The Indiana Libertarian Party had an amazing showing in 2008, especially by Dr. Eric Schansberg and Andrew Horning, for District 9 House and Governor respectively. 2009 is looking to be just as profitable for the Indiana LP, as City-County Councilman Ed Coleman announced yesterday in a press conference that he had left the GOP in order to join the LP.
Ed Coleman has this to say at the press conference
“This is not a decision I take lightly, nor did I come to it without deep reflection,” Coleman said in a statement released Monday by the Libertarians.
“I have found that the direction of the Republican Party has changed, and it is not the same party I joined many years ago,” he said. “Nor do I believe its current leaders truly represent the ideals that the party markets and advertises to voters.”
The story had already been covered here, here, here, and here.
All good points Jake.
There are a lot of different strategies that work within electoral politics. They all depend on what you have to work with. If you only have a few activists, then you need to bring in more. Take a stand on an issue that the public agrees with, and put an initiative on the ballot, show up at city council meetings, and vocally oppose whatever the parasites are doing. At bare minimum, show up at city council meetings, and issue press releases that attract like-minded opposition, around single issues.
One size does not fit all. Some people are not able to talk to other non-libertarians. Some libertarians are completely unable to voice support for any compromise. (As such, they will never be happy supporting any candidate for office, other than themselves.) This is fine, but those people should probably not be involved with electoral politics at all. They should be practicing counter-economics, learning how to shoot a rifle, and outreaching to others as educators (perhaps outside of courthouses, via FIJA.org pamphlets). There are many other ways to make a difference.
In addition, grassroots activism is made vastly stronger by an intelligent leadership. My efforts in Arizona were wasted by a completely disorganized and un-libertarian leadership (George Squyres, et al). The party there now is still refusing to recognize that libertarian activists can be used to maximum informational and organizational advantage.
If I want to organize on the grassroots level, then the people reporting back to me should be able to tell me a lot about what the general public in any given area believe. If I’m then smart enough to listen, I can get a giant return on my money, paid in votes. …But I have to be smart enough to listen, and smart enough to use the information that gets returned.
…Most libertarians are not that smart, not that politically and philosophically organized. So the informational resources of the activists are wasted. Indiana tends not to waste these resources. The La Porte Indiana LP is one of the smartest libertarian party groups that I have encountered. Why? They know enough to
1) organize. They bought the district maps and voter rolls, and could describe rough levels of support in each area of the city.
2) talk to the public. …They were open to talking with voters, and did door-to-door work, which allowed them to take notes on where their support was coming from, and to what extent they actually had support. Since they know where they are starting from, they know where they need to allocate resources.
3) Talk to their talent. They were open to getting new information, and they had frequent meetings at their HQ. Sometimes, weekly, if it was preceding election time, and more work needed to be done.
4) Inherent in #3 is “Respect their talent, and respect the work the workers were doing”. …Not everyone is always going to do the same amount of work. But those who do the most work should get more gratitude than those who sit on their hands. When this is not the case, and noone respects the work that is being done, then it makes a mockery of the efforts of those doing the work.
5) Keep lines of communication open. The IN LP publishes the contact information for most of the LPers in their state. They recognize that if the public can’t reach them, then they are not operating in such a manner that they can even be informed enough to get involved. Often, the LPers have even answered my calls, and actively participated in important current affairs. …Imagine!
In every state I’ve been to, there are a bunch of do-nothing philosophers, and one or two people doing all the work. The do-nothing philosophers are often a “no” vote against the people doing the work. Those doing thankless work with no thanks from their own team are not likely to keep going.
In many states, rather than utilize petitioners/activists to their maximum possible benefit, the LP insults and scorns petitioners, calling them “welfare recipients”. This was the attitude taken by Sean Haugh at the National LP. This is also the attitude taken by the current AZ LP.
People who take such an attitude are shortsighted, and looking only at the negative (the “make work” cost imposed by the state of jumping through hoops to access the ballot).
Ironically, if they took the attitude that the petitioners wanted to help the LP, and asked them what could be done to organize the people on the street, many of the LP activists would be very helpful. (At least, the ones remaining after the 2008 “talent purge” would be.)
