1.
What distinguishes you from your opponents?
The major difference between me and my opponents is this: I
don't believe anyone in a legislature can vote away your
property rights. You have a right to control all of your
income and all of your assets. Period. My
opponents disagree with me completely. In fact, they won't
even address that point. All they will discuss is how much
of your property they will confiscate and what they will
spend it on. Such is the profound difference between
the freedom of libertarianism and the slavery of communism
and fascism that breeds today in Washington, DC.
Another difference is that I don't really want this job.
I'm not power-hungry, and I'm happy in Arizona. But no
one else in my congressional district will do what must be
done, so it's up to me. And I will get it done.
2. How long have you been involved
in politics? Do you remember the first time you voted?
If voting constitutes involvement in politics, then I have
been involved for over 30 years. I remember voting for
the first time in Weston, Connecticut. I was 18 and
knew absolutely nothing. I became seriously involved
in 1994, when I ran for this same office against this same
lawyer.
3. What is the greatest challenge
of public service? 
Achieving goals with limited resources.
4. What is the most important issue
facing District 3?
The most important issue dwarfs all other issues by several
degrees of magnitude. Nothing has done more harm than
the federal income tax. It has enabled a few
politicians in Washington to squander the fruits of our
labor and the wealth of every American. In denying us
our property rights, the income tax finances a $2.4 trillion
government that is determined to make us a society of
ignorant, intimidated slaves. It reduces otherwise
strong and self-reliant citizens to weak and needy beggars
and creates utter contempt for government. It perverts
every economic decision and infects our culture with lies
and fear. It rips our families apart and stresses them
beyond the breaking point as mothers are forced to work
outside the home and leave their children to raise
themselves. It doubles the traffic on our highways and
fills our neighborhoods with cars. The full extent of
the damage is virtually immeasurable. The federal
income tax is an illegal, fraudulent cancer. It has to go,
and the sooner the better.
5. What advice would you give
someone thinking of running for public office?
First, read the United States Constitution then browse
through the Journal
of Libertarian Studies, which is considered by some to
be "the best quarterly journal on the planet."
Second, public office is not the venue for those who simply
yearn to do good and help the needy. That's what
charities are for. Public office is the place to
protect the rights of individuals. Many candidates
confuse the two.
6. What was your first car?
My first car was a brand new 1969 Volkswagen Beetle.
Although I was earning only $1.40 an hour as a trainee in an
entry level, blue collar job, I was able to pay for it in
full within five months. I don't think that would be
possible today, would it?
7. What was your favorite subject
in high school?
My favorite subject was math, but I liked physics so much
that I skipped English class throughout my senior year and
instead went to work for the Westport Board of Education as
the only paid physics lab technician in Staples High School.
Believe it or not, my senior year English class was given
the opportunity to vote on what they would do all year.
Since they voted to play charades (really!), that was my
last day in that class.
8. How did you become involved in
the Libertarian Party?
Milton Friedman introduced me to their philosophy in Free
to Choose. The Libertarian Party is simply the
most logical choice for someone who chooses to live in
freedom. It's home for me. When you distill
their philosophy to its essence, you find the Golden Rule
(i.e., do unto others as you would have them do unto you).
My first position with the Arizona Libertarian Party was
newsletter editor.
9. What is your favorite movie and
favorite actor?
My favorite movie is a toss-up between Braveheart and
The Patriot. Mel Gibson did a great job in
both, but singling him out as a favorite among the scores of
excellent actors and actresses we have been so fortunate to
know would be unjust.
10. Will the U.S. invade Iraq by
December 2002?
I don't know if Congress has planned to declare war on Iraq.
Those who threaten American lives must be dealt with swiftly
and severely, but unless Iraq poses a direct threat to the
United States, we have no right to invade Iraq or any other
country. It's in our best interest to encourage
peaceful trade among nations rather than to occupy or coerce
sovereign nations to make them "more like us."
11. If you were in Congress today,
what would be your first bill to sponsor?
Congressman Ron Paul has sponsored a bill (HJR
45) to repeal the 16th Amendment to the Constitution and
permanently abolish the personal income tax. What
he--we--need now is members in Congress to sign it. I
will do just that. Furthermore, a Congressman must
arrange an open meeting involving the Department of Justice,
the Internal Revenue Service, and the We
the People Foundation. Such a meeting will
certainly reveal the illegality of the income tax and render
it null and void as it is currently enforced.
12. Why should the citizens of the
District 3 elect you on November 5, 2002?
The voters in District 3 have an unusual opportunity to send
someone to Washington who acknowledges their innate rights
to own and control what is theirs--their income, their
homes, their bank accounts--all of their assets, without any
interference by the federal government. I will do
everything in my power to make that happen, and I will never
compromise. Rather than hugging the chains that bind
them, they can now take this first step toward setting
themselves free, toward making April 15 just another Spring
day, toward making 1040 mean 20 minutes to 11.
Mark Yannone
2002 Libertarian candidate
US House of Representatives for Arizona's District 3
http://www.yannone.org
"The only political candidate in Arizona who refuses to
accept contributions."
Arizona
District 3
Interview
with Mark Yannone