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On Saturday afternoon, August 9, Bob Newland
announced his intention to seek the Libertarian nomination for
Governor of South Dakota. The setting was the stage at the Buffalo
Chip Campground, near Sturgis, with about 40 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
enthusiasts out front.
Newland, 49, said "It's appropriate for me to choose this time and
place to formally announce my plans. I edit a magazine for the Rally;
government is out of control; and the Buffalo Chip Campground has
been the subject of nearly-countless arbitrary whimsical acts of
government mischief and terror."
Residing near Hermosa, Newland has been the editor of the Buffalo
Chip Gazette, a well-known publication centering on the Sturgis
Rally, since its initial publication in 1987. He pled guilty to being
a "public nuisance" in 1989, after a flap concerning photographic
content. "It is a title," he says, "which I wear with a certain
amount of pride."
The Libertarian Party gained ballot status in South Dakota in 1992,
the result of a petition drive. In order to maintain its ballot
status, the LP of South Dakota must field a candidate for governor in
every gubernatorial election, and the candidate must poll at least
2.5% of the vote. In the party's first ballot status retention test
in 1994, Nathan Barton of Rapid City gained about 4.5% in the race
which returned Bill Janklow to office.
Newland said he was announcing a few weeks before he had anticipated
doing so, but was prompted by his observations of law enforcement
activities at the Rally. "I've seen disgusting and unnecessary
treatment of visitors to and residents of the Black Hills during the
Rally," he said. "I've heard countless horror stories. My favorites
at the moment are the two people who spent the night in the Sturgis
jail for having items dangling from their rear-view mirrors--in one
case a crucifix, in the other, a smaller-than-normal handicapped
tag.
"These officers are out of control," Newland said. "But, remember,
they're sticklers for procedure, and they do nothing without being
told to. Therefore, their intolerable rudeness to and contempt for
the people they are 'serving and protecting' is obviously a matter of
official policy.
"What's this all about?" Newland asked. "It's about using
unconstitutional laws to generate revenue for the state," he
answered. "The government passes dumb laws, such as those
criminalizing hemp possession, then asks law enforcement to enforce
them. This increases the danger to law enforcement officers, who then
resort to extreme measures in an attempt to ensure officer
safety.
"It's no wonder these cops are nervous," Newland said, "They're asked
to do an impossible job--far beyond protecting and serving, it's more
like looting and pillaging--and they have to bear the initial effects
of some folks' anger."
Newland, who was raised on a ranch northwest of Belle Fourche, then
got into the substance of his, and presumably the Libertarian
Party's, platform for the upcoming campaign.
"When a politician asks for my vote," Newland said, "I put him or her
to a short litmus test. If he or she won't trust me--or you--to
intoxicate ourselves responsibly until and unless we prove we can't,
why should we trust him or her with the best intoxicant in the
world--power?
"If that man or woman who wants my vote won't trust me--or you--to
responsibly choose and purchase weapons of self-defense for us and
our families, without signing a single piece of paper or producing a
single document, then that prospective senator or governor is not
my--nor your--friend no matter whatever else he or she says. Why
should we trust that person with all the guns?
"It is a sign of profound mental illness to attempt to control the
lives of peaceful honest people. With the evidence of failure and
evil plain to anyone who looks, government continues to pursue a
stupid, dishonest, counterproductive and illegal so-called 'war on
drugs'.
"Government, mentally ill to begin with, has become drug-addicted,
arresting people at the rate of one every 54 seconds for possessing
or selling hemp, or often, simply considering it. It seizes the
property of innocent citizens then makes them prove their property
had no part in the commission of an often non-existent violation. I
am not making this up.
"Like all mentally ill drug addicts, government is naturally
paranoid. Politicians do whatever they can to protect their sorry
butts by trying to take our firearms from us, telling us it's for our
own good. The whole cycle is so ludicrous, it sounds like the stuff
of a bad movie. But the 1.2 million people in jail for non-violent
drug offenses aren't funny. The millions of dollars stolen by the
state from innocent people is not a laughing matter. The huge cost to
you and me in taxes, reflected in the price of everything we buy,
doesn't lend itself to a chuckle.
"South Dakota has a drug-addicted governor, who refuses to obey the
state law which bans the smoking of drugs in the Capitol. It is the
ultimate irony that Governor Janklow wants to up the ante, to make
possession of any amount of hemp a felony. That won't do much for
officer safety, so it will result in another round of government
incursion into our rights to protect ourselves from tyranny, whether
from a mugger or from a jack-booted brownshirt.
"Therefore, here are some promises," Newland said. "I shall take the
oath of office as soon as is legally possible after I am elected
governor. We can't afford another minute of control by either the
Republican or Democrat wing of the big government party.
"Within ten minutes after I take the oath, I shall sign a pardon for
everyone ever convicted in South Dakota of a non-violent drug
offense. I shall order the state law enforcement agencies and state's
attorneys to quit wasting their time on this foolishness, and to not
aid federal agents in their pursuit of possession or sale. Starting
from South Dakota, that will effectively end the so-called 'war on
drugs.'
"Within an hour after taking the oath, I shall convene a meeting with
all sheriffs and state's attorneys and tell them to arrest and
prosecute Internal Revenue Officers when they illegally, under the
color of authority, attempt to enforce non-existent laws. That is to
say, whenever an IRS agent does anything 'official' he or she is
breaking the law. I suspect we'll expand on that during the campaign,
but I can document what I say.
"The next order of business will be a meeting with the Highway Patrol
brass. They will be given a directive: Within one year, the South
Dakota Highway Patrol will be known as the most polite police force
in the nation. That will both improve its effectiveness and enhance
officer safety.
"I shall then begin lining up legislators to repeal at least half the
laws in South Dakota. All laws which do not deal with the protection
of citizens from those who would do them harm should go.
"In line with that, I shall promote a Fully-Informed Jury Amendment
to the constitution of South Dakota. That act shall read, 'Any party
to a trial to which the government is a party shall have the option
of informing the jury that it is the judge of both the facts in the
case and the law or its application in the case at hand.'
"I suspect that there's some other stuff to do if you're governor,
but my intention is nothing less than to restore the blessings of the
Bill of Rights to the citizens of South Dakota."
With that, Newland thanked the crowd and walked offstage to the roar
of several motorcycles. Those who wish may contact Newland through
his campaign committee--"The Governor Wears No Clothes"--at HC 89 Box
184-A, Hermosa SD 57744. Phone or Fax 605-255-4032. Email
newland@rapidcity.com.
