Gubernatorial Debate with Libertarian Mike Munger

The gubernatorial debate held by UNC-TV on Thursday was the first televised debate for the general elections to include a Libertarian candidate for governor of North Carolina. Michael Munger, chair of the political science department at Duke University, debated Mayor Pat McCrory. If you missed it, here's a link to the online video:

http://flash.unctv.org/election/nc_gubernatorial_092408.html

As well as giving an overview of the reforms he would implement as governor of North Carolina, Dr. Munger also made some interesting comments on how voters make their voting decisions. The following quotes are from Munger's closing statement:

Now the reason that I think many people say that they're not going to consider candidates that they don't think are part of the traditional establishment is -- they don't want to waste their vote.

As a political scientist, let me tell you, there's two ways that you can waste your vote. One is that you can think the election is going to result in a tie, and your vote's going to determine the outcome.

But no election in North Carolina gubernatorial history has really been [decided by] less than 100,000 votes for the past 60 years. It's not going to come down to a tie. … If you're waiting for your vote to determine the outcome, you've made a mistake.

Now there's another way, though, that you can waste your vote. That is, you can go to the polls, and fail to send a signal of the kind that would actually matter to our leaders in Raleigh. You can say "I'm not satisfied with the choices that are presented to me", but you can [still] vote for the choices, the traditional state-sponsored party choices, that are presented to you."

The lessor of two evils approach is a vote for your fears, not for your dreams. … You have one precious vote. Your decision on how to cast it will send a signal to our leaders in Raleigh.

There's another UNC-TV gubernatorial debate scheduled for October 8 at 8pm and a final debate in Charlotte on October 15. Both of these debates will include Mike Munger, the Libertarian nominee for governor of North Carolina.

For more highlights of the debate last Thursday, see this news release on LPNC.org. For Munger's response to the education debate, see this post.

Campaign website: Munger 2008