State House 58th District candidate

State House 58th District candidate
W. Dale Murphy

Oct. 19, 2000

By Tom Vaughan
Mancos Times Editor


	W. DALE MURPHY

W. Dale Murphy doesn’t back away from issues. Nor is he a "win-at-all-costs" candidate. He says he believes his Republican opponent for the 58th District House seat, Kay Alexander, has such strong Libertarian leanings that he promises, "If she’ll switch (to the Libertarian Party), I’ll drop out!"

There is no Democratic Party candidate for this seat.

Murphy, 46, lives in Paonia with his wife, Sheryl, and their two children. He has undergraduate degrees from Oral Roberts University and the University of Oklahoma and a master’s in geology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

After 14 years working as a petroleum geologist, Murphy and his family moved to the Western Slope. He now homeschools the children and takes care of the house while his wife has a day job.

Murphy says he is "running against the out-of-control federal government." He was a Republican until George Bush’s "read my lips" promise.

"It appeared to represent a commitment to smaller government," Murphy says, "He broke it."

He is a Libertarian because, "The Republicans and Democrats are ossified parties of the status quo: Big Government."

"The roots of our governmental and social ills," Murphy claims, are the results of ignoring the Ninth and Tenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In a telephone interview, he specifically cited Medicare, Social Security, other federal health-care programs, and foreign involvements as not authorized under the Tenth Amendment’s reservation of rights to the states.

Murphy says education is "a very strong issue" in the district he seeks to represent in the Colorado Legislature.

"They’re throwing money at systems that don’t work," he claimed, saying he prefers instead the "interest-driven approach" in use in the Delta’s School District 50. He believes District 50’s "vision approach," which annually provides each student with $2,000 credit to invest in mentors, self-paced instruction, software, etc., will be the model of the future for Colorado.

He also commented on:

Canyon of the Ancients National Monument: "It’s not been on my radar screen." As a Libertarian, he would favor encouraging volunteer donations and involving private groups to accomplish conservation goals.
Tourism: Murphy acknowledged the area has "had a tough year with fires." As a Libertarian, he believes "people should band together as a private effort" to promote tourism; he believes people in La Junta and Lamar should not be paying to promote tourism in the Four Corners.
Transportation and telecommunication infrastructure: Murphy said he was "not aware of the problem," and would study it if elected. In principle, he said he favors private solutions and opposes public funding for transportation.

Murphy takes a traditional Libertarian stance on the ballot issues facing Coloradoans, opting for less government control in all aspects of citizens’ lives.

Of Amendment 20 (medical use of marijuana), Murphy said, "I’m for it," noting the legalization of drugs is a high-profile Libertarian Party stance.

He said he initially supported Amendment 21 (tax cuts), but backed off because it was poorly conceived. "I support it in principle, but not this version," he said. Murphy would support a tax-cut measure that was based on percentages rather than flat dollar amounts.

Decriminalizing drugs is an underlying issue for Murphy when he talks about crime in America. "We need to control people, not guns," he asserts in expressing his opposition to background checks at gun shows (Amendment 22).

He opposes Amendment 23 (funding for public schools), Amendment 24 (voter approval of growth) and Amendment 25 (requirements for informed consent to abortion), which he said runs counter to the basic Libertarian respect for individual liberty and personal responsibility.

"Women have the right to control their own bodies," avowed Murphy.

He supports Referendum A, which would reduce property taxes for senior citizens. "On the whole, I would support any tax reduction," he said.

Murphy also supports Referendum B (changing the legislative reapportionment timetable), Referendum C (changing selection of county surveyors) and Referendum D (removing outdated constitutional provisions), saying they "make sense."

But he opposes Referendum E (multistate lotteries). "Government should not be in the gambling business," he said.

Murphy also opposes Referendum F (excess state revenue for math and science grants).

"I just wish people could see how much better it could be," if Libertarians such as himself were elected, Murphy said. He cites figures alleging to show how individual investment of the money that has gone into Social Security would have yielded five times the return, saying "The feds should never have gotten into that."

No information on Murphy’s campaign financing was available Murphy on the Secretary of State’s "Campaign Finance Inquiry" Web-page, www.sos.state.co.us/, click on the "Elections Center" button). For information on Libertarian views and for the candidate’s home page, go to www.lpcolorado.org/.