In 2003, Thomas bought a 32-acre hilltop farm amongst Amish farms, dairies, and game lands, on which he designed and built by his own hand his off-grid residence. His house runs entirely on solar and wind power and is heated by passive solar and wood. Thomas maintains an acre of gardens and orchards for personal use, with the remainder of his fielded acreage used for feed for a nearby active dairy farm.
Thomas’ unified platform of smaller government with accountability at all levels, less taxes, and stronger individual rights will be his focus in Harrisburg.
Thomas has demonstrated his ability to improve the local economy. Together with father Bruce Anderson, he built the Columbia County Landowners’ Coalition, which successfully negotiated natural gas leases worth more than $40 million to county landowners. Renewing natural gas leases and bringing the gas companies back to Northeast PA to pursue drilling and extraction is essential, and this is a fundamental element of Thomas’ plan to restore economic prosperity to Columbia County.
An elected Pennsylvania State Constable now serving his second term and founder of the Columbia-Montour Constables Association, Anderson is already a proven public servant. With a distinguished career in software engineering and a masters degree in cybersecurity, Anderson currently works as the Manager of Enterprise Architecture and DevOps at the Workforce and Economic Development Network of Pennsylvania (WEDnetPA), where he manages the IT infrastructure behind the distribution of a multi-million dollar pool of state workforce development grants.
Thomas is a strong believer in personal responsibility in all aspects of life, including health, finances, and general preparedness. He is a certified emergency medical technician (EMT), and he runs a group across Northeast Pennsylvania to share tips and tactics for self-sufficiency and emergency response.
Thomas dedicates the free time he has to his children and improving his off-grid residence. Recreationally, he is physically active and enjoys making wine from his fruits and tapping his maple trees for syrup.
Thomas graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology where he double-majored in Physics and Computer Science and was a member of the university swim team, yacht club, and sailing team. As a young entrepreneur, Thomas started his own web development company while still completing his undergraduate degree. He graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a minor in Philosophy.
In 2019, Thomas returned to school at Penn State University and was awarded his Master's degree in Cybersecurity in 2021.
Thomas began his career as a software engineer and web developer when he started working for his university library in 1996. He founded his consulting company in 1998 while still in college and built web storefronts for retailers as well as a massively-multiplayer online game. Following college, he worked as Senior Web Administrator at WWOR/UPN-9, a television station in Secaucus serving the New York metro area, maintaining websites for UPN-9, Fox-5 New York, and UPN-24 Baltimore and streaming newscasts using a custom video interface. Thomas was in working at the time of the 9/11 Terrorist attacks, and was a key contributer in assuring news coverage continued to livestream after the UPN-9 and Fox-5 signals were knocked off the air when the World Trade Center towers fell.
In 2005, Thomas accepted a new position at Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport as a Web Programmer/Analyst to support a college-administered state grant program distributed by the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). This grant funded a network of universities and community colleges around Pennsylvania called the Workforce & Economic Development Network of Pennsylvania (WEDnetPA).
As Coordinator of Information Technology, Thomas and built the new infrastructure which became known as the Information Sharing, Administration & Analysis Center (ISAAC), which enables the online collaboration of dozens Pennsylvania colleges and universities, the state office in Harrisburg, DCED, Workforce Investment Boards, and thousands of companies receiving millions of dollars of state workforce development training grants annually. In 2019, Thomas was promoted to Manager of Enterprise Architecture and DevOps for WEDnetPA, which is now the most distinguished program in DCED's portfolio, receiving accolades from the governor as well as governments in other states.
In 2015, Thomas ran a write-in campaign for the position of Pennsylvania State Constable in his district of Mount Pleasant Township and won the office. He completed Act 49 basic training and firearms training. Thomas focuses on peacekeeping, civil standby, and service of notices as well as polling place security twice a year during the primary and general elections. Students of Bloomsburg University know him well for his peacekeeping work for off-campus student housing.
