St. Louis Candidate’s Luncheon and more on the Libertarian convention speaker controversy

via email:

Alta Loma, CA: When the LNC granted a single Chair candidate the opportunity to speak at a luncheon immediately before elections, California delegate and activist Mike McMahon took action.

“It is inappropriate for the LNC to grant such an obvious advantage to a single candidate. The choice of who leads this Party must be left to the delegates without top-down meddling in the political process” he said, “and I would say the same thing no matter which candidate they’d favored this way.”

After the LNC failed to address this perceived inpropriety at the February LNC meeting in Austin, McMahon decided to organize his own luncheon at a venue close to the convention site to allow the other candidates time to speak.

“To any Libertarian, the solution is obvious,” McMahon added, “If the LNC and the convention committee aren’t willing to provide an opportunity for the other candidates to speak, then it falls to party members to make sure the delegates get to hear from all sides. My goal is to give every candidate for Chair a similar opportunity to address the membership immediately before elections, and this luncheon is that opportunity.”

McMahon stated further, “While I don’t approve of the course of action the LNC and the Convention committee have taken, I don’t want this to turn into more of the same petty squabbling. I engage in positive politics.” To that end, he says that he will be providing donation cards at his event to raise for the Libertarian Party.

Chair candidates Ernie Hancock, Mark Hinkle, John Jay Myers and George Phillies are already confirmed to speak.

When: Sunday, May 30, 2010 from 12 to 1:30pm
Where: Holiday Inn Select, 811 North 9th Avenue (less than a quarter mile from the convention site)
Tickets: $20.75, available in advance via PayPal

A vegetarian option is available.

For more information, please visit the luncheon website: http://sites.google.com/site/stlcandidateslunch

Also, posted in comments on another thread and elsewhere:

*From:* [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Michael Colley
*Sent:* Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:06 AM
*To:* Bill Redpath; [email protected]
*Subject:* [Lnc-discuss] Convention speakers ….

It has become apparent to me that there is some *gross misinformation* adrift regarding the slate of speakers at our Convention.

For the record, please note (and please tell your colleagues and friends!):

– *Although some tentative slates may have been circulated, the
_real slate_ of speakers is still evolving; it should come together soon*

* – No person running for an LNC office will be placed on the
Convention speaker slate _prior to_ nomination and election for that
office – to do otherwise would be manifestly unfair, of course*

* – Those who have suggestions about who might be a good speaker to
be considered for the slate, please tell me*

You are welcome to forward this email to whomever you think might be
interested.

Michael C Colley
Chair, Convention Oversight Committee

The speaker lineup as it currently stands:

Gary Nolan (Master of Ceremonies)

Gary Nolan of the Washington, DC-based Radio America Network, is a major syndicated radio host.

He joined the Libertarian Party live on the air on Tuesday, January 12, 1999, during a show with Libertarian Party National Director Steve Dasbach.

Mr. Nolan also heads Capitol Watch, a conservative, budget-cutting group in Washington.

Bob Barr (Keynote Speaker)

Bob Barr represented the Libertarian Party as our 2008 candidate for the Presidency of the United States of America. On November 4, 2008 he received 523,686 votes, 0.4% of the national vote. This was the second highest number of votes nationwide that a Libertarian Party presidential candidate has received.

He is a former federal prosecutor and a former member of the United States House of Representatives (1995 – 2003). In the 2004 presidential election, Barr left the Republican Party and publicly endorsed our Libertarian Party presidential nominee Michael Badnarik. In 2006, he became a member of the Libertarian National Committee, serving as the Representative for Region 4 until 2008.

As one of his numerous projects, Bob is currently a weekly columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Neal Boortz (Sunday Dinner Banquet)

For those of you who don’t know, Neal Boortz has been a Talk Show Host (What any good Democrat would refer to as a “Preacher of Hate”) in Atlanta, Georgia since 1969. He is now in his 40th year of talk radio. Since 1993 Neal has been holding forth on News Talk 750 WSB, a radio station with a 50,000 watt afterburner. Since early 1999 his show has been syndicated on radio stations from Maine to California and from Alaska to Florida. The program airs live from 8:30 to 1:00 pm each weekday. The Neal Boortz Show has about five million listeners nationwide and is carried on around 230 radio stations.

