This Monday, February 3, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. voters in Florida’s 13th Congressional District will have an unfettered view of the three candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives during a “Conversation with the Candidates” being broadcast locally by Bay 9 News and nationally by C-Span. Co-Sponsored by the AARP, the debate will include Libertarian Lucas Overby, Republican David Jolly and Democrat Alex Sink.
The trio are running in a special election after the seat was vacated by the death of Republican Bill Young. The live, hour long debate will be hosted on the SPC Seminole campus by the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions. Voters in Florida’s 13th Congressional District will decide the winner on March 11, 2014.
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The trend of voters favors Overby as they leave the Democratic and Republican parties in favor of registering NPA (No Party Affiliation) or with smaller political parties such as Overby’s Libertarian Party. The Libertarian Party of Florida membership and voter registration has increased dramatically in the last few years as voters realize they are more libertarian on the issues than they once realized.
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Overby has worked with GSA, GLAAD, SOAR, NORML, PUFMM, the Libertarian Party of Florida and the Libertarian Party and has been political active since 2003. In 2009, the birth of his daughter, Raegan, inspired him to create the voter education group “Take a District” with the intent of promoting a multi-partisan dialogue on issues of concern in local districts.
George Phillies, 1998:
http://www.c-span.org/video/?114470-1/Massachusetts3
One our FL convention speakers was a Libertarian congressional candidate and was in a national televised debate in the 1990’s. It’s not that hard to research.
I found it pretty fast. but no worries. We all make mistakes. I like the fair and registration booth photos your page has been posting lately, for example…
I wanted to address the one claim that the LPF had exaggerate the claims that he was the first congressional candidate in a nationally televised debate.
After sifting through hundreds of pages of searches we could find no other congressional candidate (congressional is a slang term for US house candidate) we contacted the national party and asked for them to confirm. Several people confirmed that they had no record of any other congressional candidate being included. It was not brought to our attention that it was incorrect until after the emails posted here went out. Since that time we have not used that term.
The picture that is posted here had been changed by a graphics person incorrectly to say the first libertarian. If you look in the description of that meme on Facebook it does clarify.
Yes we did say that he was the first congressional candidate incorrectly but that was not because no one checked. We did and extensively and then confirmed with LP national. It was error that has been corrected but was not meant with any malice or attempt to mislead anyone.
And #3 — It would be a helluva lot easier to accept all of this excitement and unfounded optimism from the LPF about this campaign if they didn’t constantly distort things. The repeated claim that Overby was the first Libertarian candidate to appear in a national debate, then modifying that to be the first Libertarian Congressional candidate in a nationally televised debate.
It’s not true, they know it’s not true, and it mocks the hard work of other candidates that have come before.
For U.S. House of Representatives a quick search of the C-SPAN video archives turns up four relatively recent examples…
David Nolan in 2006…
http://www.c-span.org/video/?194964-1/Arizona8t
W. David Herbert in 2008…
http://www.c-span.org/video/?282035-1/WyomingH
Eric Schansberg in 2006…
http://www.c-span.org/video/?194110-1/Indiana9t
Richard Peterson in 2004…
http://www.c-span.org/video/?183914-1/Texas19
I could pull up dozens more Libertarians in nationally televised gubernatorial and senatorial debates that I skipped past finding these examples of U.S. House candidates.
#1 – This kind of stuff is beyond frustrating to watch. The interview looks like it was done on a small time AM station that might have had 100 or so listeners at the time. More people are hearing this because of the fuss that’s being created by the LPF leadership.
#2 – It’s better to be a realistic optimist and say stuff like “this is a 3-way race and the people will decide on election day” and “we’re running to win” rather than talking about the expectation of your guy winning. Maybe in a city council race it’s fine to raise expectations, but in a Congressional race it’s worth paying at least some attention to history. The top LP performer in a 2-way Congressional race in 2012 got 31% of the vote. In a 3-way, with a Republican and Democrat, the top LP candidates got 6.4%.
http://www.lp.org/blogs/staff/top-2012-libertarian-campaigns-for-us-house-of-representatives
If Lucas Overby gets 6.5% of the vote — it’s a huge win. If he gets 10% of the vote in a 3-way race he’s done something really remarkable. But let’s live in the real world and, at least internally, acknowledge the fact that he’s not to win.
Yep.
Libertarian candidates desperately need to invest in some professional political coaching, like Ed Clark did.
We need to have much better answers for the “can you win” question.
Lots of ways to answer that question which are neither delusional nor defeatist.
