Dear Voter,
Here's My Record in Serving You:

Sparks Charter Committee
From 1990-1992, I was a member of the Sparks Charter Committee. I was appointed by City Councilman Ernest Walker.

I am proudest of two things I stood for on that Committee:

1. The first was to oppose the effort by local judges, and especially one Judge Don Gladstone, to amend the Charter to mandate that only licensed attorneys could be Justices of the Peace in Sparks. The “honorable” judge felt it was beneath his dignity to have to run against ordinary citizens for election, and was particularly disturbed to have a former prostitute from a nearby brothel run against him. Fortunately, I did not have to fight this one alone, and there was sufficient support from others that the measure was defeated. Judge Gladstone was later defeated by the good voters in Sparks, after a series of his rulings against poor defendants resulted in costly lawsuits against the City of Sparks.

2. I also fought a futile battle to have the Charter amended to take away some of the language that allowed for the City to license all businesses. As a Libertarian, I do not believe that Government licenses are constitutional, unless the license is to operate a business that is a danger to the community. Like a dynamite factory, or maybe to practice law. Seems like most government types like the money that a business license fee brings in to City coffers, and free enterprise be damned.

 

Contest of Elections, 1992-1994
I filed Contests of Elections against my opponent, Jan Evans (D), for the Assembly Dist. 30 Seat she won in 1992, and 1994. My reason was that she was a state employee, and therefore by ARTICLE 3 SEC 1 of the NEVADA CONSTITUTION, the Separation of Powers Clause, she was not eligible to serve in the Legislature.

In the first Contest, I was never notified of the hearing on the issue. I protested that to the Nevada Supreme Court, who turned down my request for another hearing, even though the Legislative Council Bureau (LCB) admitted they violated due process.

So, I re-filed the contest after the 1994 election. This time, they had to give me a hearing. And my contest occurred when the Assembly was divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats. My contest was in the news because it barred Ms Evans, then Assembly Speaker pro tem, from serving on committees that would divide the power between the two socialist parties.  A young black Republican Assemblyman, Thomas Batten, had been forced by the Democrat Attorney General, Frankie Sue Del Pappa, to resign his employment on the gaming control board because of the Separation of Powers. He appeared at my hearing, and we talked the railroad trench job going down against me. The Assembly sat Ms Evans, and she kept her job as a fund-raiser for the UNR School of Medicine.

I then attacked her employment by filing suit in Nevada District Court, Connie Steinheim presiding. She used the old ruling by the Nevada Supreme Court denying my petition for a Writ of Mandamus to force the legislature to give me a fair hearing in 1992 (against me). Her reliance on that brief, one page ruling was certainly ironic, since the LCB used case law against me that had ruled that a Writ of Mandamus cannot decide a title to office!  I had fought the issue for six years, and not once had the 'powers to be' given a clear response as to why the state employees should be allowed to keep their jobs and serve in the legislature! The failure of the Nevada courts to address the issue in a meaningful way is one of several failures and errors to abide by constitutional principles in recent years. (Please see the website: www.NPRI.org.)

Citizen's Initiative to the Rescue!   This year, 2004, ten years later, the issue is a 'cause celebre' in Nevada. There is a citizen’s initiative forbidding state workers in the Legislature, and the new Attorney General, Brian Sandoval, has brought the issue back to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Some of the very participants in the hearing who pontificated against me are now the objects of federal investigations and have been forced to resign their government jobs.

Speaker of the Assembly and possible gubernatorial candidate Richard Perkins (D-Henderson) comes to mind. At my hearing, he stated “The constitution was alright for Washington and Jefferson, but it really doesn’t apply today.”  Richard Perkins doesn't think the Constituiton applies today and he wants to become governor?

I hope these new tactics are successful. I am glad that I fought the fight a decade earlier.

 

Tax Limitation Initiatives.
I have supported several tax limitation initiatives:

1. In 1992, the Libertarian Party of Nevada tried to repeal the Business Activity Tax (Bat Tax). Time ruled against us and we were short by a few thousand signatures of getting it on the ballot.  

2. In 1994, The Sparks Libertarian Club succeeded in getting the STOP Tax Limitation Petition on the Sparks Ballot. It would have required a super majority of voters to approve new tax and fee increases.  I gathered the most signatures on the initiative. However, we were outspent 10-1 by opponents, and the measure was defeated. 

 

Nevadans for a Sound Government
This year, the Libertarian Party is part of the coalition called Nevadans for Sound Government, and supports the “AXE the TAX” initiative to roll back the taxes passed unconstitutionally by the 2002 legislature.

 

Sparks Citizen Advisory Board:
I served on the Sparks Citizen Advisory Board from 2000 to 2003. I voted against raising taxes on several occasions.

 

Ballot Questions.
I was on the Sparks Ballot Advisory Committee that wrote the negative advisory for the voters on Public Safety (S1 and S2) Tax Overrides for police and fire. Both were defeated.  

I served that same year on the Washoe County Ballot Advisory Committee that opposed the bonded indebtedness for a lavish new downtown courthouse. It too was defeated.

 

Individual  Rights:

1. I filed the Washoe County Question 9 petition in 2002 to decriminalize up to three ounces of marijuana in Nevada, and other related measures. It was defeated at the polls. 

2. I am currently active in the Nevada Campaign to Defeat the Patriot Act, and have spoken at rallies and to service groups against the Patriot Act.

 

With Liberty and Justice for All Television:

Probably the best thing I have done for Our Liberty has been to organize and produce the television show “With Liberty and Justice for All”, hosted by Dennis Grover, a real American patriot.

"With Liberty and Justice for All" has presented the ideas and struggles of all of the diverse community of citizens who believe in freedom, prosperity and peace through limited government. Watch it on Channel 16, Charter Cable Public Access, click here to download a list of titles and order some for home viewing.

Yours For Liberty,
Brendan