[Lnc-business] report on Oklahoma visit
Scott L.
scott73 at earthlink.net
Fri Dec 11 15:02:19 EST 2015
I agree 1000% with Mr. Ludlow's post immediately below.
Scott Lieberman
_____
From: Lnc-business [mailto:lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org] On Behalf Of
Kevin Ludlow
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2015 11:08 AM
To: lnc-business at hq.lp.org
Subject: Re: [Lnc-business] report on Oklahoma visit
While the conversation has been sidetracked a bit, I would just like to say
that I largely concur with Mr. Katz here. It's an obvious shortcoming of
the Libertarian Party from anyone who is outside of it. I had about 30
young people work on my 2014 campaign. All have expressed an interest in
continuing to work with me. Only 2-3 have expressed an interest in
continuing to work with the LP. Why is that?
While I worked incredibly hard in my 2014 Texas House run, I was (and
remained) greatly concerned that I became viewed as a top-tier candidate in
the state. I was seen as an campaign expert simply because I raised money,
arranged a team, ran complex analytics, frequently got published, had
highway billboards, successful ad campaigns, etc. It's flattering, yes, but
it also paints a horrible picture of the party in general. I had no
previous campaign experience - zero - and did not get anywhere close to
winning my race. My point being that one should not be considered an expert
simply because they perform the bare minimum of what any campaign should do.
And yet I still hear it frequently.
I write this to illustrate that Mr. Katz's point about "building a bench"
rings very true to me.
When I ask about our strategies, I am directly referring to creating
long-term goals that groom candidates for actual campaign success in the
future. We should NOT praise candidates who raise $10k. Instead we should
fire ones who do not. I bring this same attitude into the LNC and will
continue to vote in a direction that helps us pursue that goal. If we
cannot improve our base line, then really, what is the purpose of the
Libertarian Party? There are countless activism groups out there, none of
whom are restricted by silly campaign laws for their operation. If the
purpose is not to win elections, then I fail to see the benefit of the
party. Apparently that's debatable, though I really fail to see how.
Towards minimal standards, I refer back yet again to the Give or Get
conversation that took place. It was immediately pointed out to me that the
very mention of "Give or Get" has bad blood associated with it. As if one's
personal feelings have relevance to the political machine. If a member can
neither afford $600 over a 12 month period nor figure out how to raise $600,
then I fail to see the value of said member. I realize it's a harsh opinion
to this group, but it really should not be considered harsh in any way. The
other two parties are certainly not sending us their sympathies for our
shortcomings and some of these shortcomings are rather obvious.
Apologies for sounding ranty. It seemed appropriate given the conversation.
-Kevin Ludlow
Region 7
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On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 12:26 PM, Joshua Katz <planning4liberty at gmail.com>
wrote:
Sure, if anyone literally believed that electing one person to office was
this party's highest goal, we wouldn't even need to go recruit someone to
run in some small town - we've already done that many hundreds of times, so
we could just shut our doors. But that's not what anyone I've ever met
believes. Lots of us believe, on the other hand, that a political party is
an organization that works to elect candidates to office in the pursuit of
certain larger goals, and that the unique contribution of the LP to the
liberty world is its ability to engage in the hard, frustrating, but
ultimately rewarding work of governing - first by electing people to office,
and next by their actions in office - actions which will cut back the size
and scope of government, producing a freer, happier, more prosperous
society.
A lot of us further believe in the importance of a political party building
a farm team system to train its candidates as they move up the ranks of
governance - both to produce better candidates and to produce officeholders
who will be more effective at furthering libertarian objectives. I can tell
you that, when I was in high school, I happened to know a man whose brother
in law was getting involved in politics. When I heard that, I naively asked
"oh, what's he running for?" This gentleman looked at me like I was crazy
and said "they're grooming him - in 2 years they think they'll be ready to
run for school board." This man happened to be a Yale educated attorney who
practiced education law, was quite wealthy, and was pretty well-known. I
compare that to a system which doesn't build a bench, and instead goes
looking for new blood, untrained and untested, to run for Congress, and I
see an issue.
