The general public of Bloomington, Indiana was invited to the home of our beloved Maragaret Fette and her loving husband Paul, though we mostly ended up with LP members. It's about worth the trip to Bloomington though just for a pat on the back and a few words of encouragement from Miss Margaret, Jamie Goldstein, and of course our irreplacable right wing hippie earth mother Cindy Kirkpatrick.

Most of our state bigwigs were there, including gubernatorial candidate Kenn Gividen, who must be the hardest working man in the state party. I know I can't go anywhere without running into him. Our deceptively mild mannered state chair Mark Rutherford was there. Note also our privilege in having the attendance of the globe trotting sophisticate Mike Kole on his way to Denmark, and already an announced candidate for the critical 2006 Secretary of State nomination.

A few words must be said also for our last candidate for the position, also in attendance Sunday. Rebecca Sink-Burris is a dangerous gal because she looks so harmless. At a glance, you might think that she was merely a pretty little Stepford wife. You might even think that after doing a couple of minutes of business with her at the grocery store or the bank.

However, if you talk to her for awhile, you'll see how tough minded she is, and just why she belongs in the Libertarian Party. She's friendly and loving and kind - but she's a little more radical than she may appear. Let's just say she's nobody's robot.

We also had a visiting Libertarian alumni. Paul Hager perhaps unnecessarily ceremoniously left the party two years ago, and hadn't been seen in our circles since. One or two of our people still have a bit of a grudge against the ex-member, understandably.

For my part though, I was glad to hear that Paul Hager is now the Republican Party candidate for state house district 60. Perhaps his people skills occasionally fail him, but Hager is definitely a friend of liberty. He's committed to principles of small, constitutionally limited government. He's smart, and he knows his stuff. Indiana would be fortunate to have such as him in the legislature, whatever party label he's carrying.

All in all, we had lots of good food, met a few new voters and got to compare notes midway through the campaigns. Also, I got some attention from some of my favorite womenfolk.