The Center For Small Government is a non-partisan, grass roots organization dedicated to making government small in the United States.

Long-time advocates of small government Carla Howell and Michael Cloud co-founded the Center. They have spearheaded bold campaigns to make government small, including two end the state income tax ballot measures in Massachusetts, one of which won an unprecedented 45% of the vote, and another measure to cut the sales tax in half, which was winning in the polls before opposition ads hit the airwaves.

Carla Howell ran for US Senate on the Libertarian Party ticket in 2000 against Ted Kennedy, almost topping the Republican candidate with 308,860 votes. She also ran for governor in 2002 against Mitt Romney and made the case for ending the state’s income tax in six televised debates. In 1998, she ran for state auditor and received the endorsement of the Boston Herald. She served as a director for the Libertarian National Committee from 2011-2017.

Carla Howell is also a libertarian songwriter, creator of the game Who’s Driving and author of Game-Changing Libertarian Communications.

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

In 1996 he organized the Harry Browne for President campaign, and was fund-raiser and adviser for both of Browne’s 1996 and 2000 presidential campaigns. In 2002 he ran for US Senate on the Libertarian ticket against 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, winning 19% of the vote.  He was C.E.O. of the 2000 Carla Howell for U.S. Senate campaign.

A speechwriter and master of libertarian communication. Michael Cloud wrote the Persuasion Power Points column for over 70,000 readers of the Advocates for Self-Government Liberator Online and is author of two books: Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion and Unlocking More Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion.

The Libertarian Party’s Thomas Paine Award for Outstanding Communication of Libertarian Ideas, Principles, and Values was awarded to Michael Cloud in 2000 and to Carla Howell in 2018.