Alabama and New Mexico Libertarians are having their state conventions this weekend. If anyone in any of these states is able to provide live updates please do so in the comments here. Please also post links to any twitter feeds, photos, videos, livestreams, blogging or news coverage elsewhere, etc., in the comments. Some information about the conventions can be found at http://www.lp.org/blogs/staff/2014-state-conventions by clicking on each state’s name.
I will be reporting in the comments from Birmingham, Alabama where I am right now.
See also for schedule details of each state’s convention:
Alabama Libertarian convention coming up Saturday, May 10, 2014
New Mexico Libertarian convention coming up Saturday, May 10, 2014
UPDATE: Per Bruce Majors in the comments:
The Libertarian Party of DC convenes today from 1-4 in Room A-9 of the MLK Library at 901 G Street NW, where they will elect delegates to the national committee and create a state central committee.
“Matt Cholko May 10, 2014 at 4:14 pm
Paulie, you get around quite a bit, so I’d like to hear your take on Who’s Driving. Do people find it helpful? Do they enjoy it? Do they get it?”
When I attended the LP of PA Convention last year, Carla was there showing people how to play Who’s Driving? I did not play the game myself, nor did I pay attention to much of it, but the people who were gathered around playing the game seemed to enjoy it by my observation.
Yes. Gets a great response. Spread it as much as you can.
Paulie, you get around quite a bit, so I’d like to hear your take on Who’s Driving. Do people find it helpful? Do they enjoy it? Do they get it?
Who’s driving game is finished – Judge Gray will be the last presentation.
Laura Pate, another actual candidate is up playing the game.
Leigh LaChine and Kevin Knight are the first actual candidates up in the game…
Some other people trying the game…Anna Alldredge, Charles Kennedy
Ross Lowe is the first actual person playing the game here other than demonstrations.
That’s Freedom From Religion Foundation.
OK now game…
Still on introduction…
Looooooong introduction. Wonder how much time there will be for the actual game? I think it is about to start…
Aimee Love will have to be switched to a different race due to http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/zipsearch.html having their database set to the pre-redistricting districts so she is not actually in District 15. We are discussing US House 6, State House, Jeff Co Commission or Jeff Co Tax Collector.
Carla Howell is up next with the Who’s Driving game.
Correction again. The woman from MS is not Danny’s wife, whom I have actually met before so I should have known that, she is a different MSLP activist whose name I did not get.
Introductions of organizations
Religious Freedom Foundation, National Organization of Libertarian Women, Our America Initiative
OAI has reps from AL, MS and LA here; NOLW has reps from LA and AL.
Now doing a prize ticket drawing
Body of NM post
Libertarian Party of New Mexico
2014 Annual State Convention
Albuquerque Marriott (2101 Louisiana Boulevard NE Albuquerque New Mexico 87110 USA)
Albuquerque, New Mexico – Saturday, 10 May 2014
http://tinyurl.com/ABQ-Marriott-Uptown
Contact Mike Blessing – 505-249-1248
Although there is no formal program for Friday evening, for anyone wanting to arrive early, the early birds will gather in the bar area of the Marriott at about 8:00 PM for an informal dinner / discussion – No-host, pay-as-you-go, dinner, cocktails, and networking.
9:00 – 9:50 AM — Registration (?25 per person, ?15 for student) and pay-as-you-go no-host breakfast (order off the menu)
10:00 – 10:25 AM — Introduction to the convention by Mike Blessing and others
10:30 – 11:45 AM Speech by Penn Pfiffner, Senior Fellow at the Independence Institute
11:45 AM – 1:15 PM — No-host Lunch break
1:15 – 2:00 PM — Address by Paul Gessing, President of the Rio Grande Foundation
2:00 – 2:20 PM — Coffee break
2:20 – 2:45 PM — Address by Daniel Moore, President of the Albuquerque Tea Party
2:45 – 3:00 PM — Break
3:00 – 5:00 PM — LPNM Business Meeting (no charge to participants)
5:00 PM — Adjournment, followed by a possible informal dinner or watering-hole gathering
More information here — http://lpofnm.blogspot.com/2014/05/lpnm-2014-annual-state-convention.html
Mike Blessing / http://mikewb1971.wordpress.com / Phone — 505-249-1248
State Chair, Libertarian Party of New Mexico — http://lpnm.us
Creator, Host and Publisher, /The Weekly Sedition/ – http://weeklysedition.wordpress.com
Who owns you? Who runs your life? Who should — you or someone else?
Freedom is the answer — what’s the question?
“Government is the disease that masquerades as its own cure.”
– Robert LeFevre
“If you wanna live long on your own terms
You gotta be willing to crash and burn”
– Motley Crue, “Primal Scream”
Danny Bedwell is up next
Body of the prior Alabama post:
I passed this on to various lists?