Of course, we work with what we have - but we also strive to have more. I
am of the opinion that we'd be in a very different place right now if, 40
years ago, we had focused on building the bench. But we've spent, in my
opinion, too much time and treasure on "get free quick" schemes. Like a get
rich quick scheme, if these pay off, that's great, but they usually don't -
and when they don't, you end up no further ahead than you were at the start.
I can't do anything about that, but I can influence what we do now, as we
all can.
Of course, I agree with the Executive Director that I can do that - I agree
so much that I went and did it and got myself elected to office. Some
affiliates have, in the past, devoted large efforts to doing so, with good
results - such as California, to my understanding. Other members of this
board have been elected and/or appointed to various offices. What we need
is more than a random scattering of officials, though - we need a concerted
effort that gives us a large bench and shows the world that Libertarians are
serious about our task of rolling back government, and also credible in our
claims that we can govern more effectively than our rivals in the Tired
Parties.
Sidenote: This is why I have suggested, in the past, that training sessions
held by a political party might usefully include one or two elected
officials, who can presumably speak on two topics: 1. how to win office as
a Libertarian (something outside professionals can't usually teach us,
although they can teach us much), and 2. how to govern as a Libertarian -
how to effectively advance an agenda while in office and move other
office-holders (if serving in a non-executive capacity) to vote with you,
build a coalition, and get a freer society as a benefit.
Sidenote 2: Building a bench is far from the only reason to elect local
officials. A perhaps better reason is that so much of our contact with
government is local, and that local officials can substantially improve the
lives of the members of their communities.
Joshua A. Katz
Westbrook CT Planning Commission (L in R seat)
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On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 12:35 PM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org> wrote:
Kevin, you wrote: "I would argue that getting a single person elected to a
partisan office would have a far greater impact than simply allowing others
(who will realistically never win an election) to run for office through our
ballot access measures."
Some Libertarians agree with you on this, but a lot of Libertarians do not
agree with you on this. But it is a common debate that has raged on daily
for decades between groups of people that refuse to listen to each other--so
don't count on it ending any time soon.
Nationwide, there are 142 Libertarians holding elected offices: 38 partisan
offices, and 104 nonpartisan offices.
http://www.lp.org/candidates/elected-officials
See the attached Chapter 15 of my book, Introduction to the Libertarian
Party - Why Run for Office, for some of my views on the issue.
If getting just one person elected to a partisan office is your most
important goal, then you could personally recruit someone to run in a tiny
district in Pennsylvania and get it done, almost 100% as a result of your
efforts (plus the person you recruit). So could other people who promote
winning a partisan election above all else (and in other states too--just
that PA is easiest). And they don't need anyone's permission to work on it.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
New address: 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <tel:%28202%29%20333-0008%20ext.%20232> ,
wes.benedict at lp.org
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
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On 12/11/2015 12:14 PM, Kevin Ludlow wrote:
Fair enough. Thanks for pointing me to that. I will read over all of those
minutes.
Provided what you're pointing me to answers that question then perhaps what
we lack is simply documentation organizing these strategies. I know we have
some reports being generated, but a simple mechanism to steer ourselves
seems like it would be of value rather than having to sift through minutes.
Still, I'm happy to do it and perhaps will propose a better system at our
next LNC meeting.
Thanks again.
Kevin
On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 11:13 AM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org> wrote:
The LNC discussed, debated, and adopted specific goals this term, not the
"implied goals" Mr. Olsen refers to. It was probably before you joined the
LNC. I realize you joined to replace another member that resigned.
They're in at least one of the minutes here:
<http://www.lp.org/leadership/lnc-meeting-archives>
http://www.lp.org/leadership/lnc-meeting-archives
You might want to read all of the minutes for this term, because they have a
lot about ballot access in them, as well as other things.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
New address: 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <tel:%28202%29%20333-0008%20ext.%20232> ,
wes.benedict at lp.org
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: <http://lp.org/membership>
http://lp.org/membership
On 12/11/2015 11:59 AM, Kevin Ludlow wrote:
Wes,
No, I definitely did not know that. It seems like it would be the case as
presumably we would get more efficient with our efforts over time, but I've
not seen any data to illustrate that point.