Thomas founded the Columbia-Montour Constables Association as a non-profit, non-partisan association representing the Constables and Deputy Constables of Columbia and Montour Counties of Pennsylvania. The Association serves to strengthen Constables' ability to govern their own affairs and best serve their constituents.
Thomas was re-elected as a State Constable in 2021 and continues to actively serve.
Interested in politics as early as highschool, Thomas joined a club called Political Spectrum. In 1996, he cast his first vote for Libertarian presidential candidate Harry Browne. In 2008 and 2012, Thomas actively campaigned for Ron Paul. Thomas founded the Columbia County Committee of the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania and was elected the committee’s first chairman. In 2010, he ran for State Representative in the 109th district, falling to incumbent David Millard. That run gave Thomas first-hand experience of the dedication required to run a district campaign and a true understanding of what it takes to serve the public as a State Senator in Harrisburg.
The Libertarian Party -- which was founded in 1971 in response to out-of-control inflation, price controls, and the end of the gold standard -- is America's third largest political party. The LP has had a presidential nominee on the ballot in all 50 states for over 20 years.
Libertarians believe in individual rights above all else, eschewing collectivism in every form. The Libertarian Party platform says,
"We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose."
In other words, we promote the Golden Rule – the same philosophy as Jesus, Plato, Confucius, and Buddha.
Libertarians believe in the free market, which means consensual, voluntary interactions between willing participants without any force or coercion. This lack of force or coercion means that the government should be very small and have a very limited role in your life -- enforcing the criminal justice system and protecting us from foreign invasion.
The government should not be used as a tool to compel people to adopt cultural or economic revision or transformation against their will. Rather than social advancement being a centrally-planned imposition, Libertarians insist that it must be a natural evolution of voluntary individual choices. For example, if society is going to adopt electric cars, it should be because electric cars offer advantages evident to individuals without any government subsidies or regulations to push them in that direction.
Ronald Reagan said:
"I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism... The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is."
Reagan of course won his presidential seat as a Republican, but his two terms were hamstrung by Neoconservatives -- Vice President George H. W. Bush, U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle, Assistant Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz, Assistant Secretary of State Elliot Abrams, et al. These Neocons were liberal intellectuals, originally Marxists, who became disenchanted with the direction of the American Left during the 1960s and 1970s. When they failed to reform the Democratic Party, they jumped to the Republican Party and displaced the conservative values that were the hallmark of icons Barry Goldwater, Robert A. Taft, and Ronald Reagan. Neocons believe that the federal government is a force for good and thus promote big-government solutions including the welfare state and foreign interventionism. Neocons -- or globalist liberals -- have controlled the Republican Party for the past 40 years. The Tea Party elected some libertarian conservatives such as Rand Paul and Justin Amash, but they have largely been marginalized by the Neocon majority.
Meanwhile, the Democratic party has been a never-ending cycle of more extreme political factions since Bill Clinton's "Third Way" (which tried to include Blue Dogs and Reagan Democrats) gave way democratic-socialism and globalist progressivism.
The Libertarian Party is the natural home for reasonable, freedom-loving patriots who can no longer suffer the hypocrisy and treachery of the two major parties.
To learn more about the Libertarian Party, visit https://www.lp.org/.
In 2009, Thomas co-founded the Williamsport Tea Party, which quickly grew into an organization of thousands of conservatives. An epic rally in Brandon Park in Williamsport, PA, culminated in thousands of people marching down to the Market Street bridge and tossing crates of tea into the river to protest the unhinged profligate policies of the federal government in response to the financial crisis.
The organization supported political candidates for office and a conservative legislative agenda. Thomas wrote the group's list of grievances and demands, which was read aloud on the Congress floor for permanent preservation in the Congressional Record by U.S. Representatives Glenn Thompson and Tom Marino. Representative Marino also introduced Thomas' One Subject at a Time Act, which if passed, would have required bills to be limited to only one subject and that the subject be clearly and descriptively expressed in the title of the law. He also worked with Rep. Marino to co-sponsor Ron Paul's Federal Reserve Transparency Act.