Jeff Davis (Saturday Lunch)

Jeff Davis, a North Carolina native and descendant of the Confederacy’s President Jefferson Davis, lives in Hollywood and among other things produces ‘The Thought Zone’, a series of radio spot commentaries frequently mentioning Libertarians and championing libertarian sentiments. The accompanying website is dedicated “to the great thinkers, few of whom aspire to run for public office. The Thought Zone (is) creative commentary for the common sense mind.”

Mr. Davis, an actor, writer, composer and graphic designer, runs Jeff Davis Productions serving the television, radio and film communities. He had designed book covers and billboards and appeared in movies with Tom Cruise, among others. His contributions were directly responsible for Gold Medals at the New York Festivals, he won an International Broadcaster’s Association Golden Ollie form the Hollywood Radio and Television Society, and voiced the TV Infomercial of the Year for Rotozip.

He is a graduate of the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

David F. Nolan (Sunday Breakfast)

DAVE NOLAN was the prime mover behind the formation of the Libertarian Party in 1971. He holds a degree in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his career has included work in publishing, advertising and marketing.

Aside from his role in founding the LP, Mr. Nolan is best known as the originator of the “Nolan Chart,” a two-dimensional map that shows how different political systems relate to one another. This map has largely replaced the old left-right linear political spectrum, and is the basis for the World’s Smallest Political Quiz. Its impact on political thinking led to Mr. Nolan’s being selected for inclusion in 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 20th Century, a reference work published by the International Biographical Centre (Cambridge, England) in 2000. A recent Google search using the phrase “Nolan Chart” turned up more than 30,000 references.

Mr. Nolan was a Libertarian candidate for U.S. Congress in California (2000) and Arizona (2006). He is currently chairman of the Pima County, AZ Libertarian Party.

Wayne Allyn Root (Sunday Lunch)

Wayne Allyn Root is one of the most charismatic, colorful, passionate, fiery, and outspoken political personalities in America today. Wayne was the 2008 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential nominee. A college classmate of Barack Obama at Columbia University (Class of ’83), he is now the face and voice of Libertarian politics in the mainstream national media. The media calls him “the Anti-Obama.” Wayne calls himself a REAGAN LIBERTARIAN- modeled after his heroes Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater and Thomas Jefferson.

He is regular guest on many of the biggest television and radio networks in America including: FOX News Channel, FOX Business Network, CNBC, and radio shows like Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, Jerry Doyle and Mancow Muller. Wayne has also been Guest Host for 3 nationally-syndicated shows- G. Gordon Liddy, Jerry Doyle and Larry Elder.

Wayne’s political and business careers have been profiled by CNBC, CNN/Money, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME magazine, Newsweek, Fortune, Equities, The Financial Times, Millionaire, Success, Entrepreneur, Worth, The Robb Report, and even Emmy magazine (among many others).

Mary J. Ruwart, Ph.D. (Saturday Breakfast)

Mary J. Ruwart, Ph.D. is the author of the award-winning libertarian primer, Healing Our World. A free download of the 1992 version is available at her website at ruwart.com. Dr. Ruwart also wrote Short Answers to the Tough Questions, based on her popular e-zine column with the Advocates for Self-Government.

Dr. Ruwart currently serves as an At-Large Representative on the Libertarian National Committee. She also serves on the Board of the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL) and was elected Chairman of the ISIL in January of 2010.

Bob Sullentrup (Welcome to Saint Louis)

St. Louis’s own Bob Sullentrup will welcome the delegates to the Gateway City. Bob has been the Party’s National Secretary since 2004 and Missouri State Chair from 2001 through 2005. Aside from the 1970’s when he attended college and graduate school at the University of Chicago, Bob has lived, worked and run marathons in and around the St. Louis area. Accordingly, Missouri’s Favorite Son will welcome Party delegates to St. Louis and take the Convention’s opening moments to point out the spots of local interest, history, culture and cuisine.