Candidate for
State Representative; District 93; Republican Party

My Education: I attended Susquehannock High School in Glen Rock, PA and graduated Cum Laude in 2003. After graduating from high school I attended Brigham Young University in 2004 and am currently a student at Penn State.

My Philosophy: I have been a registered Republican since I turned 18 and I will be running as a Republican in the upcoming election. My views are probably closer to what people might consider Libertarian or Independent, but the way the game works today a candidate almost has to run from one of the two major parties in order to get any coverage. It is unfortunate, but that's the way it works.

My platform is pretty basic. It starts out with the idea that all power is inherent in the people...in other words, government has no authority to act unless it is given that authority by the consent of the people. And the only power that you, I, or anyone else has is the power to protect our lives, liberties and properties. So the only authority that we can delegate to our government is the authority to protect our lives, liberties and properties. It's that simple. That's the intent that the Founding Fathers had when they set up our system of government. The peoples' rights were to be closely guarded and protected so that no entity, foreign or domestic, could infringe upon them.

With that in mind, it should be pretty clear that the majority of the laws that our government passes (both federal and state) and the programs that our government runs are unconstitutional because they actually infringe upon the rights of the people. I call this the "nanny state"...we have become dependent upon our government to keep us fed, keep money in our banks, keep people from doing "risky" things. And our government does all these things by taxing us, by borrowing money from other countries, and worst of all by simply creating new money. I am running for office because people need to be made aware of these problems, and because people need to wake up and realize that if things keep going the way that they are we are going to be in for a world of hurt. Our state is already teetering on the edge of insolvency...we rack of huge debts, our legislators fight about budgets that never really fix the problem, and the people are kept in the dark so that they think things are fine. They're not.

I want to eliminate our debt. I want to cut the strings that the federal government ties to all of the money they give to us. I want to put an end to the "nanny state". I want to get rid of corrupt politicians and replace them with representatives and officials who will actually do what our government was intended to do + again, to protect the lives, liberties and properties of the citizens. That's it.

What makes a good candidate? I think a good candidate has an understanding of the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, particularly the bills of rights that both include. How can we expect our representatives to govern well if they aren't even familiar with the rules? I think a good candidate needs to be disconnected from special interest groups and lobbyists who just want to buy their way into power. I think a good candidate has that sort of integrity that is required to say "NO" when people look for kickbacks and backroom deals.

As far as "book smarts" go, I think a good candidate needs to be well versed in the history of our country. I have studied the works of the Founding Fathers and the people who inspired them like Bastiat and Montesquieu, Locke, Smith, etc. I have studied the Austrian economics that were talked about by men like Murray Rothbard, Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, and Dr. Ron Paul. And I am currently taking courses through Penn State that will help me to get a job once I am done in politics...I hope to continue studying psychology and history so that I can teach some day when I've done my time in government.

Virtue is equally important. People should look for honest and wise representatives. I hope to be that sort of person who can look his constituents in the eye and tell them that I am doing my best to keep them free and prosperous.