Libertarian Party candidate Richard Motes of Tyler has announced he will seek the Alabama Senate District 23 seat currently held by Sen. Hank Sanders.

Motes is a 32nd degree Mason, past member of the Abba Temple Shrine, member of Stave Creek Baptist Church and owner of Motes Package Store.

“I am running as a golden rule candidate,” Motes said. “I have always believed in doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. I have always treated people like I would want to be treated.”

Founded in 1971, the Libertarian Party purports to be the country’s third-largest political party. Some of its basic tenets include reducing the size and intrusiveness of government, cutting taxes, and “letting peaceful, honest people decide for themselves what to eat, drink, read, or smoke and how to dress, medicate themselves or make love, without fear of criminal penalties.”

“I am running to give the people a choice,” Motes said, “a choice to vote for someone who will vote for less government every time. No excuses.”

Motes said one of his priorities will be to try and bring more jobs to this area.

“As a business owner I can tell we have fewer jobs now than when my opponent took office almost 20 years ago. Companies like Pilliod, American Fine Wire and American Candy are all example of plants that have closed or are in the process of closing or filing bankruptcy,” he said.

Motes blames what he terms excessive government regulations and taxes for the loss of at least some of those jobs.

“A vote for me is a vote for less government every time,” he said. “I think that is one of the main reasons we have fewer companies and less jobs, all of the government regulations and taxes on these companies that have been here for a long time. I don’t see how giving land and tax breaks to companies from overseas and closing down companies that already are here is accomplishing anything.”

If elected, Motes said he will call for legislation limiting property reappraisals to once every 10 years. He also said he will defend the right to keep and bear arms.

“As you know, when an area does not have any jobs, crime goes up,” he said. “I know because I have been robbed at gunpoint and pistol-whipped in my own store. A law-abiding citizen should always be allowed to defend her or himself.”

He also promised to make highway upkeep a priority.

“This state used to be called Alabama the beautiful, but now it looks like Alabama the ugly with all the brown dead grass beside the highway because it was not cut in the last year,” said Motes. “I have driven on some state highways that have trees growing on the right-of-way so large you can not see the road signs.

“I know for a fact that these roads have not had a state tractor or Bush Hog on them in the last three years.”