Every adult has complete and total ownership of their person and everything that entails. This is a basic human right. We are not children, slaves, nor indentured servants. The government does not know better than an individual what is good for them nor does it have the authority to dictate or interfere with the medical, nutritional, or recreational decisions that each individual makes regarding their own body. Individuals must be free to make choices about their own bodies without fear, violence, or coercion.
Only when an action taken by an individual has a direct effect on another individual or their property, or when an individual is subject to warranted and constitutional judicial action, does the government have the right to intervene.
Human life begins at conception. Both the mother and child are human and alive, and therefore the body autonomy of both must be equally weighed. If maintaining a pregnancy risks the life of the mother, then the mother has the right to choose her own self-preservation. Equally, if the child can be born and survive in any way, then the child has the right to be born.
It is my view that in any such case in which the child can be saved while also preserving the life of the mother, it is wrong to end the child's life versus seeking adoption. Intentionally ending a child's life after the time that it can be viably delivered and when the mother's life is not directly threatened is murder. The only exceptions might be if the child’s development is severely impaired in some way such that a reasonably normal life would be impossible and no adoptive guardian steps forward.
The rights of children proportionally increase as they mature and gain new responsibilities. Early in life, children have very few rights. It is solely the domain of the family to determine how a child evolves throughout childhood until they gain the full rights of adulthood.
Free adults who solely own their own bodies should be free to try any medicinal or recreational drugs in their own bodies, on whatever advice they want, professional or not, without interference from the government. This includes the “right to try” drugs that have not been FDA approved. The FDA -- if it should exist at all -- should be an advisory body only, not having the force of law, since the Constitution grants no such power to the Federal government. The limit to an individual’s right to ingest, smoke, inject, or otherwise use substances which cause some physiological effect is when they directly affect someone else (e.g. second-hand smoke or drunk driving).
This is not an endorsement of using any specific drug or drugs generally, but a recognition of individuals' autonomy and right to make their own choices and own mistakes.
Since adults are entitled to all rights of body autonomy, the “drinking age” must be lowered to the age of emancipation, which is 18 years old in Pennsylvania. If 18-year-olds are mature enough to go to war and vote, they’re mature enough to have an alcoholic drink and understand the implications. Babying young adults has the adverse consequences of allowing them to eschew responsibility for their own actions and also encouraging rebellion and criminal thinking (e.g. getting a fake ID and attending illicit parties). Adults (18+) have the right to be treated as such and to be held responsible accordingly.
The Federal government has no authority to outlaw or regulate any drugs except insofar as it relates to interstate commerce. The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment, ending the nationwide Prohibition of alcohol in 1933, at which time, the Federal government lost all power to constitutionally regulate substances. There was never any Amendment to prohibit the use of marijuana or any other drug on a Federal level. It is therefore entirely the power of the State to regulate or not regulate such substances without Federal interference. The DEA, FDA, and ATF shouldn't even exist at all.
Pennsylvania should fully legalize and encourage farmers to grow hemp for its copious uses, including rope, textiles, clothing, food, paper, canvas, bioplastics, detergent, construction materials, insulation, medicine, animal feed, and biofuel. This would be a huge boon to the state economy. Moreover, since anyone who wants to get recreational marijuana can already get it illegally without any serious legal repercussions, and since it's potentially unsafe due to being an unregulated product of cartels with no ability to sue for damages, it would be best to legalize and tax marijuana to both protect consensual users and to keep that money in the state where "sin taxes" on drugs can offset the abolition of property taxes and also help deal with problems stemming from drug addictions.
Individuals should not be forced or coerced to endure groping and scans of their intimate parts in order to enter airports, courthouses, schools, and other public places. There’s no evidence that such mandates have ever stopped any actual threat since it has been repeatedly shown that criminals can still sneak contraband past such searches and scans a majority of the time. Moreover, “gun free zones” are the most likely targets of violence. Removing self-defense weapons from law-abiding citizens only serves to enhance the threat which the search or scan purported to try to prevent. Finally, any search executed without a warrant or probable cause is a violation of the 4th Amendment.