Will I win my election this year? That is something the voters of Iowa will decide and when someone says I can’t my response is always “Who died and made you king”. I am not arrogant enough to claim that I will win or to say that I will not win. I am going to do my best and that is something I have control over.
I do know that because of my campaign people are talking about restoring voting rights to felons, e-verify in the Secretary of State’s office, and bringing fiscal responsibility into state government which is a victory in itself if those ideas are ever implemented regardless of how I do in November.
I believe that George Phillies was in a C-Span debate back in 1998 and I remember watching several Libertarian candidates in 2004 when I was first becoming involved in the LP.
And we are winning on some of the issues even if our candidates have never been elected to a federal or statewide office. For example, I don’t think marijuana laws would be changing if it were not for the Libertarian Party. We have had and are having a much greater impact than we give ourselves credit for.
I find it annoying when people claim their pet candidate (or LP group, etc) is “breaking new ground” that “no Libertarian has ever covered before”.
It’s insulting to the heroic efforts of LP members who came to the party earlier.
Ron Crickenberger, for instance, was one of the candidates in a rather ferocious three-way debate in 2002. I cannot find the video on C-Span’s website at the moment, but it was broadcast on C-Span. Snippets were even shown on CNN. I am sure other LP candidates were in nationally-televised debates even earlier than that.
Just because online video archives don’t go back further than about y2k, doesn’t mean there was no history before then.
Current results
David Jolly (Republican)(35%)
Lucas Overby (Libertarian)(31%)
Alex Sink (Democrat)(34%)
He didn’t ever take a bold Libertarian shot when he had the chance, and he had many. He looked almost disinterested, despite the fact that he was on the big stage.
Overby gave a couple of surprising answers. He supports some parts of Obamacare, as MK mentioned above, and he favors overturning Roe v. Wade. While I would have preferred he be a bit more bold with the L message, the rest of his answers were good. He seemed to settle in by the 3rd question or so, and performed well overall.
http://www.baynews9.com/chat.html
Please go here and vote for Lucas Overby! I didn’t hear the whole debate, but what I heard was great!
Posted 3 hours ago on national LP facebook:
Overby has a really good voice for radio. Does the campaign have any plan for radio ads?
Mr. Overby said he wasn’t in full support of repealing the ACA (Obamacare) .
No Libertarian could ever say such a foolish thing
Not very helpful when you’re in a rural location & are stuck with dial-up.
It is streaming at the link above. I’m watching it right now.
Damn, don’t get C-SPAN 3.
And its on C-SPAN 3, not C-SPAN.
I believe that the debate will be streamed live at http://www.c-span.org/live/?channel=c-span-3
I’ve always said I had a one in 3 chance of winning my race when asked.
I would never, ever have admitted that I wasn’t going to win, both times I ran for office. I wanted people to take me seriously, so I darn well needed to take myself seriously. I did relatively well both times, actually.
Insulting? How is it insulting to be optimistic? Sorry but I’m sick and God damn tired of negative nellies telling me the LP can’t win. We can and we will. Optimism doesn’t cost me a red cent, pessimism costs precious minutes of my life that are better spent with a positive attitude.
Drop the shitty attitude and start trying to win elections.
Jesse Ventura was a one term Mayor of Brooklyn Park, a radio show host, and a well known actor and professional wrestler. Jesse Ventura had elected leadership experience and name recognition. Comparing Adrian Wyllie to Jesse Ventura is insulting and idiotic. The only way the LP can win is if it focuses on local races and builds on local success. That’s how Jesse Ventura started out in his political career and it works.
The phrase that they’ll both be winners did seem odd in context of Wes’s previous statements, but I’m sure he meant that they’ll both be winners in the positive sense that they brought good publicity for themselves and for the party.
“The fact is that neither will win”
With that attitude they won’t.
Candidates should run to win. If you lose, you lose. If you don’t even break 1%, it sucks. But you’re not going to recruit people to the cause by being a loser before the votes are even counted.
Jesse Ventura won the governorship in Minnesota as a third party candidate. He campaigned to win, not to “grow the movement.” There’s no reason whatsoever that the LP cannot win major office.
I particularly enjoyed Wes Benedict’s ending – Lucas Overby will be a winner on election day, as will Adrian Wyllie.
If that’s not a round about Fuck off then what is?
The fact is that neither will win and will only sacrifice the LP message for votes which is without question a long term losing strategy.
