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Senate campaign of Libertarian Robert Sarvis has a strong connection to the Roanoke Valley. Caleb Coulter (Cole-ter) is a Roanoke native who has been active in Republican politics. Last year, he sought the gop nomination for the 11th district seat in the House of Delegates. But recently, he left the gop and signed on as manager of the Sarvis campaign. Caleb Coulter/Sarvis Campaign Manager: i was attempting to be a part of a change for the better for the Republican party, that i think they could use if they want to stay valid in today's politics, and there's a lot of resistance to that change. And i think I'm a lot more comfortable with the Libertarian party. Sarvis is making his second run for statewide office in the last two years. Coming up at six, Political reporter Joe Dashiell will profile his Senate campaign.

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Former Roanoke Republican now serving as Sarvis campaign manager

OF YOUR SCREEN THERE. NO WORD YET ON WHY THE DRIVER WAS ON THE RUN. Janine Stanwood: ALMOST EVERYONE KNOWS RICK SCOTT AND CHARLIE CRIST ARE RUNNING TO GOVERNOR BUT DID YOU KNOW THERE'S A THIRD CANDIDATE IN THE RACE. HIS NAME IS ADRIAN WILY AND HE'S RUNNING AS A LIBERTARIAN. HE RECENTLY CAME TO LOCAL10 ON AND SAT DOWN WITH OUR SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER MICHAEL PUTNEY. I AM VEHEMENTLY OPPOSED TO COMMON CORE. COMMON CORE IS THE FEDERAL TAKE OVER OFF OUR LOCAL EDUCATION. Reporter: HE PULLS NO PUNCHES. HE DOESN'T THINK MUCH OF HIS MAINSTREAM OPPONENTS, REPUBLICAN RICK SCOTT AND DEMOCRAT CHERYL CRIST OR OF THE WAY BUSINESS IS DONE IN TALLAHASSEE. IT'S REALLY GOTTEN TO THE POINT IN THIS STATE WHERE IT SEEMS THAT WE HAVE A POLITICAL CLASS THAT IS NO LONGER INTERESTED IN TRULY WHAT THE PEOPLE ARE INTERESTED IN. Reporter: WILE SCOTT AND CRIST ARE INDISTINGUISHABLE POLITICAL, AND HE SAYS BOTH PUT SPECIAL INTERESTS ABOVE THE PUBLIC INTEREST. I'MA CONSTITUTIONALIST. I BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE HAVE INALIENABLE RIGHTS AND SHOULD BE LEFT TO LIVE THEIR LIVES AS THEY SEE FIT SO LONG AS THEY'RE NOT HARMING ANYONE ELSE. Reporter: WILY IS 44 YEARS OLD, MARRIED, THE FATHER OF TWO SONS. HE RUNS A SMALL I.T. COMPANY IN PALM HARBOR ON FLORIDA'S WEST COAST. THIS IS HIS FIRST TRY AT PUBLIC OFFICE. WHAT IS A LIBERTARIAN? HOW DO YOU DEFINE IT? YOU KNOW, I DEFINE IT AS SOMEONE WHO BELIEVES IN ECONOMIC FREEDOM, HAVE YOU HAD LIBERTY AND THAT GOVERNMENT SHOULD BASICALLY STAY OUT OF WALLETS, OUT OF OUR BEDROOM, AND OUT OF OUR BUSINESS. Reporter: THAT MEANS HE SUPPORTS SAME-SEX MARRIAGE, OPPOSED THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS LIKE SCHOOL CHOICE AND VOUCHERS, AND OPPOSED TO EXPANSION OF MEDICAID. SOME VOTERS LIKE WILY'S MESSAGE. IN A RECENT QUINN PEA AC POLL HE WAS FAVORED BY 9% OF FLORIDA VOTERS. THAT WAS REALLY A NONE OF THE ABOVE VOTE THAT PEOPLE SIMPLY COULDN'T STOMACH EITHER CHARLIE CRIST OR RICK SCOTT. I THINK I'M ABSOLUTELY AN NONE OF THE ABOVE VOTE BECAUSE PEOPLE REALIZE THAT THE TWO NAMES ABOVE ME ON THE BALLOT ARE MORE OF THE SAME. Reporter: WILE IS DEFINITELY NOT MORE OF THE SAME. HIS CHALLENGE, HOWEVER, IS GETTING HIS MESSAGE OUT WITH A CAMPAIGN BUDGET OF LESS THAN $100,000.

Read more:
Adrian Wyllie runs for Florida governor as Libertarian

If you watch Fox News and then MSNBC cover racial issues, you can see clearly that conversations between progressives and conservatives about race frequently bog down. This happens because each side is unwilling to vary how they present their argument, thus stifling true dialogue.

In the eyes of progressives, conservatives are too quick to blame the victim by laying the problems facing black communities at the feet of blacks themselves.

For their part, conservatives see progressive concerns with the structural problems that lead to racial disparity as attacks on an economic system that conservatives believe has done a great deal of good for all, including persons of color. They also see the progressive agenda as expanding the power of government in ways they disagree with.

Both retreat to their corners, with progressives rejecting the blame-the-victim mentality and conservatives thinking that structural racism is code for ignorantly rejecting markets.

There is a way around this unwillingness to engage. Two recent events have pointed out how. The events in Ferguson have brought out libertarian voices like Rand Paul who have long argued that the militarization of local police forces have disproportionately harmed people of color, especially in the enforcement of the War on Drugs.