In case I've come across poorly, I don't want to seem as if I object to the
idea or anything like that. I just want to encourage the body to have
specifically defined strategic goals rather than the "implied goals" that
Mr. Olsen was referring to. As an advocate of the devil, while ballot
access may be cheaper, one could still ask what it's end goal is. I would
argue that getting a single person elected to a partisan office would have a
far greater impact than simply allowing others (who will realistically never
win an election) to run for office through our ballot access measures. I
concede one affects the other and am not making a case for either, but just
illustrating how the strategy could differ if it were defined that way.
For the time being, I'm delighted to see the party working so hard to help
Oklahoma, am totally behind the effort, and hope that it provides the party
with a big morale boost and helps boost the party throughout the state.
-Kevin Ludlow
On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 10:24 AM, Wes Benedict <
<mailto:wes.benedict at lp.org> wes.benedict at lp.org> wrote:
Kevin, did you know that ballot access has gotten easier and cheaper, year
after year, as a result of our decades of sustainable efforts?
Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
New address: 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <tel:%28202%29%20333-0008%20ext.%20232> ,
<mailto:wes.benedict at lp.org> wes.benedict at lp.org
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: <http://lp.org/membership>
http://lp.org/membership
On 12/10/2015 10:57 PM, Kevin Ludlow wrote:
I appreciate the variety of voices responding to my questions. And to Mr.
Olsen, 6 paragraphs were most certainly welcome :)
I apologize for not being on the call on Monday. Unfortunately work does
occasionally take precedent over my extra-curricular activities - political
or otherwise. I was also fairly confident the vote would pass and of course
it did. So regardless of anyone's position on the matter, here we are.
The gist of what I was getting at was simply to have the cost/benefits
explained to me. Mr. Tomaso nailed one simply by citing the overall morale
boost that ballot access provides. While perhaps difficult to measure,
there is no doubt relevance to the claim. Mr. Olsen, however, adds a tick
to the "con" side in that he cites the difficulties with the sustainability
of ballot access.
In most any business model one would likely be advised to stray AWAY from
something that is unsustainable. It becomes difficult to predict costs,
there is always an element of being unsuccessful, and meanwhile there exist
goals that actually ARE sustainable should one direct their effort that way.
Perhaps I'm still just too new, but it simply struck me that I could not
really weigh the cost/benefits of the financial decision we were about to
make in any practical way. I have since been informed of 1 or 2 costs and 1
or 2 benefits, but it still seems the Libertarian party should really be
making decisions almost exclusively upon this kind of analysis and having a
specifically defined strategy rather than an implied one as Mr. Olsen points
out.
Anyway, thank you all for listening and for responding to my questions /
concerns. I appreciate your time.
-Kevin Ludlow
Region 7
On Mon, Dec 7, 2015 at 2:44 PM, Scott L. < <mailto:scott73 at earthlink.net>
scott73 at earthlink.net> wrote:
I am very glad that the Regional Representative from Colorado is asking us
to look at and evaluate "This implied goal, or objective if you prefer, is
50+ state ballot access for the Libertarian party."
Unfortunately, now is not a good time for a full-blown analysis of the
issues that the Regional Representative is asking us to look at.
We are only 6 months away from the end of our LNC term, and only 6 months
away from the beginning of the General Election portion of the 4 year
Presidential Election Cycle. I think we have a moral commitment to our
members to maximize the number of states that the 2016 Libertarian
Presidential Nominee is on the ballot, obviously constrained by how much
money we have available to pay for signatures.
However - the next LNC should start discussing the topic of ballot access at
their very first full-weekend meeting of the next LNC term. That way, they
have at least 6 months before they even have to begin collecting signatures
to get a candidate on the ballot for vote test purposes for the Nov. 2017
elections (VA, NJ, and a couple of others).
That being said, I disagree with the Regional Representative's statement
that "Since specific strategies and or objectives have not been established,
the vacuum is filled with the implied objective of achieving 50+ state
ballot access. While a noble and legitimately political objective, it
suffers from several problems; the most significant of which is the problem
of being unachievable on a permanent, or even semi-permanent, basis ."
