To the voters of the 120th District:

In the 2008 election season, you will have more than one option for your representative in the State Assembly. You will have the opportunity to make a choice, to make your voice heard.

In the interest of helping to make that decision an informed one, I'd like to describe for you, briefly, why I’m in this race and what I stand for.

I stand for a constitutionally limited government.

The most important thing we need to consider at all times is this: What is the purpose of the government? If we don’t have a crystal clear definition of the government’s proper function, then we risk using the government’s resources for anything that sounds to us like a good idea. When that happens, our money, our liberties, and our very lives are up for grabs, and are turned over to the latest in a long line of politicians who think they know what’s best for everyone else.

The government’s purpose is not to take your money and micromanage your lives. The purpose of government is simple: Secure and defend the freedom of all people. Treat all people as equal under the law, in accordance with the rights God gives to everyone, that no government has the authority to take away.

Besides, we’ve all seen the inefficient, downright pathetic performance of the government when it gets involved in areas of life that have nothing to do with its legitimate functions. The government can’t do a good job at what it was never supposed to be doing in the first place.

So we have a Constitution, in order to limit the government to the role in which it belongs. Our society would be much freer, and more prosperous, if lawmakers were truly conscientious to make sure their legislation always respected their Constitution.

Now, the Liberals are not promoting respect for the Constitution. They’re on a march toward Socialism, and they want to lead the whole country along with them. That’s the definition of this endless cycle of legislating, taxing, and spending, every time a seemingly good idea comes along: it’s pure Socialism.

Conservative Republicans offer the alternative. We are not, and we should not, be aiming to slow down the growth of government. The government has grown far too big already! Reducing it, to the size where it serves its real purpose of protecting the people’s rights, is what we are offering. And I believe that’s what the people want as well.

I represent that alternative: I stand for freedom and equal rights.

I believe “tax breaks” should not be seen as a privilege granted by a beneficent government, but as the absolute right of those from whom the government routinely takes far too much.

I believe a truly free market is the solution to a whole range of problems that meddling politicians, who often serve as the root cause, tend to make even worse.

I believe that every human being’s right to life is granted by God, and should not be assaulted but defended by the government.

And I believe in privacy, because you have the right to manage your home, your children’s education, your business, and your life in whatever way you choose – and, unless you’re violating the rights of others, it’s simply not the government’s business.

Politicians don’t need to force you, the people, to do what is best for you; if they were being honest, they'd admit they don’t even know what’s best for you! You do, and the government’s job is to protect the freedom that allows you to do it.

I’m not a career politician. What I am is a concerned, tax-paying citizen, with the integrity to stand up for the people’s rights, by way of reducing the government back to its proper limits. That is the traditional, conservative Republican message; it’s a real alternative to liberal politics as usual in this State. I believe that the voters in my district are looking for the chance to vote for that alternative, and that is exactly what I represent.

-Peter Gay