Vice President nominee shares insights and ideals

Post date: Oct 28, 2016 4:11:18 PM

Governor William Weld addresses an audience member regarding

criminal justice reform. Photo by Tanner VanSickle

During the 2016 general election, everyone has become aware of the two major party candidates and their running mates. Below the two major party tickets are third party tickets.

Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka, the Green Party nominees for president and vice president of the United States, will not be on all fifty state ballots this November, including the S.D. ballot. However, Libertarian nominees for president and vice president of the United States, former governors, Gary Johnson and William “Bill” Weld, will be on all fifty state ballots.

After not reaching the polling requirement to be included in either the presidential or vice presidential Debates, the Libertarian Party ticket has taken a grassroots approach in order to win over voters. Weld, recently stopped in Spearfish, S.D. for a Q&A session with community members at Black Hills State University (BHSU). He was expected to address issues and go over qualifications for Vice-President of the United States.

Former S.D. State Senator Stan Adelstein introduced the candidate in the Club Buzz room at BHSU. Adelstein said that the Libertarian ticket could win South Dakota “if everyone listens to their message.”

More than 100 students, faculty and community members were on hand for the event. Weld first addressed the crowd, approving of Adelstein’s message and noting that the Libertarian ticket is polling “well into the 20th percentile” in S.D.

Weld began his hour-long talk by giving a short biographical summary of his political career, first touching on his work in a Boston law firm with Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Watergate case that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. After his work in Boston, Weld became a United States Attorney for the district of M.A.

Weld also noted that President Ronald Reagan had invited him to become head of Criminal Investigation of the Department of Justice, but Weld denied the honor. He then ran for and won the office of Governor of Massachusetts with a 50.01% majority of the vote in what he said was “fluke of an election.”

Weld summarized his work ethic with a quote by Thomas Jefferson, the “government which governs best is [the] government which governs least.”

While serving as a fiscally conservative governor, cutting taxes a total of 21 times between two terms, Weld was also “inclusive” in regards to social policy. After serving two terms as governor, Weld addressed his Senate race against now-Secretary of State John Kerry as a blowout, losing 80-20.

After remaining relatively under the radar in politics for over 10 years, Weld recalled being asked by Gary Johnson to run “as a team” on the 2016 Libertarian Party ticket. Weld appealed to S.D. voters, sharing that his running mate spent some of his childhood being raised in Aberdeen, S.D.

After spending the first half of the event giving biographical information, Weld tackled questions and issues proposed by voters. The first issue raised was education. Weld prefaced his response by saying he did not support Common Core standards. He then went into more detail on his plan, noting that he believes in the disbanding of the Department of Education on a national level and that education “should be left to the states.”

One of the more discussed topic areas was criminal justice reform. An audience member raised concern over Weld’s belief in the privatization of prisons, but Weld responded and said he is “a big proponent of privatization.”

Elaborating on his stance, Weld said privatization can help solve the problem of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. Weld addressed the topic of drugs by saying “[we are] not going to go ‘hog-wild’ on decriminalization.”

On tax policy, Weld says he is in favor of a flat consumption-tax rate of 23%, noting that he believes this is the most “fair” for middle class citizens.

Regarding the issue of agriculture, Weld said he believes that “food sovereignty” is important to a free market and believes citizens don’t have to have food options run by corporations. Rather, they could go “straight to the source” for food.

On the topic of social security, Weld said he believed raising the retirement age would help to preserve social security for future generations, noting that he is “not willing to cut the social security program.”

Weld wrapped up the event by noting that his ticket is “socially liberal,” but there is “still a place in the campaign for socially conservative voters,” he said.