I mention these things as starting points. A book is currently being written about the subject that will go into greater detail.
Hopefully, advice of some kind will arrive in time to administer the defibrillators to the LP’s flaccid corpse.
-Jake
@ # 17 Gene you are right we need to organize at the precinct level whenever and wherever possible
However I do think it is foolish to write that requirement into the by-laws as has been tried in Oregon for the simple reason that in some parts of the country we have counties that are larger than some of the New England state, but with populations smaller than my neighborhood.
And Gene this is not meant to correct you, but to wake up some of the minds out there who seem to think one size fits all.
Robert Capozzi // Feb 19, 2009 at 11:00 pm
my 2 cents is that good “top down” takes into account “bottom up”. Without good strategy, we flounder. Without good tactics and logistics, we have no energy.
OK Bob. When will we see you in some top LP spot so you can get busy organizing the LP?
I’m rootin’ for ya. You’ve come a long way since your wild years of Night Life partying.
Congrats to the LPIN on a major coup!
One thing, though … what the hell is “the LP’s highest elected official” supposed to mean? Who does the ranking of which position is “higher” or “lower,” and on what basis?
I had this discussion with Eric Dondero awhile back, when he argued that a New Hampshire state legislator was “higher” than a Georgia county executive.
My opinion was that a state legislator having one of many votes in one house of a bicameral legislature subject to gubernatorial veto and theoretically representing 3,500 people would not be as “highly ranked” as a county executive making daily decisions on his own that affect 20,000 residents of the county.
I suspect that if “ranking” is on the basis of the number of people affected by the decisions, and on the vote-share the politician has in making those decisions, Coleman is indeed the “highest” LP pol in the country. But it’s not obvious to me that that’s the system, if there is a system, that people are using to make that evaluation.
I agree.
my 2 cents is that good “top down” takes into account “bottom up”. Without good strategy, we flounder. Without good tactics and logistics, we have no energy.
VirtualGalt has it on the money.
Yep.
You would think that, Ed
VirtualGalt has it on the money.
Wrong, Gault. There’s only so many Libertarians out there. Focus on elections that matter.
Mid-sized counties should be pretty easy. I don’t mean having a bunch of people move out in the middle of nowhere.
I mean organizing previously unorganized libertarians (small l) – I run into them every where I go – in mid-sized counties where only one of the Big Two is really organized, and the other is a placeholder, no different on the local level than the Ls.
Ls doing precinct organizing, and issue coalition work, making a concerted effort to lobby the county supervisors and organize a slate of candidates against them in such a county can become the “second party” in many such counties – and from there, the “first” party in some of them. Sheriff positions should be doable as part of such coalitions.
I’m willing to help with on-the-ground organizing if money can be found to finance it.
OK… sheriff then.
My point is, it would be nice if we got a nucleus of elected people, at some level.
There’s no such thing as an elected dog catcher.
What’s the point of a Libertarian running for dog catcher? That’s stupid.
What was the plan?
@10
I had a plan for precinct leaders, but it got nothing but criticism.
Let people flounder, I say.
That is very true. But the Repub grassroots also had mouthpieces with star quality (i.e., Goldwater, Reagan). Or perhaps they were stars who had the good sense to get to the head of the grassroots.
The top-down approach has never worked for the LP.
It didn’t – obviously – work for Hillary Clinton either.
Grassroots Republicans have showed us the way, and regardless of what one thinks, that pattern should be repeated.
Kind of inspires me to accelerate my plans and step into the arena.
Does change come “top-down”, or does it come “bottom-up”? I suspect it doesn’t come without grassroots support. Hence the need for Libertarian city councilors, state reps, school board members, dog catchers, etc.
I guarantee the party switching is going to have major consequences if he doesn’t start his campaign now …those two major parties will be gunning him, and I bet they have already started the process.
But I was born and raised in a state (TX) that had non-partisan city council/school board races, so I imagine it would be doubly hard for a partisan local race.
But hey, who knows, maybe he could all give us tickets to the Indy 500. Talk about a 2-for-1 “race,” ay?
What is the INLP doing right that all the other state LP’s are doing wrong?