The Republican and Democrat Parties have permanent ballot status, because
they understand that if they removed ballot access for the other major party
in even one state, that "accomplishment" could be turned into a nationwide
scandal. But until the LP becomes a major party (1) the Libertarian Party
will not have "permanent" ballot access in any state.
However, we CAN achieve semi-permanent ballot access in 50 states, or darn
close to that number. To do that, the LNC needs to stop focusing on October
ballot access, and instead focus on December ballot access. That probably
means sacrificing ballot access in a few states BEFORE an election in an
even-numbered year, and using the money saved to lobby or sue for lower vote
tests in states that have ridiculously high vote tests (Alabama and
Connecticut come to mind).
Scott Lieberman
1. Defined by the FEC, for example, as receiving 25% of the vote for
President
_____
From: Lnc-business [mailto: <mailto:lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org>
lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org] On Behalf Of Norm Olsen
Sent: Monday, December 07, 2015 11:50 AM
To: <mailto:lnc-business at hq.lp.org> lnc-business at hq.lp.org
Subject: Re: [Lnc-business] report on Oklahoma visit
Hello Kevin . . .
>> why we should be focusing so many efforts on Oklahoma?
I'd like to take a shot at answering your question. I have been asking
similar questions for five years now. I could write a book in response.
But alas; you ask for a paragraph. And a short one at that. Would I be
unreasonable to supply five or six paragraphs?
The LNC does not have a specifically defined strategy; nor does it have a
stated set of objectives. The indisputable result is that it does not have
a list of tactics (i.e. well defined activities) to pursue to achieve any of
these undefined objectives. While attempts have been made, I am unaware of
any meeting that has established such strategies/objectives or any writing
in the bylaws or policy manual that establishes such. (The policy manual
lists a set of "core activities", but that's about it.)
Nevertheless, the LNC is not totally rudderless. There exists an implied
basic goal and implied tactics to achieve the implied goal. I became aware
of this implied goal (although I did not immediately recognize the
significance of it) at my very first LNC meeting in November of 2010 in New
Orleans. At that meeting, the following motion was adopted:
<https://www.lp.org/files/2010-11-20-LNCMeetingMinutes-NewOrleans.pdf>
https://www.lp.org/files/2010-11-20-LNCMeetingMinutes-NewOrleans.pdf
(printed page 17, .pdf page 17):
. . . moved to authorize the Executive Committee to encumber expenses for
ballot access,
notwithstanding the provisions of section 1.05 of the Policy Manual, for the
year 2011.
[Section 1.05 of the Policy Manual is that section which limits Executive
Committee encumbrances to that which has been budgeted.]
This motion was made, seconded, and the question called in a time frame of
about 35 seconds. It was approved by a 11-1 roll call vote. This implied
goal has been recertified, implicitly, in every budget resolution pass by
the LNC in the last 5 years. The Ballot Access Petitioning Expense line
typically receives 65% to 85% of the budgeted discretion funds in each year.
You participated in the budget discussions of the 2016 budget where Ballot
Access Petitioning Expense was allocated 70% of the funds available for
allocation among the Policy Manual's "core activities".
This implied goal, or objective if you prefer, is 50+ state ballot access
for the Libertarian party, with some added emphasis on Presidential
elections. On the surface, this appears to be a noteworthy objective.
However, it has been adopted implicitly rather than explicitly. That is why
the question you asked comes up from time to time. Gaining ballot access in
all 50 states is the primary focus of the LNC, and remains a primary focus
in fundraising efforts. (It's hard to raise funds to purchase office
supplies, much easier to raise funds for ballot access.) And so, given the
improved chance to gain ballot access in Oklahoma, even if it is for a
single election cycle, it is not surprising that the effort is getting a
large share of our attention and resources. Given that this has been the
primary focus of what the LNC does, and has been doing for at least two (if
not four) decades, it is something we must demonstrate success at or we
begin to lose the respect of our members and donors.
That answers the primary question, but the leaves the follow up questions
begging for an answer.