There are only two sexes: male and female. Disorders of sex development (DSDs) are simply that: disorders. Each person is still either male (has a Y chromosome and testes) or female (no Y chromosome and ovaries), whether or not they have a disorder (which is rare) which may result in abnormal genital or hormonal development.
Feelings of being the opposite gender to one's biological sex have more to do with social conditioning of gender roles than science. Being a male who enjoys typically feminine things doesn't make you a female. Being a female who enjoys typically masculine things doesn't make you a male. Cross-dressing or having surgery or hormone replacement to alter one's outward appearance does not change one's sex either. No special pronouns necessary. Stating these facts does not make one "transphobic", but simply realistic. The reality is that there exist two sexes, by definition.
Individuals may feel, express, or associate with whichever gender they like, dress how they like, and engage in whatever sexual proclivities they like so long as interactions with others are purely voluntary and consensual. Provided that you’re not hurting anyone, you may sexually identify as anything; however, nobody may force or coerce others into any particular speech or acts due to their feelings about their own gender or sexuality, including demanding that others address them with particular pronouns. Free speech guaranteed by the 1st Amendment -- including offensive speech -- is a basic protected right.
It is incontrovertiblely unethical and unconstitutional to impose by force or coercion any medical, surgical, or prophylactic procedure on anyone. Full stop.
Refusing to be vaccinated does not have any direct effect on the body autonomy of anyone else. Arguments about a critical mass of people being vaccinated to end a pandemic are purely theoretical and abstract and cannot overrule individual body autonomy. Only the individual -- including whatever professional medical advice they voluntarily seek out -- can rightly ascertain whether vaccination is right for them.
We need to erect a Wall of Separation between Economy & State. The only way to have a strong economy is through free market forces, not central planning. We should remove all regulations from private industry and instead settle disputes such as safety, pollution, etc., via the judicial system. Non-frivolous cases should receive state funding so that individuals do not bear the costs of suing bad actors. We will get this money from eliminating regulatory agencies which are useless anyway because they're always captured by the industries they regulate.
The state government should not be distributing welfare and charity to individuals, but only engaging in activities that benefit the general welfare such as maintaining a competent and efficient criminal justice system, ensuring fair elections, preserving state parks and game lands, providing for state highways, and maintaining the Pennsylvania national guard. Programs that attempt social and economic engineering such as housing programs must end since the market is much better equipped to provide for such things. I would eliminate government departments which are not mandated by the state constitution and can be fulfilled by the free market, mutual benefit societies, private charity, etc.
The largest state expenditures are on education and medicaid, two areas that are much better served by introducing and leveraging market forces. Insofar as the state ensures that all students may receive a primary education, expenditures on this should be constructed such that a vibrant free market in school choice is engendered which continually improves quality while cutting costs. Education funds should be allocated to individual students to spend on the school of their family's choice, including home schooling if desired. Maintaining a bloated and antiquated brick-and-mortar government-controlled K-12 system in the age of the Internet is foolhardy. Medicaid funding should be predicated on recipients demonstrating health-promoting behaviors such as eating healthy, exercising, and abstaining from drugs. Public funding should not be used to subsidize expensive medical interventions to redress a lifetime of bad decisions.
Property taxes are regressive. The poor and middle class pay a much larger percentage of their total income in property taxes than the rich. Property taxes keep property ownership largely only to the rich, who can afford to pay the taxes. Carrying costs are too high for those of modest income to accumulate acreage, even if they save up to afford the asking price.
Those on fixed incomes -- elderly, disabled, and poor -- are increasingly bearing the weight of higher property taxes, which they have no way to avoid, as they could with sales taxes by cutting back on spending on non-exempt items. In many cases, people lose their homes to tax foreclosure. That is reprehensible. The costs of government should not be born disproportionately by those with the least means.
