Please join me on this week’s edition of Backbone Radio when I’ll be joined by guest-host Krista Kafer as we focus on some of the less-discussed parts of Colorado politics.

In our first hour, we’ll be joined by Colorado’s Attorney General, John Suthers, who is running for re-election in this 2010 campaign.  While Suthers would seem to be one of the most secure incumbents in high-level state-wide executive offices (not least because the rest are Democrats), it’s nevertheless important for an educated citizenry to understand why a person deserves to hold elected office.

With that in mind, we’re going to cover a range of topics related to the AG’s job, not least being Mr. Suthers’ fight, along with other states’ AGs, against Obamacare.  We’ll talk about other major cases Suthers is working on, as well as his take on illegal immigration enforcement within the state.

If you have questions for AG Suthers, please don’t be shy about calling in, or sending me an e-mail or instant message.

In our second and third hours, we’ll be joined by two Libertarian Party candidates for office.

At 6 PM, we’ll talk with Jaimes Brown, Libertarian candidate for Governor of Colorado.  We’ll talk about a wide range of policy issues, including Brown’s take on ballot issues 60, 61, and 101, which I expect he supports. 

And at 7 PM, we’ll visit with Maclyn Stringer, Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate.

As always – and as a “small-l” libertarian and former Libertarian Party member – I’m most interested in the potential intersection of libertarian beliefs with conservative beliefs, and in the potential appeal of the Libertarian Party to both Republicans and Democrats as well as the potential appeal of libertarian-leaning Republicans to the broader electorate.

My view is that a plurality, and perhaps a majority, of Americans are libertarians even if they don’t know it.  They (we) basically want government to leave us alone.

Another topic which I expect to discuss with Brown and Stringer is alternative voting systems, such as Approval Voting.  You can (and should) read a bit more about approval voting at some of the following links.  It’s an interesting system, with fairly strong pluses and minuses.  Generally, the pluses seem to outweigh the minuses for smaller political parties (like the Libertarians), but perhaps not for the current major parties.

For more info:
http://www.approvalvoting.com/ (a site in support of Approval Voting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting (Wikipedia entry on Approval Voting, includes some discussion of praise and criticism of it)
http://archive.fairvote.org/?page=1920 (Web page of a group which supports a different alternative voting method)

Please join me by listening to (and calling in to) this week’s Backbone Radio program from 5 PM to 8 PM on 710 AM KNUS in Denver and 1460 AM KZNT in Colorado Springs.

If you’re not in range of the radio waves, you should be able to listen to the show online by clicking HERE.

I hope you’ll actively participate in the conversation with me: Call the studio at 303 696 1971, e-mail me at rossputin(at)rossputin.com, or instant message from my site at http://rossputin.com or through AOL Instant messenger to screen name Rossputin.