Since specific strategies and or objectives have not been established, the
vacuum is filled with the implied objective of achieving 50+ state ballot
access. While a noble and legitimately political objective, it suffers from
several problems; the most significant of which is the problem of being
unachievable on a permanent, or even semi-permanent, basis . Thus, the LNC
has a single overpowering objective which is absorbs most all of its
resources to achieve, and continued consumption of these resources to
maintain to the degree achieved. In other words, a pleasant way of saying
an enormous, perpetual, drain on resources which precludes most all other
possible uses of financial resources.
I have been suggesting for some time now that expending most all of our
discretionary funds on ballot access petitioning may not be the best use of
the financial resources entrusted to us by our members and donors. For
that, I have been unofficially dubbed the "nattering nabob of negativity" of
the Libertarian Party. However, things are looking up. Thanks to efforts
of the Chair and Executive Director, the 2016 budget includes $45,000 for
Affiliate Support, up 4,500% from where it was in 2014. Our Affiliate
Support Specialist contractor appears to have made more progress in just
three months than the LNC has in the previous six years (since the formation
of the Affiliate Support Committee). I look forward to the time when the
"core activities" other than the Ballot Access Petitioning activity are
allotted equivalent amounts of the financial resources entrusted to us. At
that time, the primary question and the follow up questions will both,
hopefully, be moot.
We have ballot access in 28 states; and ballot access is reasonable (e.g.
~1,000 signatures) in another 10 states. The low hanging fruit in the
ballot access arena has been picked. It's time to start producing political
success in the 38 states where we have ballot access or can reasonable
obtain such.
Norm
--
Norman T Olsen
Regional Representative, Region 1
Libertarian National Committee
7931 South Broadway, PMB 102
Littleton, CO 80122-2710
303-263-4995
From: Lnc-business [mailto: <mailto:lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org>
lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Ludlow
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2015 2:21 PM
To: <mailto:lnc-business at hq.lp.org> lnc-business at hq.lp.org
Subject: Re: [Lnc-business] report on Oklahoma visit
Wes,
Thank you for this update.
I would like to make a request of the LNC body. Is there a member that
could, in a short paragraph or less, explain why we should be focusing so
many efforts on Oklahoma? As the Region-7 rep I find myself in an
interesting position with this issue. On the one hand I am biased to see
Oklahoma get additional resources, but on the other hand I am a practical
business person who sees numerous flaws with pouring money into this.
Do we want ballot access across the country? Of course! This doesn't even
need to be discussed. But at what cost are we willing to attain that goal?
What is the actual downside of us losing Oklahoma ballot access? I don't
fully understand the loss would affects others running in the state, but
even if it entirely prevented their own candidacy, how much do we lose with
that? This isn't meant to be antagonistic, but rather something the LNC
should be tasked with carefully analyzing. There was a lot of conversation
that it hurts our brand in Oklahoma (a similar argument was used in Oregon).
No doubt this is true, but in Oklahoma specifically, by how much does it
hurt us? Do we raise an exorbitant amount of money in OK each year that we
might not see in 2016 if we cut our losses?
I will refer back to a point I've made before. Would any of you personally
spend tends of thousands of dollars of your own money on this cause? I
remain extremely frustrated we couldn't even get our own body to commit to
$50 / month as top representatives of the Libertarian Party and yet here we
are cavalierly about to discuss whether to spend $10s of thousands of
additional dollars on a cause which by all accounts we simply may not
succeed in. I feel very strongly this is the kind of difficult decision the
LNC **should** have to make and it strikes me that we haven't really
analyzed the cost/benefits of it. Rather we relying upon the notion of: "we
believe in ourselves so let's pour more money into this." ...a la every
government pep-talk ever.
I will also concede that I fully appreciate and understand the position the
party (specifically the Chair) is in for having raised certain monies
specifically tied to us making this effort. I do get that. But I'm merely
wanting us to consider how much more useful that money could possibly be in
other areas. Are we not a political party? Could we not politick donors
into understanding WHY the money they donated was ultimately moved to a
different state cause? Since everyone is a philosopher here, there is very
basic Aristotelian logic at play here regarding donation distribution. In
the famed question, "There is a surplus of flutes, to whom do they go?",
they go to the flutists as those are the only people who can use them. My
point being that there is simply no sense in us pouring money into a cause
we cannot win when that money could be given to states/people who can
actually improve the overall results of our Party - rather than MAYBE catch
us up to the status quo.
