LNC Region 7

LNC Policy Manual revision

2009-11-21T12:54:00.000-08:00

We have a mail ballot concerning the EPCC as indicated in the attachment. Dan Karlan, Stewart Flood, Rebecca Sink-Burris and Admiral Colley co-sponsored.

Section 2.02

COMMITTEE SCOPE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

4) Employment Policy and Compensation Committee

Existing language . . .

[The Employment Policy and Compensation Committee shall develop the documents necessary for the administration of the employment of the Executive Director, including but not limited to a performance review. Proposed procedures, including forms, for the Executive Director performance review shall be presented by the Employment Policy and Compensation Committee to the LNC for its advice and consent in the 4th quarter of each calendar year. The proposed procedures shall include the administration of the Executive Director performance review in the 1st quarter of each calendar year. The results of the review and any additional recommendations of the Employment Policy and Compensation Committee will be reported at the first available LNC meeting following the review period.]

Replace with . . .

[The Employment Policy and Compensation Committee shall develop documents, procedures, and guidelines for the effective administration, supervision and development of Staff, including but not limited to job descriptions, compensation ranges, hiring, training, performance reviews, promotion, progressive discipline and termination. The LNC may supersede any such documents, procedures and guidelines by adopting a replacement.

The Employment Policy and Compensation Committee shall also be available to Staff to discuss on a confidential basis the working environment or observed violations of the
Policy Manual.]

Fails 7-7, 3 abstentions

For

Bob Sullentrup
Aaron Starr
Alicia Mattson
Scott Lieberman
Rebecca Sink-Burris
Stewart Flood
Dan Karlan
James Lark

Against

Michael Jingozian
Pat Dixon
Lee Wrights
Mary Ruwart
Tony Ryan
Mark Hinkle
Rachel Hawkridge

Abstain

Bill Redpath
Michael Colley
Julie Fox

REGION 7 REPORT

2009-07-16T13:09:00.000-07:00

Submitted to: Libertarian National Committee, July 7 , 2009.

Submitted by: Rachel W. Hawkridge, Region 7 Representative, Libertarian National Committee

This report will provide information concerning activities of the Libertarian Party state affiliates in Region 7 since I last reported on February 21, 2009.

Florida

The Libertarian Party of Florida held its annual meeting and convention on March 28-29, 2009 in Jacksonville, Florida, and elected Mr. J.J. McCurry to the Chair. He will serve a 2 year term. Vicki Kirkland was elected Vice-Chair for a 2 year term, Treasurer Jack Tanner , Secretary Mark Clifford, Director At Large (1) Char-Lez Braden, Director At Large (2) Sean Concannon, Director At Large (3) Jeff Hunt, and regional representatives Jim Tall, Alexander George, Nik Ritchie, Tyler Miller, Geoff Scott, Phil Laibe, Jim Kearney, former Chair Karl Dickey, and James Coakley will all being serving on the ExComm.

Florida continues to have regular, active county meetings, active campus groups, and Facebook groups.

The Chair reports that the big push in Florida is the creation of county affiliates. They’ve gone from 11 in January 2008 to 20 in January 2009, and are now at 25. Congratulations, Team! :o)

LP Florida’s currently Declared Candidates:

Governor: John Wayne Smith
Lt. Governor: Staci Henegar
State House Seat 33: Franklin Perez
State House Seat 42: Jeff Shoobridge

Palm Beach County Commission: Karl Dickey
Hillsborough County Commission: Brandon Newton
Bay County Commission: Geoff Scott
Bay County Commission: Justin Guthrie

Great job, Team Florida! :o)

Hawai’i

Hawai’i held a Convention on May 16th. They’ve elected and seated a new ExComm, which consists of:

Chair Ken Schoolland (whose name you may name recognize)
Vice Chair Larry Bartley
Treasurer John Spangler
Secretary Roger Taylor
At Large Jeff Mallan, Aaron Anderson, Li Zhao, Dave Hudson (who was the lone Hawai’i Delegate to Denver).

And they even have a Consulting Director on staff; Roger Taylor who also serves as Secretary.

They’ve published a newsletter already - http://is.gd/1tYAG, and plan to overhaul their website as well.

Welcome back, Hawai’i! Mahalo!

Idaho

LP Idaho has a new website, and it’s fabulous! Check it out!

The Libertarian Philosophical Brunch monthly series is going well and they have about a dozen regular participants. They just had a lively, but civil three hour philosophy discussion at the last brunch.

Due to the popularity of the brunch, there are plans to start a similar dinner group.

Fantastic, Idaho Libertarians!

Oregon

Oregon’s convention was held at the Shilo Inn Suites Oceanfront Hotel in Newport, OR on March 14 and 15. Gene and I were in attendance. Their new ExComm consists of the following brave souls:

Chairman: Joseph Cornwell
Vice-chairman: Marc Delphine
Secretary: Christiana Mayer
Treasurer: Justin Grover

There were numerous changes made to the bylaws, including deleting the Non-Aggression Pledge (NAP). The one included in Oregon's bylaws was flawed - it said "use of force" rather than "initiation of force", but in light of the MIAC report that was just making the news at that time, I'm not convinced that letting go of NAP is a good idea.

Oregon's Convention was a good time, and a lot was accomplished. We had some fun, dinner with our friends, and listening to a great speaker at lunch on the Heller decision.

Oregon's Elected/Appointed Officials:

Gaston City Council Position 3 - Richard Sager
Colton School Board Position 4 - Marty Soehrman
Beaverton School Committee, Elmonica Elementary Position 3 - Adam Mayer
Tualatin Valley Water District Commissioner Position 4 - Richard Burke
Tigard Water Board Position 2 (Chair) - Charles Radley
Beaverton School Committee, Beaveron High Position 3 - Inessa Hamilton-Lee
Beaverton School Committee, Elmonica Elementary Position 1 - Greg Rohde
Mtn. View Middle School Local School Committee Position 1- Mark Delphine
Elmonica Elementary School Local School Committee, Position 1 - Greg Rohde

Congratulations, Oregon Libertarians!

The Real Washington™

Our new Clark County (Vancouver, WA area) affiliate has a school board candidate. That group has a website, and they’ve done a very nice job.

LPWA continues to put out a monthly newsletter, thanks to editor Michael Wilson, who is no longer in Vancouver. It’s been a great fundraising source for us. We just received an $800 donation and a great page long thank you letter from one member, through that newsletter.

I am working with the Independent Voter’s Coalition to change ballot access laws in Washington. This coalition consists of Green, Progressive, Constitution Party, and of course, the Libertarian Party.

We’ll have an exciting, active presence at Hempfest and it’s Olympia, WA sister festival.

Thanks to all the team in Washington!

Convention Delegate's Manual - 2010 St. Louis, MO

2009-06-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

As it looks like the Delegate Manual for Convention '10 may not be printed, please be prepared by reading and or printing.

State Chairs - would you please check your delegate totals, membership totals, etc. and make sure that they are correct?

Bob Sullentrup to statechairs, lnc-discuss Jun 21

Dear State Chairs:

As you may or may not know, convention delegate allocation is based on two factors:

1. The vote totals by state for our most recent presidential nominee and

2. The sustaining membership counts by state six months before the convention.

The Delegation Chair’s Manual posted a couple of months back:

https://www.lp.org/files/Delegation%20Chair's%20Manual%202010.pdf

explains all of this. See pages 22-23 for the delegate allocations. Please review and let me know of any corrections to the presidential vote totals by July 1.

Meanwhile, it has been my practice since I became Secretary to produce Delegation Chairs Manuals for each of the affiliates. I did so because one of the things my predecessor, Steve Givot, said to me when I took over for him 57 days before the Atlanta Convention in 2004 was “you won’t believe the number of simple-minded questions you will get including ‘how many delegates does our state get?’.”

As volunteer leaders of the Party who have achieved our positions because we are responsible and get things done, we all lead busy lives. How could Steve expect people to remember the details of an e-mail they had received back in January? It seemed to me this problem was a simple matter of communication that a DCM could solve. I have never gotten one question at any of the three conventions I’ve served as secretary about delegate allocation or much of anything else administrative that could not be looked up in the DCM. This is important because I tend to be, if you will forgive the Missouri Ozark colloquialism, busier than a one-legged man in an a$$ kicking contest.

My question for you is this. Should I produce hardcopy DCMs for St. Louis 2010 (May 29-31 over Memorial Day)? I suspect someone in your delegation will have a laptop and could be persuaded to download the PDF from the link above. The DCMs typically cost about $15 to produce and ship – courtesy of Diane and me -- and I would otherwise donate the savings to the Party to use for other purposes.

Bob Sullentrup

National Secretary

At-Large Credentials Committee - Apply now!

2009-06-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

The LNC will be choosing the At-Large Credentials Committee members at our July 2009 meeting.

Below is the information. If you are interested, please apply ASAP.

National Credentials Committee Member

This position serves the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) to prepare and facilitate the credentialing of delegates to the biennial National LP Convention. There are 10 people on the credentials committee; five are appointed by the LNC and 5 are appointed by the top five states in membership as of 7 months prior to the convention.

Someone serving in this committee is expected to be a member of the Libertarian Party and to attend the 2010 Convention being held in St. Louis over Memorial Day weekend. Attention to detail, a professional attitude, and a customer-service oriented mindset are important qualities in a potential appointee. He or she must maintain complete honesty and a lack of bias to ensure the credibility of the votes and elections held during the course of the convention.

The Credentials Committee is currently working to develop an updated and streamlined credentialing process for the 2010 convention, creating an excellent opportunity for an appointee to hit the ground running and collaborate with colleagues from across the nation. Additionally, the Credentials Committee works with all the states to ensure that a full, accurate list of delegates is submitted by each state starting in January 2010 and leading up to the national convention. Usually a committee member is assigned to work closely with 5 states to help them fulfill their reporting requirements. Once the convention starts, Credentials Committee members take shifts working at the credentials desk to facilitate the check-in and –out of delegates in order to provide accurate counts for voting and other functions.

Required Qualifications:

- Member of the LP
- Attention to detail
- Excellent communication skills
- Professional attitude, honesty, and lack of bias under pressure
- Ability to learn complex systems
- Familiarity with MS Office, particularly Excel
- Reliable Internet access (regular email correspondence will be required)

Additional Qualifications: (not required, but potentially very useful)

- Familiarity with (or the ability to learn) MS Access
- Previous convention credentialing experience

If you are interested in being considered for appointment to the 2010 Credentials Committee, please email a letter of interest and statement of qualifications to the LNC Secretary, Robert Sullentrup, at rwsully@att.net by 01 July 2009. For more information, contact credentials@lp.org.

Campaign season is almost here!

2009-05-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

Campaign season is almost here! If you’ve ever thought about running for office, it’s time to start planning.

Libertarian candidates have some choices to make. There are two ways to go.

The first is to run for a small, non-partisan office. This could be anything from a water or cemetery board to a school board. These are very winnable races. Where you don’t necessarily talk about your political beliefs, but you practice them. You influence policy. Make decisions, and actually govern. School boards are a great race for this. Do not expect that people will know that you are Libertarian, do not attempt to change the world overnight. Especially on a school board – this one should be handled carefully, but can be a launching point for a politician to actually get elected to higher office. Someone who has served on a school board for 4-8 years, putting in the time, the hard work, will have some reputation and network that may help to win a legislative, or city council race.

The second is to run an educational campaign. There might be a race in your district that has no opponent, or where you just have a particular passion, but not any real hope of winning. In this type of campaign, you would run a legitimate campaign, maximizing your exposure, taking every opportunity to speak to voters and to get out the Libertarian message. All the while knowing that there is not much chance of winning. These campaigns are generally run for education and information – a way to expose people to Libertarian ideas, and talk about better government.

No matter which strategy you decide on, never enter into a race for a job that you wouldn’t take, unless it is a strategy. For instance, one time Ruth Bennett ran for Lt. Governor on the platform that, if elected, she would abolish the office of Lt. Governor. Jack Tanner, and a couple of our Florida Libertarians, got elected to a board that accomplished nothing, and cost taxpayers a lot of money, and then they shut it down. All brilliant Libertarian strategists. Thank you, gentlepeople.

What do you plan to do? Need help deciding? Go to your county auditor, or secretary of State’s website, and see what offices are up for election this fall.

What sounds attractive or interesting to you? What fits with your interests, skills?

Once you have an office in mind, start doing the research.

What are the issues?

Is this office something that has been in the news recently? Corrupt? Incompetent?

Spending too much money?

Look up Voter Guide Statements for the race in past years.

Pay particular attention to the statement of the winner.

Start to write a statement that incorporates Libertarian values. Be careful that you don’t include any information that, no matter how true or Libertarian, has no connection to the office. (In other words, in a City Council race, you do not mention federal or state issues. This is not where you talk about your 911 Truth beliefs, or your Birther convictions, or your desire to build ZeroG space stations.)

Then start to prepare –

Get a photo taken – preferably a professional shot. Dress for a professional job interview (it is!), and be cautious about any emblems, symbols, or backgrounds. You want a photo that makes you look relaxed, confident, and approachable. Susan Hogarth reviewed a lot of candidate photos last season – I found it helpful.

Have you been in touch with your local LP affiliate to ask for endorsement, campaign help, volunteers? Do it now. This is also a good place to start to get help from Libertarians with your Voter Guide Statement and talking points.

Put together a list of friends, family, business contacts and organizations that you can ask for donations and help. Even people who don’t have money usually have something that they can help you with. Putting up signs. Sending out an eMail on your behalf. Phone numbers of people who do have money. Ideas.

Get online, and find a domain name. JoeSmithForCongress.org. Do not use JoeSmithForCongress.freewebs.com, or something like that. It should be simple, understandable, easy.

Now is the time to get online, if you haven’t already. Set up eMail accounts through Google which also gives you

Google Calendar (Great for scheduling candidate events! The entire team can access the calendar.),

Google Docs (for leaving Voter Guide Statement, photos and position papers, literature for events, etc.)

Get a Facebook account for the campaign. Be sure that it is used for only campaign things. No pictures of you doing beer bongs at a frat party. Which means be careful who you friend. Maybe the campaign account is named Willis Campaign, or Willis for Congress. Or rather than a whole account, set up a Fan page and group for the campaign.

Start a blog. I prefer Wordpress.com. You can download and host Wordpress on your own domain (best), but if not, or to start, get WillisForCongress.wordpress.com. You can move the blog later, or even just link from your website. On the blog, comment on news stories or developments that are current and germane to your race. Always offer a Libertarian solution.

Here’s an example of a blog entry . . .

"Pleasantville’s City Council plans to raise taxes by 30% to pay for the new park and rec center (make part of that sentence a link to the news story).

Since Libertarians prefer to spend within our means, and not burden your children for recreational facilities, I would first solicit private donations (in exchange for naming), then set up a system where users of the rec center would pay fees for classes, groups would pay rental fees to use the facilities, and businesses and individuals could either provide ongoing financial support or maintenance.

In this way, I estimate that we would only have to raise taxes 10%. Of course, my preference would be to wait until we could raise the complete cost of the facility from private sources and community fundraising before we broke ground and then support it through user fees. "

This example, while some would attack it as un-Libertarian, offers both the proposed Libertarian solution and a compromise. (Often, Libertarians in office find that they can reduce government by offering something less than the original “full meal deal”. Being the lone “No” vote may make you feel good, it really doesn’t accomplish anything. Making an amendment to a motion can begin some discussion in a meeting that just “No” doesn’t achieve. Offering people smaller government solutions helps to wean them off the habit of taxes extracted at the point of a gun. Who knows, maybe by the time a voter has read your blog and smaller government ideas for several months, they may actually be ready to face the idea of life without the all-encompassing government control!)

Start to tweet. Sign up at twitter.com. Use one of the link shrinkers to make the link to your blog entry tiny, and tweet it each time you blog. For example – Willis offers small government solution to 30% tax increase – http://is.gd/cBni. #tlot #liberty Don’t forget the appropriate hashtags – those #tlot and #liberty words at the end. They’re a “filing” system for twitter. More info on hashtags.

Now that you’re blogging, and tweeting, use the tweets as your Facebook status. This is a great way to stimulate discussion among your Facebook friends, and teach more about Libertarian philosophy. Add as many Facebook friends as you can within your voting district. Search for likely suspects, and add them.

Write letters to the editor that are basically your blog articles. You may have make some minor adjustments for format or clarity. Post them to local newspaper’s forums.

Take a few minutes to go to DonorTownSquare.com, PayPal.com and then ChipIn.com. Set up accounts at all of them. Add the widgets to all of your sites.

Since all of this can be a lot of work, and you haven’t even started the “real life” work of the campaign yet, consider having a truted volunteer of family member function as your “online campaign manager”. All of this can be done by a ghost-writer, even remotely. Your cousin George could be sitting in Berthoud, CO, writing your blog and conducting your online campaign for City Council in Portland, OR.

Now, starts the physical part. Doorbelling. One great candidate that I know started in early spring, walking his neighborhood, knocking on doors, introducing himself.

"Hi, I’m Willis, and I’m running for City Council this fall. I have this piece to let you know what I’m about, and I’d appreciate you taking a few minutes to take a look at it. It has contact information for me on it, and you can call or eMail me with any questions you might have. Have a great evening, and if you think my ideas sound good, I’d appreciate your vote."

He knocked on his neighbor’s doors several evenings a week and some weekends, and won the election in the fall.

Always attend neighborhood events, town celebrations, etc. They are great opportunities for networking and campaigning. And do I need to say it? Always have your pocket sized campaign piece in your pocket, and a slim jim or something when appropriate.

More later – the fun stuff, like public forums, interviews, candidate ratings . . .

Have you ever thought of running for office?

2009-05-09T17:19:00.000-07:00

What are the issues?

Is this office something that has been in the news recently? Corrupt? Incompetent?

Spending too much money?

Look up Voter Guide Statements for the race in past years.

Pay particular attention to the statement of the winner.

Start to write a statement that incorporates Libertarian values. Be careful that you don’t include any information that, no matter how true or Libertarian, has no connection to the office. (In other words, in a City Council race, you do not mention federal or state issues. This is not where you talk about your 911 Truth beliefs, or your Birther convictions, or your desire to build ZeroG space stations.)

Then start to prepare –

Get a photo taken – preferably a professional shot. Dress for a professional job interview (it is!), and be cautious about any emblems, symbols, or backgrounds. You want a photo that makes you look relaxed, confident, and approachable. Susan Hogarth reviewed a lot of candidate photos last season – I found it helpful.

Have you been in touch with your local LP affiliate to ask for endorsement, campaign help, volunteers? Do it now. This is also a good place to start to get help from Libertarians with your Voter Guide Statement and talking points.

Put together a list of friends, family, business contacts and organizations that you can ask for donations and help. Even people who don’t have money usually have something that they can help you with. Putting up signs. Sending out an eMail on your behalf. Phone numbers of people who do have money. Ideas.

Get online, and find a domain name. JoeSmithForCongress.org. Do not use JoeSmithForCongress.freewebs.com, or something like that. It should be simple, understandable, easy.

Now is the time to get online, if you haven’t already. Set up eMail accounts through Google which also gives you

Google Calendar (Great for scheduling candidate events! The entire team can access the calendar.),

Google Docs (for leaving Voter Guide Statement, photos and position papers, literature for events, etc.)

"Pleasantville’s City Council plans to raise taxes by 30% to pay for the new park and rec center (make part of that sentence a link to the news story).

Since Libertarians prefer to spend within our means, and not burden your children for recreational facilities, I would first solicit private donations (in exchange for naming), then set up a system where users of the rec center would pay fees for classes, groups would pay rental fees to use the facilities, and businesses and individuals could either provide ongoing financial support or maintenance.

In this way, I estimate that we would only have to raise taxes 10%. Of course, my preference would be to wait until we could raise the complete cost of the facility from private sources and community fundraising before we broke ground and then support it through user fees. "

"Hi, I’m Willis, and I’m running for City Council this fall. I have this piece to let you know what I’m about, and I’d appreciate you taking a few minutes to take a look at it. It has contact information for me on it, and you can call or eMail me with any questions you might have. Have a great evening, and if you think my ideas sound good, I’d appreciate your vote."

Lp Oregon Convention

2009-04-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

The Libertarian Party of Oregon held our convention March 14 & March
15. Here are the list of officers and e-mail information.

Chairman: Joseph Cornwell
jrcorn@mindless.com
Vice-chariman: Marc Delphine
marcdelphine@gmail.com
Secretary: Christiana Mayer
christianamayer@gmail.com
Treasurer: Justin Grover
j.grover@notablevideo.com

Thanks and CONGRATULATIONS to all of these courageous individuals for taking on the working positions! We really appreciate your work for Liberty.

There were numerous changes made to the bylaws, including deleting the Non-Aggression Pledge (NAP). The one included in Oregon's bylaws was flawed - it said "use of force" rather than "initiation of force", but in light of the MIAC report that was just making the news at that time, I'm not convinced that letting go of NAP is a good idea.

Oregon's Convention was a good time, and a lot was accomplished. We had some fun, dinner with our friends, and listening to a great speaker at lunch on the Heller decision.

Plan on attending next year . . . maybe a joint convention - Washington and Oregon?

How will I create more Liberty today?

2009-03-11T14:43:00.000-07:00

Here are a few simple ideas to help create more Liberty . . .

Watch the legislature's website, and write legislators about bills that infringe on freedom. Once you've written that letter, adapt it a little and send it to the Editor of your local newspaper.
Go to the capitol or your city council meeting, and speak about an issue.
Write a letter to the editor about a news item. Offer a Libertarian solution, or a smaller government option.
If you Facebook or twitter, post a message that makes people think about issues related to Liberty. A Facebook or twitter account with hundreds of friends and followers can plant a seed in a lot of minds.
Start a blog and cultivate followers. You can use Facebook or twitter to promote. Get reciprocal links to other sites.
Take your libertarian or freedom oriented magazines and newsletters to coffee shops or libraries, if they have a public reading material basket.
Leave copies of our newsletter in the library's newspaper area. Usually it's at the front - where they put the piles of The Weekly and Stranger.
Start a discussion group, or a free class to study Liberty.
Volunteer to give a presentation to a class at a school or senior center on American History and the founding of the US, or on libertarianism, or voting . . .
Post message of positive libertarian philosophy on blogs or bulletin boards, either electronic or hard copy.
Put a Liberty message on your car - a bumper sticker or a window sign. Make sure it can be read while driving.

Messages are always better received when they are simple, easy to understand, short, and positive.

Post your ideas or results in the comments here . . . and have a gentle day! :o)

Open borders?

2009-03-09T20:47:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I got an eMail that said “I cannot support the LP because of its “open borders” policy.”

I replied that "Since libertarians believe in freedom and Liberty for all people, "open borders" is an inviolable (IMO) part of our platform."

Later in the day, Hugs and I were shopping for a birthday gift for his 87 year old mother. He found “Ellis Island: An Illustrated History of the Immigrant Experience” at Powell's Books in Portland. While we drove back to Seattle, I looked through it.

The images, both graphic and verbal, are vivid – the farm laborer from Serbia, eyes wide to keep the tears from falling, who was sent back; the story of the little girl who had a rash on her face, and whose coat was marked with chalk to deny entry; the photos of tiny little children’s shoes: from China, Austria, Albania and Greece. Portraits and stories of thousands of people who risked death to travel in steerage; who, hungry, cold and proud, presented themselves for the humiliation and pain of the physical examinations at Ellis Island.

Stories about the monotonous, bland food, which, while filling and plentiful, was the “least common denominator” – that which offended most people the least. (Apparently, the Italians hated the oatmeal, and the Jews kept kosher, of course; and most of the other groups didn’t like the food of one group or another.)

This country was founded by people seeking refuge from religious oppression. For a century, it was filled by groups of people seeking relief from oppression, from poverty, and from war.

They came here, not seeking a handout, nor even a hand up, just the opportunity to work hard, to earn money, and to live free in a free land.

We started with a great experiment in freedom . . . "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore”.

And what have we done with it? We’ve built a fence and slammed the gate, because “you’re too tired, too poor, and there are too many of you huddled outside the gate”.

The unintended consequence of our “we must help those less fortunate” policies have hurt the very people they were intended to help. The United States of America is no longer the refuge of oppressed people looking for opportunity.

As Ben Franklin left the Constitutional Convention, a woman asked him, “….. Sir, what have you given us”. Ben’s response was, “…… a ‘Republic’ ma’am, if you can keep it.”

And we’ve not kept it.

In the attempt to help people, we’ve created a situation where we now want to exclude those who most need help.

A Libertarian solution would be to end the welfare programs that people are afraid we can't afford to offer to anyone who can slip over our borders; and allow peaceful people to travel freely. Private charities could choose who they offered help to.

Because government is not the answer. Freedom works best.

Florida will hold its annual meeting and convention in Jacksonville

2009-02-18T13:12:00.000-08:00

The Libertarian Party of Florida will hold its annual meeting and convention on March 28-29, 2009 at the Hampton Inn located at 4415 Southside Blvd in Jacksonville, Florida. (Use the code LIBERTARIAN when you register.)

If you wish to vote on party business at the convention you will need to be registered as a Libertarian with your county's supervisor of elections office 60 days prior to the convention and have signed the Libertarian Party pledge.

Offices up for elections are:

Chair (2 years term),
Vice-Chair (2 year term), and all
the regional representative positions (1 year term).

Random reviews . . .

Highly Recommend

By A Yahoo! Contributor, 06/11/06

I stayed at The Hampton Inn while in town for business. It is located near all the restaurants, mall & the freeway. The rooms are very clean, especially the bathrooms. They offer complimentary breakfast, free internet access & also internet access in the rooms. The front desk staff is very helpful. I highly recommend this hotel for families & business travelers.

Editorial Review for Hampton Inn – by Robyn Galbos

In Short
Part of the Hilton hotel family, this chain caters to travelers by offering high-quality accommodations at mid-range rates. Amenities include complimentary in-room high-speed Internet access, coffeemakers, irons and portable lap desks. Coffee and tea are offered round-the-clock in the lobby, and a free breakfast buffet with items like muffins, eggs, sausage and fruit is served daily. Fax service is available at the front desk.

LPWA Convention Details! Lark, Novoselic, StandupEconomist

2009-02-17T14:48:00.000-08:00

On March 28, 2009

Convention begins 9:00 a.m.

Business Mtg. 10:00 a.m.

Plan on spending all day and evening with us! Dinner, speaker and entertainment included.

Hilton Garden Inn

1800 NW Gilman Blvd, Issaquah, WA



Highlights . . .

Business Meeting

-Time to elect a new Executive Committee!

South of the Border Buffet Lunch

Fajita style Chicken Breast with peppers & onions

Taco seasoned Ground Beef

Spanish Rice, Refried Beans

Pico de gallo, shredded cheese, lettuce, guacamole,

jalapenos, black olive &sour cream

With warm tortillas, crisp taco shells, tortilla chips & Black bean salad

With fresh Brewed Coffee, Herbal Teas, Assorted Bottles of Sodas and Fresh Baked Cookies

Great workshops!

            - Grassroots organizing

            - Social Media

            - Communicating Libertarian solutions to controversy

Enlightening speakers!



James W. Lark, III, PhD is a former chairman of the Libertarian National Committee and presently serves as a regional representative on the LNC for region 5-South. He is a founding director of the Libertarian National Congressional Committee.

Dr. Lark is the Local Affiliate Parties' Committee chairman and is heavily involved with campus outreach, both for Virginia and the national party. He has conducted organizing tours and workshops on this. He currently teaches a campus organizing course for the Libertarian Leadership School.

Professionally, he is an adjunct professor of systems engineering at the University of Virginia.

Dr. Lark will present an afternoon workshop on basic principles of community/campus organizing; and will be the luncheon speaker with his presentation entitled "Knee-Jerk Libertarianism: A Cure for a Common Disease."




Krist Novoselic, former bassist of Nirvana, Sweet 75, Eyes Adrift and Flipper; political activist and Seattle Weekly columnist, Chair of FairVote.org and author of "Of Grunge & Government: Let's Fix This Broken Democracy!" In the book, Novoselic discusses how Nirvana emerged as the world's biggest band of the early 1990s, how he got involved in politics and why we need electoral reform -- in particular full representation and instant runoff voting.

Krist will be our dinner speaker.

A wonderful dinner, with your choice of . . .

     - Roast Chicken glazed with Chipotle Barbecue Sauce     or

     - Spinach and Portabella Mushroom Vegetarian Lasagne

Both entrees include . . .

Garden Inn Signature Salad with House Dressing, Rolls and Butter,

Chef’s selection of starch, fresh vegetable & plated dessert

Freshly Brewed Coffee & Assorted Herbal Teas

ENTERTAINMENT!



