Bruce Basson
Bruce Basson (Libertarian Party) ran for election to the North Carolina House of Representatives to represent District 36. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Basson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Bruce Basson was born in Ames, Iowa. Basson earned a B.S. in math from Purdue University in 1985, and an M.S. in statistics from the University of Wisconsin in 1990. His professional experience includes working as a clinical biostatistician.[1][2]
Elections
2020
See also: North Carolina House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for North Carolina House of Representatives District 36
Incumbent Julie von Haefen defeated Kim Coley and Bruce Basson in the general election for North Carolina House of Representatives District 36 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Julie von Haefen (D)  | 53.2 | 31,644 |
 | Kim Coley (R) | 43.1 | 25,656 | |
 | Bruce Basson (L) | 3.7 | 2,206 | |
| Total votes: 59,506 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Incumbent Julie von Haefen advanced from the Democratic primary for North Carolina House of Representatives District 36.
Republican primary election
Republican primary for North Carolina House of Representatives District 36
Kim Coley defeated Gil Pagan in the Republican primary for North Carolina House of Representatives District 36 on March 3, 2020.
| Total votes: 6,762 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Libertarian primary election
The Libertarian primary election was canceled. Bruce Basson advanced from the Libertarian primary for North Carolina House of Representatives District 36.
Campaign finance
2018
General election
General election for North Carolina State Senate District 17
Sam Searcy defeated incumbent Tamara Barringer and Bruce Basson in the general election for North Carolina State Senate District 17 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Sam Searcy (D) | 50.6 | 50,040 |
 | Tamara Barringer (R) | 46.4 | 45,841 | |
| Bruce Basson (L) | 3.0 | 3,016 | |
| Total votes: 98,897 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for North Carolina State Senate District 17
Sam Searcy advanced from the Democratic primary for North Carolina State Senate District 17 on May 8, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Sam Searcy |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for North Carolina State Senate District 17
Incumbent Tamara Barringer advanced from the Republican primary for North Carolina State Senate District 17 on May 8, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Tamara Barringer |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Bruce Basson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Basson's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Government exists to protect all our rights, and I believe it needs to be smaller and more efficient than it is currently. Government should focus on doing a few things well:
1) national defense 2) administering equal justice 3) managing public spaces 4) providing last-resort charity for those not covered by private help.
Free markets are effective in providing everything else we need - food, clothing, shelter, education, and so on.
I believe the government must show fiscal responsibility and treat every citizen fairly, with equality before the law, and with respect, regardless of socioeconomic class.
I am anti-war, pro-environment, pro-liberty, pro-justice, and anti-government regulation.- Reducing zoning and regulatory restrictions to make housing more available and affordable.
- Giving parents more control over education choices for example with "backpack budgeting" to encourage charter and alternative schools
- Getting NC out of the liquor business by eliminating the ABC board
The justice system is an example. We do not want money to be involved in determining right and wrong; so a free market does not belong there. But as it stands, our current justice system is incredibly slow and convoluted, and compromised by wealthy special interests (i.e. highly-paid lawyers). We need to undertake extensive judicial reforms to regain our freedom. Along these lines, I am passionate about reducing prosecution for "victimless" crime. The drug war for example should be halted.
I am passionate about ending all sorts of wars. We should not be sending North Carolinians overseas to fight and die in Afghanistan when even the generals admit that they have forgotten why we are there.
In a healthy society, government only uses its power to protect our rights, not compel people to follow an ideology. The Founders realized this when they set up the system of checks and balances to prevent governmental power from being concentrated in one place. Small, ideologically determined groups should not be able to make the rules for all of us. We The People should be furious with our politicians if they allow that to happen.
Elected officials must never tolerate a government that is violating people's rights. Citizens must always be treated with respect by the government. If that is not happening, elected officials must be willing to step up and make changes.
Everything the government does should be transparent to constituents, and elected officials should be the conduit for that information. Since all governmental authority comes from the people, the government cannot hide its actions from us. Government works for us - not the other way around.
If we can convince ourselves to adhere to that principle, I believe that would achieve the best possible society we can imagine.
Government is currently being used by many career politicians to advocate specific agendas, pay off their friends and special interests, and manipulate the public. At the same time, these politicians are ignoring basic needs like judicial reform which are critical. So no - I think we need more scientists, engineers, and ordinary working people in the legislature because I think legislatures dominated by career politicians become divorced from reality and no longer serve the public by protecting all our rights.
What this means is that, based on a narrow majority, whichever side is in power immediately tries to ram through an ideological agenda that the subsequent side, once they come into power, works just as hard to undo.
The other election reform that should be implemented is "ranked choice" or "instant runoff" voting to allow voters more options to vote for minor parties.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2018
Ballotpedia biographical submission form
The candidate completed Ballotpedia's biographical information submission form:
| “ | What is your political philosophy?
Increase education quality, decrease healthcare spending, reduce business regulation. Is there anything you would like to add? It's time for a new political party![3] |
” |
| —Bruce Basson[1] | ||
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Information submitted on Ballotpedia’s biographical information submission form on November 3, 2018
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 21, 2020
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
