Roxi, I realize this is your friend, but you posted this on a public forum, so expect others to be critical of your friend as a candidate.
I believe, your friend is illustrative of why the LP is a joke as a political party and movement. For one, they let anyone run for office. Let's look at the candidate:
She has an Associates Degree, and has been in the workforce for around 10 years in retail sales and management, as a waitress, cook, restaurant manager, nanny, and substitute teacher. Not really a stunning resume. Kansas has an annual budget of over $25 billion and employs over 80,000 persons. There is nothing in her experience that even remotely suggests she is qualified for the job. Sure she has an interest in politics and has served as a county chair for the LP. But that is akin to someone going to NASA and wanting to be an astronaut because they like watching Star Trek.
Now Grant Nelson, the guy running for Lt Gov isn't spectacular either. According to his bio he "currently works for a Hutchinson-based software company, providing technical support and training for small medical clinics in Kansas and surrounding states". It is easy to find which company that is and looking at the "Leadership" link on their website, Grant is no where to be found. I'm sure he has a nice job, and is probably very good at it, but again what in his background qualifies him for this position? Yes, he's been involved in third party politics for years, but again we are back to the astronaut analogy I used earlier.
The last time an LP candidate won election to a state legislature seat was 1984. Since then the handful of state seats they have "won" were fusion candidates (i.e. the candidate appeared on both the LP ballot and the GOP ballot). And to make matter worse, the majority of the LP folks who have won local offices (school board, township offices, mayors, etc) won in non-partisan races. As a political party, the LP is a colossal failure, and in large part the reason is because they waste time, money and resources on letting "anyone who wants to run" on the ballot in a major state wide contest. What is sad, is that there are people who will part with their hard earned money to fund this campaign.
If you friend was truly desirous of bringing her ideas to the state, she should follow the path that is successful and has worked for countless libertarian minded folks across the country. Get involved at the local level in the GOP, run for a local office and then translate that into a state legislature seat.