Yoram Bauman, Ph.D.
The world's first and only
stand-up economist*
As seen on Comedy Central the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

* Among those who may take issue with this claim are "socialist magician" Ian Saville; Robert Mundell, Columbia, who won the Nobel Prize and appears regularly on Dave Letterman; Victor Fuchs, Stanford (pic); William Breit, Trinity; Peter Orazem, Iowa State; Ben Stein ("cited by Akerlof"); Tim Harford, "Dear Economist" author for the FT; Steven Tomlinson, UT Austin; Ariel Rubinstein, Tel Aviv University; David Powell, Boston Comedy Festival finalist and MIT grad student; Paul Solman, PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer; Shaun Eli, a comic who graduated from the Wharton School; Steve Zanetti of Freeman H.S. (Richmond VA); and James Kurre of Penn State Erie. Apologies to all, and email me if you belong on this list. PS. As long as I'm apologizing, my video "Principles of Economics, Translated" contains two unattributed quotes ("9 out of 5" is adapted from a line attributed to Paul Samuelson---although apparently he said it about Wall Street indices, not macroeconomists---and "wrong about things" is paraphrased from P.J. O'Rourke's Eat the Rich) and, of course, the Einstein "simple" quote is an intentional misquote.

Other highlights of the day . . .

A Free Market – vendors and information tables

The SoapBox – where you can have a moment with the microphone and a captive audience

Social Gathering – have an adult beverage or lots of hydrogen hydroxide with Libertarian friends

The opportunity to join the LPWA Coffee Club, meet National LP leaders, elected Libertarians and famous comics!

All at the Hilton Gardens Inn in blossoming Issaquah – a jewel on the Eastside of Lake Washington, just a short drive from Seattle.

Get tools to take away and use!

Act now - EARLY registration . . . until February 20, 2009

                    only $109!

The full day, including three meals, an evening of entertainment, workshops, tools, social opportunities and LOTS of FUN is only $119 after Feb. 20th

Special student rate $85

Work/study program for students who will work for 4 hrs $50 – limited number of students at this rate

Or special dinner deal – Dinner, speaker Krist Novoselic, and comic Yoram Bauman only $55!

To register -

Go here and make a donation for the correct amount - $109 until Feb 20, $119 after Feb 20, Student $85, Work/Study $50

Then send eMail to LPWAConvention@gmail.com with . . .

1. your name,

2. contact information (address, phone, eMail), and

3. dinner choice - chicken or veggie.

If you want to do a work/study deal ($50 student rate) - I'll need to talk to you about when you wish to work during the convention.

It's going to be a great time! See you then.

We are looking for . . .

1. Vendors - do you have a book, DVD, or other product? Want to promote your business?

2. Advertisers - promote your business or sell your stuff.

3. Sponsors - In-kind donations or scholarship for students.

4. Volunteers also cheerfully accepted.     :o)   eMail LPWAConvention@gmail.com

Oregon Convention Details

2009-02-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

The convention will be held at the Shilo Inn Suites Oceanfront Hotel -
Newport 536 SW Elizabeth Newport, OR 97365 on March 14 and March 15.
Information and room reservations here. More information here. Plan to stay at the Shilo - that's how LP Oregon will pay the expenses of the convention.

There is going to a lunch on March 14 with a featured speaker. We
should know in a few days who will be speaking at lunch.

This convention has the potential to shape the direction of the
Libertarian Party of Oregon for years to come because of the overhaul
of the bylaws that are being proposed.

I hope that see you in Newport in March and if you have questions you
can contact me at christianamayer@gmail.com.

Some reviews from Shilo Inn guests . . .

"The rooms were gorgeous, clean and the view was spectacular. I hated tohave to leave the next day. The connecting restaurant was also good.For dinner and breakfast."

"The people working there were great and very friendly. A plus of the hotel is that there is alwaysfree fruit, popcorn, fresh baked cookies, coffee, tea, and hotchocolate in the lobby. The cookies were great, and I think I ate toomany of them."

"I recommend this hotel for: Young singles, An amazing honeymoon, A romantic getaway, Girlfriendgetaway, People with disabilities, Older travelers, Families with youngchildren, Families with teenagers, Tourists

I selected this hotel as a top choice for: Beach / Sun, Museums / Cultural / Historical sites, Gambling / Casinos, Outdoor / Adventure, Shopping"

Gambling?! ;o) Indoor pool, free internet access. And Libertarians are usually good for a party on Saturday night. If there's nothing official planned, then plan on a party. :o)

Florida will hold its annual meeting and convention in Jacksonville

2009-02-10T07:59:00.000-08:00

By A Yahoo! Contributor, 06/11/06

Editorial Review for Hampton Inn – by Robyn Galbos

Florida State Convention!

2009-01-28T12:28:00.000-08:00

LP Florida's Convention is scheduled for the weekend of March 28th. Hold the date - it should be a great program, and I hope that you'll be there! Where, costs, and more information soon.

Oregon State Convention!

2009-01-28T11:21:00.000-08:00

LP Oregon's website is undergoing a complete rebuild, and it looks absolutely fabulous! Check it out.

State Convention Agenda

Call to order at 9:00am on Saturday March 14, 2009

Credential Report from Secretary

Officer Reports

Chairman
Vice-Chairman
Secretary
Treasurer

Committee Reports

LPO Audit Committee

Guest speaker on libertarian issues.

Amendments to LPO Constitution and Bylaws

Recess at Noon for lunch and the convention will resume at 1:30pm.

Speakers on libertarian issues 20 minutes

Resume Amendments to LPO Constitution and Bylaws

Recess at 5:00pm till Sunday

Call to order at 9:00am on Sunday, March 15, 2009

Elections to LPO office

Chairman
Vice-chairman
Secretary
Treasurer
Judicial Committee

Guest speaker on Libertarian issues.

Resolutions and other business

It sounds like a great program, and I hope that we'll see you there! Where, costs, and more information soon.

LPWA Convention! Announcement

2009-01-27T13:48:00.000-08:00

On March 28, 2009

Convention begins 9:00 a.m.

Business Mtg. 10:00 a.m.

Hilton Garden Inn
1800 NW Gilman Blvd, Issaquah, WA

Highlights . . .

Business Meeting    - Time to elect a new Executive Committee!

South of the Border Lunch Buffet

Great workshops!
        - Grassroots organizing
        - Social Media
        - Communicating Libertarian solutions to controversy

Enlightening speakers!

A wonderful dinner, with your choice of . . .
     - Roast Chicken glazed with Chipotle Barbecue Sauce     or
     - Spinach and Portabella Mushroom Vegetarian Lasagne

ENTERTAINMENT!

Learn HOW to run and win a local campaign!

Get tools to take away and use!

Act now - EARLY registration . . . until February 11, 2009
                    only $109!

The full day, including three meals, an evening of entertainment, workshops, tools, social opportunities and LOTS of FUN is only $119 after Feb. 11

Special student rate $85
Work/study program for students who will work for 4 hrs $50

To register -

Go here and make a donation for the correct amount - $109 until Feb 11, $119 after Feb 11, Student $85, Work/Study $50

Then send eMail to LPWAConvention@gmail.com with . . .
1. your name,
2. contact information (address, phone, eMail), and
3. dinner choice - chicken or veggie.

If you want to do a work/study deal - I'll need to talk to you about when you wish to work during the convention.

It's going to be a great time! See you then.

Jack Tanner, Libertarian hero

2008-12-28T09:43:00.000-08:00

What happens when a gentle 74 year old man sees an injustice; a waste of taxpayer resource?

If that man is Libertarian Jack Tanner, eventually, a wasteful government program is ended.

What would out world be like if each of us did what we could to change the world around us? To right a wrong?

Could you afford 15 minutes a day, or an hour or two a week? Watch here in January for ideas on how to help . . .

Can you afford a couple of dollars a week? Call Louise at 202.333.0008 to make a monthly pledge - make it the best one you can afford, we love those big dollar donations, but even $10-20 month is a great help. You can also make one time donations at LP.org. Either way, tell them Rachel sent you. And thanks!

Go out and make it a gentle day! :o)

"WAIT! IT'S FREE: STARTING JAN. 1!"

2008-12-21T11:20:00.000-08:00

On January 1, both Oregon and Washington will force your neighbors to pay to get rid of your electronics junk.

"Starting Jan. 1, recycle TVs, computers for free in Oregon and Washington"
Portland Oregonian December 26, 2008

"Electronics Recycling Law May Reduce Computer Reuse" says a press release from Electronics Reuse Network.

"Beginning January 1 of 2009, televisions, monitors, computers, and laptops are required to be recycled in the State of Washington at no cost to the consumer. (No cost to the consumer? Kind of like paying more on the front end of the computer, so that the manufacturer can pay to dispose of it at the back end? That kind of "no cost"?)

However, according to computer reuse organizations, the new law will actually make it more difficult for computers to be refurbished and reused.

The law states that organizations can only reuse "fully functional" computers that they collect.

Miles Kuntz, manager of the Electronic Product Recycling program at Department of Ecology affirms, “The rules require that computers pulled for reuse must be fully functional. Minor fixes or parts replacement by collectors is not allowed in the E-Cycle Washington program.”

Non-functional computers must be passed on to recyclers for processing."

Have you ever had a fully functional, but outdated PC when you bought an upgrade, and pulled the old hard drive to use as a backup? Or had the hard drive fail on an otherwise good computer, but decided to upgrade rather than replace the hard drive?

In Washington, those computers must go to recyclers, rather than to a resale shop.

And apparently, Oregon's law is just as silly. "This law, though well intended, is focused only on recycling. Everything coming into the state program must go to a shredder. At
NextStep, we see the value of REUSE BEFORE RECYCLING, and the importance of capturing technology and redistributing refurbished material to our community members." Only one reuse organization is allowed to reuse computer equipment in Oregon.

Fortunately, it appears that in Florida it is still possible to reuse old equipment.

Idaho recently created a Cathode Ray Tube Disposal Committee to discuss proper end-of-life management. (Their words - "end-of-life management"? Assisted suicide for computer equipment? :o)

Hawai'i has passed legislation that will force manucfaturers to recycle equipment, which goes into effect 1 July, 2009. On first read, it does not appear that Hawai'ian law requires recycling of anything reusable.

In the past, used electronic gear has been reused here and abroad. Relatively recent models have long been desired by low-income people and groups. Several programs have collected used 386s and monochromatic monitors and every usable bit they can get, and shipped them to less developed countries. When you've never seen a computer before, a 286 and green screen is still a fabulous tool. Washington and Oregon's programs will prevent these programs from doing their work.

What's the message? If you want something really messed up, let government do it.

Please note that the Oregonian link lists many recycling facilities in both OR and WA. FreeGeek.org in Oregon looks like a good place, and I'm not sure it's listed there.

Voluntary recycling is a better idea. In both WA and OR, the legislatures have micromanaged it into an untenable position.

Mixed results from LNC meeting . . .

2008-12-10T12:39:00.000-08:00

This just concluded LNC meeting has some interesting results . . .


The Keaton brouhaha was concluded in a less than perfect fashion. Stewart Flood finally presented his 23 pages of evidence to support his "Resolution of Discipline" on Saturday morning, leaving The Keaton no time to prepare a defense, nor any other members of the Committee to digest it.

The implications of this became very clear after the presentation, when one member of the Committee discovered that being named as an administrator on a Facebook page (especially since this can be done without any input from the person being named) does not constitute being an officer in the party, nor necessarily "providing material support".

After much emoting by Stewart, Michael Jingozian moved that we constitute a "Dispute Resolution Committee" and that he populate it the following morning. That motion passed, and the members of the committee are Michael Jingozian, as non-voting Chair; Rachel

Hawkridge, Tony Ryan, Mary Ruwart, Rebecca Sink-Burris, Admiral Michael Colley.

There was a lengthy discussion on the budget, and an Executive Session on the budget, and from the numbers presented in Open Session, it was obvious that the LP needs major fundraising. If you want the LP to continue, if you appreciate the only political party that does promote Liberty, if you recognize that the LP is the political arm of the libertarian movement, please go to LP.org and make a donation, or better yet, call Louise at (202) 333-0008 and make a monthly pledge. Either mention my name, or shoot me an eMail and let me know that you've done it, please.

Then some good news - on coming out of Executive Session, Pat Dixon moved that the LNC move money previously appropriated for the inheritance lawsuit to support Washington's "Top Two" lawsuit. The motion was overwhelmingly approved, with only Aaron Starr voting against it.

The LNC also approved this resolution without objection . . .

RESOLUTION CONDEMNING DOMESTIC DEPLOYMENT OF U.S. MILITARY

WHEREAS, the domestic deployment of 20,000 uniformed military personnel planned by the United States government undermines the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which forbids the use of the military for domestic policing; and,

WHEREAS, such a deployment is an alarming example of the increasing militarization of our society; and,

WHEREAS, the increasing use of active duty military personnel, has, and will, lead to the abuse of American civil liberties, such as violations of the Fourth Amendment; and,

WHEREAS, a state's National Guard (not active duty members of Army combat units) is the appropriate authority to handle local emergencies and disasters should they arise; and,

WHEREAS, the use of the 3rd Infantry Division 1st Brigade Combat Team during a time of war puts further tension on an already strained U.S. military.

THEREFORE, be it resolved, the Libertarian National Committee and its undersigned members hereby condemn the plans of the federal government to deploy 20,000 active duty members of the U.S. military to serve, for whatever reason, domestically in the United States.

Furthermore, the Libertarian National Committee calls for the immediate abandonment of these plans, and instead suggests that should an emergency response team comprised of members other than local emergency responders (fire, police, HAZMAT) be developed and trained, it consist of members of the National Guard not active duty personnel of the United States military.

The Libertarian National Committee calls for the citizens of the United States to protest this militarization of our society, and its encroachment on American civil liberties, to their local, state and federal representatives.

This resolution originally came from Austin Peterson - I found reference to it on Facebook, and presented it to the LNC. The final version was written by Andrew Davis.

I want to especially recognize Austin's leadership in this matter . . .

And on Monday, Angela Keaton resigned from the Libertarian National Committee, citing the negative
effects on her real job, and on her health.

LNC Agenda Update -

2008-11-30T19:53:00.000-08:00

The agenda for this weekend's LNC meeting has been revised -

Start time 8 am!

Don't be late! I shouldn't have to be bleary-eyed, cranky AND lonely!

Agenda San Diego LNC Meeting

2008-11-25T18:18:00.001-08:00

Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
December 6-7, 2008 Meeting Agenda
San Diego, California

Saturday, December 6, 2008 & Sunday, December 7, 2008

Call to Order 8:30 AM

Moment of Reflection 1 minute
Opportunity for Public Comment 10 minutes
Credentials Report and Paperwork Check (Secretary) 5 minutes
Report of Potential Conflicts of Interest 5 minutes
Approval of the Agenda 5 minutes

Standing Reports
Chair's Report 20 minutes
Treasurer's Report 30 minutes
Secretary's Report 10 minutes

Wayne Allyn Root to Address the LNC 30 minutes
Discipline of Angela Keaton 30 minutes

Staff Report
Staff Reports 60 minutes
Counsel's Report 15 minutes

Action Items Previously Submitted in Writing
0 minutes

Reports Previously Submitted in Writing
Campus Organizing Report (Lark) 5 minutes
Various Regions 5 minutes per

Action Items Not Previously Submitted in Writing

Mission Statement (Hawkridge) 60 minutes
Goals (Lark/Dixon) 60 minutes
Executive Director Search (Colley) 10 minutes
Budget 2009 (Starr) (already submitted in writing) 120 minutes
Convention 2010 (Colley) 15 minutes
Convention Electronic Voting Demonstration (Mattson) 30 minutes
Bylaws Committee Report (Karlan) 10 minutes
LNCC Report (Hawkridge) 10 minutes
Policy Manual Amendment—Authorization of Lawsuits (Lark) 20 minutes
Policy Manual Amendment—Mail Ballot Reporting (Karlan) 10 minutes
LNC Meeting Video Recording & Archiving (Keaton) 15 minutes
Executive Session Minutes/Confidentiality (Fox) 15 minutes
LP News Content (Keaton) 15 minutes

Set LNC Meeting Dates for July orAug. & Nov. or Dec. 2009 15 minutes
Opportunity for Public Comment 10 minutes

Adjournment

Second Amendment Foundation Hits Target

2008-11-23T15:23:00.001-08:00

It was one of the most laborious and disgusting clean-up jobs that had to be done after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005.

Finally the Second Amendment Foundation has achieved satisfaction in
its “clean-up” lawsuit against the city of New Orleans for using the
hurricane as an excuse to grab guns from law-abiding citizens. (more)

Congratulations and kudos to The Second Amendment Foundation!

Unofficial election results - Oregon state races

2008-11-23T15:15:00.000-08:00

Here are the unofficial results from the state elections in Oregon . . .

President

Bob Barr / Wayne A Root

(Libertarian)

7,631

0.42%

1st Congressional District

H Joe Tabor

(Libertarian)

10,992

3.32%

5th Congressional District

Steve Milligan

(Libertarian)

4,814

1.44%

State Representative, 26th District

Marc Delphine

(Libertarian)

1,503

4.89%

State Representative, 36th District

Jay A Ellefson

(Libertarian)

1,162

3.64%

State Representative, 45th District

Jim Karlock

(Libertarian)

2,932

11.24%

Thank you, for the dedication of Your Time, Your Treasure, and Your Sacred Honor to the cause, gentlemen.

For those of you who supported these candidates, who donated Your Time and Your Treasure . . . Thank you! They couldn't have done it without you.

Important Liberty preserved . . .

2008-11-14T08:33:00.003-08:00

Both Portland and Seattle have take steps to preserve essential Liberties.

This is good; too bad they are intent on infringing more basic rights . . . Seattle's gun ban, and Portland's toy gun ban.

War Sucks! Veterans, families, art

2008-11-13T15:47:00.001-08:00

Veterans day was earlier this week. I know that. I appreciate the service of our veterans so much.

Do you know that there are people here on the civilian front who are making heroic efforts to serve our military?

Some of them are the fine folks at AntiWar.com. It's pledge time for them, and they need your help!

AntiWar.com is a 501(c)3, so your contributions are tax-deductible. These people fight the good fight everyday, doing everything they can to stop this, this and this.

This kind of work is not easy - spending all your days immersed in heartbreak, suffering, and injustice requires a special kind of strength. Show them how much you appreciate it.

How much we appreciate it.


And here in Washington State, there's another hero. A Vietnam Vet who served his country honorably and admirably. And decades later, this fabulous artist gave up his job, his routine, all semblance of a personal life to "bring home the troops".

He does it in another way . . . Michael Reagan is an artist. He spends his days (and nights) drawing portraits of Fallen Soldiers for their families.

He gets no salary, he works for love, and at great personal expense. He "feels" each soldier at a level I can't even imagine; but I can see.

Look into the eyes of these heroes, and you will too. It costs about $250 to produce each of these portraits; Mr. Reagan has completed 1200 of them.

"It's all about Love and Respect, we will <b>never</b> forget!"

Help fulfill this mission here.

The Top Two Primary has to go!

2008-11-11T11:44:00.001-08:00

Washington's current Top Two primary system is a horrible dampener of the democratic process.

Yes, it makes it easier to get on the ballot in the primary - anyone
can do it. Signatures are no longer required for anything except the
Presidential race.

Anyone who wants to run just needs to bring their filing papers down to the office, and file them.

So, what's the problem?

In a district that is overwhelmingly Democrat, the results of
the primary will always be Democrats only in the general election. The two highest vote getters will usually be two Democrats.

In a district that is overwhelmingly Republican, the results of the
primary will always be Republicans only in the general election. The two highest vote getters will usually be two Republicans.

Which leaves a large percentage of the population with no one to vote for.

In Legislative District 7, for instance, Democrats can just "whistle Dixie", as my Grandmother used to say. Nothing there for them. There are three Republican candidates for the legislature, for two positions. No Ds. No Greens. No Libertarians. No Socialists.

In District 12, same story. All Republicans.

In District 19, same story, different chapter. All Democrats.

Our old "Blanket Primary" had some problems, but we were likely to find a Democrat, a Republican, a Green or a Libertarian on the ballot line.

What would work better? What is more fair?

How about using a system where everyone could vote for the candidate
that they believe to be the best, and also designate the second-best
candidate?

This system is called Ranked Choice Voting, or RCV. Pierce County is using it this year.

It's simple, easy, and effective. Each of us would vote for up to three candidates in the order we like them.

1. Joe Smith

2. Harry Reid

3. Sylvia Jones

If an overwhelming majority found Harry Reid acceptable as a number two choice, then Harry may win. This plan leaves an overwhelming majority of people semi satisfied.

Rather than 51% (or less - a candidate for Supreme Court won with 28.36% in 1999 - that won't happen with Top Two, though) of the people happy.

Even more than that - this type of election puts an end to the kind of negative campaigning that we have been subject to for the last few years. (I have found this year particularly unpleasant, and changed my vote two days before the election, because of some negative ads.)

Candidates are unlikely to to slam their opponents when they want the supporters of that opponent to vote for them as a second choice.

And the truth is that none of the political parties like the current mess. The only group who does like it is the bureaucrats. Sam Reed says "we haven't gotten any complaints about the new system".

Let's show them that's not true.

eMail WATopTwo@gmail.com (that's us, so that we can carry hard copy to Legislative Committee meetings), Sam Reed (Secretary of State) and Sam Hunt (Government and Tribal Affairs Committee Chair)

Here's a comma delineated eMail list to cut & paste into your eMail editor . . .

hunt.sam@leg.wa.gov, repsamhunt@comcast.net, sreed@secstate.wa.gov, WATopTwo@gmail.com

Please also feel free to send your letter to any Editor of the Opinion page of a newspaper. The Tacoma Weekly is a friendly one. They have a 450 word limit.

My post to LNC-discuss list this morning

2008-11-11T11:43:00.001-08:00

Colleagues -

Hope you are all well, and recovering from the election.

Now that you (hopefully) have a few minutes, please take a minute to let us know what you know about Ballot Base.

If you remember, last week, I asked . . .

Can anyone tell me what happened to Ballot Base?

From what I understand, Shane Cory took it down. Did he do so at the direction of this body? Our Chair? Did he delete it? Or do we still have it?

We have several states who lost their entire databases, we lost a lot of money, and a great tool . . . I've been wondering about it since DC, several activists have asked me about it, and below my sig is an eMail exchange I found . . . since this post originally, I've since been told that the Barr campaign used Ballot Base (renamed Liberty Manager?).

It is important to know (for me, and for our members and affiliates) what happened. Since this is the budget meeting, how many more projects are we going to *waste* their money on? Without a reasonable explanation? (Apparently no explanation!)

We have a fairly poor reputation amongst many of the activists, and we need to fix that, IMNHO. We *must* have activists - they are the lifeblood of this movement, and the party. Without activists, there is no party.

And FYI, here's a good, quick analysis of this year's results . . .

> 2008 (Barr) 0.4% (45 states)
> 2004 (Badnarik) 0.3% (48 states plus DC)
> 2000 (Browne) 0.4% (49 states plus DC, plus Smith in Arizona)
> 1996 (Browne) 0.5% (50 states plus DC)
> 1992 (Marrou) 0.3% (50 states plus DC)
> 1988 (Paul) 0.5% (46 states plus DC)
> 1984 (Bergland) 0.3% (39 states)
> 1980 (Clark) 1.1% (50 states plus DC)
> 1976 (MacBride) 0.2% (32 states)
> 1972 (Hospers) statistically insignificant (2 states)

Have a gentle day, y'all . . . :o)

--
In Liberty,

Rachel Hawkridge
Libertarian National Committee
Region 7 Representative

Office Hours: Wednesdays 10-2 - come by, have coffee! Bring your own milk for latte (I don't keep it.)
206.792.9840
206.769.2492 cel
www.LNCRegion7.blogspot.com

An eMail list exchange . . .

Person 1> > The LNC's BallotBase voter contact tool (promised to LP
Presidential candidates in time for those primaries) crashed in
mid-December and has not been in operation since.

Person 2> Please elaborate, because I had heard similar rumors elsewhere.
> Are you saying that BB was not used for ANY calls Jan 8 in NH?

Person 1 said . . .

Ballot Base, which could have been a tool that activists
could have used to advocate with Libertarians and voters for their
candidates, if it worked, went down on December 15. The complete
caller log is available (at least at the moment) on the site.
BallotBase has not been up since. I did call the National Director,
some days ago, to discuss the matter. To his great frustration, it
has not been up since December 15.

According to its own records, and according to the National Office,
BallotBase has not been up since December 15, so it should not have
been possible to use it for calls on January 8.

Minutes of Sept Mtg - LNC

2008-10-30T13:56:00.000-07:00

LNC Meeting Minutes, September 6-7, 2008, Washington, DC

To: Libertarian National Committee

From: Bob Sullentrup

CC: Robert Kraus

Date: 9/15/2008

Current Status: Candidate for Automatic Approval

Version last updated September 8, 2008

These minutes due out in 30 days: October 7, 2008

Dates below superseded by mail ballot:

LNC comments due in 45 days: October 22, 2008

Revision released (latest) 14 days prior: November 22, 2008

Barring objection, minutes official 10 days prior: November 26, 2008

* Automatic approval dates relative to December 6 San Diego meeting

The meeting commenced at 8:37am on September 6, 2008.

Intervening Mail Ballots

LNC mail ballots since the last meeting in Denver included:

o Sent 6/6/2008. The revised minutes sent 6-6 from 5-26 are approved. Co-sponsors Bob Sullentrup, Admiral Colley, Stewart Flood, Dan Karlan. Passed 11-4 with 2 abstentions.
o Sent 6/10/2008. The minutes sent 6-9 from 5-22 are approved. Co-sponsors Bob Sullentrup, Admiral Colley, Stewart Flood, Dan Karlan. Passed 12-1 with 4 abstentions.
o Sent 6/10/2008. The APRC resolution is approved. Co-sponsors Stewart Floor, Lee Wrights, Rebecca Sink-Burris, Angela Keaton. Passed 13-3 with 1 abstention.
o Sent 6/11/2008. Remove the contribution amounts and the footnote* from the “Leadership” page on our web site and cease disclosing contributions to the “Give and Get” program to the membership, the public, or other LNC members. Co-Sponsors Mary Ruwart, Rachel Hawkridge, Julie Fox, Angela Keaton. Fails 8-9.

Moment of Reflection

Chair Bill Redpath called for a moment of reflection, a practice at LNC meetings.

Opportunity for Public Comment

Vicki Kirkland (FL) noted the Florida Executive Committee recommended Tom Stevens resign from the Party for a conflict of interest. Mr. Stevens is a candidate for office of the Objectivist party and an elector for Barr-Root in New York.

Michael Jingozian read into the minutes a letter from S. Rowan Wilson, MBA:

Fellow Libertarians,

May this letter find you in peace. The purpose of this letter is to lay the foundation for a formal request of full audit of the finance, operations and management of the Barr/Root 2008 presidential campaign.

My experiences are but a minor contribution to the numerous others who bare witness to the grave issues of this campaign. A full accounting is in order for the best of our candidates and party. It is requested that this commence immediately after the fall election by an independent third party. Particular attention must be paid to the disbursement of funds, authorization of fund expenditures, terminations and employment campaign staff.

Please note this request is for the ultimate benefit of our party; may we have many profitable, successful years to come.

S. Roway Wilson, MBA

350 North sandhill Boulevard #162

Mequite, NV 89024

srwsearch@yahoo.DE

Paperwork Check

Chair Bill Redpath asked the Secretary to confirm the binder’s contents.

Attendance and Credentials

Secretary Bob Sullentrup confirmed the attendance of the members and alternates.

Attending the September 6-7, 2008 LNC meeting in DC were:

Officers: Chair Bill Redpath, Vice-Chair Michael Jingozian, Treasurer Aaron Starr, Secretary Bob Sullentrup.

At-Large Representatives: Admiral Michael Colley, Pat Dixon, Angela Keaton, Lee Wrights, Dr. Mary Ruwart.

Regional Representatives: Mark Hinkle (2), Rebecca Sink-Burris (3), Stewart Flood(4), Dr. James Lark (5-S), Dan Karlan (5-N), Julie Fox (6), Rachel Hawkridge (7).

Tony Ryan (1) was not on hand.

Regional Alternates: Scott Lieberman (2) and Heather Scott (4).

Alternates not attending were George Squyres (1), Bob Jackson (3), Hardy Macia (5-N) and Berlie Etzel (5-S), Jake Porter (6) and Steve LaBianca (7)

LNC Counsel Bill Hall attended.

Also attending were Bob Johnston (MD), Alicia Mattson (TN), Donny Ferguson (VA), Robert Capozzi (NY) and Jeff Dimit (SC), Gene Hawkridge (WA).

Staff included Acting Executive Director Robert Kraus, new hire Casey Hansen, Volunteer Coordinator Austin Peterson, Political Director Sean Haugh and Direct Marketing Manager Louise Calise.

The following table lists the composition of the current LNC as accepted at the May 26, 2008 meeting. It has yet to be amended.

Region Affiliates Representative Alternate
Region 1 Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming Tony Ryan1 (AZ) George Squyres (AZ)
Region 2 California Mark Hinkle (CA) Scott Lieberman (CA)
Region 3 Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana Rebecca Sink-Burris (IN) Bob Jackson (MI)
Region 4 Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas Stewart Flood (SC) Heather Scott (TN)
Region 5 - South Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia James W. Lark, III (VA) Berlie Etzel (PA)
Region 5 - North Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont Dan Karlan (NJ) Hardy Macia (VT)
Region 6 Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin Julie Fox (IL) Jake Porter (MO)
Region 7 Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon, Washington Rachel Hawkridge (WA) Steve LaBianca (FL)
Orphans Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Arkansas

Report of Potential Conflicts of Interest

Bill Redpath reported he is raising money for both the LNC and the Redpath for Senate.

