[Lnc-business] [Statechairs] Emergency email ballot to move LP HQ

[Dan Drexler]

Mr. Weiner,

Given that Mrs. Knott's grandson, Jack "Jugger" Knott is an Indiana
resident, we welcome the idea and give full support.  Jugger has been a
longtime supporter of the LPIN.  With Indiana's central location, possibly
the estate would consider Indiana rather than North Dakota?   As you have
undoubtedly seen in recent news coverage, Indiana is an incredibly
welcoming state for a new HQ.

Dan Drexler


On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 12:57 PM, Daniel Wiener <wiener at alum.mit.edu> wrote:

> This is a heads-up to the LNC that I expect to shortly be asking for
> co-sponsors for an email ballot to immediately relocate our headquarters to
> North Dakota.  This matter is extremely urgent, for the following reasons:
>
> You may already have read on Twitter the sad news that Wyoming Knott
> passed away early this morning, after she fell 60 feet from the top of a
> fracking drilling rig.  Wyoming Knott is of course better known as the
> "North Dakota Fracking Queen" and was an ardent advocate for personal
> liberties. She was an uncompromising individual who demanded total freedom
> from any state interference in the booming fracking industry.  She will be
> sorely missed, and our heartfelt condolences go out to her family and
> friends and the entire fracking community.
>
> Back in 2003, Ms. Knott apparently altered her will to bequeath a quarter
> of her estate to the Libertarian Party.  At the time her estate consisted
> primarily of undeveloped land near Williston, North Dakota worth an
> estimated $375,000.  A quarter of that ($93,750) was certainly a generous
> amount even back then.  Today, as a consequence of development of the
> Bakken Shale Formation which underlies it, that land has appreciated
> enormously, with a November, 2014 appraisal coming in at just over $6
> billion.  That would put the value of her bequest to the Libertarian Party
> at $1.5 billion, although that may have since declined to about $900
> million due to the drop in oil prices.
>
> However, Ms. Knott detested everything connected with Washington, D.C.,
> including the fact that the LP's office was located there.  So she added a
> codicil to that bequest that it would only be effective if the Libertarian
> Party's office was located in North Dakota, which to her represented the
> cultural and ideological opposite of Washington, D.C.  She believed that
> removing the Libertarian Party from the center of government corruption
> would help it avoid the inevitable rot.
>
> One possibility is that we could challenge that condition in court.  But
> let's be realistic.  Regardless of whether the eventual value is $1.5
> billion or $900 million or somewhere in between, there will be scores of
> lawyers crawling out of the woodwork, anxious to do everything possible to
> deny us that bequest, if they can cobble together even the slightest
> pretext.  So the sooner we can move our headquarters to North Dakota to
> prove we are complying with her codicil, the better.
>
> Again, time is of the essence.  If all LNC members immediately vote on the
> upcoming email ballot, we ought to be able to complete it by the end of
> today.  In the meantime, our Executive Director can fly to North Dakota and
> rent a temporary office to get us started, until we can construct a major
> new high-rise office building.  (It's been suggested that it be named the
> Wyoming Knott Memorial Office Building, and my response is "why not"?).  If
> all this gets finished today (on the same day as her death, April 1, 2015)
> I think it will greatly strengthen our legal position.
>
> Daniel Wiener
>
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>
>
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