Party of One

At work with Michigan's "marginal" power broker

Jesse Walker from the December 1994 issue

(Page 2 of 2)

In the general election, Sparks endorsed Kaza's Democratic opponent, who proceeded to run a very negative campaign ("Kaza styled himself 'a libertarian.' The Libertarian Party's national platform calls for..."). Kaza stuck to his strategy of door-to-door campaigning and won with 65 percent of the vote.

Kaza still goes door-to-door, dropping off personalized invitations for constituents to call him -- at home, if they'd like -- with problems related to state government. He spends most of his working hours dealing with mundane constituent problems, such as trouble getting tax returns and permits.

For the immediate future, Kaza's agenda is filled with open-government issues such as giving citizens the right to vote on lawmakers' pay raises; getting "none of the above" on the ballot; abolishing political slush funds; putting the legislative process on- line; and having the legislature operate part-time. One of Kaza's highest priorities revolves around the restructuring of the Department of Natural Resources, Michigan's environmental protection agency. Engler has eliminated many of the department's public commissions, and Kaza, aided by several liberal Democrats, is fighting to ensure the remaining administrative processes are covered by the Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act.

Such populist measures are enormously popular right now and Kaza believes that the country is at a watershed in electoral politics, especially with the passing of term limits. "The days of political smoke-filled back rooms and power brokers and party machines electing people to office -- that whole reactionary system -- are gone because of term limits."

Perhaps. But how replicable is even Kaza's limited success? Few states, with or without term limits, have legislatures split between the major parties, with the extraordinary swing- vote power that situation brings. The spectacle of largely impotent libertarian-oriented legislators in New Hampshire and other states suggests that Kaza's successes may owe as much to luck as to pluck.

The young lawmaker prefers optimism. Kaza believes that more mavericks, more independents, and more libertarians will be elected. "We're the future," he says.

Comments

nfl jerseys|11.17.10 @ 2:46AM|#

cthth

log in or register to reply

منتدى العرب|3.9.11 @ 8:36PM|#

Thank you

log in or register to reply