Lee Wrights reported he employed by the ISIL.

Angela Keaton noted she remains married to Brian Dogherty of Reason magazine and CATO, and is a ‘toady’ for Eric Garris. It is not clear what the conflict is.

Dan Karlan noted the Policy Manual requires conflicts of interest be disclosed in writing to the Secretary.

Approval of the Agenda

The group amended the agenda by adding, removing and reordering items. The resulting agenda is given below with changes in italics or strikethrough.

Libertarian National Committee, Inc.

September 6-7, 2008 Meeting Agenda

Washington, DC

Call to Order 8:30am
Minutes
Moment of Reflection 1
Opportunity for Public Comment 10
Credentials Report and Paperwork Check (Secretary) 5
Report of Potential Conflicts of Interest 5
Approval of the Agenda 5

Standing Reports
Chair's Report 20
Treasurer's Report 30
Secretary's Report 10

Potential LNC Campaign Finance Litigation (Alan Gura), Executive Session 10am

Staff Report
Staff (Ballot Access included in Political Director’s Report) 60
Counsel's Report 15
Barr/Root update Carling update 10

Action Items Previously Submitted in Writing
(none) 0

Reports Previously Submitted in Writing
Convention Committee Report (Colley) 30
Campus Organizing Report (Lark) 5
Various Regions 5 per region

Action Items Not Previously Submitted in Writing
LNC Decorum (Redpath / Starr) 20
Mission Statement (Keaton) 30
LNC Term Goals (Lark / Dixon) 60
EPCC/Exec Director Contract Update (Colley) 15
Bylaws Committee Selection 60
Electronic Voting at LNC Conventions (Karlan) 30
Public Availability of LNC Discuss List emails (Keaton) 15
Resolution re: US involvement in Afghanistan (Dixon) 30
Advocacy for Equal Protection (Rachel H.) 30
Audit Committee, Redpath 5
LNC to vote for lawsuit participation, Ruwart 10
Renting of LP membership lists in Exec Session (moved above to 10am Sat.
Tom Stevens issue 15

Opportunity for Public Comment 10

Adjournment

The agenda was amended as follows:

o Bill Redpath requested five minutes to discuss the Audit Committee
o Mary Ruwart had asked prior to the meeting for 10 minutes on whether the entire LNC must discuss its participation in lawsuits; this omission was corrected here
o Mark Hinkle wanted to discuss the rental of LP membership lists

Rachel Hawkridge moved to strike mission statement and replace it with a discussion of the Tom Stevens issue.

Aaron Starr moved to divide the question.

The body decided to remove the discussion of the mission statement from the agenda and to add the Tom Stevens issue.

Aaron Starr wanted M Carling as LNC liaison to the Barr-Root campaign to provide a report.

Aaron Starr moved to not consider the Afghanistan and GLBT resolutions. When it was pointed out the GLBT was not a resolution, the issue became whether we would remove discussion of the Afghanistan resolution. The agenda item remained.

Without objection the resulting agenda was approved.

Officer Reports

Chair’s Report

Chair Bill Redpath provided a oral report noting he had done the following since the May 26 meeting:

o Ran several Executive Committee calls
o Participated in many ballot access calls
o Was on the radio with Kenneth John on June 2
o Was on the Colbert Report on June 4 and got to meet Salmon Rushdie,
o Attended the June 14-15, Texas Convention
o Participated in several Ron Paul meet-ups in Virginia
o Attended the NASCAR outreach event on July 5 with Bob Barr
o Spoke to the NSLC at American University to a group of high-schoolers on July 9
o Attended events with the Indiana LP who came to DC to meet with think tanks and a dinner on July 17
o Was on t he KDKA Pittsburgh radio July 15 discussing Freddie Mac and Fannie May’
o Was in LA on July 30 at the Beverly Hills Hotel attending an event with Art Linkletter who is promoting the Ryan Sununu proposal to privatize Social Security
o Conducted an interview with a German media outlet in early August
o Attended the LP Arkansas Convention on August 9
o Held Al Arabia and Al Jazerra interviews on August 12 and 21
o Testified on August 27 in Charleston, WV in the lawsuit of Barr-Root against the West Virginia ballot access. We submitted signatures three weeks late. September 5 we lost.
o Participated in two parades on September 1, and speeches on the same stage as D and R candidates is on You-Tube

Treasurer’s Report

Aaron Starr presented a treasurer’s report and noted these highlights:

o Ballot access expenses have been heavy and represent a huge tax on the Party
o Good news is we are past ballot access costs.
o We are likely to have good fundraising until November and prospects for EOY statements will put us in the black

Aaron fielded questions from Pat Dixon and Julie Fox regarding budget overages, budgeting versus authorizations and the treatment of specific line items.

Aaron’s report is attached as Appendix A.

Secretary’s Report

Bob Sullentrup moved to:

Remove Policy Manual, Article I, Section 2, C, on the recording of LNC meetings

Bob argued this provision, like the one requiring reporting conflicts of interests be provided to the Secretary in writing, has been ignored and not needed.

Aaron moved a substitute motion as follows:

The Director shall be responsible for recording all LNC meetings on audio or video medium, providing a copy to the Secretary. Such recordings shall be destroyed promptly after the approval of the minutes.

The cost of recording meetings was estimated to be $3/hour + staff time.

Aaron’s substitution passed 9-6.

The main motion, now being Aaron’s substitute, passed 8-6.

Voting in favor:

Admiral Colley, Aaron Starr, Dan Karlan, Stewart Flood, Pat Dixon, Rebecca Sink-Burris, Mark Hinkle, Michael Jingozian.

Voting against:

Lee Wrights, Mary Ruwart, Jim Lark, Julie Fox, Rachel Hawkridge, Angela Keaton.

Bob Sullentrup voted for none of the above.

Campaign Finance Litigation

The LNC entered executive session to discuss potential campaign finance litigation with Alan Mura and the LP membership list rental.

Coming out of executive session, Jim Lark recommended the LNC express its appreciation to Alan Gura for his work for Liberty. Without objection, the motion passed.

Aaron Starr moved to proceed with campaign finance litigation engaging the law firm of Alan Gura, to sue the FEC to overturn the contribution limits for bequests left to the LNC, budgeting $15k in 2008 for that purpose with disbursements beginning no earlier than November 2008.

The board postponed consideration of this matter until after lunch.

Staff Report

Robert Kraus introduced new hire Casey Hansen.

Robert noted an error by PayPal at their website resulted in double-billings. PayPay was both charging donor credit cards while reporting transaction errors and inviting users to try again. This accounts for a $2k refund on the financial reports.

Andrew Davis noted Barr-Root is polling at 6% nationwide, with selective states polling more. Playboy Magazine, after erroneously reporting Bill Redpath was our presidential candidate, has mentioned the LP for three months running, including an adjunct article to McCain which challenged McCain being a ‘Goldwater Republican’.

Andrew is now engaged to the girlfriend who accompanied him to the Denver Convention and will be married 12-27.

Louise Calise noted the LP has picked up ‘a lot of new members’ and renewals are running strong. Rachel commended Louise for acquiring and disseminating a fundraising book, Asking, a 59-minute Guide to Everything Board Members, Volunteers and Staff Must Know to Secure the Gift by Jerold Panas, and for her work on the prospecting contract.

Austin Peterson discussed his work gaining volunteers and putting them to work. His report lists the locations of his 7811 volunteers in 159 groups in 132 cities.

Sean Haugh noted the LP ticket is certified in New Hampshire and that signature gathering will end next Thursday in Minnesota, marking the end of the activity nationwide for this election cycle. The LP will have 850 candidates on the ballot in 2008.

Staff reports are provided in Appendix B.

Saturday PM

Wayne Allyn Root Appearance

The LNC was honored to have LP vice presidential nominee Wayne Allyn Root join us after lunch.

Campaign Finance Litigation, continued

Pat Dixon moved that the LNC:

1. Sue to challenge the Federal Campaign Finance limits on contributions to political parties, as applied to bequests
2. Retain Alan Gura to represent the LNC on those terms set forth in his engagement proposal; and
3. budget $15k to pay Mr. Gura’s attorney fees and costs for such litigation for the year ended December 31, 2008, to be incurred no earlier than November, 2008.

With no objection the motion passed.

Counsel’s Report

Bill Hall provided a written report in the binder under tab 5. Bill discussed the Maine and West Virginia ballot access suits. In Maine, the LP may be on the ballot. The judge in West Virginia ruled September 4 against the LP.

With the indulgence of the body, the rest of counsel’s report will be delivered later in executive session while the gallery who had assembled after lunch could hear more of the LNC meeting that was in open session.

Reports Previously Submitted in Writing

Campus Organizing

Dr. Lark indicated that his report and an amended report had been distributed to the members and is attached as Appendix E. He stated he would entertain questions about it; there were no questions.

Pat Dixon thanked Dr. Lark for his work.

Regional Reports

Written regional reports included

o Region 3, Rebecca Sink-Burris
o Region 5S, Jim Lark
o Region 6, Julie Fox
o Region 7, Rachel Hawkridge

Stewart Flood noted the GA senatorial candidate, Allen Buckley, is in the debates along with the D&R candidates. Pat Dixon reported the same is true for Texas.

Convention Committee Report

Convention Oversight Committee Chair Admiral Colley noted his colleagues on the committee include Bob Sullentrup, Rachel Hawkridge, Stewart Flood and Pat Dixon.

Admiral Colley noted a recent survey showed Washington, DC as the first choice of the 1500 respondents, with a cruise coming in last.

Meanwhile, the following table lists information collected from four alternative possibilities. Austin is another possibility.

Place Pittsburgh Hilton St. Louis Renaissance Cleveland Renaissance Ft. Lauderdale Royal Caribbean
Dates 1-4 July 27-30 May 4-7 July 2-5 July
Group Rate $109 + staff $54 $129 $109, including 10 suites Variable, $210 estimate for two in room
Meeting space Comp, if 80% of block rooms sold Comp Comp with minimum $60k food and beverage Comp
Comp rooms 2 hospitality suites; one free group for each 50 booked Presidential Suite, two VIP suites Presidential suite, one free group room with every 50 rooms sold Negotiable
A/V Comp microphone and podium; other negotiable Negotiable – contractor In house- negotiable included
Meals Cont breakfast $18

Lunch buffet $30

Dinner $40-60
Cont breakfast $19

Lunch $36

Dinner $45 - 65
Cont breakfast $16

Lunch $33

Dinner $55
All included
Airport Connect / Parking $35 round trip $3.50 metrolink; Discount to $8 $1.75 rapid transit, $23/day 10 minute taxi

Available at port, cost not known
Other Downtown; hotel renovation finished in ’09; easy walking to Point State Park and ballpark Renovated historical Statler hotel; downtown; close to Arch, casino, Laclede’s Landing blues, casino, ballpark, ballpark village, riverboats, in the middle of the country Connected to Tower City Center mall, restaurants, stores, movie; No attrition for rooms not booked or meals unused; lots of activities; services coordinator assigned.

After two extensions of time Bill Redpath asked for a straw poll of the LNC on their thoughts and preferences. Admiral Colley will continue the work determining the venue and particulars of the next national convention.

Counsel’s Report, Continued

The LNC entered executive session for the remainder of Counsel’s report.

Coming out of executive session, Sean Haugh wanted it reflected in the minutes that he had preferred to discuss matters involving him in open session.

Aaron Starr moved to have Ms. Keaton removed from the room while the LNC decided what penalties if any to assign for transgressions including apparently inappropriate blogs.

There was an objection to the motion, and the matter failed 4-7.

Rachel Hawkridge moved to postpone the issue until December while a mediator would be arranged to intercede among the affected parties.

After some discussion Mark Hinkle moved to divide the question, addressing the issue of the apology separately. When the body noted an apology was not a part of the motion on the floor, the division was declared out of order.

Aaron Starr offered a substitute motion for the Hawkridge postponement that the LNC apologize to staff members Casey Hansen and Austin Petersen over remarks made by one of our board members.

There was an objection to the substitution and thus did not pass unanimously. A vote on the substitution passed.

Pat Dixon called the question on the substituted main motion on the LNC apology. There was an objection to calling the question. However, calling the question passed.

Proceeding to a vote on the motion that the LNC apologize to staff members Casey Hansen and Austin Petersen, the motion passed 13-1 with one abstention.

Voting in favor:

Bob Sullentrup, Mary Ruwart, Jim Lark, Julie Fox, Admiral Colley, Aaron Starr, Dan Karlan, Stewart Flood, Pat Dixon, Rebecca Sink-Burris, Mark Hinkle, Michael Jingozian, Rachel Hawkridge

Voting against:

Angela Keaton

Abstaining

Lee Wrights

Aaron Starr moved the LNC direct (later, ask) board member Angela Keaton to apologize to staff members Casey Hansen and Austin Petersen for her blog comments.

There was an objection to this motion.

During the discussion, the word ‘direct’ was changed to ‘ask’ in the motion above via ‘friendly amendment’.

Voting in favor:

Bob Sullentrup, Mary Ruwart, Jim Lark, Julie Fox, Aaron Starr, Stewart Flood, Pat Dixon, Rebecca Sink-Burris, Mark Hinkle, Michael Jingozian, Angela Keaton, Rachel Hawkridge

Voting against:

Admiral Colley, Dan Karlan

Abstaining

Lee Wrights

Aaron Starr then apologized to Angela Keaton for any prior transgressions he may have made against her including not coming to her defense, writing things that may have been hurtful. Aaron stated as far as he was concerned, this matter was done.

Pat Dixon moved to appoint Mary Ruwart as mediator in any disputes between Aaron Starr and Angela Keaton. The overwhelming laughter suggested this might not be a desirable or easy job, and the motion did not gain a second.

Dan Karlan noted that in an earlier LNC session, Michael Dixon asked him to craft language to become a part of the LNC’s Policy Manual on harassment which after having been adopted is in Article I, Section 8, Harassment and Offensive Behavior Prohibition:

The Libertarian Party is founded on the key principles of liberty, responsibility, and respect. With that foundation, it is to be expected that libertarians treat each other with professional respect, thoughtful consideration, and fundamental decency. Violation of this expectation by members of the Party not only risks substantial legal penalties, it also undermines the very legitimacy of the Party and the honor of its members. Violation of this expectation by members of the LNC, whether towards other LNC members of HQ staff, is therefore especially egregious

Wayne Allyn Root

LP Vice Presidential nominee Wayne Allyn Root, in DC for the LNC/LNCC fundraiser, addressed the group. He was on hand for the prior discussion, and started by saying this was something he was going to talk about. After coming into the party and after winning the nomination as VP, he was amazed at the amount of ‘eating our young’ that went on in the Party.

By contrast, he pointed to Sarah Palin, the Republican VP nominee, and to the Republican party who had circled the wagons in support of Sarah Palin when the slings and arrows arrived by the drive-by media.

Sunday Agenda

After the Chair noted we still had 300 minutes on the agenda and asking the LNC to begin again at 8am, Bob Sullentrup moved to reorder the agenda items taking the quickest items first first. The motion passed.

This meant the Sunday items would be ordered as follows:

o Audit Committee, Redpath, 5 minutes
o Barr-Root campaign, Carling, 10 minutes
o LNC to vote for lawsuit participation, Ruwart, 10 minutes
o EPCC/Exec Director Contract Update (Colley), 15 minutes
o Public Availability of LNC Discuss List E-mails (Keaton), 15 minutes
o Tom Stevens issue, 15 minutes
o LNC Decorum (Redpath / Starr), 20 minutes
o Electronic Voting at LNC Conventions (Karlan), 30 minutes
o Resolution re: US involvement in Afghanistan (Dixon), 30 minutes
o Advocacy for Equal Protection (Rachel H.), 30 minutes
o LNC Term Goals (Lark / Dixon), 60 minutes
o Bylaws Committee Selection, 60 minutes

Dan Karlan moved to reconsider the agenda. The motion passed, nullifying Bob Sullentrup’s motion.

Dan Karlan moved to reorder the agenda items but make the selection of the Bylaws Committee have 20 minutes and thereby move that item forward. This motion passed.

Advisory Opinion

Bill Hall had drafted a motion as follows that superseded a motion Aaron Starr was about to make:

Moved that the LNC:

1. Seek an FEC advisory opinion exempting the LNC from certain of the Federal Campaign finance limits on its staging of biennial conventions.
2. Retain Bill Hall’s law firm to pursue the application for advisory opinion on those terms set forth in his engagement proposal.

There was no objection.

Sunday AM

The Sunday session commenced at 8:09 am.

Audit Committee

M Carling addressed the LNC noting it had saved roughly $1k by performing a 2-year audit instead of two annual ones. The cost for the 2008 audit was $11k with a $2k mid-year addendum. 2009 was $500 more.

Barr – Root Campaign

M Carling, the LNC liaison for the presidential ticket, reported Bob Barr’s and Wayne Root’s media appearances have been the ‘shining star’ of the campaign. Fundraising is ‘significantly better’ than in years past, but ranks second to media impact.

M said Shane Cory had reported the campaign would not need the chair and others to make fundraising calls.

The LNC will go into executive session later to discuss the campaign contract.

Michael Jingozian broached a point Libertarians across the country had spoken to him about concerning the Barr-Root campaign failing to acknowledge the “Libertarian Party” in their messaging. Michael said there was no mention of them as Libertarian Candidates on their websites, bumper stickers and press releases.

M agreed to research this. Bob Sullentrup said his yard sign had both ‘Barr’ and ‘Libertarian’.

(Later in the meeting – M’s report on this issue)

Later in the meeting, Michael Jingozian asked M. Carling if we had heard anything from the Barr-Root Campaign regarding the intentional oversight by the Campaign for not including “Libertarian” on any promotional material. M. Carling had received a response from the Barr-Root Deputy Campaign Manager, Shane Corey, indicating that they are following the precedent of the Democrat and Republican Parties who do not add their respective party names to their messaging. Jingozian said that this was inappropriate, not in the best interest of the Libertarian Party and finally, he publically questioned the objectives and motivations of the Barr-Root Campaign.”

LNC Participation in Lawsuits

Mary Ruwart broached the idea that the LNC should weigh in on any lawsuits the LNC enters into. During her discussions with New Hampshire, it became clear that Mary was unaware of pending legal matters.

Jim Lark pointed out that from Article V of the Policy Manual on Finances it can be inferred the LNC must approve of suits. Jim Lark would support crafting Policy Manual language to make this matter explicit.

Aaron Starr recommended Jim Lark work with Bill Hall to craft language for the Policy Manual and bring it to the board in December.

Bill Redpath noted he has worked with this issue for many months and overlooked the point that some may not have known about the pending litigation. Certainly the prior board knew about it, and Bill apologized for the oversight.

The agreement, not a motion, was to have Jim Lark work with Bill Hall to craft language for the Policy Manual and bring it to the board in December. There was no time remaining for a motion.

EPCC / Executive Director Contract Update

At the urging of Bill Redpath, this matter was skipped for now because of upcoming issues to be addressed in executive session.

Public Availability of LNC Discuss List E-Mails

Angela Keaton noted party members including Jim Duensing, Susan Hogarth, and others want to be better informed about LNC matters.

Accordingly, the solution was to open make the LNC list public with read-only participants.

This immediately led to a need for two lists, one that is open to members and one that is reserved for the private and confidential items that appear on the list.

Aaron Starr noted this would lead to conversations by board members being conducted off-list and thus running the risk of factionalizing the board.

Robert Kraus noted the management of such a list – determining who can join, checking membership status, updating e-mail addresses and so on – would be a maintenance nightmare and require a hard job to keep staffed.

Since there was no motion at the end of discussion, we moved on.

Tom Stevens Issue

Rachel Hawkridge noted Tom Stevens is both an LP Judicial Committee member and a presidential candidate on the Objectivist Party ticket in Florida and Colorado.

According to Rachel, Mr. Stevens had to sign a statement to be on the ballot in Florida that:

I am a member of the _________ party. I am not a registered member of any other political party.

If Mr. Stevens is no longer a Libertarian, then he does not qualify to sit on the Judicial Committee. M Carling pointed out to the board that signing the above statement is a resignation from the LP. This would make Mr. Stevens ineligible for the Judicial Committee.

Rachel moved the LNC ask him to resign from the Judicial Committee.

Aaron Starr objected, stating that such action would be worse than a censure, and Mr. Stevens should have the right to defend himself.

The Secretary offered to contact Mr. Stevens and confirm the facts of the matter and report to the LNC.

Rachel moved to postpone the matter until December in San Diego.

Aaron moved a substitute motion to follow up as just described and report to the LNC. This motion was ruled out of order.

The board passed the motion to postpone the matter to December.

Several members pointed out this did not preclude the Secretary from contacting Mr. Stevens in the interim to confirm the facts of the case and report to the LNC.

Aaron Starr moved the Secretary contact Mr. Stevens to determine facts in the matter and report to the Committee. This motion failed with only Aaron Starr and Bob Sullentrup voting in favor.

The sense of the body was this motion was unnecessary, and the Secretary plans on contacting Mr. Stevens just as if the motion had been passed.

Contact information for Tom Stevens:

(718) 357-7075

DrTomStevens@aol.com

EPCC / Executive Director Contract Update

The LNC entered executive session to discuss the Barr Root campaign and personnel matters.

Andrew Davis Promotion

Admiral Colley praised Andrew Davis’s work and congratulated him for his promotion to Director of Communications.

LNC Decorum

Aaron Starr wanted to plug a gap in Robert’s Rules that, while it addresses matters of decorum in meetings, is silent on e-mail traffic. Accordingly, Aaron move to change the Policy Manual by adding Article I Section 9 as follows:

Article 1. Section 9. ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS DECORUM

To encourage a more productive, collegial and cooperative atmosphere, customs of decorum as outlined in Roberts Rules of Order, Newly Revised are extended to include:
+ Group electronic communications between LNC members, alternates and national staff; and
+ Party-owned blogs and e-mail lists.

Specifically, the following rules of decorum shall be applied for such communications:
+ Participants shall not burden other participants nor hamper the transaction of business by posting topics unrelated to the business of the group.

+ Participants shall confine remarks to the merits of any pending question.

+ Participants shall refrain from questioning another participant’s motives. A participant can condemn the nature or likely consequences of a proposed measure in strong terms, but must avoid personal attacks.

+ Participants shall refrain from speaking adversely on a prior action not pending.

In the event a participant violates the rules of decorum, the presiding chair may direct the participant to address his or her remarks solely through the presiding chair prior to their dissemination to other group members.

The LNC reserves the right to further discipline a participant who fails to observe the Party's rules of decorum.

After some discussion, Bob Sullentrup called the question, which passed. Proceeding to a vote, the motion failed.

Voting in favor:

Bob Sullentrup, Aaron Starr, Stewart Flood.

Voting against:

Lee Wrights, Mary Ruwart, Jim Lark, Julie Fox, Admiral Colley Pat Dixon, Rebecca Sink-Burris,

Rachel Hawkridge Mark Hinkle, Angela Keaton, Michael Jingozian.

Present

Dan Karlan

Bylaws Committee Selection

Over the last two months candidates seeking appointment to the 2010 Bylaws Committee have submitted their names and vitae to the Secretary for the Committee’s consideration. Candidates included:

Ruth Bennett (WA)

Richard Burke (OR)

Jim Burns (NV)

M Carling (CA)

George Donnelly (PA)

Gene Hawkridge (WA)

Susan Hogarth (NC)

Dan Karlan (NJ)

Joshua Katz (CT)

Rob Latham (UT)

Daniel Lewis (TN)

Tim Lucey (HI)

Bruce Majors (??)

Frank Manske (CA)

Guy McClendon (TX)

Chuck Moulton (CA)

Rob Oates (ID)

Rob Power (CA)

Bill Redpath (VA)

Mike Renzulli (??)

Nick Sarwark (MD)

Heather Scott (TN)

Starchild (CA)

Aaron Starr (CA)

Morey Straus (??)

Blay Tarnoff (NY)

Rich Tomasso (NH)

Jeff Wartman (IL)

Dan Karlan moved

to conduct the election of Bylaws and Rules Committee members in accordance with RONR, page 427, lines 6-19, rather than the “disapproval” method used in the recent past.

Lee Wrights moved the question. With no objection, the LNC adopted the approval voting methodology referred to above. There was no limit on how many candidates a person might vote for. Bylaws Committee members needed to attain a majority of committee votes.

Those individuals nominated en masse were those who had submitted nomination requests to the Secretary beforehand. There were no other nominations.

Audited results are as follows:

Nominee Votes
Rob Latham (UT) 14
Dan Karlan (NJ) 13
Chuck Moulton (CA) 13
Heather Scott (TN) 13
Bill Redpath (VA) 12
Nick Sarwark (MD) 12
Rob Oates (ID) 10
Aaron Starr (CA) 10

Ruth Bennett (WA) 9
Gene Hawkridge (WA) 9
Frank Manske (CA) 9

M Carling (CA) 8
Blay Tarnoff (NY) 7
Bruce Majors (??) 5
Guy McClendon (TX) 5
Starchild (CA) 5
Rich Tomasso (NH) 4
Rob Power (CA) 3
Susan Hogarth (NC) 2
Joshua Katz (CT) 2
Mike Renzulli (??) 2
Morey Straus (??) 2
Jeff Wartman (IL) 2
Richard Burke (OR) 1
Jim Burns (NV) 1
George Donnelly (PA) 1
Daniel Lewis (TN) 1
Tim Lucey (HI) 1

Accordingly, the top eight were elected outright. A second ballot was necessary to resolve the tie at 9-10-11th places. Only ten are on the Bylaws Committee.

On the second ballot, Ruth Bennett and Gene Hawkridge received 11 votes each while Frank Manske garnered 7. Accordingly, Ruth Bennett and Gene Hawkridge made it onto the Bylaws Committee with Frank Manske the only alternate. None of the other candidates gained the required majority.

E-Voting at Conventions

Dan Karlan discussed the e-voting research he has conducted. The board is attracted to the idea but is apprehensive of the cost and security.

Alicia Mattson offered some additional information which, because the Secretary was tabulating Bylaws results, is missed. (Alicia, please provide an update).

Alicia Mattson will present the additional information, or perhaps a demo, in San Diego in December.

Afghanistan Resolution

Pat Dixon moved the following resolution:

WHEREAS the government of the United States should return to its
historical libertarian tradition of avoiding entangling alliances,
foreign quarrels, and military adventures; and

WHEREAS the stability and security of Afghanistan lie outside the
jurisdiction of the government of the United States; and

WHEREAS the Libertarian Party recognizes that the only legitimate
role of the military is to defend America against direct attack or the
imminent threat of attack;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Libertarian National Committee
calls on the government of the United States to withdraw the armed
forces of the United States from Afghanistan, without undue delay.

Aaron Starr recommended we replace ‘Afghanistan’ with ‘135 countries’. That amendment went nowhere.

There was no objection to a call of the question.

Voting in favor:

Lee Wrights, Mary Ruwart, Jim Lark, Julie Fox, Admiral Colley , Pat Dixon, Rebecca Sink-Burris, Rachel Hawkridge Mark Hinkle, Angela Keaton Michael Jingozian. Aaron Starr, Stewart Flood. Dan Karlan, Bob Sullentrup

The Chair voted present.

Angela Keaton

After a break, the Chair announced Angela Keaton had blogged on the Internet some information that had been revealed in executive session.

Pat Dixon moved to censure Angela Keaton for having blogged what she had put onto the LastFreeVoice website.

Angela Keaton left the room after having admitted to the transgression.

Michael Jingozian read the passage to the body.

Aaron Starr moved a substitute motion: It is the belief of this body that Angela Keaton should resign for having disclosed material in executive session.

Everyone in the room voted for the substitution.

Angela Keaton returned to the room.

Aaron Starr moved to have her leave the room while the body decided what actions to take.

Angela Keaton was removed from the room but was afforded an opportunity to speak in her defense before departing. Her defense was that executive session was inappropriate for the material being discussed. Moreover, some of the material was an affront to her, and she had no opportunity to meet her accusers.

Mary Ruwart invited Ms. Keaton to try again to address the specific issues the Committee had raised, since she had not appeared to have addressed them.

Bob Sullentrup called the question, which passed. Moving then to a vote on the LNC recommendation to ask Angela Keaton to resign:

Voting in favor

Mary Ruwart, Jim Lark, Julie Fox, Pat Dixon, Rebecca Sink-Burris, Mark Hinkle, Michael Jingozian, Aaron Starr, Stewart Flood, Dan Karlan, Bob Sullentrup

Rachel Hawkridge abstained and the chair did not vote.

Absent for the vote were Lee Wrights, Admiral Colley (airport), Angela Keaton

Bob Sullentrup moved the LNC suspend the membership on the LNC of Angela Keaton for breaching confidentiality in executive session.

Pat Dixon moved to amend with the phrase ’as denoted in Article 8 Section 5 of Bylaws’.

The amendment was adopted.

Aaron Starr moved to make this matter a mail ballot. There was no second.

Aaron Starr moved to append ‘in the event she does not apologize with 10 days and commit to never repeating the offense again’.

At this point, we amended the agenda to remove Jim Lark’s goals item from the agenda and move Rachel’s to the e-mail list.

