For Immediate Release
Governor Candidate Bill Gelineau Files Petitions for First Statewide Libertarian Primary Ever
March 9, 2018
CONTACT: Libertarian Party of Michigan Political Director Greg Stempfle, (313) 929-1789, or Libertarian Party of Michigan Chair Bill Hall, (616) 460-9516
Link to the April Michigan Libertarian.
Lansing, MI – On March 8, 2018, Grand Rapids businessman Bill Gelineau became the first candidate for governor to file petition signatures to qualify for the first ever Libertarian Party primary election. The Gelineau campaign delivered 2,456 pages containing 21,187 signatures to the Bureau of Elections. 15,000 signatures of registered voters are required to qualify for the ballot. The Gelineau campaign is confident they comfortably met that threshold.
The Libertarian Party qualified as a “primary” party, eligible to nominate its candidates at the August 7 primary election just like the Democrats and Republicans, because 2016 Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson polled 172,136 votes in Michigan. Gelineau is the first non-Democrat or Republican to qualify for a gubernatorial party primary in almost 50 years, and only the second since 1932. Two other candidates have announced their intention to seek the Libertarian gubernatorial nomination. One of them, John Tatar, a retired US Army Reserve Lt. Colonel and school teacher from Redford, reports he has collected more than 10,000 petition signatures, and expects to file his petitions to get on the ballot by the April 24 deadline. That would set up a race for the Libertarian Party nomination for Governor, to be decided August 7.
Candidates have already filed to run in the Libertarian Party primary for Congress, State Senate, State Representative and Precinct Delegate, and many more are expected.
Unlike Democrats and Republicans, Libertarians support personal freedom and responsibility in both economic and social matters. Libertarians believe people should have the freedom to follow their own dreams in their own ways without government interference. That translates into support for cutting government spending, lower taxes, deregulation, free trade, gun rights, social tolerance and protecting personal privacy and civil liberties.
To learn more about Bill Gelineau, go to www.ComeTogetherMichigan.org. To learn more about the Libertarian Party of Michigan, visit www.michiganlp.org.
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Link to the April Michigan Libertarian.
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