Libertarian Party of the Hi-Line is looking for interested people

Press release

A small group of people came together in the Havre-Hill County Library Feb. 7 and founded the Libertarian Party of the Hi-Line.

The Hi-Line party was formed to represent Hill County but the members quickly voted to add Liberty, Blaine and Chouteau counties to the party.

Jay Getten was elected secretary and Mark Wicks was appointed as chairman by the Libertarian Party of Montana. Wicks is the party's candidate for the special election to replace Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke in Congress.

After the meeting the Libertarian State party asked that the Hi-Line party represent all of District 3 until county committees are formed. District 3 comprises Liberty, Hill, Blaine, Phillips, Chouteau, Fergus, Petroleum and Judith Basin counties.

The party leadership is encouraging people in these counties to attend Hi-Line meetings or set up their own county party, but because of the distance involved the Hi-Line Party has decided to broadcast all meetings via Face Book live. This will allow people anywhere in the world to watch the virtual meeting and ask questions in real time without driving to the meetings.

During the first meeting, a BNSF engineer who was snowbound in Whitefish used the live broadcast to virtually attend the meeting, proving that no matter where people are, if they have internet access they can become politically involved, organizers said.

The Libertarian Party is considered a political third party and has candidates on many ballots all over the United States. Gary Johnson represented the party in 2016 as its presidential candidate. The party symbol is a porcupine. Libertarians believe in equality, smaller government, free trade, lower taxes, fiscal responsibility and being personally responsible for their own decisions without government interference.

People who would like to learn more can visit the Hill County Libertarian Facebook page, or go to http://www.mtlp.org. The next meeting of the Libertarian Party of the Hi-Line will be 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, in the Havre-Hill County Library.