When Aaron’s amendment passed, the main motion read:

The LNC shall suspend the membership on the LNC of Angela Keaton for breaching confidentiality in executive session as denoted in Article 8 Section 5 of Bylaws, in the event she does not apologize with 10 days and commit to never repeating the offense again

At some point the Chair returned to the room after a brief absence and reported Shane Cory had sent a text message noting the Barr campaign did not want Ms. Keaton removed from the LNC.

After some discussion that Mary Ruwart and perhaps others would talk to Angela to get her to understand her breach and how it affected LNC business, the body withdrew the motion, pending Mary’s report on her conversation. There was no objection to the withdrawal.

Bylaws Interim Chair

The LNC named Dan Karlan the interim chair of the Bylaws Committee.

Opportunity for Pubic Comment

Chuck Moulton invited the LNC to consider Philadelphia as a convention site for 2012.

Chuck also pointed out the maxim that if ‘a person is committing political suicide, don’t interrupt him.’ This he said was true for both Angela Keaton and the LNC both. He forecast ‘blowback’ and expressed relief he was no longer on the Board.

Upcoming Meetings

The next meeting will be December 6-7 in San Diego.

The Charleston, SC meeting will be February 28 and March 1, Saturday PM and Sunday AM.

The chair requested the LNC tell him which weekends were not available to them from June 2009 through the balance of the year.

Bob Sullentrup reminded the chair he had Boise, ID in mind for a site. Rachel Hawkridge endorsed that.

Aaron Starr intends for the body to select LNC-appointed Platform Committee members at its

December meeting.

At 1:21 pm this eventful, extraordinary and exhausting LNC meeting came to a close.

Next Meeting

The schedule for subsequent LNC meetings is as follows:

2008 Budget meeting December 6-7 San Diego, CA

2009 LSLA Joint meeting February 28-March 1 Charleston, SC

2009 TBD June

TREASURER’S REPORT

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS THROUGH JULY 31, 2008

LNC MEETING SEPTEMBER 6, 2008

Ballot access costs this year are nearly $335,000 through July. For this election cycle it is approaching $400K. As stated during my Treasurer report at the convention, I foresaw we were likely to deplete our financial reserves to achieve ballot access during this election cycle. We are at that point as of July 31, with reserves hovering around zero. So it would be fair to state that funds are predictably tight.

Fortunately, revenues are on course to exceed our conservative 2008 budget, but so are fundraising costs. Overall, though, we are clearly ahead in this equation on the revenue side.

Now that we are at the tail end of ballot access costs, assuming we are able to maintain revenues at current levels, we could emerge in a relatively healthy financial state during the fourth quarter.

There is inevitably a post-election drop in money raised after each Presidential campaign. Note the 39% contraction in net support and revenue we had from 2004 to 2005. As such, it’s vital that we focus staff resources in September and October on aggressive fund-raising to build our reserves because it will be more difficult to raise money during 2009.

Some other points worth highlighting:

Convention costs were budgeted at $10,000 for the cost of two events and staff travel. I’ll be working with Robert to further analyze the $35,000 in costs we actually incurred, around half of which (almost $17,000) was paid to the Sheraton. Having a better understanding of these costs will help us with budgeting for 2010. That said, there is no such thing as a free convention and I urge my fellow board members to require convention attendees to pay a sufficient amount to cover all the costs of a convention.

The bulk of our program expenses are in the areas of compensation and administrative costs. Compensation costs are within budget and administrative costs are running about 10% over budget.

Media relations are running high: $12K year-to-date actual versus $4.5K budget. Around half the costs are attributable to a Nascar event and the Rally for the Republic.

Member communications are on track to exceed our budget ($51K year-to-date versus $54K budget). As mentioned previously, rushing out two issues of LP News prior to our convention proved to be quite expensive. We will probably wind up the year at $75K.

Aaron Starr

Treasurer

Libertarian National Committee, Inc.

(805) 583-3308 Home

(805) 404-8693 Mobile

starrcpa@pacbell.net

Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
Statement of Net Assets

Assets July 08
Current Assets
Cash & Equivalents

37,103

Accounts Receivable-Net

0

Other Receivables-Net

141,000

Inventories

2,000

Other Current Assets

10,256

Total Current Assets

190,359

Property and Equipment
Gross Assets

207,784

Accumulated Depreciation

(174,423)

Net Property and Equipment

33,360

Other Assets
Deposits

7,020

Total Other Assets

7,020

Total Assets

230,739

Liabilities and Net Assets
Liabilities
Accounts Payable

8,586

Accrued Payroll

10,447

Capital Lease Liability

6,827

Deferred Revenue

0

Deferred Rent

11,006

Total Liabilities

36,866

Net Assets
Beginning Net Assets

277,137

Restricted Net Assets

0

Other Adjustments

0

Current Year Surplus

(83,264)

Total Net Assets

193,873

Total Liabilities and Net Assets

230,739

Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
Statement of Operations
YTD July-08

Support and Revenue
Membership Dues

276,063

Donations

219,594

Recurring Gifts

176,145

Board Member Solicitations

67,393

Projects

0

Ballot Access Donations

261,266

Campus Outreach Donations

0

Convention Revenues

1,460

Publications, Materials and Other Sales

12,955

Total Support and Revenue

1,014,876

Cost of Support and Revenue
Fundraising Costs

143,247

Membership Fundraising Costs

43,340

Convention

35,075

Direct Costs

0

Total Cost of Support and Revenue

221,662

Net Support and Revenue Available for Programs

793,214

Program Expenses
Administrative Expense

232,847

Compensation

241,603

Affiliate Support

3,231

Ballot Access

334,281

Brand Development

608

Campus Outreach

0

Candidate Support

500

Litigation

0

Lobbying

0

Media Relations

12,018

Member Communications

51,390

Outreach

0

Voter Registration

0

Total Program Expenses

876,478

Net Operating Surplus (Deficit)

(83,264)

Other Revenue/Expense
Interest Income

0

Interest Expense

0

Other Income

0

Total Other Revenue Expense

0

Net Surplus (Deficit)

(83,264)

LPHQ Update

9/3/2008

Operations Director Report (Acting ED)

by Robert Kraus

Overview

Since the last LNC meeting, LPHQ has focused mainly on ballot access and the presidential campaign.

Please feel free to address any issues not covered in the staff reports at the upcoming LNC meeting and we will do our best to address or answer any concerns.

Staff Update

Our staff levels remain at appropriate levels and includes the usual assemble of college students. Below are our current staffers and contractors:

o Robert Kraus continues to serve as our controller, director of operations, acting ED, while working closely with our FEC consultant, ballot access team and handling data issues for our state affiliates.
o Louise Calise continues to serve as our direct marketing manager. Louise has made significant improvements to our direct mail program and with the addition of Casey, is looking to further develop our direct solicitation and prospecting efforts.
o Andrew Davis continues to serve as media coordinator and has continually increased the tempo and quality of media releases. He is looking forward to increasing the level of interest in all of our candidates and party. Working closely with the Barr-Root campaign will guarantee Andrew will be very busy through November.
o Austin Petersen, continues as our volunteer coordinator, working closely with our state affiliates and Sean, while growing the number of MeetUp Groups and other social networks. Be sure to check out our amazing videos that Austin produced for the LP on You Tube!
o Sean Haugh continues to serve as our political director and has been productive in organizing ballot access and candidate recruitment efforts. Sean is full time but works in Raleigh, N.C.
o Susan Dickson still serves as a full-time employee and remains extremely productive and busy especially when we have a successful email blast such as the $17.76 pitch for July 4th.
o Casey Hansen, is our new front desk person and membership assistant helping Louise out with Direct Marketing.
o We have three college students working part time 1-2 days per week: Erin Taylor (a GW student), Mark Meranta (a GMU student) and Liz Parker (also from GMU).
o Two new contractors we are currently working with on a regular basis include: Audrey Mullen (the principle of Bob Barr’s former PR Firm who is no longer working with the campaign) who has taken on LP News which will be reformatted to a new digest size (to save postage) in full color. We have also brought on John Swallow, who did fundraising for the LP back in the 80’s and has worked with the RP and Ron paul, to help us with tele-fundraising part time.

Operations

As mentioned above, Robert has been focused on ballot access, the campaign and raising money.

Affiliates and Campaigns

Sean Haugh provides a full report on campaigns and ballot access. Austin and Andrew have also been in frequent contact with our affiliates. Data dumps continue to go out regularly. We added a few extra dumps during the summer due to some problems mid June – mid July getting inquiries via the web automatically sent to the states. This problem was resolved several weeks ago and Austin has access to those parts of the web site to update the distribution of inquiries and volunteers to the states.

We have seen some improvements on the information flow from states to LPHQ, mostly from newer state chairs who appear to be more responsive in getting us data updates, events and news items. We encourage the regional reps to continue to help us receive information from your states.

Finance and Fundraising

Internet Fundraising – Web Site

Internet based fundraising has picked up considerably. Since the launch of the new web site, we have raised a total of $137,593.00 the majority of which went to ballot access. In terms of accounting, beginning in Sept, I would like to break out (like we do for tele-fundraising) new & renew memberships via the web plus general donations via the web.

Working closely with Andrew, Austin, Louise, Sean and Susan, Terra Eclipse is almost completely finished with the back end. We are now able to export data such as inquiries and volunteers in batches, which I weekly import into RE. This saves staff, and Susan especially, considerable time. We are working on a few more items such as widgets (the linkable graphics which direct people to our web site) and on a gift batch export to simplify the data entry of receipts to RE.

Phone-based Fundraising

We had hired our previous telemarketing vendor to do a fairly successful renewal call series and a not that successful additional gift series. We will probably use this vendor again on a case by case basis until we find a more affordable alternative for our phone solicitation program.

Finance

Accounts payable remained low despite the heavy ballot access burden through the end of July. Obviously things have changed since then (preliminary Aug financials will be provided at the LNC Meeting). We anticipate ending Aug with about $47,000 in A/P – all of which is current. A substantial amount of this is related to ballot access since some of our most expensive states, like NY, CT, RI, NH and ME, were last. Petitioners also were very late in submitting their out of pocket expenses, one had been saving receipts for two months. As we wrap up B/A (MN is our final and last state) we should see a reversing of both the losses we sustained over the last several months and a reduction in the A/P back to our normal levels of $10-15,000.

Convention

Please see separate report in the binder. We felt that the relationship with the contractor, with the exception of the ability for the contractor to communicate fully with LPHQ, went well. The CSPAN “situation” and the profitability are explained in this memo.

Political Directors’ Report

by Sean Haugh

This is a transitional period for my work. Ballot Access issues have completely dominated my time and energies up until very recently. Now that this is winding down, I am enjoying spending most of my time supporting our candidates. I will keep this report very brief as most of the Ballot Access issues have already been discussed in conference calls and reports to the Executive Committee since the convention.

Ballot Access:

As of 8/29/08, we are officially on the ballot in 42 states. We are certainly going to be on the ballot in at least 47 states, with 50 state Ballot Access still possible.

The states where we have collected enough signatures and are simply awaiting official confirmation from the state are Alabama, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. That will bring us up to 46 states. Petitioning has begun in Minnesota, our last state where petitioning will get us on the ballot. That process should be complete by the time of this meeting.

We already have filed or are in the process of filing lawsuits in several states, including three where we already have Ballot Access. All suits should be filed by meeting time, so they can be discussed openly. Here is a brief description of each suit and its status. Our attorney is Gary Sinawski, the suits are in federal court, and the defendant is always the relevant Secretary of State or other state election authority, unless otherwise noted.

North Carolina: Our broad argument against NC ballot access law in NC state court lost at the Superior Court level earlier this year. The LPNC is represented by attorneys from Tharrington Smith of Raleigh. They have very kindly offered to handle the appeals pro bono. We are currently awaiting a hearing from the NC Court of Appeals. We expect this case will end up in front of the NC Supreme Court sometime in 2009.

Ohio: We won this case earlier in the year. The candidates previously nominated by the LPO and also the Barr/Root ticket were placed on the ballot by this result. The state did not appeal, and now our precedent has been used by the Socialist and Green parties to gain Ballot Access in Ohio as well. This win in court should motivate the Ohio legislature to create new Ballot Access laws in 2009, and the LPO is very well prepared for that lobbying effort.

Massachusetts: The Massachusetts ACLU arranged for attorneys from Foley Hoag in Boston to file our case regarding substitution. Currently George Phillies is listed as the stand in for President. This is the one state where we did not have the resources to run a separate petition for the Barr/Root ticket as a backup plan, so we are depending on the lawsuit for substitution.

New Hampshire: Our case over substitution, which was discussed extensively in the most recent EC conference call, should be filed early in the week at the latest.

Maine: Our case over the dual deadline scheme in Maine should also be filed by meeting time. There we have enough signatures but did not meet a deadline for getting them to the various towns for verification, although we were done well before the final deadline established by Maine law. Beyond the equal protection argument that applies to all such cases (that the state does not need to know who our nominees are before they know who the Democratic and Republican nominees are), in Maine we also can show many inconsistencies in executing the law in our situation as well as many examples of how this law has been informally waived in the recent past.

Oklahoma: Jim Linger is representing the Barr campaign in this matter.

West Virginia: Bob Bastross is representing the Barr campaign in this case. There was a hearing on 8/27/08 which lasted well into the evening. A decision on that case could very well be handed down before meeting time.

Pennsylvania: This is a state level lawsuit against the state of Pennsylvania and the Barr campaign challenging the very well established process of substitution there. Sam Stretton has been retained by the Barr campaign in this matter, while the LPPa and LNC have retained Marc Arrigo to represent our mutual interests. This action is clearly designed simply to waste our time and money, with a lot of expensive suits working on behalf of the McCain campaign. Stretton has so far prevented this case from becoming a full blown trial, as there are no matters of fact which need to be debated. Our substitution process perfectly conforms with past practices and legislative intent in Pennsylvania, so I am very confident this action will not rise above the level of momentary nuisance.

Robert Kraus should be reporting on the financial aspects of Ballot Access, and I will be writing an article detailing my own longer term vision for Ballot Access which I hope to have published at Liberty For All and available to you before this meeting.

Our success in Ballot Access this year.

Candidates:

While Ballot Access demanded my full attention, much help has been provided to identify our candidates and get them up on our website. Terra Eclipse has this week provided me with direct access to the Candidate and Ballot Access pages at lp.org, which is very easy to use, allowing me to quickly update our records. LP member George Donnelly put together a list of Libertarian candidates as noted on various state websites which has proven to be quite useful. Also, Alexa Lamoureaux and Erin Taylor did a great job of pulling together lists of candidates from various states.

Currently we are aware of at least 575 Libertarian candidates across the country. I expect the number of current candidates will be about 850 once we hear from the various states which have not posted their candidates on their websites or kept their lists updated. Our best chances for partisan wins this year are in the New Hampshire state house, which has small districts and several strong Libertarian challengers.

Robert Kraus has established a program for our federal candidates to share data about our members and supporters in their districts and to transmit emails or other communications to them. This issue of LP News is dedicated to our federal candidates, and Terra Eclipse has provided us with a way to establish separate webpages for each Libertarian candidate and elected official. Once I have had the opportunity to catch up on all our candidates’ activities, the Candidate Tracker scores can also be added to these pages and used to determine the rotation of these candidates highlighted on the home page.

I should have a much clearer view of our candidates and their activities at the time of our meeting and will be happy to answer any questions about them.

yours in liberty –

Sean Haugh

-30-

Direct Marketing Manager’s Report

by Louise Calise

Overview

I am happy to report that for the second half of 2008 we raised $820,037; an increase of $141,718 over the second half of 2007. And our membership numbers have increased as well – we have 2,462 new members for the second half of 2008; for the same time period in 2007 we had 1,149 new members. I recognize that some interest in the Libertarian Party may be due to the fact that it is an election year; but I also believe that interest has grown because of everyone’s outreach efforts – headquarters staff is a true team.

In my last report I requested to be able to hire someone to help with the daily responsibilities of the direct mail program so I can work on acquiring, cultivating and maintaining high dollar donors for the party. We have hired Casey Hansen. Casey started at the LP on August 22. He was interviewed by myself, Robert Kraus and Admiral Colley; and we all agreed that Casey would be a good fit to the LP staff. And so far he has proven us right. Casey is a graduate of San Diego State University and comes to us from TheCapitol.Net, where he served as a conference associate. At this time I would like to introduce Casey to the LNC – welcome Casey.

House Appeals

Our renewal mailing series is still holding strong with an average return of 13.33% and an average gift of $42.34. We have done some telemarketing to members for purposes of renewals and the results were better in 2008 than in 2007 (higher percentage return and higher average gift).

The return on investment (ROI) for our direct mail appeals averages $3.86 (meaning that for every $1.00 we spent we receive $3.86 back), while the ROI on renewals is $10.24. In my opinion this is understandable because the members we mail to do not necessarily want to have their membership in the LP lapse.

The results for our house appeals are slow in reporting because the post office seems to still be slowing down the delivery of our business return envelopes. When speaking to other professionals in non-profit organizations, they seem to be having the same problem. In trying to expedite receiving returns, I split the house file in half for the August house appeal (Time magazine article enclosed). I mailed half the donors a business reply envelope and the other half a preprinted return envelope (no postage). Unfortunately, this test has not proven that we could acquire funds quicker. However, it is interesting that the return envelope with no postage brought in a 0.06% higher return with an $8.50 higher average gift. Therefore, we will use the return envelope without postage again.

To help increase our percent response on house appeals I am making our house appeal’s reply device interactive. For example, the September house appeal reply device has a sticker that asks the member to take the sticker off the reply device and place it on their calendar. In October I plan on having a check off box asking the donor to send in $44.00 in honor of our 44th President and for this $44.00 we will send them a button that says “Don’t Blame Me – I Voted Libertarian” and the button has our toll free telephone number on it. We will be doing the fulfillment from the office, and it will be cost effective.

In trying to get our lapsed donors to renew I will be very selective in choosing a direct mail appeal for them to receive. I recognize that it has to be one that tears at their heart strings for the Libertarian cause.

Prospecting

This year we mailed three prospect appeals – one to different lists, one to persons donating to a libertarian cause via the internet (this is a list Shane acquired), and one to persons who responded to a prior prospecting survey (but returned the survey without money). The last two brought in 2.33% response with an average gift of $42.96. For prospecting these are very good returns.

I have been working with an agency that has experience in political prospecting so I can tap their brain to get our prospecting to different lists with a new package to work for us. However, Robert has been telling me that we do not have funds to pay for this project. Therefore in order to make the project affordable now I have worked out with the agency that (1) they will front half the postage, (2) the costs for the lists will be at least 30 days out and I have the broker negotiating net names, (3) all the printing and mail shop costs will not be due before 90 days after the mailing. All of this gives us time to get money in the door to pay the bills.

There are no guarantees in life, especially when prospecting; however, even though a different package to other lists in January 2008 lost us money (as all prospecting does) we gained enough on the donor’s next gifts to really look at that prospect appeal as successful. In other words, donors to the January 2008 prospect appeal gave us an additional one, two or more gifts. The January 2008 prospect appeal costs a total of $14,342.73; the grand total of gifts from these particular donors acquired through this appeal is $39,127.05 to date (only 7 months after the first mailing).

Telemarketing

Our telemarketing is at a stand still as we have board members, staff and volunteers calling donors. Right now this is the most cost-effective method. Once we enter 2009 we should begin telemarketing again asking for funds to help support down ballot candidates.

Board Solicitations

Previously we discussed with the members of the board soliciting funds and some of you say you are not fundraisers. Yes, I agreed – and still do; however, as a team we can solicit people that you already know and possibly get those people to introduce you to others. In this vein I have brought with me a copy of “Asking” by Jerold Panas for each of you. It is a quick read book that I believe will help you feel more comfortable in doing solicitations. I am ready to work with any board member who wishes my assistance in identifying, calling and/or visiting major donors.

LNC “Give or Get Program” (as of 9/217/08)

Board Member

Get Give Grand Total Goal

Aaron Starr

1,260 5,040 6,300 10,000

Angela Keaton

0 0 0

Berlie Etzel

0 0 0

Bob Jackson

0 0 0

Daniel M. Karlan

300 300 2,500

George Squires

0 0 0

Hardy A. Macia

5,668 5,668 10,000

Heather Scott

236 236 0

Jake Porter

35 0 35 0

James W. Lark

5,000 5,000 10,000

Julia Fox

100 100 2,000

Lee Wrights

0 0 0

Mark W. Hinkle

0 0 5,000

Mary Ruwart

100 100 0

Michael C. Colley

918 918 5,000

Michael P. Jingozian

1,318 1,318 5,000

Patrick J. Dixon

225 320 545 5,000

R. A. Ryan

1,000 30 1,030 2,500

Rachel Hawkridge

18 18 1,000

Rebecca Sink-Burris

250 658 908 1,000

Robert Sullentrup

200 205 405 2,000

Scott Lieberman

300 300 1,000

Steve LaBianca

0 0 0

Stewart Flood

175 175 10,000

William B. Redpath

5,250 5,250 10,000

(blank)

0

Grand Total

3,145 25,459 28,604 82,000

Note: Mary Ruwart and Bob Sullentrup prefer to keep their contributions confidential.

Mail Schedule

Here is an updated 2008 mail schedule:

2008 Mail Schedule

Proposed

Mail Date

Audience Theme Status

13-Feb

House Ron Paul Petition mailed

26-Feb

House Torch Club Invitations mailed

10-Mar

House Annual Report mailed

9-Apr

House Annual Report Followup mailed

1-May

House Ballot Access - Map Insert mailed

9-Jun

House Urgent Gram mailed

17-Jun

House Post Convention mailed

7-Aug

House Time magazine article mailed

15-Sept

House Remember to Vote sticker will mail 9/15

13-Oct

House Button back-end fulfillment have inventory

11-Nov

House Election turnout

11-Dec

House Year End - Budget

15-Jul

Prospect Party & Candidate Support est mail 10/08

13-Oct

Prospect Remember to Vote - Stickers Not mailing

16-Jan

House Renewal Series mailed

22-Feb

House Renewal Series mailed

10-Mar

House Renewal Series mailed

18-Apr

House Renewal Series mailed

12-May

House Renewal Series mailed

9-Jun

House Renewal Series mailed

7-Jul

House Renewal Series mailed

4-Aug

House Renewal Series mailed

2-Sep

House Renewal Series

6-Oct

House Renewal Series

3-Nov

House Renewal Series

1-Dec

House Renewal Series

28-Jan

Mo pledgers Pledge News mailed

28-Feb

Mo pledgers Pledge News mailed

27-Mar

Mo pledgers Pledge News mailed

21-Apr

Mo pledgers Pledge News mailed

12-May

Mo pledgers Pledge News mailed

9-Jun

Mo pledgers Pledge News mailed

14-Jul

Mo pledgers Pledge News mailed

11-Aug

Mo pledgers Pledge News mailed

8-Sep

Mo pledgers Pledge News

13-Oct

Mo pledgers Pledge News

10-Nov

Mo pledgers Pledge News

8-Dec

Mo pledgers Pledge News

20-Jan

Active Members LP News mailed

2-Mar

Active Members LP News mailed

2-Apr

Active Members LP News mailed

2-May

Active Members LP News mailed

12-May

Active Members LP News mailed

9-Jun

Active Members LP News mailed

14-Jul

Active Members LP News mailed

11-Aug

Active Members LP News mailed

8-Sep

Active Members LP News

13-Oct

Active Members LP News

10-Nov

Active Members LP News

8-Dec

Active Members LP News

Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement.

Libertarian National Committee

Volunteer Coordination

Report

Your browser may not support display of this image.

2600 Virginia Ave. NW #200
Washington , D.C. 22304
Phone: 2023330072 x232
E-Mail: austin.petersen@lp.org Web: www.lp.org

Core Activities

In order to provide states with volunteers for their events and to grow their parties, I have been actively recruiting volunteers on a daily basis. Interns place highly charged political ads across the United States. The advertisements are written to reflect the general interests of a population based on general demographic info available freely online, and by common knowledge. For example: During the West Virginia Ballot Access drive, the state was targeted with advertisements that reflected strong 2nd amendment positions, as well as low tax messages. Conversely, New York City was targeted by placing advertisements that advocated activism based on our appeals to Civil Liberties, and repealing Corporatism, i.e. soft fascism. The results of the ad campaigns have been remarkably successful.

The advertisement campaign netted over 250 activists all across the nation to be deployed for various activities. Some of them were for specific events, such as petitioning for Ballot Access, and others were for local campaigns and state chairs to distribute as they saw fit. A document has been attached to give you an example of these replies.

In states where the local affiliate is unable to support an energetic volunteer, I have encouraged them to either start their own Meetup (reference LP Blog, “Start a Bob Barr Meetup”), or helped them to locate a Libertarian Meetup group near them. This too has been a successful way to keep volunteers busy. I have personally grown the Washington D.C. Libertarian Party Meetup by 10 members and have a constituency of reliable volunteers for projects in the area.

The following map provides an illustration of the progress of the grassroots across the country. Currently we show 7,811 grassroots volunteers amongst 159 groups in 132 cities. (continued on next page)

Your browser may not support display of this image. I continually strive to build my network and earn votes for the Libertarian Party by participating in extracurricular activities. I have begun to make contacts in such organizations as the MPP, The Institute for Humane Studies, Students for Liberty, the Leadership Institute and Reason Magazine. These relationships I am building there will definitely be advantageous as I can see my local volunteer base growing out of some of these institutions.

I have provided material support to the Barr campaign by providing reliable locations for petitioners to have in key states. By researching grocery stores, and big box stores on the Internet and calling ahead, we were able to secure at least one new location every day in hard to petition states like West Virginia.

Alternate Activities

During the past few months I have been called upon to represent the Libertarian Party at several events, conventions, and rallies. The most recent will be the one this coming weekend for Ron Paul. In general I felt as if my outreach at events has been very effective. Of those people who are not firmly voting for either of the major party candidates, I have a high conversion rate when speaking to them on their issues.

I also represent the party at events, staffing booths, and handing out literature as well. This weekend I will be attending the Campaign for Liberty Rally in Minneapolis to attempt to persuade the Ron Paul people to vote Libertarian.

I’ve been developing a conversion technique which my interns and I work on that I have labeled, “Positive Deception,” whereby you judge what your opponents strongest issues are (democratic or republican) and play yourself to that angle by denigrating their candidates choice in a positive way that piques your targets interest and towards the issues you both mutually agree are important. A simple illustration of this would be, “I thought about voting democrat, but I am against the war.” Or, “I used to like Obama, but I am strong for Civil Liberties.” Then you can go into detail. This works on I estimate over half of the people I practice it on.

Ambassadorship

Recently, The Institute for International Education and the Department of State, asked me to give a presentation on our belief system in front of a team of foreign diplomats, journalists, and other luminaries. This was a golden opportunity to give foreigners a Liberty minded viewpoint of some of the major issues we face today.

It was a very exciting event. A group of individuals from South America were present, and were very interested to hear such a broadly different approach to world problems. After the presentation, I was surprised that they didn’t focus on drug issues, but instead on welfare. A journalist from Brazil was doing an article on our party, and she grilled me about my stance on this issue. However at the end she appeared unfazed by my logic, and said that she still thinks we should take care of the mentally deficient, and sick. The entire room listened to the conversation, and waited for my reply.

I asked her if I could ask her a question, without appearing too confrontational. She said yes, and I asked her how much money and time she offered to sick and mentally ill people. She was flabbergasted and replied that’s what taxes were for! Everyone laughed because they saw the inherent fallacy of expecting other people to do good for you on your own behalf by forcefully taxing your neighbors. Three articles were written in South American newspapers on this event.

Leadership

The following is a letter from one of my interns.

“Austin Petersen is one of the best bosses I have ever had. He was a pleasure to work under, and his attitude and dedication to the libertarian cause always kept me motivated to work hard and spread the party's values. Austin is a master at converting people to libertarianism. When he got into debates at the various events we attended he always spoke eloquently and made people realize how much they have in common with the party's platform. Seeing his success, it made me change my method of how I approached people with differing opinions. Austin is also a very "stand up" guy, whose opinion I trust greatly. I am even planning on having Austin come speak at my college to promote the LP this semester.

As for my contribution to the party, my main job was to post creative and suggestive online advertisements on craigslist and other websites. Austin advised me and we worked together to find core issues that made this happen. Each day we typically had a yield of at least three volunteers from craigslist advertisements alone! Some weeks we would even get more. Once again it was Austin's drive (and excitement from getting new volunteers) that kept me and the other intern posting ads that were original and highly motivating.”

–Mark Meranta (Senior at George Mason)

Media Production

Since the convention, I have produced three small videos for the party. These include: An interview with an Iraq Veteran and Libertarian, a recap of our Denver Convention, and a short humorous recruitment video for Bob Barr. I also have planned a production shoot with a team of volunteers next month for a commercial with the Students for Liberty. I’ve also developed a good relationship with their Executive Director, Alexander McCobin.

The camera has been a good investment I believe because after the convention, a media outlet was unable to acquire High Definition video from any other source of our convention. I was able to provide this to them for an article on our party.

Over the next year I plan to make good use of the camera to help spread our message.

