[Lnc-business] An example of a successful initiative/cause website

[Joshua Katz]

I mostly agree with the doctor's reasoning but I think a different
conclusion can be reached. I am very interested in how national issues can
be approached by candidates for local office.

In this case I would point out that in CT and I'm sure other states, towns
without a managerial system have the First Selectman as police chief by
statute. A candidate can reasonably promise to instruct officers and
resident troopers that forfeiture is not an acceptable procedure.

Also some towns have elected administrative magistrates. Until recently CT
had quasi elected judges who had some authority in this area and were very
winnable. I currently hold that position in addition to my elected office
but that power is gone.

Joshua Katz
On Mar 19, 2015 10:17 AM, "Scott L." <scott73 at earthlink.net> wrote:

>  Mr. Chair:
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> The Libertarian Party is NOT an advocacy organization.  This Libertarian
> Party is a political party.
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> We don’t want to be committing bait and switch, do we?
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> Even if "defendyourprivacy.com" was successful in "attracting new members
> and support", obviously those "members and support" have evaporated.
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> Until we provide the service that the American people expect from an
> organization that calls itself a *political party*, we will continue to
> lose members.  And fewer members means less money to achieve our mission.
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> Issue advocacy for a third party is OK  as long as it is done in a way
> that *directly *supports candidates running for winnable or ballot-access
> retention offices.  And since the Libertarian Party is not in a position to
> get its candidates elected to Federal office right now, that means that
> issue advocacy done by the National Libertarian Party is a waste of time
> unless we are simultaneously able to show prospective members that we are
> electing Libertarians at some level of government.  We don’t want to
> attract people because they care about an issue with some vague, unspoken
> promise that we will directly be able to “fix” that issue.
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> At this point in the LP’s life cycle, we should only use issues to attract
> people who are going to help us get our candidates elected to public
> offices.  And in most cases, the offices that our candidates can get
> elected to in 2015-16 are not going to be offices that are able to change
> the laws about civil-asset forfeiture or drug possession.
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> Issue advocacy that is done willy-nilly, just because it feels good, will
> merely extend the period of time that the Libertarian Party refuses to be a
> political party.
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>   Scott Lieberman
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> GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
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> “From: Lnc-business [mailto:lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org] On Behalf Of
> Nicholas Sarwark
> Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2015 6:56 AM
> To: lnc-business
> Subject: [Lnc-business] An example of a successful initiative/cause website
>
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> All,
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> The Libertarian Party has had previous success in attracting new
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> members and support from non-members when advocating for policy
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> change.  Most memorably, the creation of defendyourprivacy.com in 1999
>
> funneled opposition to the FDIC's "Know Your Customer" rules that
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> resulted in the defeat of bank spying (until the PATRIOT Act at
>
> least).
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> See:
> http://web.archive.org/web/19990428064847/http://www.defendyourprivacy.com/
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> Institute for Justice has launched an initiative to end civil asset
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> forfeiture.  While I'm pretty supportive of IJ generally, both in
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> their work and in their methods, I wanted to bring this site to the
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> attention of the rest of the committee as an example of how a campaign
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> to enact/defeat a policy can be done even if the old parties aren't
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> supportive of the issue.
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> http://endforfeiture.com/
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> Note, this is not intended to be in lieu of revising and improving our
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> main web presence.
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>    Nick”
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lnc-business mailing list
> Lnc-business at hq.lp.org
> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>
>
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