Joe Buchman, Libertarian Party Candidate for Utah’s CD3

Hillary Koellner- “Joe, when did you first get involved with politics?”

Joe Buchman- “What I remember is in 1977, I heard about a new political party, the Libertarian Party. I had a friend who told me about this new party and it had just been started five years earlier in Denver, Colorado. I went to work in Kentucky and the Libertarian party ran television ads for their presidential candidate and they ran as the party of principal, non-aggression and self-ownership. The more I read, the more I realized this was who I am, I don’t believe that you should use force on anyone and everyone has use of their own body and we don’t have that now, the government has control of it.”

Hillary Koellner- “Well it sounds like you have been very passionate about politics for some time now, is this your first time actually running for office?”

Joe Buchman- “This is my third time running in Utah, the first time was in 2008 for the first district for U.S. Congress; I lived in Park City. Since then we’ve gone from three congressional districts to 4. Last year I ran for the state senate.”

Hillary Koellner- “So you’ve definitely had some campaign experience. What would you describe running for office this time?”

Joe Buchman- “It’s like running up a very steep hill. It’s not a leveled playing field. The Republican and Democratic party have put a lot of obstacles for third parties. They could not get in to presidential debates, there is a lawsuit right now for that from last year. I was however in a debate sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, but in order to get in that debate I had to make several requests. The national attorney for the Libertarian party had to contact them and that resulted getting my invitation 8 hours before I had to be there and I received the questions 4 hour before that, when the Republican candidates knew they would be there for weeks. There is a lot of difference when you go somewhere and are welcome or when you know they are just letting you be there because of legal reasons.”

Hillary Koellner- “That shows some definite perseverance on your side. How do you think the debate went having it be such a last-minute performance?”

Joe Buchman- “Most of the comments on the debate are on a Facebook live from KUTV. Well over half are complimentary to my performance. I’m the only Libertarian candidate running for federal office, so it’s getting a lot of attention nationally.”

Hillary Koellner- “What would you say is your next step?”

Joe Buchman- “The next step, right show, look I’m not running to win, the chances of a libertarian actually winning are very small, but I’m going to give it all I have. What I’m running for is to be on the debates. If you can’t get on stage and be seen equally as effective as other candidates it just kills the perspectives, there’s another debate coming up, but it is advertised for just Republicans, but if they are general election debates, I think I’ve earned the right to be there based on my performance since the other night. Second goal is to get on the polls. I am something other than other, I think they should have asked about me too. I think there is a possibility that there is a high chance that I can beat the Democrat a lot more than the Republicans. Third is raising money, it is the fuel that fires politics. Dr. Kathie Allen had a 700,000-war chess because Rosie O’Donnell retweeted one of her tweets. So, to be here amongst all of the other advertising from my opponents, it’s a steep hill to climb and to get the media attention i need about 2 million dollars.”

Hillary Koellner- “So Joe, having experience other campaigns as well, how have you handled negative comments or the so called social media trolls that tend to follow most politicians?”

Joe Buchman- “Amazingly I have not had any significant experiences at all with trolls, but I am surprised that my opponents, so far, have not been on social media. I came home from the debate and one of my volunteers was reading of his cellphone the positive comments from KUTV. When i came home at midnight, I spent four hours reading through the comments and responded to every person with a link to my website, the dotVote website. In a campaign, you’re expected to know everything about everything on a political issue. Running as a third-party candidate now, is like being a female doctor in the 1940’s, where they have to work three times as hard to be seen as good as the others. I did it again the other night, people are watching that video, I’m promoting it because people who watch it seem to think I was good. None of the other candidates have done that. There is no response from the other 4 candidates to anything.”

Hillary Koellner- “That definitely takes a lot of dedication, four hours responding to comments on social media isn’t always easy! Now Joe, tell us a little bit more about you and your background, such as where did you grow up or go to school? Also, how did you end up in Utah?”

Joe Buchman- “I grew up in Southern Indiana and worked in radio and T.V. throughout the Midwest. I went to Indiana University and earned a bachelor’s Degree in Marketing. Then went back to school and got an MBA in finance. Went back to Indiana to work on a PhD in what is today the media school of Indiana University, then I went to work in Michigan, but got recruited by university of Tennessee and I was just horrified over the five years i was there. I’ll say it has a reputation for being a party school and there was a lot of alcohol abuse, so a lot of people died. It got me active in the organizations that were trying to minimize student drinking. I met my wife on a blind date. It was really love at first sight, I was 35 and never married and she was 35 and a widow. I fell in love with her 4-year-old first and she just gave us our first grandchild three weeks ago. The other little girl was only 10 months old. She’s become an amazing scholar. Then we had a little boy together on a Christmas eve and our youngest is now 19. That’s what brought me to Utah. A blind date.

