Garrett Hayes in the Southern Poly Newspaper

Posted by Doug Craig at 10/3/2006 10:48 AM
Categories: campaigns

This is an interview I got for our candidate where I went to college. All I did was call and ask for it.


What about the Libertarians?
Written by Jonathan Meek
Published on Thursday, September 28, 2006

Once you saw the words “Libertarian Party”, you probably wondered why the editor wasted good column space for an article about a third party. They don’t win elections anyway…Well, while that may be the case for the most elections, I would not count out the Gubernatorial Libertarian Party Candidate, Mr. Garrett Hayes. According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, Mr. Hayes is polling at 8.1 percent, which drops both Perdue and Taylor below 50 percent. This in turns means if the elections were held today, then Perdue and Taylor would have a runoff election. However, in my interview with Mr. Hayes, he believes this is the starting point of it all.

“We’ve lit the spark on voter discontent, and it can only burn brighter from here. Remember Jesse Ventura? He was only polling about 10 % before the debates in 1998, and went on to win the Minnesota Governor’s mansion. Our debates are still to come, so you’d better keep watching..”—quote from Mr. Hayes campaign website.

The first item of business for my interview was the HOPE scholarship, and his plans for the future of it. Mr. Hayes says that the HOPE scholarship is a great idea and has worked well for Georgia. However, he would like to see a qualifying exam for the scholarship program as seen in other states in order to curb the chances of “grade inflation” by high school teachers.

When asked about how to retain current teachers and recruit new teachers, he believes that the school systems should have open enrollment under the condition that the school has the resources to effectively teach the child, along with a completely open voucher system, which would allow any parent to use the funds for their child’s education and put into any school they so desire. He said, “The decision should be in the hands of the parents, not the politicians”.

After education, we moved right along with the economy. Mr. Hayes believes that the key to more jobs here in Georgia is the abolishment of the state income tax. “With the removal of the state income tax, small businesses, which make up 70-80% of the businesses in Georgia, will be able to thrive. It will take our economy from humming to zooming… Get government out of the way” was his response to me. To be honest, I was not sure about that idea, so I asked him how the government would handle such a loss in revenue. He responded that the government would need to decrease spending in order to handle this loss in revenue. He said, “We need to look at the revenues first, then decide what to spend it on….Government has been doing it backwards for a long time.”

Of course, economy lead into personal finance, which he said he was in favor of a credit freeze. After you get the amount of credit you want, you can close your account so no unauthorized person can gain access to your credit and use your identity. Mr. Hayes said that he believes this because it our money belongs to us, not the banks, not the government, it belongs to us.

As further protection for consumers, he believes that lawsuits should have a “loser-pays” clause. For example, if someone sues a corporation, puts up $10,000 into the lawsuit and loses, then the “loser” should be responsible to pay up to $10,000 for bringing up the lawsuit. This would help deter people from filing bogus lawsuits and driving the price up for a certain product because businesses pass on the increased cost to the consumers.

Mr. Hayes was quite an interesting man to interview, and to be honest, I am going to keep up with this election to see how he does. Who knows… Mr. Hayes might be on the same track as Ventura was in 1998… Only time and our votes will determine that one.

 

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