Setbacks

Volunteer ballot access efforts in D.C. for Barr were a failure. Although I diligently attempted to recruit volunteers to get the required amount of signatures, I was unable to complete this project on time. Challenges included: Circulation was limited to D.C. residents. D.C. Libertarians are notoriously skeptical of the political process – some don’t even vote. Also I was distracted by the Heller campaign fiasco, which I had originally planned to piggyback the Barr petitions on with. Unfortunately, this was a mistake and I accept responsibility due to prior warnings to be careful of Heller and his constituents. I did learn a valuable lesson in politics in being cautious.

Conclusion

With only two months left until the election my focus is now shifting to get out the vote operations. I am currently in need of software similar to our Ballot Base from last year. Hopefully I can acquire something soon so that I can train volunteers in it.

I also plan to coordinate some nationwide sign waving events to coordinate with the major parties rallies, as well as introducing a simple blueprint plan to distribute to grassroots organizations. This document describes how to build a ground up grassroots activist group for beginners.

Sample Ad Responses:

#1

I have been studying the constitution and reading as much as I can get my hands on this subject. I have a close person that has claimed his sovereignty along with his family. I know of the freedom you speak and want to dive in. We currently live in Washington state and are attempting to move to a Montana in a year to hopefully join others more like-minded and interested in regaining our rights Liberties and justice. I am still young, slightly under 30 but when I become of age I want the knowledge and wisdom to be a great public servant and help end this grossly overpowered government of socialism and communism. Let me know of all and any amount of help one citizen can do.

LONG LIVE FREEDOM

James Harles

#2

New to Knoxville. Looking for someway to spend my time effectively. This sounds great!

Would like to hear more about it. – Annesah

#3

My boyfriend and I are libertarians and are looking to become active party members! I saw your recent posting on Craigslist, and we would be excited to help! We are mainly looking for weekend events that we can both participate in, but potentially something during the week too. Please let us know more details about how we can help your efforts!
Thank you for your time and efforts for the party!
Kim VanderPol

#4

I am a Libertarian and am always wanting to get more involved with the party on a local level. I guess this could be my chance. I am an

Interior Designer and event planner, but have many skills and am

willing to do a wide variety of things to contribute.

Suzanne Young

#5.

I am a conservative, I might be interested in working with your group depending on what the job details and if I feel like it is of significance to politics and would truly help bring about change in who is elected, etc.

-Tim

#6

Hi Austin, this is right up my alley, as I am dissatisfied with with the other parties. Yes, put me in touch with someone in my state of Virginia. I currently reside in Virginia Beach, VA but may be relocating to Northampton County of the Eastern Shore in Virginia. I'm curious as to whether you have had much response from my area. Thank you for responding to my request. Take care, Patty

#7

I am in the Point Pleasant area and willing to walk for Bob Barr. Please give me a call today and I can set up a meeting to gather a few others who would love to help.

T Arno

#8

Mr. Petersen,
I would be more than happy to help with the Libertarian cause I would just like to know what you need me to do in Norman or the state of Oklahoma to get votes for the party, or just to ensure the option is on the Oklahoma ballot. Looking forward to your reply.
Respectfully,
Mike Marsh

#9

I am interested in the lowering of the taxes that the goverment has put

on the people and people have accepted what they have done. We as

people who do pay their paycheck should keep them accountable for what

they spend the taxpayers money on. Sign me up and what can be done.

Thank you

Martha Mcconnell

Staff Report – Andrew Davis

Following the nomination of Bob Barr, the media focused immediately switched from the LP to Barr. This, of course, was expected given the caliber of Barr's candidacy that makes him a major player in the upcoming election.

Though temporarily based in Atlanta where I can assist the Barr campaign with media coverage, which in turn helps the prominence of the LP in the media, I have been able to do several things towards energizing LP members and spreading the LP message. The LP's MySpace page had been dormant for nearly a year. After some finagling with MySpace, I was able to develop a new page that is up and now has more than 800 friends‹all within two months.

The LP Facebook group also has been revamped, updated and now has close to 4,000 members. Both the Facebook group and Myspace are portals to the LP Web site, but also a great resource for LP news and information. One of the best features of the site is a quick-list of our positions that are in sound bites that make them perfect for the online community.

Upon Shane's departure from the Libertarian Party, I have been tasked with online fundraising. We normally solicit from our list about once a week.

As I said before, the media has turned its attention from the LP-proper to the Barr campaign, so most of the media focus from our end has been in promoting Bob. However, we were able to get some news hits for our National Chairman, such as with a major radio station in Germany, and a spot on Al Jazeera English.

The biggest hit this quarter were write-ups in Playboy. Following an interview with Bill, in which he was incorrectly identified as our presidential nominee (this was prior to the convention), Playboy sought to correct an error in which Editor Lee Froehlich called "one of the worst in 10 years." In atoning for their error, they allowed for a retraction letter that ran two months ago. However, this month, a full-page interview was run in their Forum Section.

The focus of the next few months will simply be promoting the LP in the media as much as possible during the campaign season. As Barr continues to climb in the polls, this will happen more often.

_________________________

Andrew Davis

National Media Coordinator

Libertarian National Committee, Inc.

Andrew.davis@lp.org

Office: 202-333-0008 ext. 225

Cell: 202-731-0002

CAMPUS ORGANIZING REPORT

Submitted to: Libertarian National Committee, Aug. 29, 2008

Submitted by: James W. Lark, III

Region 5S Representative, Libertarian National Committee

This report will provide information concerning efforts to build and support Libertarian campus organizations. I shall provide an updated report at the LNC meeting in Arlington should additional information become available.

This report will provide information concerning activities of the Libertarian Party state affiliates in Region 5S since the LNC meeting on May 26, 2008. I shall provide an updated report at the LNC meeting in Arlington should additional information become available.

Since that LNC meeting, I was invited to discuss the LP national convention and LP presidential ticket on WCHV (1260 AM) on May 29 and on WINA (1070 AM) on June 2. (Both stations are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.) I gave an address on the subject of campus organizing and served as a banquet speaker (along with Geoff Neale and Bill Redpath) at the LP Texas convention in Ft. Worth in mid June. I attended the annual Libertarian Party of Maryland summer picnic on Aug. 9, held near North East, Maryland. I was the special guest of the Libertarian Party of Maine at their annual summer picnic, held on Sebago Lake on Aug. 17. On Aug. 18 I appeared on a radio/TV simulcast in Portland, Maine (WLOB FM/FOX 23 TV) to discuss the Libertarian Party. I attended the annual Libertarian Party of Delaware convention in Newark on Aug. 23.

If I may be permitted a personal note, I was greatly honored and deeply flattered to receive (along with LP Washington activist Ruth Bennett) the Thomas Jefferson Award for lifetime achievement in the Libertarian Party at the national convention in Denver. I have had the privilege to work with some great colleagues in the Libertarian Party of Virginia, and with many superb teammates on the LNC. Allow me to express my gratitude to these great Libertarians for their work for liberty, and for their friendship and support.

Delaware

The Libertarian Party of Delaware held its annual convention on Aug. 23. The convention, held at a restaurant/bar in Newark, was attended by roughly 15 people. (Steve Newton of Newark deserves praise for his efforts to organize the convention.) Jim Rash (Jim@rashteam.com) of Milford was elected chairman. Paul Thompson (who attended the LP national convention in Denver) was elected vice chairman, and Brad Thomas was elected secretary/treasurer.

The convention nominated Mark Anthony Parks to serve as the LPD congressional candidate, and nominated Tyler Nixon and Jesse Priester to serve as the LPD candidates in the 4th and 23rd Delaware House of Representatives districts, respectively. Mr. Nixon and Mr. Priester are “fusion candidates,” in that both of them will serve as Republican candidates as well.

District of Columbia

Rob Kampia (rkampia@mpp.org) is serving as the contact for the LPDC at this time. He informed me that J. Bradley Jansen (lbrty4all@gmail.com) has been working in various ways to promote libertarian candidates in DC. I have enclosed below the message Mr. Jansen sent me on Aug. 4:

Hi James,

For the record, I'm a member of the DC Republican Committee, former Ron Paul legislative staffer, and current Bob Barr presidential elector candidate to the electoral college. Although a registered Republican in DC, I did send in my dues to the LP the day Barr got the nomination (DC does not currently recognize LP registration).

The LP slate in DC consists of Barr/WAR for the presidential ticket, Dick Heller (who overturned the handgun ban at the Supreme Court) for Delegate to Congress and Damien Ober for shadow senator. I engineered a gentlemen's agreement between the DC LP (such as it is) and DC GOP: The LP is not running a candidate against Republican incumbent Eleanor Holmes Norton, and the Republican candidate for Delegate to Congress is going to withdraw and endorse Dick Heller when he makes his formal, public announcement (the DC GOP will be supporting Heller in other ways). It is possible some other members will run for the non-partisan ANC (Advisory Neighborhood Commissions) http://anc.dc.gov/anc/site/default.asp (the deadlines are later than for other offices).

For identification purposes only and explicitly not implying organizational endorsements, the three Barr presidential elector candidates to the electoral college for DC include Rob Kampia of MPP who seconded Barr's nomination at the convention, Stacie Rumenap who is Executive Director of Stop Child Predators www.stopchildpredators.org, and J. Bradley Jansen, director of the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights http://www.financialprivacy.org/.

We are currently circulating signatures for all of the LP candidates--and could use help! Even out of "state"ers are welcome to come and assist us. We won't know if we were successful until after your deadline.

Right now the Heller campaign website has a petition to draft him to run: http://dcforheller.com/ and will soon be accepting online donations and will post other information on issues, etc. The address for the campaign is DC for Heller at PO Box 77159, Washington, DC 20013 (make checks payable to "DC for Heller"). The Facebook page is http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21857286891&ref=ts; everyone is encouraged to "friend" the campaign and invite others. They can email me at DCforHeller@gmail.com with any questions. Dick Heller has been the DC LP treasurer for the past several years and was responsible for getting Michael Badnarik on the ballot four years ago. The attached document was circulated at the Ron Paul rEVOLution March and Rally. When Heller gets over 7,500 votes for delegate to Congress with Republican support in a one-on-one race with incumbent Eleanor Holmes Norton, the LP will have "major party" status along with the Republicans, Democrats and DC Statehood Green Parties in DC. Steve Dasbach, among others, spoke at the National Press Club urging Dick Heller to run:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQZxjQ302Lw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izts2x2u_L4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqnL1bi7ncM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYACOse6DLQ

Heller spoke at the charter meeting of the DC Republican Liberty Caucus and is doing lots of TV, radio and print interviews because of the court case, his gun registration and the new lawsuit. Once we get his scheduling harmonized, hopefully that will be integrated into the website.

[Some background on the party affiliation question: Because of the gag order with the Supreme Court case, the ballot petitioning deadline past to run on the Republican line. Therefore, Mr. Heller decided to run for Delegate to Congress from DC as a Libertarian with DC GOP support for that bid. Ideally, he would have run on a Libertarian-Republican fusion ticket, but the DC Board of Elections and Ethics does not permit fusion tickets: "Mr. Heller's challenge to Ms. Norton is welcomed in the spirit of debate and as his campaign unfolds we look forward him hearing about some of his ideas to better DC," stated Robert J. Kabel, Chair of the District of Columbia Republican Committee.]

Damien Ober is running an artistic campaign for "shadow senator" (the office we would have if DC had senators). His Facebook page is here

http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15989579693&ref=ts, his YouTube page is here http://www.youtube.com/user/shadowdc2008, and the campaign email is shadowdc@verizon.net.

Ron Paul delegate candidates to the Republican national convention are still quite active in DC and include the current Republican candidate for Delegate to Congress Adrian Salsgiver, LP shadow senator candidate Damien Ober, half of the new members of the DC Republican Committee, and most of the organization of the Heller campaign: treasurer James Hendrickson, general counsel Craig Max, and the manager J. Bradley Jansen, et al.

In addition, the charter meeting of the DC chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus met recently and had Dick Heller as the keynote speaker.

I will try to make the LNC meeting if you like. The above should suffice for a report on the DC LP.

Yours in liberty,
J. Bradley Jansen

Update (Aug. 31) from J. Bradley Jansen:

Hi,

Here is a quick update on the situation in DC. Bob Barr will not be on the ballot in DC. Dick Heller decided against a run for office at this time (still busy with the lawsuits). Damien Ober filed, I think, 4200 signatures to get on the ballot for Shadow Senator (3k was the minimum). There is some debate whether getting the 7500 for his office qualifies the LP for major party status in DC.

Best,
JBJ

Maryland

LPMD chairman Bob Johnston (rstanley21018@yahoo.com) provided the following report:

The Maryland LP is running a full slate of candidates for federal offices for the first time in its history. It is also the first time a 3rd party in Maryland is running a full slate in at least 30 years. The candidates for the 8 US House of Representatives' races were confirmed to be on the ballot by the state Board of Elections on August 4th, the final day to register as a candidate in Maryland.

The candidates and their Congressional Districts: (1st) Dr. Richard Davis, (2nd) Lorenzo Gaztanaga, (3rd) Sebastian Sassi, (4th) Thibeaux Lincecum, (5th) Darlene Nicholas, (6th) Gary Hoover, (7th) Ronald Owens-Bey, (8th) Ian Thomas.

The MDLP held its annual summer picnic and Central Committee meeting on Saturday, 9 August at Dave and Renee Sten's place in NorthEast, MD. Around 25 people attended, and were graced with the presence of our esteemed LNC Region 5 Representative, Dr. Jim Lark.

Pennsylvania

LP Pennsylvania chairman Mik Robertson (chair@lppa.org) has stated that the LPPa submitted sufficiently many signatures to place the LP presidential ticket of Bob Barr and Wayne Root on the Pennsylvania ballot. The LPPa will have three statewide candidates: Marakay Rogers (Attorney General), Betsy Summers (Auditor General), and Berlie Etzel (State Treasurer).

In a press release dated Aug. 19, Mr. Robertson notes that the Cumberland County Republican chairman has filed a “Petition to Set Aside a Nominating Paper Filed” in an apparent effort to keep the Barr/Root ticket off the ballot. This effort has generated substantial publicity for the LP in Pennsylvania. Incidentally, Bob Barr conducted a stand-up comedy routine in a charity event for children in Philadelphia on Aug. 19.

Update (Aug. 31) from Mik Robertson:

Please be advised that a hearing is scheduled in Philadelphia on Friday September 5, 2008 regarding the petition to strike Bob Barr from the Pennsylvania ballot. Rochelle Etzel has received a subpoena to appear at the hearing, and our Region 5S alternate, Berlie Etzel, will be in attendance as well. As a result, our alternate representative will not attend the LNC meeting, and we are sure Jim Lark will be able to provide superlative representation of the region at the meeting by himself.

The Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania does have some serious concerns about the hearing, as even a positive outcome that keeps Bob Barr on the ballot may have adverse outcomes for future ballot access requirements in the Commonwealth. We do have some light at the end of the tunnel as legislators are at least announcing support for PA election law reform, and we need this case to promote that effort, not set us back. We have developed draft legislation to amend the PA Election Code that we hope will be introduced in the next legislative session starting September 16th, and this case may affect whether that happens.

If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Mik Robertson

Chair, LPPA

Virginia

In mid August the Libertarian Party of Virginia successfully concluded its petition drive to place the LP presidential ticket on the 2008 ballot. The LPVa was required to submit the signatures of at least 10,000 registered Virginia voters by Aug. 22. In addition, the submission had to include at least 400 signatures of registered voters from each of the eleven congressional districts in the Commonwealth.

LNC chairman Bill Redpath is the LPVa candidate for the U.S. Senate this year. He is running against former governors Jim Gilmore (Republican) and Mark Warner (Democrat). His campaign successfully completed its petition drive in June. His campaign had to satisfy the same criteria as those set for the presidential petition, except that the submission deadline was June 10. Mr. Redpath funded his petition drive out of his own pocket. His campaign manager is Kara Cholko; she is currently working to organize campaign events for him throughout the state.

Nathan Larson is the LPVa candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the First District. He also serves as chairman of the First Congressional District Committee.

West Virginia

I regret to report that I have not been able to contact Matt Harris (LP West Virginia chairman) during the past two months. I was contacted this week by Tad Britch, who serves as LPWV secretary. Mr. Britch is interested in building a Libertarian campus group at West Virginia University in Morgantown. He indicated that he has been unable to contact Mr. Harris; evidently, Mr. Harris’ telephone and e-mail are no longer in service.

This is very disappointing, especially considering that Mr. Harris attended the national convention in Denver and seemed enthusiastic about building the LPWV. Bill Redpath informed me that the LPWV provided little if any assistance in the petition drive to place the Barr/Root ticket on the ballot. I shall continue to work with LPWV members in an effort to re-energize the organization.

Region One Report

No report

Region Two Report

No report

Region Three Report

No report

Region Four Report

No report

REGION 5S REPORT

Submitted to: Libertarian National Committee, Aug 29, 2008

Submitted by: James W. Lark, III

Region 5S Representative, Libertarian National Committee

This report will provide information concerning activities of the Libertarian Party state affiliates in Region 5S since the LNC meeting on May 26, 2008. I shall provide an updated report at the LNC meeting in Arlington should additional information become available.

Since that LNC meeting, I was invited to discuss the LP national convention and LP presidential ticket on WCHV (1260 AM) on May 29 and on WINA (1070 AM) on June 2. (Both stations are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.) I gave an address on the subject of campus organizing and served as a banquet speaker (along with Geoff Neale and Bill Redpath) at the LP Texas convention in Ft. Worth in mid June. I attended the annual Libertarian Party of Maryland summer picnic on Aug. 9, held near North East, Maryland. I was the special guest of the Libertarian Party of Maine at their annual summer picnic, held on Sebago Lake on Aug. 17. On Aug. 18 I appeared on a radio/TV simulcast in Portland, Maine (WLOB FM/FOX 23 TV) to discuss the Libertarian Party. I attended the annual Libertarian Party of Delaware convention in Newark on Aug. 23.

If I may be permitted a personal note, I was greatly honored and deeply flattered to receive (along with LP Washington activist Ruth Bennett) the Thomas Jefferson Award for lifetime achievement in the Libertarian Party at the national convention in Denver. I have had the privilege to work with some great colleagues in the Libertarian Party of Virginia, and with many superb teammates on the LNC. Allow me to express my gratitude to these great Libertarians for their work for liberty, and for their friendship and support.

Delaware

The Libertarian Party of Delaware held its annual convention on Aug. 23. The convention, held at a restaurant/bar in Newark, was attended by roughly 15 people. (Steve Newton of Newark deserves praise for his efforts to organize the convention.) Jim Rash (Jim@rashteam.com) of Milford was elected chairman. Paul Thompson (who attended the LP national convention in Denver) was elected vice chairman, and Brad Thomas was elected secretary/treasurer.

The convention nominated Mark Anthony Parks to serve as the LPD congressional candidate, and nominated Tyler Nixon and Jesse Priester to serve as the LPD candidates in the 4th and 23rd Delaware House of Representatives districts, respectively. Mr. Nixon and Mr. Priester are “fusion candidates,” in that both of them will serve as Republican candidates as well.

District of Columbia

Rob Kampia (rkampia@mpp.org) is serving as the contact for the LPDC at this time. He informed me that J. Bradley Jansen (lbrty4all@gmail.com) has been working in various ways to promote libertarian candidates in DC. I have enclosed below the message Mr. Jansen sent me on Aug. 4:

Hi James,

For the record, I'm a member of the DC Republican Committee, former Ron Paul legislative staffer, and current Bob Barr presidential elector candidate to the electoral college. Although a registered Republican in DC, I did send in my dues to the LP the day Barr got the nomination (DC does not currently recognize LP registration).

The LP slate in DC consists of Barr/WAR for the presidential ticket, Dick Heller (who overturned the handgun ban at the Supreme Court) for Delegate to Congress and Damien Ober for shadow senator. I engineered a gentlemen's agreement between the DC LP (such as it is) and DC GOP: The LP is not running a candidate against Republican incumbent Eleanor Holmes Norton, and the Republican candidate for Delegate to Congress is going to withdraw and endorse Dick Heller when he makes his formal, public announcement (the DC GOP will be supporting Heller in other ways). It is possible some other members will run for the non-partisan ANC (Advisory Neighborhood Commissions) http://anc.dc.gov/anc/site/default.asp (the deadlines are later than for other offices).

For identification purposes only and explicitly not implying organizational endorsements, the three Barr presidential elector candidates to the electoral college for DC include Rob Kampia of MPP who seconded Barr's nomination at the convention, Stacie Rumenap who is Executive Director of Stop Child Predators www.stopchildpredators.org, and J. Bradley Jansen, director of the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights http://www.financialprivacy.org/.

We are currently circulating signatures for all of the LP candidates--and could use help! Even out of "state"ers are welcome to come and assist us. We won't know if we were successful until after your deadline.

Right now the Heller campaign website has a petition to draft him to run: http://dcforheller.com/ and will soon be accepting online donations and will post other information on issues, etc. The address for the campaign is DC for Heller at PO Box 77159, Washington, DC 20013 (make checks payable to "DC for Heller"). The Facebook page is http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21857286891&ref=ts; everyone is encouraged to "friend" the campaign and invite others. They can email me at DCforHeller@gmail.com with any questions. Dick Heller has been the DC LP treasurer for the past several years and was responsible for getting Michael Badnarik on the ballot four years ago. The attached document was circulated at the Ron Paul rEVOLution March and Rally. When Heller gets over 7,500 votes for delegate to Congress with Republican support in a one-on-one race with incumbent Eleanor Holmes Norton, the LP will have "major party" status along with the Republicans, Democrats and DC Statehood Green Parties in DC. Steve Dasbach, among others, spoke at the National Press Club urging Dick Heller to run:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQZxjQ302Lw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izts2x2u_L4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqnL1bi7ncM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYACOse6DLQ

Heller spoke at the charter meeting of the DC Republican Liberty Caucus and is doing lots of TV, radio and print interviews because of the court case, his gun registration and the new lawsuit. Once we get his scheduling harmonized, hopefully that will be integrated into the website.

[Some background on the party affiliation question: Because of the gag order with the Supreme Court case, the ballot petitioning deadline past to run on the Republican line. Therefore, Mr. Heller decided to run for Delegate to Congress from DC as a Libertarian with DC GOP support for that bid. Ideally, he would have run on a Libertarian-Republican fusion ticket, but the DC Board of Elections and Ethics does not permit fusion tickets: "Mr. Heller's challenge to Ms. Norton is welcomed in the spirit of debate and as his campaign unfolds we look forward him hearing about some of his ideas to better DC," stated Robert J. Kabel, Chair of the District of Columbia Republican Committee.]

Damien Ober is running an artistic campaign for "shadow senator" (the office we would have if DC had senators). His Facebook page is here

http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15989579693&ref=ts, his YouTube page is here http://www.youtube.com/user/shadowdc2008, and the campaign email is shadowdc@verizon.net.

Ron Paul delegate candidates to the Republican national convention are still quite active in DC and include the current Republican candidate for Delegate to Congress Adrian Salsgiver, LP shadow senator candidate Damien Ober, half of the new members of the DC Republican Committee, and most of the organization of the Heller campaign: treasurer James Hendrickson, general counsel Craig Max, and the manager J. Bradley Jansen, et al.

In addition, the charter meeting of the DC chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus met recently and had Dick Heller as the keynote speaker.

I will try to make the LNC meeting if you like. The above should suffice for a report on the DC LP.

Yours in liberty,
J. Bradley Jansen

Maryland

LPMD chairman Bob Johnston (rstanley21018@yahoo.com) provided the following report:

The Maryland LP is running a full slate of candidates for federal offices for the first time in its history. It is also the first time a 3rd party in Maryland is running a full slate in at least 30 years. The candidates for the 8 US House of Representatives' races were confirmed to be on the ballot by the state Board of Elections on August 4th, the final day to register as a candidate in Maryland.

The candidates and their Congressional Districts: (1st) Dr. Richard Davis, (2nd) Lorenzo Gaztanaga, (3rd) Sebastian Sassi, (4th) Thibeaux Lincecum, (5th) Darlene Nicholas, (6th) Gary Hoover, (7th) Ronald Owens-Bey, (8th) Ian Thomas.

The MDLP held its annual summer picnic and Central Committee meeting on Saturday, 9 August at Dave and Renee Sten's place in NorthEast, MD. Around 25 people attended, and were graced with the presence of our esteemed LNC Region 5 Representative, Dr. Jim Lark.

Pennsylvania

LP Pennsylvania chairman Mik Robertson (chair@lppa.org) has stated that the LPPa submitted sufficiently many signatures to place the LP presidential ticket of Bob Barr and Wayne Root on the Pennsylvania ballot. The LPPa will have three statewide candidates: Marakay Rogers (Attorney General), Betsy Summers (Auditor General), and Berlie Etzel (State Treasurer).

In a press release dated Aug. 19, Mr. Robertson notes that the Cumberland County Republican chairman has filed a “Petition to Set Aside a Nominating Paper Filed” in an apparent effort to keep the Barr/Root ticket off the ballot. This effort has generated substantial publicity for the LP in Pennsylvania. Incidentally, Bob Barr conducted a stand-up comedy routine in a charity event for children in Philadelphia on Aug. 19.

Virginia

In mid August the Libertarian Party of Virginia successfully concluded its petition drive to place the LP presidential ticket on the 2008 ballot. The LPVa was required to submit the signatures of at least 10,000 registered Virginia voters by Aug. 22. In addition, the submission had to include at least 400 signatures of registered voters from each of the eleven congressional districts in the Commonwealth.

LNC chairman Bill Redpath is the LPVa candidate for the U.S. Senate this year. He is running against former governors Jim Gilmore (Republican) and Mark Warner (Democrat). His campaign successfully completed its petition drive in June. His campaign had to satisfy the same criteria as those set for the presidential petition, except that the submission deadline was June 10. Mr. Redpath funded his petition drive out of his own pocket. His campaign manager is Kara Cholko; she is currently working to organize campaign events for him throughout the state.

Nathan Larson is the LPVa candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the First District. He also serves as chairman of the First Congressional District Committee.

West Virginia

I regret to report that I have not been able to contact Matt Harris (LP West Virginia chairman) during the past two months. I was contacted this week by Tad Britch, who serves as LPWV secretary. Mr. Britch is interested in building a Libertarian campus group at West Virginia University in Morgantown. He indicated that he has been unable to contact Mr. Harris; evidently, Mr. Harris’ telephone and e-mail are no longer in service.

This is very disappointing, especially considering that Mr. Harris attended the national convention in Denver and seemed enthusiastic about building the LPWV. Bill Redpath informed me that the LPWV provided little if any assistance in the petition drive to place the Barr/Root ticket on the ballot. I shall continue to work with LPWV members in an effort to re-energize the organization.

Region Six LNC Report

Submitted by Julie Fox, Region Six Representative, Libertarian National Committee

August 30, 2008

All reports were submitted by state chairs except where otherwise noted.

Missouri

Missouri Libertarian Party LNC Region Report August 17th, 2008

Ron Paul Supporter Outreach
---------------------------

A video to reach out to Ron Paul supporters was published to the Missouri
You Tube channel in January which now has over 1200 views.

Missouri LP State Chair Glenn Nielsen spoke to over 200 Ron Paul
supporters at a rally in rural southern Missouri last January. You Tube
videos of the speech are available on the Missouri LP You Tube channel.

Candidate Events
----------------

The Missouri LP hosted two LP candidate forums in July. One in St. Louis,
the other in Columbia. LP VP Nominee Wayne Allyn Root attended both events.
You Tube videos were produced and published for the St. Louis event at:

http://youtube.com/MissouriLP

Aobut 50 people attended each event.

Fundraisers for the Barr/Root campaign were held for each event raising
over $2000.

On six days notice a fundraising event was organized for Bob Barr in St. Louis
August 17th. 50 people attended with $3300 raised for the presidential campaign.

2008 Missouri LP Candidates
---------------------------

Candidates for 7 of 9 Congressional Districts. (1-3, 6-9)
Candidates for 3 of 5 Statewide Races. (Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State)
Three candidates for Missouri State Senate.
Eight candidates for Missouri State Representative.
Three candidates for County Commissioner.

Total of 24 Missouri LP candidates.

Media
-----

2004 LP Presidential Candidate Gary Nolan moved from Ohio to Columbia Missouri
December 2006 to host the drive time radio show on The Eagle 93.9FM in Columbia.
Gary isn't shy about speaking of libertarianism from time to time resulting in
the Boone County LP growing.

The Missouri LP produced a printed newsletter for the first time in four years.
5000 copies of the eight page newspaper style tabloid was printed, 3000 copies
were mailed to libertarians in Missouri the second week of August 2008.

Fundraising
-----------

By the end of May 2008 the Missouri LP had raised more money than in all of 2007.
Funds raised from monthly pledges have doubled in the last year.

Outreach
--------

Every year the Missouri LP has a booth at the Missouri State Fair. This year
the fair ran from August 7th-17th. Contact info for 33 new prospects was
obtained.

15,000 color trifold Missouri LP candidate brochures were printed and are being
distributed to voters.

Elections
---------

As an established political party with ballot access since 1992 the Missouri LP
participates in primary elections. For the August 5th primary 1725 voters chose
the LP ballot, .23% of the vote. This was the first year in recent primaries
where there were no contested libertarian races on the ballot.

