplify sentencing so that murderers and rapists are not released from prison in order to make room for non-violent offenders.

I will fight to end wasteful state-run monopolies such as the Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

And I will support measures that abolish state licensing requirements that prevent thousands of our citizens from finding gainful employment.

If the economy of North Carolina is to thrive in these uncertain times of financial scandal and collapsing markets, we must create a business and work environment that affords the greatest amount of opportunity to the greatest number of people. Fortunately, creating such an environment is simple: tell the state to get out of the way and let individuals, families and businesses work the way they are supposed to.

Our state government should have faith in the natural creativity and energy of the people of North Carolina. But it does not. Sadly, Raleigh's faith lies in bureaucrats, taxation and the status quo. Even with the state budget drowning in red ink, we have yet to hear a single voice calling for restraint and discipline. Real solutions that will benefit real people are tossed aside without so much as a thought. Well, it's time to make a change. That's why I am asking for the people of Ashe and Watauga counties to vote for me, a Libertarian, for the NC House of Representatives.

In closing, I would like to offer a word to those of you that belong to either the the Democrat or Republican parties. Asking you to vote for a Libertarian is not a request I make lightly. I was a Republican for years. In fact, most of my family are active in Republican politics. So I know it is difficult to move away from long-held traditions. But I also know that the time has come to put aside the big money and special interests that dominate both parties and return America to its original ideals.

The United States did not become the most powerful country in the world by clinging to the past. Its greatness did not come from blindly following the party line. Our state and our nation are great because our forefathers had the courage to embrace freedom while the rest of the world cowered behind the walls of tyranny and monarchies. It is time we renewed our dedication to this most fundamental of American values. Freedom must be our guide, the star by which we steer; if it is not, we will surely find ourselves lost, chasing a lesser light toward a deadly shoal. This November, let those in power know that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are still issues to be reckoned with. Vote Libertarian, and let the revolution begin.

Again, I thank you for your support.

Sincerely,
Jeff Cannon