Libertarian candidate joins 6th district race

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Libertarian Rufus Craig announced his candidacy for the Baton Rouge-based c ongressional 6th District seat.

“If you are satisfied with the results of the Democrats and Republicans in Congress, then by all means, keep them,” Craig said in prepared statement. “I am ready to bring real solutions to the people of Louisiana and America.”

Craig is a Baton Rouge lawyer who has run for the congressional seat as a Libertarian Party candidate in 2004 and 2012.

He said he is concerned that neither Democrats or Republicans seem willing to tackle what he calls “out of control spending and the Byzantine tax code.”

“Without a profound shift in policy in Washington, our nation faces certain financial collapse. It is important to provide an alternative to the two major parties for people to know there are solutions which are not being addressed by either,” Craig stated.

Craig argues the two traditional parties give out too many tax credits and bailouts to big businesses that make bad decisions.

He said Libertarians also oppose foreign wars and argues that terrorists should be treated as criminals. “We need to end our policies of foreign interventionism now, stop the drone attacks, and bring our troops home,” he stated.

He also favors ending the war on drugs.

Louisiana has a vacant congressional seat because Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, is running for the U.S. Senate, challenging incumbent Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Craig joins a race that already has many candidates.

They include former Gov. Edwin W. Edwards, who lives in Ascension Parish, and is running as a Democrat along with LaPlace real estate broker Richard Dean Lieberman; several Baton Rouge-area Republicans, including: the Jindal administration’s former point man on coastal restoration, Garret Graves; small-business owner Craig McCulloch; educator Charles “Trey” Thomas; tax lawyer Cassie Felder; state Sen. Dan Claitor; business owner Paul Dietzel II; and Robert Bell, a retired U.S. Navy Reserve officer and Tea Party of Louisiana columnist who calls himself Captain Bob.

Based in south Baton Rouge, the 6th District also includes all or part of Ascension, Assumption, East Feliciana, Iberville, Lafourche, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. John the Baptist, Terrebonne and West Baton Rouge parishes. The district also is shaped to lean more conservative than it did before.

“Without a profound shift in policy in Washington, our nation faces certain financial collapse. It is important to provide an alternative to the two major parties for people to know there are solutions which are not being addressed by either.” Rufus Craig, L ibertarian
The district, with 358,555 registered voters, is 74 percent white and 33 percent Republican, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

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