Roberto Leibman: Libertarian for California State Senate, District 1

As a libertarian, there are some issues that seem "out there", very different from the mainstream political ideas you hear about. Some of these are more practical than others, but I strongly believe that they would help us make a better state/country. If elected, I promise to encourage public discourse of the following:

• Instant Runoff Voting. It turns out that mathematically there are much better ways to run an election than the current system. Our current system is not very democratic, and it encourages people to vote for the "lesser of two evils" instead of voting for their prefered candidate. Instant Runoff allows one to vote for the person one likes best, knowing that the lesser evil candidate still has a chance.
• Adding a third house to the legislature. This is an idea I've been musing over lately. Legislative houses are supposed to represent different interests. It seems to me that we should have a separate house that represents taxpayers, with votes cast proportionally to the taxes one pays. I'd make this house in charge of the actual spending, leaving the other houses their current regulatory tasks. I still dislike taxes, but if we are to have them, I'd rather have more of a say in how they get spent.
• Automatic sunset of all laws / metrics accountability. All new laws should expire automatically unless renewed. All laws should require metrics of success, with automatic expiration if their intended effect is not materialized. I also propose that each law fully considers possible side-effects and a full "negative branch" analysis.
• Constitutional ammendment to protect all suprluses. Making sure all surpluses are returned to the people (with some exceptions for maintaining a cushion for emergencies, but full refunds if the cushion is full)
• Constitutional ammendment to tie government growth to increases in population. Making sure we stop making the problem worse.
• Independent Commission to oversee district formation. Making sure that jerrymandering for the purpose of protecting incumbents can no longer happen (perhaps putting this task into my third house of legislature?)
• Restrictions on the creation of new laws so that unrelated "piggy back" legislation cannot be introduced
• Make Esperanto the official language of California.... just kidding!