Author Matt Ridley on the media backlash and Twitter outrage over his op-ed Whatever Happened to Global Warming? Photo credit: Getty Images.

As the tragedy in Missouri continues, libertarian-leaning Rep. Paul Ryan has introduced a new anti-poverty program that includes a focus on the ways in which government intervention in labor markets has worked to make it much harder for poor Americans, especially ones of color, to move up the income ladder.

What both share is a belief that racial disparities need not be the result of direct person-to-person racism or the failings of minority communities. Rather, it is structural racism at work, and it concerns both libertarians and progressives, and it should concern conservatives.

When mostly white local police forces get military gear and supplies for SWAT teams and then use them to prosecute a War on Drugs that is far more likely to target black than white users, you have structural racism.

When mostly white politicians, often at the behest of mostly white businesspeople, pass occupational licensure and zoning laws that raise the cost of entering occupations or engaging in home-based businesses that are particularly attractive to non-whites, you have structural racism.

Excerpt from:
Outside the Box: How libertarians can bridge the political divide over race

Teresa Ellsworth. (Submitted photo) (Picasa 3.0)

LONDONDERRY -- Teresa Ellsworth, a Londonderry resident who mounted a Progressive Party run for state representative in the Aug. 26 primary, died Sunday.

The cause of Ellsworth's death was not clear, but Vermont State Police -- as is standard procedure -- investigated Ellsworth's death and found nothing suspicious.

Progressive Party leaders on Wednesday noted the loss of an enthusiastic candidate who had expressed an interest in furthering some of the organization's key ideals.

"We were all shocked and saddened to hear about Teresa's passing," said Kelly Mangan, elections director of the Vermont Progressive Party. "She was passionate about social justice, and she believed that we can make the world a better place."

State Rep. Chris Pearson, a Burlington lawmaker who is the House Progressive Caucus leader, expressed "my sadness and deep condolences for her family."

Ellsworth ran as a Progressive for the Windham-Bennington-Windsor state House District, which consists of the towns of Jamaica, Londonderry, Stratton, Weston and Winhall.

She was a former New York state resident who had relocated to Vermont with her husband. Ellsworth had run for tax collector in a New York town, but this was her first political campaign in Vermont.

In an interview with the Reformer before last month's primary, Ellsworth said she was "very interested in politics."

"I've spent some time in Montpelier with the Progressive Party," she said.

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Progressives note death of state House candidate

There is nothing progressive about red ink.

This year, progressives will run on strengthening the economic recovery, reducing inequality, improving college affordability, promoting broad-based wage growth and making sure the most vulnerable among us are well cared for. And if we want all these to happen, we also need to campaign on fixing the national debt not as budget scolds but as the wing of the party that connects how growing debt is incompatible with the American dream.

The national debt is currently higher than it has been at any time since World War II and is on pace to continue growing faster than the economy. Yet, when confronted with this reality, many in my party deny that this is a problem and point to the declining deficit. They ignore the Congressional Budget Offices projections that the deficit will begin to rise again and the fact that the short-term deficit and long-term debt are not interrelated. They also associate any discussion of the debt with calls for gutting welfare programs, slashing entitlements and imposing needless austerity.

As progressives, we should fight against these alleged solutions, but that does not give us the right to ignore the problem. A growing national debt can have real and profound effects on the lives of ordinary Americans. High debt levels can hobble economic growth by stifling job-generating investments and slowing wage growth. Meanwhile, debt can increase the cost of living on working families by driving up the interest rates on everything from mortgages to student loans to credit card debt. High debt levels can reduce the availability of affordable loans for first homes or small businesses.

The precise impact of higher debt levels is somewhat uncertain but far from abstract. According to the Congressional Budget Office, wages two decades from now would be more than 10 percent lower if debt is on an upward path relative to the economy, compared to a downward path. In todays dollars, thats a $330,000 per person wage cut for someone who works 40 years beginning today. Similarly, just a 0.3 point swing in the interest rate could lead a family with a $300,000 mortgage to pay an additional $20,000 in interest.

The very wealthy can bear these costs. But for ordinary Americans, that could be the difference between getting ahead and treading water or even falling further behind.

And if the direct impact of the debt werent enough, it is increasingly impairing the governments ability to be a positive force in peoples lives.

Each year, more and more of the federal budget is going toward interest payments, leaving less room for important investments in energy, education, infrastructure, low-income support and basic research. Between 2013 and 2024, interest payments will quadruple from $220 billion to nearly $880 billion. And only a few years later, 100 percent of the revenue the government collects will go toward interest payments and mandatory spending instead of spending to promote economic opportunity and improve prosperity for the next generation.

Sensible reforms that close unneeded tax breaks and better target our health and retirement programs could make room for these important public investments. Instead, our leaders have kicked the debt down the road through discretionary spending cuts and indiscriminant sequestrations, which just make a bad situation worse and represent exactly the kind of austerity we need to avoid. Progressives can protect and strengthen our most important programs only if we show the other side that were willing to make room for these priorities in the budget.

As someone who has spent years focusing on policies to promote economic development and urban renewal across the income spectrum, especially during my time as mayor of Philadelphia and governor of Pennsylvania, I know first-hand how critically important these issues are to the well-being of families, communities and the broader economy. The United States should not accept the situation where incomes for middle-class Americans have grown far slower than the overall economy in recent decades. Economic mobility has always been central to the American dream.

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Column: Progressives Should Get Serious About Cutting Nations Debt