1725 in 2008. .23% of vote.
1693 in 2006. .25% of vote.
3916 in 2004. .29% of vote.
3272 in 2002. .37% of vote.
1730 in 2000. .22% of vote.
1598 in 1998. .29% of vote.

2057 Libertarian Ballots for February 5th, 2008 Presidential Primary. .15% of vote.
1967 Libertarian Ballots for February 3rd, 2004 Presidential Primary. .36% of vote.
1447 Libertarian Ballots for March 7th, 2000 Presidential Primary. .19% of vote.

Glenn Nielsen
State Chair
Missouri Libertarian Party
Web: http://lpmo.org
E-Mail: chair@lpmo.org

Iowa

This afternoon, Tuesday August 19, I was informed by an employee of the
Iowa Secretary of State, that our Barr/ Root petition document package was
officially accepted. Barr & Root are on the ballot in Iowa.
The Iowa Secretary of State's employees scrutinized the document set
much more aggressively than ever before, "nit-picking" wherever
possible.
Now, on with the campaign!!
I will be driving my '66 Mustang convertible in the Guthrie County Fair
parade next Saturday, carrying a local beauty dressed as Ms. Liberty..
green face, torch, crown...and tossing copies of the Declaration of
Independence, Constitution and World's Smallest Political Quiz to the
crowd..signs on the car say "Iowa Libertarians" and we'll also have
Barr/ Root signs and campaign brochures.
We got a brief mention in the Des Moines Register (largest newspaper in
Iowa) for our outreach booth at the Des Moines Tattoo Festival
July25,26,27...about 3000 people attended.
Russ Gibson, candidate for Iowa House District #60 (West Des Moines) is
busy campaigning in a 3-way race with no incumbant,,Russ will likely
give us the highest-profile Iowa race for Libertarians.

Yours in Liberty,
Ed Wright
Chair, LPIA

Nebraska

Just a quick update from Nebraska:
On Saturday July 19th the Nebraska L P had its convention in Bellvue, Ne.
The party officers were elected. There were 20 people attending.

There was a speaker Tom Becka, a talk show host from Omaha radio station KFAB.

The state party has revamped its web site and is being watched by a member.

We have established a position of Media Coordinator. Randy Eshleman.
He has contacted the media and is working with them to promote the party.
He has also established several meetup groups.

One member is running for a non-partisan position on the Natural Resource District (NRD) board.

One issue that I have been involved with is concerning county-wide zoning here in Butler County. Just a little background information: Of the ninety-five counties in Nebraska, only five don't have zoning. For the last eighteen months a county commission has been working (attempting would be more like it) to create a comprehensive plan and a zoning plan. I have been the most vocal opponent of the plan. I spoke out against both the comprehensive plan and the zoning plan.

On Tuesday the 12th the board of Supervisors held a meeting for the sole purpose of getting citizen input. There were 15 people who addressed the issue. None of them had anything good to say. The opinion of several of the supervisors after the meeting was that the whole issue will not go.

There is an annual event here in Nebraska called the River City Roundup, which is held in Omaha, near the Missiouri River. It’s a major event people from the region attend. Several members are going to participate.

Jerry Kosch
Chairman,
Nebraska L.P.

South Dakota

South Dakota has managed to land Bob Barr on the ballot as an independent
candidate this fall. Since we did not achieve ballot access as a party we
have no other candidates this fall. I am back to working for ballot access
for 2010.

Oh one more thing. Thanks to Robert Kraus and Sean Haugh and most of all
Scott Kolhaas who flew in and rescued us once again. We could not have
done this without Scott.

Andre Agar

State Chair, SD LP

Minnesota

The Twin Cities are a zoo and its going to get a lot crazier. I have attached some events that I am aware of that are going on. We do know Bob Barr will be here also around Labor Day but we don't have a schedule from his campaign yet. Politics in Minnesota has fragmented like shattered glass.
1. Our bridge (I35-W) over the Mississippi River that fell down last year might reopen over Labor Day to traffic loads of about 140,000 cars/day.
2. The biggest state fair by attendance in the 50 states will start in St. Paul on August 21st thru Labor Day Sept 1st. On any given day there are over 100,000 people at the Fair. Unfortunately we could not scrape up the $1800 for a state fair booth for the second year in a row. Money and members have left to do other things. http://www.mnstatefair.org/
3. The Republican National Convention starts Sept 1st thru the 4th in St. Paul. http://www.gopconvention.com/
4. The Freedom Walk arrives August 30th in St. Paul. http://search.live.com/results.aspx?FORM=DNSAS&q=www.walk4freedom.com)
5. Liberty Parade is August 31st in Minneapolis. http://www.libertyparade2008.com/site/
6. The Walk for Freedom Picnic will be Sept. 1st http://www.mnlg.org/
7. The Rally for the Republic in both Minneapolis and St. Paul August 31st to Sept 2nd. http://rally.campaignforliberty.com/
8. The protest schedule to take place near the Republican National Convention is attached.

I know I have left out other events. In additional a change is happening in NE Mpls. A Libertarian Felix Montez may be elected to a MN House Seat 59A. He is a good candidate. http://felixforhouse.vpweb.com/

I will be the next Mayor of Columbia Heights. So far I have spent $5. I could always use money living on a fixed income. http://affordablech.blogspot.com/

Does anyone want to come to MN to help out? There are only a handful of us involved in these activities.

Bob Odden
Chair LPMN
612-987-2063 (personal cell)

Wisconsin

Wisconsin has four Assembly candidates and three Congressional district candidates (two districts) on the ballot in 2008. In 2006 we had none. Our telemarketing guy went out and recruited candidates this year, which made the difference. I created a Yahoo! Group for our Wisconsin candidates with a discussion list and libraries of links and files. Our state campaign committee was useless and was disbanded.

Our previous chair resigned and I accepted the position. Since then, I've stepped up the press releases a bit. As a result, I was interviewed for our regional weekly newspaper and a talk radio station. (The host said he would like to interview Bob Barr.) I also attended a luncheon in Madison with one of our Executive Committee members, sponsored by WisPolitics dot com on the topic of Assembly races, and I was able to ask a question on sending our Wisconsin Guard abroad to an army of occupation.

One district rep is planning a meet and greet with Bob Barr but I haven't heard if Barr accepted the invitation.

We had a state fair booth again but have no report, although I hear the results were acceptable.

We have a direct mail fundraiser in the works.

As usual, grassroots involvement in political campaigns is not where we need it to be, for any of our races. I'm doing what I can to encourage participation. I wonder what resources the LP has for Libertarians running for office, or if they are on their own.

Submitted by LPWI State Chair Jim Maas

Illinois

The LP-Illinois state convention will be held Oct. 3-5 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Oakbrook, IL. Among the weekend’s festivities and events will be elections for state party officers and committee positions will be held. Speakers confirmed to date include Dan Druck, candidate for Congress in the 14th Congressional district, Alan Stevo, Independent Congressional hopeful, and Collin Hitt from the Illinois Policy Institute, who will speak on School Choice. A debate on the IL Constitutional Convention is also on the agenda, as well as the LPI’s ever-popular Libertarian Jeopardy. The Convention Committee is still awaiting confirmation of attendance at our convention by either Bob Barr or Wayne Allyn Root.

The IL Constitutional Convention is up for vote in the November election. Most voters are not knowledgeable about the event and don’t even know that they will be voting on this issue in November. One debate has been held already, and at this time two more debates on the IL ConCon are scheduled. One will be (as noted above) at the LPI State Convention in October. The other will be sponsored by the Fox Valley Freedom Coalition in September. If the voters approve holding a constitutional convention, which only comes up for vote every 20 years, it will be the key to improving ballot access laws, though there is a fair amount of concern that a Constitution Convention also presents considerable danger should politicians have free reign to re-write Illinois’ governing document.

Dave and Francine Brady have formed a new local party, the McHenry County LP. Dave is a former Vice Chair from PA. Both Francine and Dave have brought a lot of ideas and enthusiasm at the state and local level, and both are very welcome additions to the LPI. Dave Brady has also joined the LPI as Fundraising Chair and has hit the ground running. Dave has already brought in some new donors for the state and things are looking up financially for the Party. At the August SOC meeting, Daniel Nowlan was appointed as the Party’s Newsletter Editor and joins the Executive Board with David.

The LPI completed the final step in its ballot drive just last week, when Barr and Root were substituted for the fill-in names presented to the SBE at the start of the ballot drive last March. The LPI turned in almost double the 25,000 signature requirement, to reduce our risk of being challenged – and it worked. Barr/Root and U.S. Senate candidate Larry Stafford are on the ballot in IL! Many thanks to the National LP for it’s financial support of this effort, our paid and volunteer petitioners, Petition Coordinators across the state, and our “Vote Libertarian Illinois ‘08” project Manager (and LPI Webmaster,) Crystal Jurczynski. Without Crystal’s championing and management of this project, Barr, Root, and Stafford would *not* have been on the ballot in Illinois.

In spite of these victories, both LP candidates for U.S. Congress were taken off the ballot for not meeting the signature requirements. Ron Paul activist Alan Stevo, running as an Independent, was also off the ballot for the same reason. Dan Druck, the LP candidate in the 14th district (Dennis Hastert’s former district) and Alan Stevo are filing separate lawsuits based on unfair ballot access laws. In a Congressional district in IL, candidates from “established parties” are required to get valid signatures that total 10% of the vote in the last election. For Independents and candidates running for parties without ballot status, the signature requirement in congressional districts depends on voting in the last election, but ran close to 10,000 this year in the congressional districts that the LP candidates were involved in. Dan Druck’s Democratic opponent needed 793 signatures, while his Republican opponent required 863 signatures. Dan’s requirement of 9, 995 signatures was 12 times that!

LPI State Chair Val Vetter and LPI Treasurer Debra Aaron represented the LPI at an outreach booth at the Illinois Renewable Energy Association fair in Oregon, IL over the Aug 9-10 weekend. Approximately 150 people took the WSPQ, with a rewarding “Libertarian” test result of over 60%! Approximately 25 new contacts were added to our mailing list. As in past years, the LP-Illinois booth outshined the Democrats’ and The Greens’ by an order of magnitude. In spite of multiple requests from fairgoers, no Barr literature or yards signs were available to distribute.

The Fox Valley and DuPage County LPs had outreach booths at the McHenry County and DuPage County Fairs, respectively. Those manning the booth at the McHenry County Fair reported that they were challenged in keeping up with the requests for Bob Barr literature.

Submitted by State Chair Val Vetter and Julie Fox

North Dakota

No report submitted. The state website is updated with current news and appears to be managed very professionally. No local activity is noted but regional and national current LP events are linked to the website.

Submitted by Julie Fox

REGION 7 REPORT

Submitted to: Libertarian National Committee, Aug. 29, 2008

Submitted by: Rachel W. Hawkridge, Region 7 Representative, Libertarian National Committee

This report will provide information concerning activities of the Libertarian Party state affiliates in Region 7 since the Region formation in May 2008.

I attended the annual Libertarian Party of Oregon's convention in Salem, OR and the Libertarian Party of Idaho's convention in Caldwell, ID.

Florida

Florida has fielded an awesome slate of candidates, including four unopposed candidates for local boards. They've elected one to New Port Richey Mayor!

And Florida is already preparing for the 2010 elections, as State Chair Karl Dickey has already filed for Palm Beach County Commissioner.

Brevard County Commission, Ilene Davis

Collier County Soil & Water Board

Bruce Reichert - Seat 1 (Unopposed)

J. Adam Mitchell - Seat 4 (Unopposed)

Duval County Soil & Water Board, Jeff Hunt

Hillsborough County Soil and Water Conservation Board

AJ Brent - District 2

Jeff Garbus - Seat 4

Tyson Richmond - District 4

Lee Soil and Water Conservation District

Jack Tanner - Seat 4 (Unopposed) – note: Jack has been running a petitioning drive to stop funding mobile irrigation labs

Orange Soil & Water Conservation District

Randy Whiting - Seat 1

J.J. McCurry - Seat 3

Diane Rozek - Seat 5

Jupiter Inlet Commission, Bradford Schmidt - Dist 5

Palm Beach Soil & Water Conservation

Mike McIntosh - Group 2

Howard Horowitz - Group 4 (Unopposed!)

New Port Richey Mayor, Scott McPherson (WON!)

West Volusia Hospital Authority, Tracy Lunquist (Group A, Seat 1)

2010 Election Cycle - Palm Beach County Commission

Karl Dickey - Seat 4 (filed)

Florida has also asked that the LNC ask Tom Stevens to resign his Judicial Committee seat, since he is on the ballot as the presidential candidate of another party. We feel that it is inappropriate for the candidate of another party to hold elected office within our party.

Hawai'i

Unfortunately, I have not been successful at establishing a good connection with Hawai'i since leaving Denver. I have had brief contacts with them, but Ms Li Schoolland has been in Lithuania, teaching English, and I expect that on her return we will make contact.

Idaho

The Libertarian Party of Idaho held its biennial convention on Saturday, June 21st in Caldwell at the home of State Chair, Rob Oates. There was a potluck BBQ followed by a business meeting and election of officers.

Idaho nominated Marvin Gardner for State Representative District 15 Position B, Kent Marmon for US Senate, and Mikel Hautzinger for State Representative District 17 Position A.

James L. Oyler for State Representative District 17 Position B, and Rex W. Kerr for State Representative District 20 Position A also ran as Libertarians.

Hautzinger, Kerr, Gardner and Oyler have all passed the Primary, and will be on the General Election ballot.

Oregon

Oregon held it's annual State Convention on June 1st 2008, at Riverfront Park in Salem, OR. It was a BBQ, held in a lovely park, complete with a Parks Dept. employee who introduced himself "I'm with the government, and I'm here to help."

LP Oregon nominated three candidates, and had two Presidential Candidates (Jim Libertarian Burns and Mike Jingozian) and two sitting LNC members (Vice Chair Mike Jingozian, and Region 7 Rep. Rachel Hawkridge) in attendance.

Nominated were Marc Delphine, 26th District; Jay Ellefson, 36th District; and Steve Milligan, 5th Congressional District.

Oregon allows multiple nominating conventions, and just last month, nominated Joe Tabor (State Chair) for 1st District US Congress; and Jim Karlock, 45th Dist., Ore. State Rep.

The "Press Release" that has made its way through the blogosphere is a fraud, and was not sent by LP Oregon. No one has been expelled.

The Real Washington™

A supplemental brief was filed in the I-872 case, the challenge of the state's "Top Two" primary. We await the 9th Circuit Court's decision. Richard Shepard, of Northwest Legal Foundation, has done an incredible job with this case. Last year, he argued it before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Our Congressional candidate, John Beck, was eliminated in that primary system, and Ruth Bennett remains in the 37th District Legislative race.

LPWA is working on "LPWA News & Views", and intend to publish both a print and web version of our new newsletter by mid-October. We've not published a newsletter for several years, and expect that this will be both valuable outreach and fundraising tool. Michael H. Wilson of Vancouver has taken the leadership on this project.

--
In Liberty,

Rachel Hawkridge
Libertarian National Committee
Region 7 Representative

I'm mad as hell!

2008-10-24T11:31:00.001-07:00

Domestic Enemies

by Rob Oates, Chair, Libertarian Party of Idaho

“I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” said PeterFinch as newscaster Howard Beale in the 1976 movie “Network”. Are youthat mad? You should be. 32 years ago “Network” documented many of theoutrages and dangers we’re still facing.

In the past couple of weeks we have seen the biggest slide down theroad to serfdom in history. Never have such massive lies andhalf-truths been sold to the American people. Never have theperpetrators been so open and unrepentant in saying that what they’redoing to our country is for our own good.

Republican and Democrat presidential candidates both voted for thebailout. We now know that nationalizing our banking industry is one ofthe unstated goals of this program. Nationalizing banks happens insocialistic, third-world countries run by dictators.

But it’s different here, you say, we have free enterprise andcapitalism. Not anymore. Not when Treasury Minister, half-billionaireHenry Paulson calls in the CEOs of nine major banks and tells them theyWILL sell shares of their banks to the US Government or be onTreasury’s banking blacklist. Funny thing is, a short time ago Paulson,as CEO of Goldman Sachs, was helping create the massive financialproblem he now tells us can only be solved with tax dollars that hecontrols. He’s wrong.

Our forefathers fought and died in the American Revolution over far less than this.

But, from our couch, as we watch our televisions in digitalwidescreen, high definition, everything is resolved by the end of thehour-long program. Howard Beale accused his viewers of relying on onlythe TV for their information and he said they were crazy for doing so.Howard was right.

A key component in this drama is the mistaken notion that government can actually do anything productive. Government can only tax, control and destroy. Thebailout and most of what Congress and the President do to us today areso far beyond constitutional boundaries that it’s accurate to say ourConstitution is given only lip service and is seen as an annoyingroadblock to “getting things done.”

Conventional wisdom says all citizens need do is “vote thescoundrels out” and we can retake our country. Libertarians haveoffered a peaceful path back to our roots for over 30 years if you’delect their candidates. How well has voting for one of the two oldparties worked for you these past 75 years? Talk about wasted votes.

Economists now recognize that FDR extended the Recession of 1929into the Great Depression through government bailout programs. It waswrong then and it’s wrong today. Politicians and bureaucrats must notforce us down a bailout path that will insure our destruction fromwithin through fraud and greed.

We desperately need citizen-statesmen, not career politicians, torepresent us. Voting for Libertarian candidates still offers what maybe the last hope for a peaceful return to the roots of ourconstitutional republic. When will you take a principled stand?

What's up?

2008-10-15T14:30:00.000-07:00

Are you registered to vote?

You can register as a Libertarian in Oregon!

From our Florida Chair, Karl Dickey . . .
Here in Palm Beach County this past Sunday, we had a free showing of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and it called to mind why I ran as a Libertarian in 2006 for State Senate instead of taking the easy road by running as a Republican. Stick to your principles and if you are not currently registered Libertarian, please do so today! You can find information about voter registration here.

I wanted to let you know of a few key events coming up that may be of interest. First, Bob Barr will be coming back to Florida on October 25th in Polk County and we hope you will be able to make it! To find out details, please go here. Barr was in Florida twice last month greeted by hundreds of people. It is encouraging to see so many people interested in joining our growing numbers.

Washington just sent out a newsletter for the first time in several years. It had a simple request for donations, and while the return hasn't been high, it's been decent. We're hoping it's just the tip of the iceberg! :o)

I just found this nice little video on LP Idaho.

LPWA Liberty Supper Club

2008-10-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

Libertarian Party of Washington's Supper Club will meet on October 16 2008!

Nancy of I-1000 campaign (that's the Death with Dignity Initiative) will be speaking at Azteca Restaurant, 150 112th Ave NE, Bellevue.

We'll meet at 6:30, you'll buy your own dinner, we'll hear Nancy and have a good discussion.

RSVP by eMailing Rachel - LPWA.com1@gmail.com or call 206.769.2492

2008-10-03T14:16:00.000-07:00

LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF IDAHO

1421 DEARBORN

CALDWELL, ID 83605

Contact: Rob Oates, Chair October 3, 2008

Phone: 880-7319

FOR IMMEDATE RELEASE

CRAIG, SIMPSON VIOLATE CONSTITUTION

The Libertarian Party of Idaho denounces the Wall Street Bailout and the illegal procedures used in its passage. The $700 billion bailout is a direct attack on our free enterprise system. “Sadly, this will likely make matters worse,” according to Party Chair Rob Oates, Caldwell, “Congress has no legal authority with which to spend even $1 for this kind of activity.” True leadership is not just doing something, but knowing the right thing to do.

Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) and Representative Mike Simpson (R-ID2) both exercised reckless disregard for their oaths of office to support and defend the US Constitution by voting for this measure. Reading the bailout bill reveals that the US Senate took a House approved spending bill which the Senate was holding and ‘amended’ it by deleting everything but the number and title and replacing it with the failed House bailout bill plus enough pork provisions to buy the needed House votes for approval. “Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution is very clear. All spending bills must originate in the House. This is beyond immoral and should be a criminal matter,” Oates said, “Craig and Simpson should be held accountable for violating the Supreme Law of the Land.”

More appropriate action would address the underlying government rules requiring financial institutions to approve loans to borrowers with poor credit ratings and arbitrary mark-to-market accounting rules. “The bailout allows poorly performing financial institutions to remain in business,” Oates said. Absent more government interference, markets can resolve these problems on their own.

###

Libertarian Party of Florida Officially Opposes Bailout

2008-10-03T14:09:00.000-07:00

NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Karl Dickey, Chairman
561-237-5586 / karldickey@gmail.com
September 28, 2008
For Immediate Release

LIBERTARIANS COME OUT AGAINST BAILOUT

Libertarian Party of Florida Officially Opposes Bailout

Winter Park, Florida - The Libertarian Party of Florida (LPF) has passed a resolution against the federal government bailing out financial institutions.

The resolution reads as follows: "Whereas the Libertarian Party of Florida recognizes that the current plan to bail out the financial institutions from the bad loans that they were forced to make by pressures from Congress and liberal organizations will damage the U. S. economy; and whereas it is clearly evident that the pressure groups knew in advance that the financial institutions would eventually fail, and that the public would be forced to foot the bill for the loans that should never have been approved. The Libertarian Party of Florida now condemns the plan of Congress and Executive Branch of the U. S. Government to use taxpayer money to bail out the financial institutions".

Libertarian Party of Florida chairman, Karl Dickey, said this morning, “We realize the dire consequences if Congress chooses not to act during this time of crises, however we also fully understand if the bailout does pass the dire consequences will be multiplied. This Congressional action only delays the inevitable and in fact makes our economic situation much worse for the long term. We should take our medicine today no matter how painful that may be, in order to prevent an economic catastrophe this country has never seen. Although there is much blame to be spread around, it is clear the disastrous choices made by our government many years ago is coming to a tragic end. Had our leaders not violated their oaths by voting against our Constitution and libertarian principles, we would not be in this situation today. This is not the result of a free market going awry as sadly we do not have a free market in this country and haven't for many decades.”

The Libertarian Party of Florida believes we should have a small government at all levels and abhor the huge spending we see today by our elected officials. The Libertarian Party of Florida believes a free and competitive market will allocate resources in the most efficient manner. Each person has the right to offer goods and services to others on the free market without any interference from government officials. The only proper role of government in the economic realm is to protect property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide a legal framework in which voluntary trade is protected. All efforts by government to redistribute wealth, or to control or manage trade, are improper in a free society.

--END--

Not a Region 7 candidate, but . . . awesome Libertarian!

2008-09-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, Libertarian Mike Munger is running for Governor in North Carolina.

He has had an incredible battle; getting ballot access and getting the statists to take him seriously.

And this week, Dr. Mike Munger, chair of the Political Science Department and appointed to both the Economics and Public Policy departments at Duke University, got into the debates.

Dr. Munger is appealing to Democrats and an editorial in the News & Observer said "Munger offered some interesting and in some cases commendable views -- allowing illegal immigrants to study at state community colleges (McCrory and Perdue oppose that), calling financial incentives for corporations "economic prostitution" and saying he's opposed to the death penalty. Of course, the Libertarian philosophy generally is one of minimal government and maximum individual choice."

A nice bio of Dr. Munger . . .

Archived papers and podcasts

His blog, Rights of Man

So the message is . . . sometimes, the good guys do win . . . battles, if not the war. And Dr. Munger may surprise us and win the war.

Thank you for putting Your Time, Your Treasure, and Your Sacred Honor on the line, Mike . . .

Check USA Today!

2008-09-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

From ID State Chair Rob Oates -

Today's (9/26/08) USA Today (Fri, Sat, Sun edition) has a story on page 6 about the Libertarian Party of Idaho and Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr. There are quotes from Chairman Rob and national convention delegates Harry McKinster and Dylon Starry and a nice picture of Dylon at the University of Idaho.

It's rare for Idaho to be mentioned by the national media and almost unheard of for the Libertarian Party of Idaho to merit a (almost) half-page story. The reporter called me a couple of weeks ago to get the ball rolling.

I certainly recommend the print edition, but the story is online, if that works better for you.

Jumpin' on the Gravy Train?

2008-09-23T19:08:00.000-07:00

It's the best job I've ever had. Travel 3-4 times a year, staying in nice hotels, opportunities for vacation each time . . . and I didn't even have to fill out a job application.

NOT!

I'm from the Seattle area, Washington State. When I got to Denver for convention in May, I found out that we weren't part of a region, and didn't have any representation on the LNC.

Some preliminary attempts to put together a region that was made up of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Hawai'i, and the remainder of California's membership had been made, but nothing was final. California is large enough to have one representative of their own, and a large number of members left over.

California made some demands that were unacceptable to the smaller states, and the deadline for region formation was fast approaching. Washington's State Chair hadn't arrived yet - there were tornadoes in the area, and many flights were late. After hours of back-and-forth, back-and-forth, I thought that we had things all negotiated, when California decided that they were not going to relent on one point that was totally unacceptable to the smaller states. It was 3pm, and the deadline for filing the papers was 5pm.

At just about this point, Florida pulled out of the SE Region, and requested that we join with them. Bravo! Region 7 was born.

That's how I got here.

Now for the gravy train . . . When I first considered doing this, my husband and I talked about it. See, I don't work at a job, so I have time, but I don't make large decisions all on my own. I am married, and I like it that way.

My Hugs' response? "Go for it, babe! If you want this, we'll do it, and I'll support you completely."

Hugs knows that total support is not just money, it's listening to me complain and moan, putting up with me laying awake at night, thoughts racing, checking eMail or writing notes. It's laughing when I'm bouncing off the walls excited about LPWA's newsletter, or attaining ballot access in Washington.

I went to my first meeting after the convention, to find out that we'll have meetings in DC (Sept '08), San Diego in December, and Charleston in the Spring of '09. Cool.

So, the first meeting in DC - let's start with the cost - $600 for plane tickets (I have to take Hugs, it's his birthday!), and another $600 for hotel. Of course, there are all the incidental costs - food, internet access ($10/day!), parking at SeaTac, etc.

The meeting is contentious; thoroughly unpleasant, for the most part. There are
some good parts, too. Afghanistan Resolution passes, small birthday party with a friend, getting to know some fellow Committee members.

Travel home is a nightmare - 4 hour delay in Newark due to weather, then Continental Airlines loaded a plane clear full, and made us sit at the gate for ANOTHER 4 HOURS! No crew. Loaded us by mistake, not enough intestinal fortitude to say "We're sorry, there's going to be a delay. Let's unload, and have a snack."

Then 45 minutes or so standing on line to take off. Runways were backed up. 5 hours with tired, cranky passengers (especially me!) and crew. We finally arrive at SeaTac, and wait to pull up to the gate. You'd think that when an airline knows a plane is coming in, they'd go move one of those planes that is waiting for morning, huh? (Remember, I said this was Continental.)

A 5 hour flight has now taken over 13 hours, and we have been traveling for about 18 hours.

Now, I'm not complaining (well, I am complaining about the airline - that's Continental!), but there seems to be the perception that LNC members get all kinds of perks. Yep, we did - a "continental breakfast" grabbed as we went into meeting on Saturday and Sunday. Yoghurt, fruit for Hugs, coffee for both of us. (I'm a double dipper - about 3 cups/morning for me!) Oh, and more coffee mid-afternoon.

And there was that $50 person fundraiser that we went to Saturday night. WooHoo! Yeah, we paid $50 each to go. But Hugs drank 2 glasses of wine, and I took my wine to our room. For the birthday party. :o) Which we drank with a flourless chocolate cake and whipped cream.

Okay, to summarize, we spent approximately $1400.00. We travelled for 28 hours, spent 20 hours in a meeting room with with a bunch of other unhappy people.

Best job I've ever had. :o)

Internet recruiter . . . :o)

2008-09-21T11:19:00.000-07:00

This morning, I received this note. It was written by a young man who is not a member of the party, but a "natural born" libertarian; he was raised by two. It was forwarded by his Dad, who is understandably proud.

____________.:snip:._____________

But here, dad, I got good info for you... I think I'm making libertarians on Quizilla. I published a quiz on there called "What Political Party Are You?"

The quiz asked questions to get personality traits of people so I could associate them either with being democrats, republicans, or libertarians. Each answer, had an explanation of what each party represented. I explained how democrats were never happy and always wanted to change something or enact a new law, how republicans feared change and just wanted to leave things as they are (with them in control), and how libertarians just wanted the government to have less power, and to stay out of other people's business. Almost immediately after posting this quiz, this asian girl sends me a message telling me that my description of a libertarian sounded just like her, and that she's happy to know what political party she is now, and says she's "a proud libertarian or whatever you called it." - her words.

Action Item: Open the Debates!

2008-09-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Open Debates Supporters:

The Commission on Presidential Debates, which was created by the
Republican and Democratic parties, still refuses to make public the
contract negotiated by the Obama and McCain campaigns that will
govern our presidential debates. This lack of transparency is
unacceptable. It is time to take action.

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) of the McCain campaign and
Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) of the Obama campaign directly
negotiated the secret contract that will dictate the terms of the
upcoming presidential debates.

PLEASE CALL the offices of Sen. Graham and Rep. Emanuel and demand
that they make public the debate contract. They are elected
officials who are obligated to serve the interests of the voting
public:

Phone number of the Office of Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC):
202-224-5972
Phone number of the Office of Rahm Emanuel (D-IL): 202-225-4061

Also, PLEASE CALL the Commission on Presidential Debates and demand
that it makes public the debate contract. The Commission claims
that its mission is to “provide the best possible information to
viewers and listeners.” Hold them accountable to their mission.