So to conclude, I am in no way saying we SHOULD cut our losses. But I would
really like somebody to quantify for me specifically what we lose
(objectively) if we don't chase this goal. Or for that matter if we chase
it and fail. I am asking that because I believe the "goal" right now is far
too broad; of course we all want ballot access. I want to know if what we
would lose is tolerable to the body. That question seems far more relevant
in the decision process.
Please feel free to email/call/text me any time of day at 512-773-3968 with
any questions / comments.
Thank you much for your time.
Kevin Ludlow
Region 7
512-773-3968
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On Wed, Dec 2, 2015 at 2:47 PM, Wes Benedict < <mailto:wes.benedict at lp.org>
wes.benedict at lp.org> wrote:
I went to Oklahoma for two reasons: first, to help with the petition drive,
but second, to get a closer look so I could decide if I thought we should
just shut it down. We are spending about $2,500 a week there, and we're
about to double that rate, so if we are going to cut our losses and end it,
the sooner the better.
My bottom line report to the LNC executive committee is that I'm confident
we can ramp up our signature collection rate enough to finish the drive
before the March 1 deadline, but we are going to have to exceed the $65,000
budget for Oklahoma by $15,000 to $25,000 to finish the drive.
I'm recommending we try to finish the drive, but it wouldn't be so
unreasonable to end it now if that's what you decide to do. Things have gone
worse than we had originally planned.
We initially hoped that we could do this drive for $2 per signature and that
we could finish it by early fall. Recent petition drives in places like
Arkansas have gone well, and with stories of petitioners fighting over turf
and demanding the opportunity to work for us in some places, it seemed like
we might actually be exceeding the market rate for signatures in some cases.
But things have been harder than expected in Oklahoma. On October 27, we
raised the rate in Oklahoma from $2 to $2.50 per signature, and even at that
higher rate, finding enough people to work has been a challenge.
Before we started the Oklahoma drive, stalwart libertarian petitioner Andy
Jacobs warned us that petition drives for initiatives in other states in the
fall would be competing with us for workers and would drive up our costs, so
we needed to get it done over the summer. Unfortunately, we didn't start
until the end of the summer. And while Andy did good work for us in
Oklahoma for several weeks, he, as well as other petitioners, have indeed
left Oklahoma for the higher paying non-Libertarian Party Petition work in
other states that he warned us about. Although Andy is out of Oklahoma now,
he does continue to stay interested in our progress and has been generous
with suggestions for improvement. I'm sure he'd be happy to share his
thoughts on our Oklahoma effort with any of you directly if you reach out to
him.
One suggestion from Andy is that we should pay more to entice petitioners
back and possibly even pay $5 per signature for door to door petitioning.
Our petitioners have had hard times finding good locations with lots of the
kind of foot traffic that makes for productive petitioning. Door-to-door
petitioning can give very high validity signatures, so the $5/signature rate
for 100% validity is not so far off from $2.50 per signature for around 65%
validity.
In hind sight, I wish we had started this drive earlier. But I don't think
right now we need to offer a higher pay rate (not that we could afford it,
anyway). Instead, we need to focus on recruiting more petitioners, and we
are already seeing success from that.
Projections I've sent to Bill Redpath and Nick Sarwark show that with the
new workers we've already recruited, we will likely finish the drive on
time. But we also have several more petitioners saying they will probably be
here soon to help, and if just a couple of those pan out, we could finish in
January.
I've heard lots of complaints from petitioners that it's been very hard to
find good locations in Oklahoma to collect signatures. Petitioners have told
us the grocery stores won't let them petition, public places like
universities and festival grounds have been hostile, and the Oklahoma
Driver's licensing places are too numerous to have significant people at any
single location.