Interview with Wes concludes at 41 minutes into the show. For anyone who missed the link the first time and wants to hear it for themselves it’s at http://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?p=episode&name=2014-01-31_zfreedom_013114.mp3
I suppose that’s slightly better than it was characterized, but it’s still shitty. Focus on growing the LP at all levels, not “changing” the duopoly whatever that means.
At around 22 minutes Wes says (as part of a longer answer): he hopes LP will one day explode like Ron Paul did after many years of relative obscurity; people should get involved in the larger parties to try to change them, but those parties also need the exteral pressure of the LP so we need people to get involved in the LP also.
Listening now. Wes interviews starts at around 14:30.
I’m more pissed about telling people to get involved in the D & R parties.
I certainly agree that it would have been a good idea for Wes to mention the candidates in the area. However, not only is it acceptable, but I’d say it is absolutely necessary for people to speak realistically about the LP’s chances of winning major offices. There is essentially zero chance of this happening. The harm is done by people saying that there is a chance of winning these races. Doing so sets wildly unrealistic expectations, and leads to dissapointment and burnout when vote totals fall far short.
The proper response from the LPF people would have been something like an e-mail or phone call to Wes saying “In the future, you should probably mention the names of candidates running in the areas where you’re doing interviews”. All of this bitching to the LNC is just an absurd waste of time.
Danielle Alexandre via FB this morning:
Podcast of the interview that led to the hubbub:
http://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?p=episode&name=2014-01-31_zfreedom_013114.mp3
https://www.facebook.com/john.w.smith.54/posts/10152191496644111
Wes Benedict shouldn’t have apologized, he had every right to say what he said. If anything, the LPF should apologize for making a big issue over Mr. Benedict’s comments. This kind of behavior by the LPF is immature and shows a lack of tact. It also show’s the LPF’s lack of gratitude, since Benedict raised money for Overby to compete in the special election. Their behavior is tacky.
Well there we go.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?282035-1/WyomingH
The candidates for the U.S. House of Representative for Wyoming debated.?The Wyoming race is statewide due to the state receiving only one representative.?Gary Trauner (D), Cynthia Lummis (R), and W. David Herbert (L) attended.
Also, if Wes Benedict said that, that is absolutely inexcusable.
If by congressional they mean U.S. House, then possibly.
Rupert Boneham was in a C-SPAN debate in 2012.
“Is the claim that no LP candidates have ever been in CSPAN televised debates accurate? Seems off to me but I need to check.”
It is not true.
Just last year, C-SPAN covered the Indiana U.S. Senate debate featuring Andy Horning. I remember watching it.
Not to mention they carried the third party presidential debate feat. Gary Johnson & the debate between Johnson & Wrights at the convention.
Where did you hear that?
Is the claim that no LP candidates have ever been in CSPAN televised debates accurate? Seems off to me but I need to check.
It is good to see that he’s getting fair treatment from debate organizers, and the media.
Yes, she is.
Good news for Lucas Overby. I will be voting for him.
I understand she’s quite upset with the LNC, and Wes Benedict in particular.
From Danielle Alexandre:
The last poll showed Lucas at 5.6%. That was nearly a month ago and in a 90 day race that is a long time between polls. We are confident he would poll higher now with all of the door-to-door outreach his team has done, weekly town hall events, media attention and inclusion in the debate.
He has also been invited to participate in every candidate forum that his major party challengers have been invited to except for some private events by partisan clubs. His challengers have been on a cancelling spree since the last candidate forum in which he won over a large portion of the crowd. It is exciting to see the two major parties running scared of our candidate.
Our gubernatorial candidate polled last year at 9% for a November 2014 race and while his name has been excluded from all subsequent polling the category of “other” has climbed to 16-20% depending on the pollster. Inside polling shows the same trend when his name is included.
The LPF has looked at their role as a facilitator of information and support for our county affiliates and candidates. It has been a major focus of our state party along with our work in our state capitol on legislation. I believe it would be a tremendous help if our national party felt their role was similar to that. Since we have seen that to not be the case, it is upon us as leaders of our respective states to find ways to work together and support each other and our candidates. It only takes one Libertarian winning a major office to break through for all of the rest. One major win and Libertarian candidates all over the country will start winning.
Let’s come together and get that win!
Your Friend in Liberty,
Danielle Alexandre
Treasurer
Libertarian Party of Florida
1334 Tampa Road, Suite 2
Palm Harbor, Florida 34683
Toll Free: 1-855-FLA-FREE (855-352-3733)
Website: http://www.lpf.org