THE LIBERTARIANS ARE COMING!

How many times have you heard people complain that there are not enough choices in any given election? We're sure you've heard that. Maybe you've said it. Well, many times there are more choices. It's just that the mainstream media doesn't give them much play. We believe that every candidate, from every party (except for the Vegetarian and Prohibition Parties), deserves to be heard.

In the 20th Congressional District, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand is taking on incumbent John Sweeney. But, there is another candidate.

Eric Sundwall is running for Congress in the 20th Congressional District on the Libertarian line.

Born in California in 1967, Eric graduated from Ichabod Crane High School in Columbia County in 1986. While attending The State University at Albany he worked as a field and logistics tech at Unisys Corp. After experiencing the first round of late eighties downsizing he traveled abroad and studied at The Denmark International Studies in Copenhagen. After an Occidental dose of philosophy and the fall of the Iron Curtain, the return home involved continued work in the computer field. Completing a senior thesis about George Orwell for a B+, he came up .6 short on an honors degree in political science. The IT business proved more fruitful.

Partnering with former Unisys employees, Eric became involved in Adirontech Computer Services. In 1994, he and his father John, started Old Kinderhook Integrated. Providing systems solutions, design and consulting. During the dot boom era they enjoyed retail locations in Kinderhook, East Greenbush and Red Hook. In 1998 they consolidated their operation at the old Hudson City Savings at Rt. 9 & 9H in Valatie, NY. Providing jobs, sales tax revenue and service to the community. They recently wrapped up the retail end of things deferring to the monolithic corporations and resellers. They still provide service to a wide array of businesses and individuals.

Mr. Sundwall attended a year of law school in 2000 at Concord University, the first accredited Internet law school. After marrying his life long friend Kathryn in 2001 and the tragic events of that September, he deferred further commitment to concentrate on business and family. Kathryn is a pharmacist at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany. In August of 2005 they welcomed the addition of Anna Gabrielle to their family. Her brother Samuel turns 4 this June.

Eric served as a committeeman for the Columbia County Conservatives during the tenure of his father's chairmanship (circa 1995). They helped negotiate the current DA's success during a contentious nominating process. Having realized that the Conservatives are a rubber stamp party for the Republicans and it's job mill, he cast his lot with the national LP in 2001. Registering in 2003 after the successful ruling for the Greens. Becoming active in 2005 he hopes to stand with the Party of Principle against illegal occupations and abusive taxation. Unfortunately his wife thinks running for Congress is a good idea in this respect. If elected he would go to Washington and vote no on most legislation in the spirit of Ron Paul R-TX. He would also commit half his salary to free lunches for constituents when they came to visit.

-From Sundwall for Congress

Mr. Sundwall was good enough to take some questions from The Troy Polloi.





In a recent Zogby poll, Mr. Sundwall captured the support of 2.4% of those polled. That's just 2.4% more than we got and we're not even running. Nonetheless, it's a start. There's a lot of obstacles out there for a third party candidate in New York State. The Troy Polloi won't be one of them. This is not an endorsement of Mr. Sundwall.

We will be submitting questions to the Gillibrand and Sweeney camps in the near future. We'll see how willing they are to respond. Mr. Sundwall was a good sport and we appreciate him taking some of his valuable time and spending it on our insightful queries.