Hillary Koellner- “Joe, what would you say is an issue politically that you would stand up for if elected because of a personal connection?”

Joe Buchman- “I called up my dad to talk to him about Upjohn one of the big pharmaceutical companies when I was working on my MBA, my dad like me, had been an educator. Before he went to med school he taught math in high school. I’m the worlds worst patient because I expect every doctor to be like my dad, but they can’t because they have so many regulations. They talk about healthcare by government, but what about physician’s rights? They’re not really fixing anything. My dad got denied for a prostate exam on a man who had a female name, so it took 8 hours to file the details because of the federal government. When you look at what’s hiked the cost of medical care, it’s the federal regulations, because they now have to hire staff. Why I’m running is healthcare, all they are doing is continuing to interfere and they have to get the hell out of the way, that’s what would bring it down.”

Hillary Koellner- “I can tell healthcare is definitely an issue you take personally. Thank you so much for sharing that with us so honestly.”

Joe Buchman- “I’m sorry If I just go on and on, I’m a retired college professor, so sometimes I start lecturing.”

Hillary Koellner- “There is nothing to be sorry about Joe, thank you for giving us all of this time and knowledge on you. It’s nice to just have the interview flow. Now for the million dollar question, why are you running now for CD3?”

Joe Buchman- “I’m running because the kids are all grown. They are all supportive, they are all cheering me on. They’ve all watched the video, they all look at me like, dad what are you doing? You really think you’re going to win? One of the things I like to do, I volunteer at the family history library and scan books at their scanning center. I enjoy volunteering in the church service mission as a non-member. The one person I’m really running is for my granddaughter. Emma if you’re reading this later on, I hope you’re living in a much more free world than what we have today. Year 2077, where you’re free to live whatever life god has meant for you to live and not what men have established and that you know your grandpa is taking a stand for that.”

Hillary Koellner- “That’s incredibly touching and inspiring to see that your motivation isn’t just the ‘here and now,’ but the future generations. Since you mention your granddaughter, could share with us a little bit of your life experiences with your grandparents?”

Joe Buchman- “Both of my grandfathers died when I was only 11 and right now our four children have the benefit of one of their grandfathers being alive and my dad just died last year. Both my father in law and my dad were veterans from WW2 and their service was a grace. Something that would always be a worry when I was young is if I was going to be drafted for WW3 and later the same thought came up- ‘is my son going to be drafted for WW3?’

My grandfather was a character, one of the things I wish I had inherited was a wooden doorbell, but I don’t know what happened to it. It would lock the screen door in a really secure way. So, he taught me to look at things in a very different way. My mom’s dad, we called him chief, I learned Morris code from them as an 11-year-old. He was just the most jovial friendly and interested in me like an adult, really interested in a kid and I remember us drinking a coke and I remember the coke he had for me. Both of my grandmas lived until I was in high school. I can remember that my grandma was a John Wallace supporter, my dad was a democrat and my mom had to go calm things down. My grandma just wanted law and order. Maybe I got my third party interest from her. That’s probably what got me interested in politics, those discussions in the 1960’s

Hillary Koellner- “It looks like your political influence started when you were a very young man. Joe, what’s the one thing you would say people must know about you?”

Joe Buchman- “I love being asked tough questions, that’s what I miss about being a college professor. Especially when I was teaching graduate classes, but it’s like that when you’re a candidate.”

Hillary Koellner- “Well Joe, those are all the questions I have, at least for now. Thank you so much for giving us this time and opening up.”

At the end of the interview we offered Joe a free dotVote and dotVoto domains for his campaign, even though he already had two dotVote domains and we were surprised on his reasoning for using a dotVote domain rather than a dotCom.

Joe Buchman- “Do you know why I use a dotVote? Because I’m up for election, I’m not up for sale. A dotCom domain sounds like those candidates are for sale, I’m not I’m serious about this election.”

Hillary Koellner- “Well I have to say I love the enthusiasm Joe! Now you get to have more ways for people to find you with the official campaign domain, thanks again!”

For more information on Joe Buchman you may visit www.JoeBuchman.vote.

By Hillary Koellner