Phone number of the Commission on Presidential Debates: 202-872-1020

Please let us know what happens.

Open Debates is teaming up with nine other pro-democracy
organizations to issue the following press release today demanding
the release of the debate contract:
http://www.opendebates.org/makecontractpublic.html

Additionally, you can hear Open Debates Executive Director George
Farah on the radio show “CounterSpin” at the following link:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3610

Thank you for all your support!

-- Open Debates Team

Important Ballot access case in Texas - Barr leads!

2008-09-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

For those who haven't seen today's campaign eMail - it appears below, in its entirety.

Why did I post it here?

Because Richard Shepard, who is the litigation "Election God" (OK, he's a damn fine attorney, and an expert in election law!), says . . .

"Whatever else anyone may think of Barr, this is the one truly great thing he is doing for third parties of all persuasions."

And that's why . . . he is doing some good.

____________.:snip:._____________

Dear Rachel,

Just moments ago, Bob Barr and our campaign manager, Russ Verney, stood on the steps of the Supreme Court of Texas to rally a crowd of supporters and answer questions from the media.

Today, we filed an emergency stay to prevent the Texas Secretary of State from printing ballots until after our case was decided.

For a quick recap, earlier this week we filed a lawsuit to remove both John McCain and Barack Obama from the Texas ballot. Texas election code §192.031 requires that the "written certification" of the "party's nominees" be delivered "before 5 p.m. of the 70th day before election day" and both candidates missed that deadline.

When this story first broke, the New York Times , took a jab at us saying that if our campaign prevailed in Texas, the action may, "thoroughly alarm foreign investors."

This morning, political pundits beholden to the status quo got a bit more serious. In a scathing hit piece published by CQ Politics, Craig Crawford wrote that Bob is in Texas "promoting a bogus claim that John McCain and Barack Obama should not be on the state ballot in November."

Sorry, Craig, but you might want to do your homework the next time before you put pen to paper.

When we missed our deadline in West Virginia (a month before Republicans and Democrats were required to file I might add), we were forced off of the ballot. The law is clear and belonging to the Republican or Democrat party does not exempt you from its rule.

Politically biased members of the media are going to move into position and recite talking points that read "BOGUS" each time they are given the opportunity to do so. They'll also be sure to throw in a few other stretches of the imagination or bits of misinformation to smear our candidate and our Libertarian Party.

At this time, we need to simply acknowledge that the attacks will continue. They will be designed to discredit our efforts and demoralize our base.

If you're reading this right now, I doubt you're feeling demoralized. If you're like me, you're ready to do all that you can to fight a clearly corrupt system.

Today our fight is in the Texas legal system.

The first thing that we need is funds to fight this battle We've already incurred tens of thousands of dollars on this effort and we expect the costs to climb.

Please make a donation today and give us BOTH a financial and morale boost we so need.

Thank you for all that you do.

In Liberty,

Shane Cory
Deputy Campaign Manager
Bob Barr for President

P.S. I just got off of the phone with Russ Verney. They had a great turnout of supporters in Austin and "all of the right reporters showed up" to cover the event. Once I get my hands on photos or a video, I'll upload it to our site. In the meantime, please help us with a contribution today.

To donate by mail:

Barr 2008 Presidential Committee
P.O. Box 725007
Atlanta, GA 31139

To donate by phone:

Call 1-800-Bob-Barr

Paid for by Barr 2008 Presidential Committee.

Federal law requires us to report the name, address, and name of employer and occupation for any individual whose aggregate contributions total over $200 in a calendar year. Corporate contributions and gifts from foreign nationals are prohibited. Personal Credit Card gifts only. Contributions are not tax deductible for income tax purposes. Limit of $2,300 per person per election and $4,600 per couple if signed by both parties and drawn on a jointly held bank account.

2008-09-17T14:29:00.000-07:00

Bob Barr Files Suit in Texas to Remove McCain, Obama from Ballot

September 17, 2008 9:31 am EST

Atlanta, GA – Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party's nominee for president, has filed a lawsuit in Texas demanding Senators John McCain and Barack Obama be removed from the ballot after they missed the official filing deadline.

"The seriousness of this issue is self-evident," the lawsuit states. "The hubris of the major parties has risen to such a level that they do not believe that the election laws of the State of Texas apply to them."

Texas election code §192.031 requires that the “written certification” of the “party’s nominees” be delivered “before 5 p.m. of the 70th day before election day.” Because neither candidate had been nominated by the official filing deadline, the Barr campaign argues it was impossible for the candidates to file under state law.

Find the rest of the story . . . here.

Executive Session, Robert's Rules, LNC Policy Manual

2008-09-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

An incredible number of party members have been hopping up and down mad about Robert's Rules, the use of Executive Session and the formality of meetings

Robert's Rules are a set of private rules, also known as parliamentary procedure, that are a means of ensuring a fair, orderly meeting in which the Chair does not have too much power.

This set of rules are used by at least 80% of all businesses, private clubs and organizations. Libertarian Party Bylaws (Article 13) specify our use of Robert's Rules. It's actually the best system for us to conduct meetings - private rules for a private, self-governing organization.

Robert's Rules are also guidelines for polite meetings. Meetings that don't start out in an orderly fashion, and don't have rules, often degenerate into unruly, disorderly, anarchic free-for-alls in which nothing is accomplished. Formality is part of this procedure, and politeness and the use of respect (which may include the use of earned titles) can help to diffuse a lot of animosity in contentious situations. It also helps to remind me that obnoxious, untempered outbursts only hurt my chances of persuading my colleagues on the Committee.

Persuasion is one of the few tools I have, since my husband beats me for the use of force. .:very big evil grin:.

I also note that the titles used in meetings are earned titles; not only is the Admiral a hero for his long and distinguished service to our country, he is a reasonable, thinking and logical man whose opinions I very much respect. He has truly given His Time, His Treasure and His Sacred Honor in his service to both our country and the LNC in his contribution to more Liberty. Don't diss the Admiral in my hearing. (And for those of you to whom this is important, he also supports The Keaton's actions when she is right, and I believe that she still has his emotional support and friendship even if she is not totally in the right.)

Dr. Lark has earned his title of Dr. Not only is he a highly educated man and a college professor, he gives an incredible amount of His Time, His Treasure and His Sacred Honor to Liberty. He builds, maintains, and assists college libertarian organizations, as well as serving on the Board at The Advocates for Self-Government, and the Board of Directors of the International Society for Individual Liberty.

Dr. Mary Ruwart has also dedicated much of Her Time, Her Treasure, and her Sacred Honor to the cause. Dr. Ruwart has served on the boards of the International Society for Individual Liberty, the Fully Informed Jury Association, and the Michigan chapter of the Heartland Institute.

You may have differing opinions, but it's in all of our best interests to respect those who work so hard for the cause. After all, all of us like to get credit where it's due, and dissing others is a pretty sure way to make sure that you are dissed.

The LNC Policy Manual

These are the rules under which the LNC operates, within Party Bylaws. When we join the LNC, we get a copy. It's in all our meeting binders, along with the Bylaws. This is where the use of Executive Session, and the rules that govern how it is used, are detailed. The policy of how and when Executive Session can be used are basically the same as what is used in Washington State meeting, under our Public Meetings Act. There are some differences, of course, especially in that the LNC Policy Manual contains fewer subjects for Executive Session.

There have been several suggestions that the LNC Policy Manual be made available on LP.org. Until this is instituted (and I'm sure it will be!), the Policy Manual is available from me. (Your Regional Rep. will probably be willing to provide it, as well.) It's a fairly large .pdf file. Email LPWA.com1@gmail.com, with "LNC Policy Manual Request" in the subject line, and I'll send it to you. I'll get it to you as quickly as possible, but be aware that it may take a week. It usually won't, but give me that long, please.

I hope that this answers some of the questions that you may have had about about these issues, and clears up some misconceptions.

Now go out an make it a gentle week . . . :o)

Executive Session on Saturday

2008-09-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

Executive Session Saturday –

Primary topic of discussion was the BCRA lawsuit – Alan Gura came to talk to us this. The need to keep it confidential should be obvious – we can’t make our stategy public. If we were to announce to the world that LP is going to sue gov’t because gov’t steals ice cream from babies, then all they need to do is to stop stealing from babies, or come up with witnesses that swear they didn’t. Case dead.

We came out of Exec Session, immediately moved to thank Alan Gura*, then second motion was made to file lawsuit, with a date, a preliminary budget, and projected payment. Motion seconded, voted. Passed.

This is one of the important, substantive issues addressed this past weekend, and while I’ve written about in more than one place, and definitely in this blog; apparently, few read enough or closely enough to pay attention.

Campaign finance reform is the issue for third parties - it cripples us. Especially Libertarians, as the Ds and Rs take your federal tax dollars for conventions. We pay for our own.

*Alan Gura is the attorney who won the Heller case. He's a hero, an he's giving us an incredible deal.

Barr / Paul controversy

2008-09-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

Most of you will have heard of the current Barr/Paul mess. If you haven't I've added some information below.

And so, I want to know what you think? I'd like your comments, complaints, positive feedback for Barr, whatever you have. Some vocal activists in the party want to try to revoke his nomination (on the grounds that he violated Bylaws by offering Ron Paul our VP nomination). He's alienated the Ron Paul people by dissing Paul.

To be fair, there are some new members coming in, and some new donors; some of these have notes praising Barr. However, I've gotten scores of nastygrams from activists, longtime Party members. Even David Nolan says Barr is out of line, repudiates him.

Yesterday I introduced a motion to censure Barr, and apologize to the Paul people. It has some support . . . and some opposition on the LNC.

Please tell me what you have to say.

And have a gentle day . . . :o)

Here's the information on the controversy . . . all of this is snipped from eMail, postings on blogs, Facebook, etc . . .

This is the video of the interview where WAR found out that Barr had offered his nomination to Ron Paul. WAR was a trooper. Great recovery and admirable loyalty to LP.

http://tinyurl.com/RootBus

This is not just an act of rudeness. Our Bylaws spell out how our VP candidate is nominated, and this violates them (Article 12.2 and 12.4). It throws out our delegate's decisions at convention.

______________________________

This is from the State Chairs list . . .

On Sep 12, 2008, at 10:14 AM, C. wrote:

> > I'm in favor of including media releases from both Barr and the LP
> > HQ on this list.
> >
> > The Barr campaign has failed to communicate with most of us on any
> > level anyway (I've yet to get any of my emails or calls returned by
> > the campaign) so for some it's the only way to get the "official"
> > word from them before it's posted and re-posted and forwarded around
> > by others.
> >
> > State chairs need lots of communication from both the LP National HQ
> > and from the Barr camp, something that is clearly lacking currently
> > in a major way. If this list helps get that done then I'm all for it.
> >
> > C.

And the response, from another Chair . . .

C,

You too hunh? I thought it was just that they pretended
didn't exist. I have four people, including myself who offered to
coordinate my state. Some made several offers via e-mail and phone
messages. NOT ONE single person who has told me they attempted to
contact the campaign, has EVER received a response. Goodness knows
how many people daily sign up to volunteer on the campaign website and
then never hear peep. I've yet to find anyone who says they got a
response.

While you could subscribe to their website to get the PR's via email,
it seems the only purpose of giving your contact info to them is to
get a daily begging for money by both email and snail mail. (and many
of those pleas are canned and indicate they have no record of you
donating, I can't think of anything more insulting than to not
recognize who has and who has not donated, and then trying to make
people feel bad for not doing so.) I unsubscribed myself from their
lists and I just read the PR's on the site when I feel like it.

This is beyond unacceptable.

I understand the campaign may want to employ professionals, but they
are IGNORING hardworking eager volunteers. And since there IS no
coordinator for our state yet (at least to my knowledge since the
campaign doesn't make ANY contact with our state party) then it
doesn't look like they are making any headway in hiring a professional
anyway. Why not take what you have, work with it, train them, get
them up to speed, monitor their progress, be their for them if they
have questions/concerns, and hope for the best? No, instead, they do
nothing at all. Nice, real nice.

I want Russ Verney to try to explain to me why he, or anyone else at
HQ is too busy or too poor to call or e-mail each of the State
affiliates at least once to open a line of communication to coordinate
efforts in each state.

I supported (and still do) Wayne Root at the convention. I was very
impressed with Kubby as well. I'm thinking now perhaps I should have
voted NOTA in the last round instead of Barr. I'm still going to
fulfill my obligation as chair to do what I can to get him on the
ballot, but at this point, I honestly may not vote for him once he
gets it. Is this how he intends to manage the executive branch?

Sincerely,

A.

----------------------------------------

From: "J”
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 10:16 PM
To: info@lp.org
Subject: re: To our supporters and volunteers

Whatever Mr Barr and his handlers wanted to convey today, if the Acting Executive Director is sincere that he was trying to make a valid point, it didn't work. He came across as arrogant and petty. He showed disrespect for the whole Campaign for Liberty, which is an honorable, somewhat bipartisan attempt to break the two-party system and bring some decency back into government. He wasted an opportunity to get a lot of free media attention by not showing at Paul's eagerly-awaited press conference, and looked like a fool and sore loser at his own "press conference" (more like a Pity Party).

The recent packaging of Mr Barr without showing the Libertarian brand has alienated many on-the-fence Libertarians (not me--I knew from the beginning that Barr was an imposter). You aren't receiving money for his campaign for many reasons, and I suggest you give it up right now. Use any funds coming in for Damage Control--perhaps running ads in local papers explaining that Barr acted without the blessing of the Party. Also, has anyone explained to him that he doesn't have the right to name his vice-presidential candidate?

I need to remain a Libertarian at least through the election because I'm running for office, but please stop asking for money. It's pathetic.

J.
____________________________

G. wrote:

> There are very few states where the performance of the Presidential
> ticket matters. For example, in New Hampshire only the Senator and
> Governor matter, and in New Hampshire Barr is funding the Republican
> opponent of our Libertarian candidate for Governor.

Bob Barr has a PAC, the Bob Barr Leadership PAC. If you are a Congressman or ex, you are entitled to a "Leadership PAC", it has special favorable rules to some extent, and it is your money to give to your colleagues.

Barr's PAC sent money to a large number of Republicans, including in particular John Sununu, but others as well.

The transfers largely happened last year, before the convention. It was raised at the time that Barr was lying in his conflict of interest statements to the LNC, namely he was not disclosing that he had a PAC that almost completely supported Republicans--it recently gave the Redpath campaign a payoff to match the money it had previously sent his Republican opponent.

And, no, these were really reactionary Congressmen. The issue was covered a while back on TPW, as I recall.

This was known before the convention and our worthless whatever of a Party Chair was still pulling for Barr.

(Note from Rachel: I do not agree with this opinion. Bill Redpath is a good chair, for the most part. He runs tight, controlled meetings, which is important skill. He has at least an adequate knowledge of parliamentary procedure (Robert's Rules). I don't know him well enough to say how good his knowledge of Robert's is, but it's good enough. While we may agree with him on some decisions, there's no reason to call hime worthless.)

Here are the links to Last Free Voice articles on the PAC issue.

http://lastfreevoice.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/bob-barr-an-enemy-of-libertarians/

http://lastfreevoice.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/atlanta-newspaper/

http://lastfreevoice.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/phillies-responds-to-revelation-about-barr-contributions/

____________________________________

Messrs. Verney and Redpath:

Please heed Mr. Nolan's words regarding use of the
word "Libertarian" on Bob Barr's campaign literature,
Web site, paraphernalia, etc. Democrats and
Republicans are offering the same old thing; attaching
the Libertarian label will give voters a clue that
maybe some new ideas are forthcoming. Also, even if
Bob gets an unprecedented number of votes, the victory
will have been Pyrrhic at best, and possibly a
squandering of a golden opportunity, if it doesn't
include publicity for the Libertarian name.

Libertarian Party members voted for Bob Barr to be the
candidate for the Libertarian Party, not a nameless one.
Wear the name proudly! Be our standard-bearer! That's
the stuff of which conviction, excitement, and true
change are made!

Live long and prosper,

K.
___________________________

Lew Rockwell's Blog

September 10, 2008

Bob Barr Shows His True Colors

Posted by Chris Brunner at September 10, 2008 12:34 PM

By committing to attend Congressman Paul's press conference only to declare minutes before hand that "it just isn't worth it." This is according to Don Rasmussen, Events Coordinator of the Campaign for Liberty.

Bob Barr has been slamming Dr. Paul publicly since he won the formerly-libertarian party nomination, but this seems to have offended more Ron Paul supporters than anything he has done so far.

For those who don't know, Barr spent much of his life jailing people on behalf of the federal government for possessing substances that the state disapproves of, before recently "seeing the light". Even since his supposed revelation, he has praised the troop surge, argued for intervention in Iran and South America, advocated a national sales tax, and voted for the PATRIOT Act twice. This just scratches the surface, of course.

With that said, it's probably for the best that he didn't show up today.

____________________________________

Now there's a Petition to the LP: Remove Barr as Nominee
from all those pissed off Ron Paul supporters
____________________________________

And an explanation from the LP for the self-destructive action (see below)
How to lose 100,000 votes through share egotistic stupidity...

*Sept. 10, 2008*
* **Dear Libertarian Supporter,*

I have been hearing a lot from many LP Members about concerns over Bob
Barr not attending Ron Paul's press conference.
________________________________

Name: S.
Email: S

Comments: Rachel,
Is there any hope that Barr/Root can be removed from the WA ballot, or, better yet, disavowed by the LNC? If the LP is to remain a meaningful part of the liberty movement, something has to be done about these fools.

http://lastfreevoice.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/record-vote-total-for-lp-in-2008-heres-how/
______________________

B,

This LP Officer fully supports Outright Libertarians and its efforts for equality. I do not nor have I ever supported the Ron Paul campaign. I do, however, recognize that there were many young supporters of Dr. Paul who could have been groomed into Libertarians. It is true that many of Paul's supporters will never be Libertarian. However, I can see no reason to "throw the baby out with the bathwater" which is precisely what Barr did earlier this week.

T
Another State Chair

_______________________________

Facebook

Thomas Hill, despite the rain, and with the help of a gas/oil mixture, burned his national LP card. Thanks go to Bob Barr/W.A.R and certain members of the LNC and staff...on Wednesday

Thomas is wondering why he hasn't burned his National LP membership card yet?

5:47pm - 4 Comments

Justin C. Thibault at 6:17pm September 9
Why would you do that?

Jennifer Schulz at 6:23pm September 9
Seems to be politics getting in the way up there and turning some good people off. Support your local LP.

Thomas Hill at 6:31pm September 9

Because some members of the LNC and LP staff are unprincipled and are willing to sell out their values for electoral "success" and personal agendas. Neo cons are infiltrating the LP.

_____________________________

Bruce’s video was used without his permission in today’s Barr campaign eMail. Bruce hadn’t been asked/told, anything – they just appropriated his name and used it.

Here's the Barr message that uses Bruce's name and video . . .

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shane Cory, BobBarr2008.com
Date: Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 10:09 AM
Subject: Don't be a Party Puppet!

Dear Rachel,

Maybe it's the kid in me, but a great Libertarian in Washington State, Bruce Guthrie, ran my all-time favorite political ads during his 2006 senate run.

The production of his commercials was simple enough: Lunch bags, glue, yarn and construction paper put together with very entertaining voiceover.

Bruce's theme was brilliant: "Don't be a party puppet!"

If you have a minute to enjoy,
here are two spots that aired: the Party Puppet Girls and Party Puppet Rick.

Now that only 53 days remain before the election, I think it's about time we kicked off our advertising campaign!

While we sill have ongoing ballot access battles going in many states and funds are still very tight, only three weeks remain before early voting begins in some states! Despite our challenges, I don't want to delay our media campaign any longer.

We need your creative help to get the ball rolling.

Rather than produce stuffy, standard political ads, we want to get your concepts or even full commercials.

If you're the creative type or want to spend some quality time with a few friends and a video camera over the weekend, we sure could use the help. Please keep them to 30 seconds, leaving about 3 seconds at the end for the government mandated, "I'm Bob Barr and I approve this message."

Once you have a concept or finished product, just send us your videos! Here's a drop box where you can upload your videos and concepts.

Not very creative like me? No worries, you can help just as much by making a donation today. I'll throw in the first $100 and if you can match or contribute $25, $50 or more, we would greatly appreciate the help. Click here to donate.

Thanks for everything that you do!
In Liberty,

Shane Cory
Deputy Campaign Manager
Bob Barr for President

_______________________________________

Mike Theodore's Notes (Facebook)
Mike's Notes|Notes about Mike|Mike's Profile

Un-Endorsement

Yesterday at 6:58pm

I'm rescinding my earlier endorsement of Bob Barr. I've been reluctantly keeping it up, as I'm not that easily pissed off.
His snubbing of Ron Paul didn't piss me off. It just saddened me.

I'm going behind David Nolan, this campaign is over.
This is like a bad novel, and Barr is the evil villain.

Once again, I'm back to supporting no one for President. I hate that. Someone asked me today "Obama or McCain?".
I loved responding with a third party just to surprise them. I had nothing.
He dutifully walked away.
I'm a frickin' cynic again!

I'm thinking of going behind Nader. Not as a Barr "anti-vote", but I want to stand behind real principles.

Here's the motion I (Rachel Hawkridge) made . . .

Colleagues -

I am very concerned with the Barr campaign's affront to RP campaign, supporters, etc. I have heard from several of our down line candidates that this stunt has cost them their supporters, volunteers and donors. If it was strategy, then it went seriously wrong, at least for our other candidates, and they were the ones who had some chance of getting elected, and actually moving policy toward more Liberty.

I believe that we need to apologize - if Barr's idea of leadership is to offend half the movement, then it is definitely my idea of leadership to apologize when it goes wrong.

To that end, I move that the LNC send the following letter to Dr. Paul, to post it on our blog, and send it to the Campaign 4 Liberty.
September 13, 2008

The Honorable Ron Paul
Committee to Re-Elect Ron Paul
837 W. Plantation
Clute, TX 71531

Dear Dr. Paul:

The Libertarian National Committee understands that the campaign of Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr has offended you, the Campaign for Liberty, and your many supporters by:

· Failing to attend your press conference at the National Press Club highlighting third party candidates after committing to do so;
· Holding a press conference of its own publicly inviting you to be Barr's Vice-President candidate (replacing Wayne Allyn Root) in spite of his personal knowledge that you have no interest in the position; and
· Issuing statements through both official and unofficial channels that disparaged you for not endorsing Barr's candidacy.

Although Former Congressman Bob Barr is the duly nominated presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party selected by delegates to the 2008 Libertarian National Convention, the Libertarian National Committee is deeply embarrassed by the Barr campaign's behavior and believes it does not reflect well on the Libertarian Party.

The Libertarian National Committee sincerely apologizes to you, the Campaign for Liberty, and your many supporters on behalf of the Libertarian Party and hopes that you, your organization, and your supporters will continue to work together with the Libertarian Party in our common fight for liberty in spite of the regrettable actions of Congressman Barr's campaign.

The Libertarian National Committee shares your goal of encouraging more people to vote for third party candidates and agrees with your four point statement on Foreign Policy, Privacy, The National Debt, and The Federal Reserve. The Libertarian National Committee respects your decisions to not seek the Libertarian nomination and not endorse an individual presidential candidate. The Libertarian National Committee also salutes the broad coalition of liberty loving Americans you have built through your presidential campaign, the Ron Paul R3VOLution, and the Campaign for Liberty.

Please note that Mr. Barr had no authority to invite you to join the Libertarian Party ticket. Under the Libertarian Party Bylaws, vice-presidential nominee vacancies are filled by the Libertarian National Committee, rather than by the presidential candidate himself. The Libertarian National Committee was not consulted before the offer was extended to you.

In addition, the Libertarian National Committee regrets that Acting Libertarian Party Executive Director Robert Kraus disparaged you in the Libertarian Party blog on www.lp.org. The Libertarian National Committee has reprimanded Mr. Kraus for his actions and is tightening its internal controls on www.lp.org blog content. We offer our sincere apology for the blog remarks of Libertarian Party staff.

The Libertarian National Committee, on behalf of the Libertarian Party, hopes its relationships with you, the Campaign for Liberty, and your many supporters were not irreparably harmed by the actions of the Barr campaign and our staff. The Libertarian National Committee and the Libertarian Party would both like nothing more than to continue to be allies with you in the battle for civil liberties, limited government, and non-intervention.

In Liberty,

The Libertarian National Committee

2008-09-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

"for breaching confidentiality in executive session."

And so, one Libertarian asked . . .

I think this phrase has been perhaps the biggest touchstone for a lot of the problems that have occurred.

So perhaps we need to simplify this a bit.

When, precisely, is confidentiality a part of the executive session, or is the entire session confidential?

What is the purpose of the confidentiality?

What mechanisms are in play to prevent confidentiality from becoming misused, as a way to hide misdeeds?

Do the minutes truly reflect sessions (and who are minutes available to?) or are they “sanitized” to hide stuff?

--

I hear from the “confidentiality is important” crowd some important points. For example, we would not want to reveal too much strategy as this could leave us vulnerable to being undercut by others. We might want to be careful about some details that might compromise privacy for another example.

I hear from the “sunshine/accountability” camp some equally important points. For example, some feel that confidentiality is misused to hide misdeeds or sloppy accounting. I might add that out here in CA, our governmental agencies have sunshine laws now, and a whole lot of them balk at having to divulge much even when required to do so. I do NOT want to see the LP in a position where we are not divulging enough information to ensure that our money and our activism is being used wisely.

--

(I’m trying to be even-handed here although I confess to being in the sunshine camp, probably because I do worry about misdeeds.)

Perhaps the most constructive thing that could possibly happen with all of this is a really sound policy on confidentiality, one that is crystal clear to everyone. If confidentiality is used wisely and is not used to hide bad actions, if it is used judiciously and not for entire sessions, and if everyone is clear on when confidentiality is being invoked, and when recording/blogging/transmittal of the session would be inappropriate, perhaps this whole thing will have been good after all.

Rachel replies . . .

Bylaws, ARTICLE 8: NATIONAL COMMITTEE

1. The National Committee shall have control and management of all the affairs, properties and funds of the Party consistent with these Bylaws. The Libertarian National Committee shall establish and oversee an organizational structure to implement the purposes of the Party as stated in Article 3. The National Committee shall adopt rules of procedure for the conduct of its meetings and the carrying out of its duties and responsibilities. The National Committee may delegate its authority in any manner it deems necessary.

LNC Manual . . .

F. EXECUTIVE SESSIONS

1. LIMITATION OF USE OF EXECUTIVE SESSIONS

The LNC may enter into Executive Session only in compliance with this policy.

2. PREREQUISITES TO ENTERING EXECUTIVE SESSION

Prior to entering into Executive Session, a motion must be made, seconded, and passed. The motion to enter Executive Session must list all reasons for doing so. If the list of reasons is solely comprised of the identified topics listed below, a majority of LNC members voting is required for passage. If any topic other than those listed below is given, a two-thirds vote of LNC members voting shall be required for passage.

3. IDENTIFIED TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION IN EXECUTIVE SESSION

Identified topics for entering into an Executive Session shall include:

i. Legal matters (potential, pending, or past)

ii. Regulatory and compliance matters (potential, pending, or past)

iii. Contractual compliance

iv. Personnel matters (including evaluation, compensation, hiring, or dismissal)

v. Board self-evaluation

vi. Strategic issues (only those requiring confidentiality)

vii. Negotiations (potential, pending, or past)

4. LIMITATION ON ACTION WHILE IN EXECUTIVE SESSION

No action can be taken while in Executive Session. Discussion of action which may be taken in Open Session can occur.

5. MINUTES AND RECORDING OF EXECUTIVE SESSIONS

i. With regard to Executive Sessions relating to topics i, ii, iii, iv, and v above, no recording shall be made and no minutes shall be taken.

ii. With regard to Executive Sessions relating to topics vi and vii above, recordings shall be made and minutes shall be taken, however, those recordings and minutes shall be only be made available to members of the LNC until such time as the LNC – by a vote of two-thirds of those LNC members present – votes to incorporate those recordings and minutes into its public records. Nothing in this section shall require the LNC to ever make these records public.

iii. With regard to Executive Sessions relating to topics not enumerated above, recordings shall be made and minutes shall be taken. Immediately upon return to Open Session, the LNC may either – by majority vote – treat those recordings and minutes consistent with i (destroy them) or to treat those recordings and minutes consistent with ii (to maintain them as non-public records subject to possible future release upon a vote of two-thirds of those LNC members present at a future meeting).

6. CONFIDENTIALITY

Without exception, LNC members are obligated to maintain complete confidentiality regarding what transpires in any Executive Session whose recordings and minutes have not been made public. The only information that may be communicated by any LNC member regarding any such Executive Session is the time it began, the time it ended, the text of the motion to go into Executive Session, and any publicly available details of the debate and voting on the motion to go into Executive Session. Any LNC member who is unwilling to commit to adhering to this policy regarding any particular Executive Session is obligated to excuse himself or herself from the entire Executive Session and to request that the Secretary notes his or her absence from the Executive Session in the minutes of the meeting.

