CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A candidate for U.S. Senate in West Virginia says he believes the Senate has room for at least one Libertarian.
“If we had much less government and more freedom, I think our society would be better off personally and, I think, we’d be more prosperous economically,” said John Buckley who wants the job.
He’s one of five candidates running for the U.S. Senate seat U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) currently holds.
Buckley, who is from Mathias in Hardy County, was a guest on Tuesday’s MetroNews “Talkline” as part of series of interviews with the statewide candidates ahead of the Nov. 4 general election.
“Our party believes in limited government,” he said. “The motto of our state, ‘Montani Semper Liberi,’ well, that word ‘liberi’ means free, Mountaineers are always free, and that’s what our party means — Libertarians favor a free society.”
He’s traveling the state with a “Live and Let Live” message that covers all issues from the 2nd Amendment to the reach of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
“Why do we have a system in this country where federal agencies, even beyond EPA, have final rule-making authority? It seems to me if they have agency expertise they should propose regulatory solutions, but those solutions should then have to go to the Congress,” he said.
Buckley, a retired lawyer, spent years working in various administrative roles within the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that included chief of staff and senior law clerk to the chief judge and acting clerk of the court.
He’s also worked with the American Conservative Union, the National Tax Limitation Committee, the Cato Institute, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University’s School of Law and spent time as national chairman of Young Americans for Freedom, a conservative youth organization.
“In a free society, people who are different can learn to get along so well if we just have a ‘Live and Let Live’ culture and attitude and laws and that’s what I believe in,” Buckley said.
The other candidates running for U.S. Senate in West Virginia are Republican 2nd District Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Democratic Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, Bob Henry Baber with the Mountain Party and Phil Hudok with the Constitution Party.
Currently, there are no Libertarians in the U.S. Senate nor in the U.S. House of Representatives. Davy Jones from Martinsburg is running for Congress as a Libertarian in West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District.