MAHONING VALLEY Libertarian Party schedules dinner

Party principles stress individual liberty and personal responsibility.
AUSTINTOWN -- The public is invited when the Libertarian Party of the Mahoning Valley holds its second annual Tax Day Eve Protest Dinner at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Comfort Inn and Suites on state Route 46.
The guest speaker is Richard Campagna of Iowa, one of four people seeking to be the party's vice presidential candidate. The party will select its presidential and vice presidential candidates during its national convention over Memorial Day weekend in Atlanta.
Campagna is a businessman, a university instructor and a legal and psychological counselor. He ran for lieutenant governor of Iowa in 2002; he and his running mate got 1.3 percent of the state's vote.
Libertarians believe in individual liberty and personal responsibility, a free-market economy and a foreign policy of nonintervention, peace and free trade, according to its national Web site.
Robert Butler, the state party's new executive director, will discuss the Libertarians' small-business initiative at the event.
"Small businesses in Ohio need tax cuts," he said. "We have the best-prepared employees in the world, but we can't compete without lower taxes."
Status in Ohio
The Libertarian Party is not recognized as an official political party in Ohio, having lost that designation after the 2000 presidential election because its presidential candidate didn't receive at least 5 percent of the state's vote. The state doesn't recognize political parties if their presidential candidate doesn't receive at least that percentage.
Libertarians filed a federal lawsuit against the Ohio Secretary of State's Office, which rejected the party's ballot petitions earlier this year to be reinstated as a recognized party.
Tickets to the event are $15 each and are available by calling Milt Norris at (330) 533-1210.