Greenwich Post
Maymin makes bid for U.S. Congress
Jun 8, 2006

Phil Maymin

In matters of war, immigration and taxation, Greenwich portfolio manager Phil Maymin says the federal government is consistently guilty of one crime above all others: stealing.

“Look at the government we have — it’s a mess,” he said. “It’s getting to the point where they don’t even try to hide the theft anymore.”

Eager to take Washington to task for what he sees as a growing list of fiscal indiscretions, Mr. Maymin, a Libertarian, is putting together a grassroots campaign for the United States Congress. If he’s able to get 2,909 verified signatures by Aug. 31, he’ll challenge Christopher Shays for his 4th District seat in the House of Representatives this fall.

Rep. Shays, a Republican, is also defending his seat against Democrat Diane Farrell, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the same office in 2004.

Mr. Maymin admits he currently has a small percentage of the signatures he’d need to get on the ballot, but he’s optimistic he’ll get more. He has a team of volunteers working for him, making phone calls and getting the word out on the street. He insists that the message of his party — government should stay out of people’s lives — is one that should appeal to liberals and conservatives alike.

“Conservatives believe in freedoms,” he said. “They 100% believe in economic freedom. Then there are questions about social freedoms — what should be done with school and prayer — a lot of issues that, I think, if the conservatives were to really think about it, they would agree it should not be a government decision.”

Democrats, he said, are right in wanting to keep the government out of people’s private lives, but they’re too often willing to redistribute wealth in the form of federal programs — something he’s staunchly against.

“Their reason for thinking this way is that the government is so big, it’s almost impossible to do anything from a private point of view, especially with the monopolies the government has,” Mr. Maymin said. “Maybe they feel this is the easiest way to achieve goodness.”

Wary of any spending that’s not going toward directly protecting people’s private property — the main job of the government, he says — Mr. Maymin is basing his campaign around four key issues. If elected, he said, he’ll work to cut taxes, bring American troops home from abroad, abolish “invasive” laws, such as the Patriot Act, and protect personal property.

These ideas, he said, are in keeping with the central ideologies of his party, which has long been about helping people hold on to what they’ve earned. Having come to this country from Russia at 5 years old, Mr. Maymin says he believes in what can be achieved in a free-market economy, without the “heavy hand of government getting in the way.”

“[The government] think[s] stealing is OK if it’s for good causes, or that it’s not really stealing if it wasn’t your property to begin with and everything belongs to everybody,” he said. “But stealing is wrong.”

Accordingly, he’s against the war in Iraq and all similar uses of force that aren’t purely defensive in nature. He’s also against granting amnesty to illegal aliens and continuing to fund Social Security, which he feels should be phased out over time.

“You can’t just cut Social Security tomorrow,” he said. “Those rights belong to those people who are about to retire and who have just retired.”

These people, he said, have long paid into the system, genuinely believing the government would be there for them in their old age. This, he said, is not the case with younger workers, who ought to have a different, more realistic view about what will await them come retirement.

“If you’re, say, 30 years old right now, whether you personally expect to receive Social Security in 25 or 35 or whatever years, that’s kind of your problem,” he said. “It’s not really that firm a promise — everybody knows that.”

“You can easily rearrange your life to start saving yourself, in your own account,” he added.

Mr. Maymin said he’s been a Libertarian for as long as he can remember. While working toward a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s in applied math at Harvard, he began writing for a Libertarian-leaning newspaper, and when he later moved to Chicago, where he earned his doctorate, he formally joined the party.

He says Libertarians are the largest third-party group in the country, and that they have more people in office than all other third parties combined. This is telling, he said, since Libertarians, by definition, tend to resist traditional political conventions.

“The Libertarian party is almost an oxymoron,” he said. “You have freedom-loving people who think the government should be out of their lives. They’re going to organize a political party? It’s a hard thing to do.”

Some have even likened the organization process to herding cats, an analogy Mr. Maymin thinks is pretty accurate.

“They’re all individualistic, and they’re strong-willed people,” he said.

Ken Mosher, secretary of the Libertarian Party of Connecticut and Region 8 Board of Education member, says he himself is currently the only party member in the state who holds an elected office. However, Connecticut has between 10 and 15 Libertarian justices of the peace, he said  — himself included.

While he won’t make any predictions about his chances of getting on the ballot or turning out a sizable vote this November, Mr. Maymin believes there are others out there who are tired of seeing big government continue to get bigger.

“I don’t believe there are people out there who think, ‘We need one person to make decisions for everyone else,’” he said. “People are people. We’re individuals; we can make decisions.”

For more information, visit www.mayminforcongress.com.