@Paulie
Yep, after several months of discussion last year amongst the current party leaders and a few top activists it was decided to organize precincts, wards and townships. We’ve even got some defections from the two old parties to take on the new posts.
…
Indiana has had the benefit of putting up extremely well liked, well spoken and credible candidates for office who know how to properly package the Libertarian message and are willing to work instead of just sit back, be a debate club and throw rocks.
…
As a result Indiana gave the highest percentage of vote to Bob Barr than any other state and our candidates are routinely getting between 3% and (in at least one two-way State House race I believe) 38% of the vote in addition to a few elected posts and several appointed ones.
…
Exciting stuff, but too much to do and too little money. A familiar tale!
I still think that the precinct leader program I hear they are working on will make the biggest impact on election results.
An LP local is actually doing that? I’m impressed!
I hope the local LP folks will work hard to get him reelected. It would be much more meaningful for him to maintain this office after being reelected with “Libertarian” under his name. This move could be a big stepping stone and momentum builder for the LP to be seriously competitive in Indy elections. I still think that the precinct leader program I hear they are working on will make the biggest impact on election results.
Sorry I slacked off on this, meant to post these. LP reactions
http://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/statement-of-william-redpath-lnc-chair-on-councilman-ed-coleman
http://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/statement-of-ed-coleman-libertarian-indianapolis-marion-county-city-county-counc
http://www.lp.org/blogs/donny-ferguson/indianapolis-councilman-switches-from-gop-to-lp
The only other thing they have new is LSLA/LNC reminder
http://www.lp.org/blogs/donny-ferguson/lsla-lnc-to-meet-in-charleston-sc-youre-invited-to-join-us
hahaha.
Has he been drafted to run for President yet? 😉
What a perfect opportunity to get him on the record about this situation right now:
Direct Link: Indiana, FEMA, mass graves, etc.
The Daily Newscaster
By: D. H. Williams @ 10:41 PM – EST
An Indiana county municipal official in the vicinity of Chicago reveals the contents of his meetings with FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security.
The initial requests seem reasonable enough when FEMA asks the county officials to prepare a Hazard Mitigation Plan to deal with flooding, fires, high winds and tornadoes.
But as the required meetings and calls with FEMA and DHS continue over a two year period their request become more unusual, raising suspicions of county officials
Listen to the audio:
“We want to know every important thing in this county. We want to know where police departments are. Where weapons are stored. Hazardous material.
Where can we land a helicopter. Where are the airports. How big a plane can you land at the airport. Where are all the bridges. Where are all the power stations. Where are all the generating stations.Where are all the substations. They literally wanted to know where everything was. I’m sitting there thinking man if there was ever martial law. This kind of information is exactly the kind of stuff they are going to want. We’re just laying it all out for them right there.”
During the legally mandated meetings held with FEMA and DHS different disaster scenarios were reveled to county officials:
In late December 2008 municipal officials were invited to Indianapolis for a briefing on the state of Indiana. There were told if industry were to collapse for example GM going bankrupt resulting in mass unemployment a depression would soon follow and municipalities could expect to loose 40% of their funds.
Every county in the nation would be required to prepare a Hazard Mitigation Plan.
The county should prepare a plan to vaccinate the entire population within 48 hours and practice the plan several times.
FEMA inquired to where mass graves could be placed in the county and would they accept bodies from elsewhere.
The sheriff’s department via the state sheriff association was told that no .223 ammunition rounds would be available as the military would be purchasing all stocks.
The county was asked to make plans for “hardening” of police and fire stations, putting in hardened bunker type buildings around town.
The county was asked to make plans for the possibility of up to 400,000 refugees from Chicago.
That’s great! Congrats to the LP.
My view is that anytime a third party can pull something like this off, it can help other political movements aspiring for mainstream success, as well as independents.
This from our website, http://www.lpin.org/:
He was first elected in 2007 to the Indianapolis City County Council as an At-Large Representative in the 14th largest city in America, and represents a little under 800,000 Hoosiers. He is now the highest elected official in the Libertarian Party within the United States.
Does that mean the one under the influence of the most drugs?
I believe Coleman is now the LP’s highest elected official.