7. BREACH OF CONFIDENTIALITY

Breach of this requirement of confidentiality shall be grounds of disciplinary action by the LNC without limitation except as provided for in the Bylaws. These restrictions shall not be deemed to prohibit any participant in an Executive Session from publicly disclosing information discussed in Executive Session, if: (1) compelled by legal process to do so; or (2) the same information is publicly available from other sources, not as the result of a participant's misconduct, and the participant does not reveal that it was discussed in Executive Session; or (3) the LNC, and all the participants in the Executive Session, first consent to its release.

8. LIABILITY FOR BREACH OF CONFIDENTIALITY

Notwithstanding the provisions of Article V, Section 3 A, should a breach of confidentiality by an LNC member result in a liability on the part of the Party, its officers, employees, agents, or other members of the LNC, the provisions of Article V, Section 3 A shall not preclude the Party, officer, employee, agent, or member of the LNC from seeking to hold the breaching LNC member liable.

Note from Rachel . . .

First, while I have only been to two meetings, these rules have been scrupulously followed. I will, to the best of my ability, ALWAYS make sure that is the case. I like sunshine.

And I also recognize that some sensitive matters must be confidential until we're ready to act. For instance, something else that actually took up most of time in Exec Session on Sat was the Alan Gura discussion of BCRA lawsuit. We discussed it for some time. We came out of Exec., and moved to act. Voted. Yes. We are going to file lawsuit, with Gura (he was the Heller lawyer) as our attorney. This was one of the substantive decisions of the weekend, and since the motion was made, seconded and passed (in open session, as required), it is NO LONGER CONFIDENTIAL, and I can share it.

The meeting binders always include the Manual and the Bylaws, so we have easy access to them. Remember that I said earlier that we were flipping through Bylaws and Manual furiously during Exec? I checked every damn citation. Citations were added to motions. You can check things yourselves, but please hear me: the rules were scrupulously followed. And I wasn't the only one. At one point, in the heat of the Gura discussion (I was excited about it!) I did try to make a motion. I was immediately shot down.

Basically, you need to be sure that we have some people on the LNC - (be they Officers, Regional Reps or At-Large) that you trust to follow the rules, and to object otherwise. People who have the courage of their convictions, and the cojones/ovarios to object within the rules when the rules are not followed.

BTW - my Hugs serves on a school board, and their Exec Session policy is almost exactly the same. And we are a state with Public Open Meeting Act.

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2008-09-09T12:08:00.001-07:00

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2008-09-09T12:07:00.002-07:00

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Some things definitely got done!

2008-09-09T12:07:00.001-07:00

Some important things that got done . . .

We have a Bylaws Committee!

Ruth Bennett

Gene Hawkridge

Dan Karlan

Rob Latham

Frank Manske (Alt)

Chuck Moulton

Rob Oates

Bill Redpath

Nick Sarwark

Heather Scott

Aaron Starr

Dan Karlan is interim chair.

Congratulations all, and thanks for agreeing to serve.

Campaign Finance Lawsuit - we will be represented by Alan Gura (who WON the Heller case!) in a lawsuit challenging BCRA on bequests to political parties. Mr. Gura will not be able to file until at least mid-November, and he's giving us an incredible deal on his services. We're barely paying him more than expenses, IMO.

We passed an Afghanistan War resolution . . . I'll edit the language in here soon.

More stuff soon . . . my plane has finally arrived! :o)

Y'all have a gentle day . . . :o)

Minutes and Impressions from Sunday's LNC meeting

2008-09-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

PLEASE read it carefully, and note that things are not nearly as bad as have been reported - anything red is note from me to Sully. Notes from me to you are ****. Most of the bold or italics are my attempts to highlight important points. I will apparently be in Newark for several more hours, and can answer eMail - or will be on Facebook.

**** Something Mary talked about at lunch that day (paraphrased) was that coming from a place of love is always the right thing. It leaves the other party without anything to fight against, and it leaves us feeling better. This is definitely true for me. Also note that The Keaton seems to have smoothed out a little in the last 24 hours. I available to The Keaton for talk, telephone hugs, telephone soothing, eMail, etc, and I'd bet that Mary is as well. I am also working on a couple of ideas for building better relationships - if I have to be locked in a room with 16 or 20 people for 3-4 weekends a year, I prefer them to be friendly people, and the atmosphere to be cooperative.

Angela Keaton

After a break, the Chair announced Angela Keaton had blogged on the Internet some information that had been revealed in executive session.

**** Also note that some of this was reported incorrectly,

and had already caused problems for some members. ****

Pat Dixon moved to censure Angela Keaton for having blogged what she had put onto the LastFreeVoice website.

Angela Keaton left the room after having admitted to the transgression.

Michael Jingozian read the passage to the body.

Aaron Starr moved a substitute motion: It is the belief of this body that Angela Keaton should resign for having disclosed material in executive session.

Everyone in the room voted for the substitution. ****I believe this was a voice vote, and that I did not vote. - R****

Angela Keaton returned to the room.

Aaron Starr moved to have her leave the room while the body decided what actions to take.

Angela Keaton was removed from the room but was afforded an opportunity to speak in her defense before departing. Her defense was that executive session was inappropriate for the material being discussed. Moreover, some of the material was an affront to her, and she had no opportunity to meet her accusers.

Mary Ruwart invited Ms. Keaton to try again to address the specific issues the Committee had raised, since she had not appeared to have addressed them.

**** I believe that Mary diffused some of the emotion here by injecting a moment of calm, loving . . . and allowed the discussion to later evolve into the apology compromise.****

Bob Sullentrup called the question, which passed. Moving then to a vote on the LNC recommendation to ask Angela Keaton to resign:

Voting in favor

Mary Ruwart, Jim Lark, Julie Fox, Pat Dixon, Rebecca Sink-Burris, Mark Hinkle, Michael Jingozian, Aaron Starr, Stewart Flood, Dan Karlan, Bob Sullentrup

Rachel Hawkridge abstained and the chair did not vote. **** Note that this is not hostility in any way from Mr. Redpath. Both Gene and I feel that he was truly trying to be fair, and I got a sense of reluctance on his part in the whole matter. Mr. Redpath also DID NOT comment, suggest any motions, demonstrate any pleasure or anything else undesirable. He was FAIR and IMPARTIAL, and the overwhelming feeling and discussion then and later was that The Keaton had left us no choice. This was the second time in 2 days, and the revelations made on Sunday were made after discussion about secrecy about some of these revelations. ****

Absent for the vote were Lee Wrights, Admiral Colley (airport), Angela Keaton

Bob Sullentrup moved the LNC suspend the membership on the LNC of Angela Keaton for breaching confidentiality in

executive session.

Pat Dixon moved to amend with the phrase 'as denoted in Article 8 Section 5 of Bylaws'.

The amendment was adopted.

Aaron Starr moved to make this matter a mail ballot. There was no second.

Aaron Starr moved to append 'in the event she does not apologize with 10 days and commit to never repeating the offense again'. **** Once again, no malice or glee detected here. This was a major softening of the original motion, and I appreciate and commend Mr. Starr's strength in being willing to back off the original motion.

At this point, we amended the agenda to remove Jim Lark's goals item from the agenda and move Rachel's to the email list.

When Aaron's amendment passed, the main motion read:

The LNC shall suspend the membership on the LNC of Angela Keaton for breaching confidentiality in executive session as denoted in Article 8 Section 5 of Bylaws, in the event she does not apologize with 10 days and commit to never repeating the offense again

At some point the Chair returned to the room after a brief absence and reported Shane Cory had sent a text message noting the Barr campaign did not want Ms. Keaton removed from the LNC.

After some discussion that Mary Ruwart and perhaps others would talk to Angela to get her to understand her breach and how it affected LNC business, the body withdrew the motion, pending Mary's report on her conversation. There was no objection to the withdrawal.

Platform Committee - Apply now!

2008-09-07T18:15:00.000-07:00

LNC mtg is over. Report within a week. Just want you all to know that we are now accepting applications for PlatComm. Please send your application letters to RWSully@att.net. CC:me, please.

Good luck! :o)

2008-09-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

On 6/9/08, Rachel H. for LPWA Communications wrote:

Colleagues –

The new LP.org website contains this note: (at the bottom of the "Leadership" page) . . .

"* Perhaps the most important task that is expected from a board member of the Libertarian National Committee is to raise funds for the organization through a combination of personal contributions and funds raised through personal solicitations. The amounts here reflect the total contributions received from or raised by the board member during his or her term so far. The amounts shown are as of 06/05/08."

And, while I feel it is important that ALL LP members raise money – I must strenuously object that the LNC's most important task is fundraising.

The LNC is charged with "control and management of all the affairs, properties
and funds of the Party consistent with these Bylaws . . . establish and oversee an organizational structure to implement the purposes of the Party as stated in Article 3 . . . adopt rules of procedure for the conduct of its meetings and the carrying out of its duties and responsibilities" per the Bylaws.

In my rarely humble opinion, describing the LNC's paramount duty as fundraising, and elevating this activity to something higher than the body's purpose as defined in the Bylaws, minimizes the nature and duties of the body.

For goodness' sake, it's like saying that that prime directive of the US Government is to raise money . . . OK, that's not a good example. That IS the US Gov't Prime Directive.

But it's not ours. The LNC is a governing body, not a fundraising group. Or do we all believe that we could hire an ad agency and fundraising guru to oversee LP business?

And we do our members a disservice to tell them that as their representatives, our primary duty is to raise money.

Sounds like Principle is second to Cash? Forget what our Bylaws say are duties, we answer only to ca$h.

Second point – the totals shown are no longer valid. These are new terms. Unless someone has raised $$ since Denver, it's not "this term". Also per Bylaws, new term begins at end of Convention.

--

In Liberty,

Rachel Hawkridge
Libertarian Party
Region 7 Representative

2008-09-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

REGION 7 REPORT

Submitted to: Libertarian National Committee, Aug. 29, 2008

Submitted by: Rachel W. Hawkridge, Region 7 Representative, Libertarian National Committee

This report will provide information concerning activities of the Libertarian Party state affiliates in Region 7 since the Region formation in May 2008.

I attended the annual Libertarian Party of Oregon’s convention in Salem, OR and the Libertarian Party of Idaho’s convention in Caldwell, ID.

Florida

Florida has fielded an awesome slate of candidates, including four unopposed candidates for local boards. They’ve elected one to New Port Richey Mayor!

And Florida is already preparing for the 2010 elections, as State Chair Karl Dickey has already filed for Palm Beach County Commissioner.

Brevard County Commission, Ilene Davis

Collier County Soil & Water Board

Bruce Reichert - Seat 1 (Unopposed)

J. Adam Mitchell - Seat 4 (Unopposed)

Duval County Soil & Water Board, Jeff Hunt

Hillsborough County Soil and Water Conservation Board

AJ Brent - District 2

Jeff Garbus - Seat 4

Tyson Richmond - District 4

Lee Soil and Water Conservation District

Jack Tanner - Seat 4 (Unopposed) – note: Jack has been running a petitioning drive to stop funding mobile irrigation labs

Orange Soil & Water Conservation District

Randy Whiting - Seat 1

J.J. McCurry - Seat 3

Diane Rozek - Seat 5

Jupiter Inlet Commission, Bradford Schmidt - Dist 5

Palm Beach Soil & Water Conservation

Mike McIntosh - Group 2

Howard Horowitz - Group 4 (Unopposed!)

New Port Richey Mayor, Scott McPherson (WON!)

West Volusia Hospital Authority, Tracy Lunquist (Group A, Seat 1)

2010 Election Cycle - Palm Beach County Commission

Karl Dickey - Seat 4 (filed)

Florida has also asked that the LNC ask Tom Stevens to resign his Judicial Committee seat, since he is on the ballot as the presidential candidate of another party. We feel that it is inappropriate for the candidate of another party to hold elected office within our party.

Hawai’i

Unfortunately, I have not been successful at establishing a good connection with Hawai’i since leaving Denver. I have had brief contacts with them, but Ms Li Schoolland has been in Lithuania, teaching English, and I expect that on her return we will make contact.

Idaho

The Libertarian Party of Idaho held its biennial convention on Saturday, June 21st in Caldwell at the home of State Chair, Rob Oates. There was a potluck BBQ followed by a business meeting and election of officers.

Idaho nominated Marvin Gardner for State Representative District 15 Position B, Kent Marmon for US Senate, and Mikel Hautzinger for State Representative District 17 Position A.

James L. Oyler for State Representative District 17 Position B, and Rex W. Kerr for State Representative District 20 Position A also ran as Libertarians.

Hautzinger, Kerr, Gardner and Oyler have all passed the Primary, and will be on the General Election ballot.

Oregon

Oregon held it’s annual State Convention on June 1^st 2008, at Riverfront Park in Salem, OR. It was a BBQ, held in a lovely park, complete with a Parks Dept. employee who introduced himself “I’m with the government, and I’m here to help.”

LP Oregon nominated three candidates, and had two Presidential Candidates (Jim Libertarian Burns and Mike Jingozian) and two sitting LNC members (Vice Chair Mike Jingozian, and Region 7 Rep. Rachel Hawkridge) in attendance.

Nominated were Marc Delphine, 26th District; Jay Ellefson, 36th District; and Steve Milligan, 5th Congressional District.

Oregon allows multiple nominating conventions, and just last month, nominated Joe Tabor (State Chair) for 1st District US Congress; and Jim Karlock, 45th Dist., Ore. State Rep.

The “Press Release” that has made its way through the blogosphere is a fraud, and was not sent by LP Oregon. No one has been expelled.

The Real Washington™

A supplemental brief was filed in the I-872 case, the challenge of the state’s “Top Two” primary. We await the 9^thCircuit Court’s decision. Richard Shepard, of Northwest Legal Foundation, has done an incredible job with this case. Last year, he argued it before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Our Congressional candidate, John Beck, was eliminated in that primary system, and Ruth Bennett remains in the 37^th District Legislative race.

LPWA is working on “LPWA News & Views”, and intend to publish both a print and web version of our new newsletter by mid-October. We’ve not published a newsletter for several years, and expect that this will be both valuable outreach and fundraising tool. Michael H. Wilson of Vancouver has taken the leadership on this project.

Motion to LNC . . .

2008-08-29T12:44:00.000-07:00

I will make this motion to LNC at next weekend's meeting . .

Some of our candidates, membership, and affiliates increasingly lean right, to the point that we are losing a significant portion of our (especially) LGBT and alternative base.

From the perspective of some of these important activists, communications from State affiliates and National are increasingly more conservative.

I don’t intend to argue their perceptions, and I do find that some of these instruments of the party are either discriminatory in nature, or offensive to large groups.

In light of this,

I move that the Libertarian National Committee send a letter to remind state affiliates of some of the statements of Principal, and planks of our Platform, namely . . .

“As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.

We believe that respect for individual rights is the essential precondition for a free and prosperous world, that force and fraud must be banished from human relationships, and that only through freedom can peace and prosperity be realized.

Consequently, we defend each person's right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity that freedom brings. The world we seek to build is one where individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their own ways, without interference from government or any authoritarian power.”

And that to stay in integrity, Libertarians must fight to overcome discrimination, otherwise we are not in integrity with our stated values.

Standing by and watching discrimination is to perpetuate discrimination.

Since our Party instruments therefore cannot be discriminatory, the LNC asks that you not publish articles that are offensive to minority groups, and be especially careful about the use of terms that are offensive to minority groups.

The editor of LP News should also be directed to observe the same guidelines, and an article should be published in LP News that expresses the intent and message of this motion.

___________________ End Text of Motion ___________________

The following article appeared on the front page of
California LP website, under the heading . . .

Recent News from the LP

Italics are mine (Rachel)

Who Should Define Marriage?

by Adam B. Summers

It has been nearly two months since California started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and somehow civilization as we know it has not come crashing down. The legal and political fights over the issue are far from over, however.

Gay rights supporters tried and failed to keep Proposition 8 from appearing on the November ballot. That proposed change to the state constitution would ban same-sex marriages in the state and effectively overturn the California Supreme Court's May ruling. Opponents of same-sex marriage are fighting their own court battle, charging that changes to the wording of Proposition 8's ballot title and summary made by the attorney general's office might bias voters against the measure.

In its 4-3 decision, the California Supreme Court ruled: "[I]n view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to all same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples."

While the Supreme Court's decision offers homosexuals the same freedoms as heterosexuals to formalize their commitments to their significant other, it should also serve as a reminder that the government has encroached on the most personal aspects of our lives.

In the gay marriage debate both sides are right, and both sides are wrong.

Gay marriage opponents are wrong to use the law to enforce their notion of morality on others. Doing so violates the libertarian principle that people should be allowed to live their lives as they please, so long as they do not infringe on the equal right of others to do the same. A homosexual couple's decision to enter into a religious or social agreement certainly does not preclude a heterosexual couple's right to do so.

There seems to be widespread irrational thought about the very word "marriage." Polls consistently show that even in areas where voters are wary of overturning laws to permit same-sex marriage, significantly greater percentages of people favor bestowing the same rights on gay couples as on married straight couples, as long as the relationships are called some other name, like "civil unions." Even President George Bush, who pushed for the failed federal constitutional ban on same-sex marriages in 2006, has suggested that gay couples should be able to enjoy many, if not all, of the benefits of marriage through "civil unions" or "domestic partnerships" if individual states sanction such "legal arrangements other than marriage." But if the rights are the same, what difference does semantics make?

By politicizing a private matter—deciding to whom one may pledge one's love, support, and fidelity—opponents of same-sex marriage have created a world of winners and losers where once there were only voluntary promises. Gay marriage opponents are thus wrong to insist that they have the right to decide how marriage should be defined (i.e., whether it should be sanctioned only if it is between a man and a woman, or even whether marriage should be a religious institution or a secular social commitment) not only for themselves but for everyone else as well.

Similarly, same-sex couples should not be able to force their notion of marriage on others, either. Religious leaders or others who would perform marriage ceremonies have every right to refuse to marry couples for moral, philosophical, or any other reasons. Private business owners should be able to decide for themselves whether it is in their interest to offer group health benefits, family leave benefits, special mortgage loans rates, etc., to gay couples as well as straight. Furthermore, businesses should not be compelled by law to offer any particular benefits to any employee—gay or straight.

In addition, gay rights activists are wrong to petition the government for "equal" marital status. This demand merely perpetuates the politicization of what should be a private issue. Gay rights activists would better serve their interests by arguing that the government should not be in the marriage business in the first place.

Marriage, whether entered into by those who consider it a sacred religious covenant or those who see it as a secular social bond and contract, is a profoundly personal decision between those in love. The "sanctity" of marriage must be defined by the individual—or couple—not an interest group and certainly not the state. There simply is no role for the state in marriage.

___________________ End published article ___________________

Since the “religious right” has taken the use of the word “homosexual” (usually pronounced “homo SECT sual) and turned it into a pejorative, and the evolution of language has been to use the words “gay” and “lesbian”, AND that “gay” and/or “lesbian” is what the LGBT community prefers, it is offensive to the LGBT community to use “homosexual” in referring to them.

It is tantamount to using the word “Negro” to refer to black, or African-American people.

The government is in the marriage business. The federal government has, for decades, given benefits (employee and federal tax exemptions) to married couples and to unmarried heterosexual couples; continuing to deny the same benefits to same sex couples constitutes discrimination.

It is my contention that in this case, waiting until the government gets out of the marriage business is not libertarian. Opposing attempts to make make marriage a State’s Right issue, or to stay out of the attempts to make gay marriage unconstitutional are wrong.

___________________ End Rachel’s discussion ___________________

The following comments were received from OutRight ExComm member . . .

1) Language. We repeatedly urge the LP (and LP members) to use the right language when talking to LGBT Americans -- i.e. "gay and lesbian" or "LGBT." Yet every time we've made this point to LP communications under the Cory regime -- including to Mr. Gordon when he was comm director -- we were told to basically piss off. The LP's people insist on referring to LGBT people as "homosexuals," which has about as much communications efficacy as referring to African Americans as "negroid."

Regarding Ms. Mattson's platform shenanigans, the language on LGBT rights was completely stripped out of the original platform, and not a single openly gay Libertarian was invited to participate on the platform committee until the final draft was written.

As a result, the document which popped out Ms. Mattson's committee was wholly inadequate -- in fact, downright embarrassing -- on LGBT issues.

Fortunately, LGBTQ leaders and supporters like Carol McMahon -- and the majority of the convention-goers -- quickly repaired the platform to strengthen it to where it needed to be.

If you're under the mistaken impression that the LGBT Libertarian community did not notice the effort to foist the original embarrassing plank on LGBT rights, you are hugely mistaken. Just compare last year's donor list to this year's.

2) Last year, the Libertarian Party had a unique opportunity to scoop the Democrats and Republicans on marriage equality during Valentine's Day. Outright -- excited to get positive press for the Party -- contacted the Massachusetts, California and National parties to enquire about a press release.

California and Massachusetts, as always, came through.

National? Shane Cory refused to issue a press release, telling us that we needed to get our membership to e-mail him with a large volume of e-mail before he'd issue it.

I cannot think of a single situation where a Libertarian has ever been told that in order to get the LP to issue a press release on a Libertarian issue, that the leading Libertarian lobby has to beg its members to beg OUR OWN PARTY to put out even token support.

In the last days of Cory's tenure, on the LP-aligned (and Viguerie-owned) Third Party Watch web site, a number of Libertarians hopped in to state that the LP platform is opposed to same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption. Rob Power, a major donor in the LP Torch Club AND the Executive Director of the LGBT lobby of the Libertarian Party, asked Cory to pop in and make a two sentence statement repudiating the assertion after it was picked up and spread far and wide across the gay media as "Libertarian Party lurches right."

Mr. Cory's reaction -- in email -- to a Torch Club donor and public Libertarian of Mr. Power's standing -- was to refuse and tell him to "find something else to bitch about." And the story in the LGBT media, based on the party's inaction? That the LP opposes marriage equality and gay adoption and that Outright is "spinning around the issue."

Brilliant! Now we get to compromise our own perceived integrity -- as volunteers -- as well as get insulted for being major donors.

3) Trust.

I'm going to be blunt with you guys. Without Outright and great people like Rob, Angela, Allan and Ruth to kick your asses into gear on basic Libertarian social issues (which are not "left," BTW, but smack-dab in the center of this party since its founding), I don't trust the national office to do the right thing on LGBT issues.

Virtually every intervention I've made on behalf of the Libertarian National office this year has been to explain away a f**-up, lobby internally for the party to adhere to the bloody platform and issue a press release on a major issue of import, or beg candidates and employees of national not to rip on the community through the use of bad language or Republican National Committee policies that are as distant from the LP platform as can be.

_________________ End OutRight Comments _________________

The LPNH flap . . . it's not a conspiracy

2008-08-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

There was a recent story on a couple of blogs that contains some information that is factually incorrect. Here is a more accurate description of the story, reposted in its entirety from Ballot Access News, by Richard Winger . . .

Why the New Hampshire Libertarian Party Ought to Sue Over Substitution

August 20th, 2008

The New Hampshire Libertarian Party’s position on whether to participate in a proposed lawsuit on substitution is not clear. I have just arrived home from a vacation and this evening, it is too late for me to telephone any New Hampshire Libertarian Party officials.

New Hampshire ballot access is far worse than most people realize. The Green Party has only succeeded in getting on the New Hampshire ballot statewide once, in 2000. The Natural Law Party failed in both 1996 and 2000 in New Hampshire. The Constitution Party failed in both 2004 and 2008 in New Hampshire. The Libertarian Party failed for president in two states in 2004, New Hampshire and Oklahoma. Also, in 2006, the Libertarian Party had only two statewide petition failures, Alabama and New Hampshire.

New Hampshire’s legislature has been very hostile to minor party and independent candidate ballot access. Many bills to improve the law have been introduced during the past ten years, but none of them passed in either House. The Secretary of State is hostile, and the legislature will not approve any election law change that he opposes.

The best way to persuade a state legislature to improve ballot access laws is to win a lawsuit against one of the ballot access laws. The New Hampshire policy forbidding substitution can probably be defeated in court, if the New Hampshire Libertarian Party will help that effort. New Hampshire is one of only two states which has never had any ballot access law declared unconstitutional. A winning lawsuit on substitution could be the key to winning additional ballot access reform in New Hampshire. The substitution lawsuit is an opportunity that should not be wasted.

http://tinyurl.com/LPNH-BAN is link to the newsletter and forum. Thanks to Richard Winger for permission to repost. If you haven't seen Ballot Access News - please do so. It's a great source.

More from Rachel . . .

I was not left out of any decisions. Some of it was decided before I came to the LNC. There was also some lack of communication, but there was no conspiracy, nor did anyone leave me out of any decision. I hope that this settles the matter in your minds.

As you may know - the September LNC meeting fast approaches. At that meeting, one thing we will do is to put together the Bylaws Committee for next convention. If you would like to apply for one of those positions, please eMail your qualifications to RWSully@att.net, and so me - LPWA.com1@gmail.com. The appointment requires at least one face-to-face meeting, so be prepared to travel. Experience as a parliamentarian is also desired, though not required. Having held elective office might also be a plus, as would previous experience on committees, especially LP bylaws, judicial or platform. Please send your application as soon as possible, and good luck! :o)

It appears that all the states in out region have ballot access, so GREAT JOB to all! And any other issues that you have concerns about, or want to take to the LNC, please contact me, eMail preferred, so that I can see, study, research before we talk, or before the meeting.

Time is running out to hold a Barr meet and greet, or full blown fundraiser. The campaign would appreciate any help that you can give. Colorado held this month that they planned and executed in about 48 hours. Even with the short notice, they had a great event, and had probably 80 people attend (estimate), and raised $10,000. It was drinks, hors d'eouvres in the State Chair's house (and yard!) They collected $5 cash from attendees for food and drinks, and Bob Barr spoke for a few minutes. Donation envelopes were passed around, and Travis (host) gave big donors a bottle of "Barr Bear" - his special hefeweizen. Great job, LP of Colorado, and Arapahoe County.

If any of you want to do something similar, I will do what I can to help. While you may know that I am not totally supportive of the Barr candidacy, I will help *you*, and I want Barr to succeed for the LP.

News from the Region!

2008-07-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

The news in a moment -

Florida -

LP Florida's treasurer needs your help to reduce spending! If you live in Florida, print and sign this - Petition to End Mobile Irrigation Labs. Thank you, Jack!

Oregon -

LP Oregon just held a fundraising event with Bob Barr! Reports are that it was a very successful event, and that much of the credit for organizing goes to Joe Cornwell! Thanks, folks! For all you do.

Washington -

Is in the midst of a ballot access drive. Due to our onerous election law, we have to advertise a "Nominating Convention", then show up at the advertised place and time, and collect signatures. We need a minimum of 1,250 signatures by July 25 to get the Libertarian Party on the ballot.

In Idaho, there's an incredible older gentleman named Ralph Smeed. Among other things, he maintains a reader board just outside of Boise. Read what he has to say on it here . . . and if that's not all, he maintains an excellent website for Making Statism Unpopular.

Rich Shephard, Freedom Fighter, attorney, and one of Washington State's Activists of the Year, turned us on to this awesome website, with all kinds of freedom literature in several formats . . . check it out! There's also a forum for discussion.

Are you an activist who has devoted your Time, Treasure and/or Sacred Honor to the cause? If you've put money, effort or a campaign or service in a position where you influence public policy or government, then comment here, or eMail LPWA.com1@gmail.com. Or nominate yourfriends, colleagues, or fellow activists. I need name, address, phone number or eMail address, and what you've done. This is the prototype for a project.

Idaho Convention this past weekend . . .

2008-06-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

Idaho's Convention was a great success . . . good food, great company, and 3 candidates, again.

Marvin Gardner for State Representative District 15 Position B

Kent Marmon for US Senate (marmonforidaho.com), and

Mikel Hautzinger for State Representative District 17 Position A

And these two gentlemen were not able to be there Saturday, but . . .

James L. Oyler for State Representative District 17 Position B, and

Rex W. Kerr for State Representative District 20 Position A are also running as Libertarians!

Check these fine candidates out, and if you're ever invited to Rob Oates' place for trifle . . . jump on it! :o)

Idaho Convention soon! See you there?

2008-06-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

The Libertarian Party of Idaho will hold its biennial convention at Noon Saturday, June 21st in Caldwell at 1421 Dearborn St . There will be a potluck BBQ followed by a business meeting and election of officers. All Libertarians are welcome! Email Rob Oates at roboates@yahoo.com or call Ted at 208-507-1776 for more information.

Oregon State Convention

2008-06-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

Oregon held a State Convention last weekend - at the beautiful Riverfront Park in Salem, OR.

The Oregon LP provided good food, great company, and three candidates . . .

Marc Delphine

Jay Ellefson

Steve Milligan, for the 5th Congressional District

These candidates have our very best wishes, and if there is anything I can do to help, please do not hesitate to contact me!

Another of our own!

2008-06-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

Fred James in Bellingham, aka IL Fettuchini, attended the GOP convention in Spokane. While this is about the GOP, and its treatment of Ron Paul, Fred is a libertarian. I include it here because it is a chapter in the story of the advance of Liberty . . .

Here's his written report, posted at NolanChart.com . . .

Battle in Spokane

And his video interviews . . .

here, here, and here

Good on ya, Fred!