My uncle lives in Oklahoma City. I visited him Saturday night briefly and
was surprised when he told me he had seen petitioners lately at the grocery
and post office and he assumed they were ours. I asked him exactly which
locations because I wondered about the conflicting reports. He specified by
name the Crest grocery, Buy For Less grocery, and post office near his home.
I had hoped to find time to visit those stores myself to ask why they might
be letting petitioners for other efforts work there but not libertarians
(assuming that was the case).
I didn't find time for that, but LPOK vice chair Tina Kelly has since told
me that even she had been personally told by those chains she couldn't
petition there, only to find out later that one of the petitioners she
recruited somehow did get permission at a location of both chains.
I think some of our stalwart petitioners like Andy are used to finding
locations where they occasionally hit the jackpot and collect over 500
signatures on a single day. That makes up for the more common slow days.
Petitioners who come from out of town usually have transportation and motel
expenses they pay out of pocket. Locals don't have the travel overhead and
we are getting a few locals working. They may be slower than someone like
Andy, but they can go slower and still make the economics work. Locals can
spend more time asking for permission at more places and can afford to get
chased away from more locations.
I personally saw the entire batch of petition forms. That was reassuring. In
fact I pulled an all-nighter Monday and scanned all 2,000 sheets in case we
need help remotely with validation, and because while often hearing
anecdotes of certain petitioners routinely getting better validity than
others, I wanted the opportunity to see for myself.
LP vice chair Tina Kelly has been indispensable to this drive. Petitioners
turn in signatures to her, she gives us the counts, we wire funds, she
writes checks, and pays the petitioners. She also visits with the elections
authorities to find out important rules and procedures for our petition
drive. She has worked to get cooperation from a couple single-issue groups
doing ballot initiatives. Although results from those cooperation efforts
have been lower than hoped, we've gotten a couple thousand signatures from
the cooperation.
Tina's son recently put the Oklahoma registered voter database online in a
searchable format to assist with validity checking. That will be hugely
helpful.
While Tina has done lots of work, it's hard for one person to do all that
she does plus respond to all the complaints from current petitioners and
inquiries from prospective petitioners, not to mention answering frequent
questions about progress from Bill Redpath and me. We recently decided to
have Paul Frankel help with some of the local management assistance. I had
gone to Oklahoma with the expectation that I might recommend removing Paul
to save money, but right now I think we should keep him at least for a month
to make sure new petitioners have someone they can reach quickly any time of
day. Later we can reevaluate the cost of having him there.
Tina invited me and the LPOK officers and activists to a nice restaurant
Tuesday night. I asked who would be a candidate if we got ballot access. Out
of about ten people, at least 3 indicated interest, including one who was
against attempting this daunting petition drive originally (because it's so
much work), but would run if we made it.
I told the prospect who might be interested in US Senate I'd give $200
towards the $1,000 filing fee if he runs in 2016, and someone else quickly
offered another $200. I think we'll get several people to run for office in
addition to having our candidate for President on the ballot if we get
ballot access.
(My plane, where I'm writing most of this note, just landed in DC. Final
thoughts below from the office.)
I'm not counting on legal help to make a difference in time for us. However,
if our counsel or the Oklahoma ACLU is successful in time, of course that
might make things easier.
I'm also mindful of keeping alive the dream for 50 state ballot access, and
the negative impact giving up in Oklahoma now might have.
A Libertarian from Austin, Texas, Michael Chastain, donated $4,000 last week
to help the Oklahoma petition drive. That's in addition to the five thousand
or so we raised online recently:
<http://www.lp.org/blogs/staff/serious-help-needed-for-oklahoma-petition-dri
ve>
http://www.lp.org/blogs/staff/serious-help-needed-for-oklahoma-petition-driv
e
I rushed out to Oklahoma Saturday partly so I could be back in the office
Wednesday to meet Mr. Chastain in person (he was visiting the D.C. area and
was interested in visiting the headquarters today--Wednesday).
I'll have more good news about support from Mr. Chastain soon.
The LNC-EC is schedule to meet Monday 12/7/2015, to decide whether or not to
continue the LPOK drive. I'm sending this info to all of you know in case
you'd like more information before that meeting.
cc'ing Richard Winger.
--
Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
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