Ask a Candidate: Can a Libertarian Compete in NYC?

On August 31, smccarthy76 asked:

As a Libertarian candidate, one of the biggest hurdles for your campaign will be exposure. What will be your strategy to engage potential constituents that may not know your stances and might vote for you if they did? The lack of debate access, not only for third party candidates but lesser known and lesser funded Republican and Democratic candidates as well has created an uneven playing field, how do you counteract that?

Libertarian candidate for mayor Aaron Commey answers:

Yes, not being well known and not receiving widespread media coverage does make it harder to get the word out there but doesn’t make it impossible. One step in finding people aligned to the Libertarian message is making use of libertarian Media. There are podcasts, blogs, and vlogs that already actively promote a libertarian message and they are instrumental in getting the word out to libertarian minded individuals. But there’s a larger audience that would be receptive to my message and ideas if they were aware of them. My strategy is to find forums and organizations that deal with some of the issues I am passionate about and speak to audiences about who I am and how my platform aligns with their goals. But the most important thing is that I am in this for the long haul, and that means being willing to accept the possibility that I will not reach all of the people I wish to in this election cycle. With that in mind I believe it is more crucial to demonstrate that I am genuinely committed to issues like criminal justice reform than to just try to promote my campaign.

I agree that the playing field is uneven but I realize that most playing fields are in this society. It is for this reason that I focus on addressing my own shortcomings and the errors of my campaign than on becoming frustrated about the lack of equal representation in the media between candidates. I know that a well-oiled campaign with innovative ideas can overcome media bias by understanding what media outlets are motivated by and providing them value in coverage of my campaign. The key is not to become discouraged and to identify areas of improvement.