The People Behind The Center For Small Government

Founded by Carla Howell and Michael Cloud, the Center For Small Government is a non-partisan, grass roots organization with thousands of generous and enthusiastic volunteers and donors.

Carla Howell is the President and Co-founder of the Center For Small Government. She spearheaded two End the Income Tax statewide ballot initiatives in Massachusetts. Called “Question 1″ both years, it won 885,683 votes in 2002 and 901,802 votes in 2008 — in a state that’s a hotbed of Big Government.

In 2002 she ran for Governor, making the case for Ending the Income Tax in six televised debates.

In 2000 she ran against Ted Kennedy and won 308,860 votes – the highest vote total of any third party U.S. Senate candidate running against both a Democrat and Republican in recent history. In 1998, she ran for State Auditor and received the endorsement of the Boston Herald.

Carla Howell is also a political songwriter. In 2001 she released her spoof song How Could I Live Without Filing Taxes? In 2003 she published a unique song-and-booklet package on the topic of education freedom called Maybe We Would Be Amazed.

Prior to becoming politically active, Carla Howell worked for over 20 years in management, marketing and engineering in the fields of high tech and health care.

Michael Cloud is Co-founder of the Center For Small Government. He also co-founded the Massachusetts End the Income Tax ballot initiatives with Carla Howell, serving as spokesperson, primary fund-raiser and Communications Director.

In 2002 Michael Cloud ran for US Senate against 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, winning 19% of the vote — the highest vote for a Libertarian US Senate candidate ever.

Michael Cloud was C.E.O. of the 2000 Carla Howell for U.S. Senate campaign. In 1996 he organized the Harry Browne for President campaign, and was fund-raiser and advisor for both his 1996 and 2000 campaigns.

Michael Cloud has been politically active since 1976 and has raised over $8 million for small government candidates, projects, and initiatives.

Michael Cloud is a speechwriter and the Master of libertarian communication. He writes the Persuasion Power Points column for over 70,000 readers of the Advocates for Self-Government Liberator Online and is author of the powerful book Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion.