Hello Folks:
The Seminole Chronicle has published an article about me. You may see it at the http://www.seminolechronicle.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2009/10/14/4ad634a9608c9 hyperlink. You may also see it's content below..... Sincerely, Franklin Perez (Libertarian) Florida State House Candidate (District 33) - Year 2010 Libertarian and Independent! Not Beholden to Party Politics! http://www.fperez1776.com http://www.twitter.com/fperez1776 ================================================================= Libertarians controversial stances garner attention By Abraham Aboraya | October 14, 2009 OVIEDO - So who is the real Franklin Perez? If you're not a regular on the Chronicle's online message boards, you may have only heard the name in passing - the oddball, third party candidate whose name has been on the ballot for a handful of political offices. Maybe you've seen a sign strapped to a chain link fence: Franklin Perez, Libertarian or No-Party Affiliated candidate for State House, District 33, year 2010. But if you do surf the Chronicle's boards, you would know that the real Franklin Perez is the subject of hundreds of posts, often heated (and some obscene) about what role the government should play in our daily lives. Often as not, these posts stem from stories written about Jeff Hartzler, the 23-year-old candidate for Oviedo City Council who was, at one time, supposed to volunteer for Perez's campaign. The Chronicle sat down with Perez at his Oviedo home to try to separate truth from perception - to try to get a better feel for who Perez is and where he comes from. Because if you believe everything you read, Perez is an illicit-drug using, prostitute-service purchasing fiend of a candidate whose only goal is to get elected so he can legalize all the things that make you scared to raise your family in Las Vegas and Amsterdam. "I don't worry about it because it's not true," Perez said. "... I'm not a horrible person just because I, as a client, like to see sex workers. And the sex workers that I've had experience with have been in a legal environment - like Nevada, the Nevada brothels. Just because I do that doesn't make me a bad person." And that's about it with Perez. As a candidate, he wants to eliminate what he terms victimless crime laws - laws against the sex trade industry and the drug trade. Those are the big two. And while the 46-year-old software engineer uses legal prostitutes in Nevada brothels and visits local strip clubs, if you've ever had any interaction with Perez - or even just Googled his name - you'd know this is nothing new. He readily offers up this information, while most voters are used to finding out facts like these after a candidate's been elected. Perez doesn't seem capable of telling a lie, or, at the very least, a convincing one. Even while being interviewed by the Chronicle (an interview he tape recorded and said he will post on YouTube) he lets a few obscenities slip, something most candidates wouldn't dream of doing with the red lights of two recording devices glaring at them. It all started for Perez with an introduction to philosophy class at Miami Dade Community College in the early 1980s. There, Perez was first exposed to Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, which heavily influenced how he viewed politics and lent him toward a Libertarian way of thinking. Perez, who was born in New Jersey, moved on to the University of Florida for his bachelor's in electrical engineering and then to Georgia Tech for his master's in the same subject. He lived in Denver and New Jersey before calling Florida home. In Seminole County, he called the local Libertarian Party and began working with them, and soon his name was on the ballot for a Seminole County Commission seat under its banner. But, in 2004, he split with the party over what Perez claims were "anti-Hispanic remarks" made by Mark Clifford, the former chairman of Seminole County's Libertarian Party, and from then on ran as No Party Affiliated. Because of a change in the way Florida handles minor parties (which now have open primaries), Perez is back under the Libertarian banner, although he doesn't get involved with party events and could be challenged in a primary. Sean Concannon, the chairman of Seminole County's Libertarian Party, said he's known Perez for a while, and that he seriously disagrees with Perez on the facts of the incident. "Franklin's a unique character," Concannon said. "Obviously he does have some very Libertarian beliefs and stands on things, and so in terms of a political party, I can't say he's in the wrong place. He's not what you would ordinarily consider a candidate." Perez is single and has no children, and he says if he were married, running for office would probably not be an option. He said sex workers are his only outlet for physical, sexual intimacy, something he's always found difficult (growing up, he never had a girlfriend). "Me personally, I've found it very difficult to seek physical, sexual intimacy," Perez said. "And a consenting adult sex worker is not a bad thing; it's a good thing." Currently, he estimates that his campaigns are 95 percent self-funded (he spent about $10,000 on his last campaign), and he's only had one consistent campaign volunteer since he started. James Coakley has been volunteering with Perez since he started, helping him make detailed maps of voters registered to neither major party, or putting signs up. Coakley, an unemployed construction worker, said he was surprised by how much Perez has been mentioned on the Chronicle's site. "That's been spiraling out of control," Coakley said. "It seems like he's now the most well-known candidate in the Oviedo race, and he's not even running. I guess it's good for publicity." The race hasn't been easy for Perez, though, and not just on a financial level. He's had the opportunity to meet some "whack jobs," as he said. He mostly means potential voters who have cursed him out and chased him off various properties across the county. Perez now leaves a few feet of space between himself and any door he knocks on, just in case, and keeps pepper spray with him when he walks the campaign trail. "I do have problems, as far as I walk my district and unfortunately you meet whack jobs," he said. "You meet whack jobs. You meet whack jobs. You meet some hostility; you don't know why." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! 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