Property taxes take away people's sense of ownership, so that they're basically just leasing their own land and home from the government even after they've paid off their mortgage. This strains their ties to their home and community and impacts their self-worth and quality of life. William Pitt (namesake of Pittsburgh) once said, "The poorest man may, in his cottage, bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storm may enter; the rain may enter; but the King of England may not enter; all his force dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement." But now, when we allow the tax man to enter by force of law, we undermine the essence of our independence.
The threat of reassessment prevents people from doing home improvements, which negatively impacts the construction industry and also prevents energy-saving updates from being widely adopted. Lifting the threat of punitive property tax increases through reassessment will stimulate a renaissance in home improvement and energy audits.
Through the exemption of certain basic necessities, the sales tax does not unfairly punish the poor, although it ensures that even the poor will pay the tax if they choose to spend their money on luxuries instead of necessities. That helps to break people out of poverty through encouraging savings and investment, including investment in a home of their own which does not bear punative taxes for the privilege.
Government needs to be more transparent, and when the tax code is split between so many different kinds of taxation and agencies of collection and withholding, the people don't even know how much they're paying let alone where it's going. To keep our government accountable, taxation should be simple to understand. Sales tax is the most accountable tax because people see it calculated out on every receipt when they purchase something, so they know exactly how much they're paying, and they can therefore respond in a more informed manner when politicians talk about raising or cutting taxes. They don't have to guess about how it will play into the various products and services they utilize. It's right on the surface.
You get more of what you subsidize and less of what you tax. We should only tax the things we want less of and only subsidize the things we want more of. Wealth is built by consuming less than you produce. In this vain, taxing work, investment, and property improvements seems very counterproductive whereas taxing excess/luxury consumption, "sins", waste, etc., makes more sense. That puts the incentives on the right side of the equation to stimulate sustainable growth. Therefore, I would abolish property taxes and move all revenue collection to import duties, sales taxes (exempting certain necessities), sin taxes (gambling, prostitution, drugs, gluttony), amusements, recreational vehicles, pollution-generating activities, etc.
With property taxes eliminated, funding for schooling should be distributed to students equally to use at any school of their choice and to municipalities in an equitable manner such as by road miles contained in the jurisdiction.
My highest priority is ensuring that Pennsylvanians can weather and adapt to the high inflation we're facing. We can address this by pursuing self-sufficiency in energy, food, and other sectors within Pennsylvania. We can keep costs lower and salaries higher through energy independence, food independence, and manufacturing independence. This includes especially bringing back the natural gas companies to lease our land, extract our gas, and bring it to market in the form of transportation fuel, electricity, and heating fuel.
Pennsylvania enjoys many unique benefits which will allow us to largely avoid the recession being caused by Washington DC's awful policies. We have abundant natural resources including agricultural lands and hundreds of years worth of natural gas under our feet, a long legacy of industrial production, major highways such as Rt 80 & 81, and ports on three sides of the continental divide -- Philly, Pittsburgh, and Erie. If we keep government out of the way by reducing taxes and regulations, Pennsylvanians can prosper come what may. Just like Keystone Opportunity Zones (KOZ) have been creating economic booms in under-developed areas of Pennsylvania for over 20 years, we can turn the entire Commonwealth into a KOZ by cutting taxes and regulations across the board. This will massively increase investment, productivity, and job creation across the entire Commonwealth.
The U.S. Constitution defines our country as a federal republic and guarantees a republican form of government to every state of the union. In a republic, laws are not decided or enforced by the people directly, but by popularly elected representatives and executives. In order for the laws of the state and the federal union to reflect the will of the people, it is of utmost importance that the elections for all political offices are fair and honest. This requires transparency and security in the electoral process.
Under the Pennsylvania constitution, the rights of Pennsylvanians to "keep and bear arms shall not be questioned." I support making Pennsylvania a constitutional carry state.
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