About Hardy Machia
I announced my candidacy for Governor on December 16, 2003. (Press release) This comes after my 2 years as a Grand Isle Selectman, and previous candidacies for State Senate and State House. I'm currently a Justice of the Peace and a small business owner in Grand Isle, Vermont.
My first "political moment" occured when I was a junior in high school. I was a good student and kid who was planning on waiting until I turned 18 to drink alcohol. In the meantime, I was the designated driver for my friends. The turning point came the day that Vermont changed the drinking age from 18 to 21; one day I was considered just months away from being a responsible adult. After that decision, I would not be considered responsible for nearly four years. I knew I was responsible, I knew a law some politicians passed was not going to change that fact, so I decided I would start drinking illegally when I turned 18.
My activity in politics started in 1992 when Ross Perot ran on a platform of reforming the government, paying off our national debt and balancing the budget. Once involved in politics I started looking around at the other options available. The Libertarian Party best matched my political ideals--of liberty, non-violence, equality, and a government bound by the Constitution, government to protect individual rights--and the practical ideas I have learned running a small business.
In 1998, I started "Libertarians for Privacy" to participate in distributed.net's efforts to unencrypt a phrase protected with the US government's strongest allowed encryption at the time (RC5-56). By using thousands of computers connected together by the internet and some special help, from Mike Gilman of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, it only took a day to break the encryption which showed how out-dated the standards were in 1998. The group is still working together on tougher RC5-72 encryption and Golumb's Rules, which have benefits for science.
Public Service
Grand Isle Libertarian Party Chair
Grand Isle Town Selectman, 1999
Chairman of Grand Isle Selectboard, 2000
Town Grand Juror, 2001 (Grand Isle)
Founder and President of Vermont NORML
Board member of Vermonters for Educational Choice
Charter member of Vermonters for Tax Reform
Moderator of Vermont Homeschooling e-mail list
Town Representative to NW Regional Planning Commision
Former member of the VT Libertarian Party Executive Committee
Memberships
CATO Institute
Institute for Justice
Vermont Libertarian Party
Gun Owners of America
Vermont Federation of Sportsmen
The Jefferson Legacy Foundation
Vermonters for Tax Reform
Drug Policy Alliance
NORML and MPP
I've written a Palm version of the World's Smallest Political Quiz. The WSPQ is a good outreach tool to demonstrate how the range of political views is described not just by left and right, but also by a vertical axis that determines how much intervention government will have in peoples' lives. If you have a Palm handheld, download the quiz and share it with your friends. Otherwise, check out the web version at The Advocates for Self-Government website.