[Lnc-business] Texas bill to reduce the number of third party candidates who make it onto the ballot

[Brett Bittner]

While I don't think that we should NOT work against bills that hurt our
electoral prospects, I certainly don't believe that we should excuse our
lack of success with the hurdles placed in our path by Team D and Team R.
Those are the rules for the game, and until we can change them, we have to
play by them and win within them.

One of the most exciting things I'm seeing in Indiana is that the
short-sightedness of the GOP super-majority looks to be on its way to
eliminating the mechanism that would prevent my running for office here,
straight-party voting.

Something to consider: Georgia has the second-highest filing fees in the
country (behind Florida), coupled with the worst ballot access laws in the
country, yet has been one of our most successful state affiliates. They
have elected multiple Libertarians, and offered multiple statewide
candidates who earned more than a million votes.

Something else to consider: If a couple hundred dollars for municipal,
county, and legislative races or a couple thousand dollars for
Congressional and statewide offices is such an imposition to prevent
candidates from appearing on the ballot, how can we reasonably expect that
our candidates raise enough money to run an effective, winning campaign? We
can argue about whether money SHOULD be a factor in electoral politics,
however the current landscape points to its necessity to a winning
campaign.

On a tangentially-related note, I've been impressed (for the most part)
with the decorum and mindfulness of this body in our interactions with one
another and staff in-person, though I've noticed that we are markedly less
so behind the keyboard, as we communicate via e-mail. It would be terrific
to see that decorum and mindfulness extend to this list as well. :-)

Brett C. Bittner

brett at brettbittner.com
404.492.6524

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty
than those attending too small a degree of it." -- Thomas Jefferson

On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 4:26 PM, Scott L. <scott73 at earthlink.net> wrote:

>    First of all, most exit polls have shown that Libertarians draw votes
> more or less equally from the Republicans and Democrats.
>
>
>
> In fact, I would not be surprised if I could find such a claim made by one
> of our Chairs, or by one of our ED’s, over the past few years.  And I agree
> that that is probably closer to the truth.  So I wonder why the ED is all
> of a sudden going back on that claim in an effort to imply that my
> “strategy” helps Republicans.  Remember – filing fees also keep Green Party
> candidates off the ballot.
>
> I doubt that Republican Legislators would try to keep Green Party
> candidates off the ballot.
>
>
>
>
> Second of all, it is extremely inappropriate for the Executive Director of
> the Libertarian Party to libel a board member by printing something about a
> Board member that is maybe ¼ true.
>
>
>
> My strategy is not to “discourage Libertarians from running for most
> partisan offices in Texas that they have been running for.”
>
>
>
> My strategy is to attempt to get our state affiliates to steer most
> potential candidates into running for offices that they can win,
>
> after the affiliate has filled their ballot-access-retention races.
>
>
>
> LP.org  lists 4 elected Libertarians in Texas.  All of them are in
> non-partisan offices.  Does the Executive Director possess
>
> a secret sauce that will all of a sudden let Libertarians start winning
> partisan races in Texas in 2015 and 2016?
>
>
>
>    Scott Lieberman
>
>
>  ------------------------------
>
> *From:* Lnc-business [mailto:lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org] *On Behalf
> Of *Wes Benedict
> *Sent:* Thursday, April 09, 2015 12:31 PM
> *To:* lnc-business at hq.lp.org
> *Subject:* Re: [Lnc-business] Texas bill to reduce the number of third
> party candidates who make it onto the ballot
>
>
>
> The Republicans and Democrats are considered "primary nominating" parties
> in Texas and pay filing fees that are intended to help cover the cost of
> having the state run their primary elections, whereas parties like the
> Libertarians are prohibited from participating in the primaries, but hold
> conventions that are not tax-payer financed, and therefore should not have
> to pay filing fees.
>
> If this bill passes, it has the dual effect of helping Republicans and
> also will help Dr. Lieberman's strategy of discouraging Libertarians from
> running for most partisan offices in Texas that they have been running
> for.
>
> Wes Benedict, Executive Director
> Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
>
>
>
>
> GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
>
> Sam Goldstein wrote on 4/9/2015 2:09 PM:
>
>  Do the old parties in TX have to pay filing fees?
>
>
>
> Sam
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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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