[Lnc-business] Candidate contracts - legal advice?

Joshua Katz planning4liberty at gmail.com
Sat Oct 22 17:20:08 EDT 2016


Why else would who sign it?  Why else would the voter sign it?  Dunno.  If
the $10k is to be paid to them, that seems like a reason.  Why else would
the candidate sign it?  Well, I have trouble believing that the candidate
is interested in risking money to get one voter's support.

If we add to the facts that the voter is agreeing to support the candidate,
then I agree there's consideration, at least on the contract's own terms.
Actually demanding the performance from the voter would almost certainly be
illegal, but if treated as a bilateral contract the legal portion might
still be enforceable.

Of the two options, the LNC option probably makes more sense, assuming the
LNC promises to do something - it could be as small as promising not to
attack the candidate.  I'd need more details before knowing if I'd agree
with it or not.  I would oppose the example given - regardless of what I'd
do, I am not interested in binding a candidate not to, for instance,
increase sales tax by .01% in a deal that also eliminates the NSA, or
something like that.

Joshua A. Katz
Westbrook CT Planning Commission (L in R seat)

On Sat, Oct 22, 2016 at 4:11 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos <carynannharlos at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Why else would they sign it?  I believe that was implicit in Arvin's
> scenario.
>
>
> On Saturday, October 22, 2016, Joshua Katz <planning4liberty at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Where does the hypo say the voter promises support?
>>
>>
>>
>> Joshua A. Katz
>> Westbrook CT Planning Commission (L in R seat)
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 22, 2016 at 4:01 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos <
>> carynannharlos at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I believe the contact may be against public election policy if with the
>>> voter, but there is consideration.  The voter promises support IF the
>>> candidate follows the pledge.  Clear consideration.  But I think this would
>>> violate some election law, it just doesn't pass the gut test.
>>>
>>> Now as between the candidate and the LNC, I think that might be a
>>> different matter.
>>>
>>> On Sat, Oct 22, 2016 at 2:56 PM, Joshua Katz <planning4liberty at gmail.com
>>> > wrote:
>>>
>>>> I believe the contract is unenforceable for want of consideration.  The
>>>> voter does not have their future actions constrained in any way, and so
>>>> suffers no detriment.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Joshua A. Katz
>>>> Westbrook CT Planning Commission (L in R seat)
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Oct 22, 2016 at 11:41 AM, Arvin Vohra <votevohra at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>
>>>>> A few years ago, we started doing candidate pledges. We basically
>>>>> based them off the Norquist tax pledge, but made them about cutting
>>>>> government instead not just not growing it. Some include sponsoring
>>>>> legislation to cut spending to 1998 levels to eliminate the income tax,
>>>>> sponsoring legislation to cut military spending by 60 percent, sponsoring
>>>>> legislation to repeal the Patriot act, etc. The pledges are obviously
>>>>> voluntary.
>>>>>
>>>>> I've been considering advancing this from a pledge to a (voluntary)
>>>>> contract. There are two versions I have considered so far:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1. The contract would be signed by the candidate, with any voter able
>>>>> to act as a cosigner. The voter would download a signed pdf, sign it, and
>>>>> that would put the contract into effect.
>>>>>
>>>>> 2. The contract would be between the candidate and the LNC.
>>>>>
>>>>> Unlike the pledge, the contract would have clear, defined, monetary
>>>>> penalties. As in: "The candidate will oppose any tax increase for any
>>>>> purpose, unless it is accompanied by a larger simultaneous tax decrease, or
>>>>> will pay $10,000." Or something along those lines.
>>>>>
>>>>> Looking for legal and other input.
>>>>>
>>>>> -Arvin
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Arvin Vohra
>>>>>
>>>>> www.VoteVohra.com
>>>>> VoteVohra at gmail.com
>>>>> (301) 320-3634
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> 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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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> *In Liberty,*
>>> *Caryn Ann Harlos*
>>> Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska,
>>> Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann.
>>> Harlos at LP.org
>>> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado
>>> <http://www.lpcolorado.org>
>>> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus
>>> <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Lnc-business mailing list
>>> Lnc-business at hq.lp.org
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>>>
>>>
>>
>
> --
> *In Liberty,*
> *Caryn Ann Harlos*
> Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona,
> Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann.
> Harlos at LP.org <Caryn.Ann.Harlos at LP.org>
> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado
> <http://www.lpcolorado.org>
> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus
> <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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> Lnc-business mailing list
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> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>
>
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