LPNC Targets State Senate Races

With the filing dates for the 2014 election on the horizon, the Libertarian Party of North Carolina Executive Committee held an online strategy meeting January 4 to begin developing plans.

The first order of business was to appoint Bjorn Pedersen of Chapel Hill as Political Director, replacing Erik Raudsep. Erik remains an at-large member of the EC, but had to step down from the Political Director slot because of a business opportunity.

Bjorn had been working with Erik on candidate training and recruitment as well as the party’s 2020 Political Plan, so he’ll be able to quickly step up and take over.

Unchallenged Incumbents

There was general agreement among the EC members that the LPNC should focus our resources on NC Senate seats that are likely not to be contested by one of the major parties. We have identified nine such seats which seem particularly vulnerable. They are districts 6, 7, 10, 24, 34, 36, 41, 43, and 48.

In spite of the single-party races they frequently experience, each of these districts has relatively even numbers of registered Democrats and Republicans. With the elimination of straight party voting, this provides any candidate we run with a source of votes purely as an alternative to the incumbent.

These seats are also all currently held by Republicans. Since Republicans control the NC Senate and the Democrats are unlikely to win it back in 2014, each victory in one of these races brings us closer to holding the balance of power in the Senate, enabling us to extract policy concessions from the larger parties. Foremost among these will be electoral reform to ensure that we will be able to compete on a level playing field in the future.

Our current goal will be to recruit candidates in all these races. This will not preclude support for other Libertarian candidates. However, the consensus among the committee is that we can make more of an impact on the election in a two-way race.

Bjorn and Executive Director Brad Hessel have already begun to identify and recruit candidates for these races. They’ll also work with volunteers in the counties covered by these districts to establish county organizations.

If you are interested in running for office or establishing a county organization, particularly if you live in one of the targeted NC Senate districts, let the Political Director know by emailing him at [email protected] as soon as possible. The deadline for candidate filing is February 28.