The Alabama state LP convention is on Saturday, May 10 in Birmingham, and features Judge Jim Gray (2012 VP candidate), national LP Political Director Carla Howell with ?Who?s Driving? political training, Sharon Harris of Advocates for Self-Government, and former Mississippi LP Chair and current US House candidate Danny Bedwell. Due to Alabama?s ballot access laws this will be our first convention to nominate multiple candidates for public office since 2002. There is no charge for the speakers or for observing business, but there is a charge for people who want to eat lunch or go to the evening fundraising event, and only Alabama LP members (separate from national members) can vote.
We encourage as many people as possible to run for office; even if you don?t have a lot of time or money, putting your name on the ballot will help our other candidates and . If you live in a county other than the ones we have money to do ballot access work for, you can still nominate yourself for office. You may or may not be able to get yourself on the ballot. At the very least I will provide advice and consulting, and we may or may not come up with money and petitioners to help you if we get done with the counties we are working on now early and raise enough. Minimum qualifications to run for office are at http://www.sos.state.al.us/elections/minqualifications.aspx ; some offices only require you to be 18 years old and a resident of the state for one day. We will also be electing state party officers.
Details below:
2014 Libertarian Party of Alabama Convention
The Libertarian Party of Alabama will host its annual convention on Saturday, May 10, 2014. The convention activities will take place at the Libertarian Party of Alabama headquarters located at 2330 Highland Avenue South in Birmingham, Alabama, with registration beginning at 8:00 am. A variety of lunch options will be available including on your own to premium seating with our nationally renowned speakers. An outing with our speakers has been planned to Regions Field in downtown Birmingham for after the convention to watch Pensacola vs. the Barons. The outing will include food and soft drinks for a cost of $35/person.
Get Tickets to the Game!
Convention Schedule:
8:00-9:00 am
Registration and Credentialing
9:00-10:45 am
Nomination and Speeches from Candidates Seeking Office
11:00 am ? 11:15 am
2013-2014 Officer Reports
11:15 am ? 11:45 am
Business Meeting
11:45 am ? 12:00 pm
Executive Committee Elections
12:00 pm ? 1:15 pm
Lunch
Please see below for details on attending the optional buffet
lunch featuring seating with our august speakers.
1:15 pm ? 2:00 pm
Sharon Harris
An award-winning speaker, Ms. Harris conducts communication training seminars,
and administers the Advocates for Self Government guest speaker program.
2:00 pm ? 2:15 pm
Danny Bedwell
Mr. Bedwell is the candidate for Mississippi?s 1st Congressional District
and former Chair of the Libertarian Party of Mississippi.
2:15 pm ? 4:00 pm
Carla Howell
The Libertarian Party Political Director will be presenting
her ?Who?s Driving? political training.
4:00 pm ? 5:00 pm
Judge Jim Gray
2012 Libertarian Party Vice President Nominee
The Libertarian Party of Alabama has met the threshold petitioning requirements to be placed on the ballot for the upcoming November 2014 elections in Jefferson County and is continuing petition efforts in Bibb, Blount, Chilton, Coosa, and Shelby Counties. This designation allows the Libertarian Party of Alabama to run candidates for all county positions along with several State senate and house seats that are located entirely within these counties and one US House seat if we make the ballot in all these counties. If you are interested in running for a political office as a Libertarian or attending the convention, please contact: Mr. Leigh LaChine, Chair, 205.936.9387 or [email protected].
The Libertarian Party of Alabama is the official State affiliate for the national Libertarian Party. Founded in 1971, the Libertarian Party believes in achieving liberty through economic freedom and social tolerance, and is the nation?s fastest growing political party.
Fundraising Luncheon
We invite you to join us at the Taj India Restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama on Saturday, May 10, 2014. The luncheon will feature a buffet and soft drinks with a cash bar available. A variety of sponsorships are available from $25 to $35 which includes seating with our nationally renowned speakers.
Seating with the speakers is limited, and tickets must be purchased in advance.
For more information please contact Leigh LaChine.
Get tickets to the Luncheon!
Biographical info on our speakers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_P._Gray
Judge James (Jim) P. Gray is a nationally known and respected author and speaker who has long advocated reform of the nation?s drug laws. A highly regarded jurist, Judge Gray served on California?s Orange County Superior Court from 1989 to 2010. His hundreds of media appearances have included Fox News, ABC, C-SPAN and radio stations across the country. He is the author of three books. James Polin ?Jim? Gray (born February 14, 1945) is an American jurist and the 2012 Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee. He was the presiding judge of the Superior Court of Orange County, California. Gray was the 2004 Libertarian Party candidate for the United States Senate in California. He is the author of multiple books and a play, and is critical of current American drug laws.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carla_Howell
Carla A. Howell (born 1955) is an American political activist and small government advocate. She is President of the Center For Small Government. She is most known for organizing tax cut initiative petitions in Massachusetts (called ballot measures in other states). She started an initiative to repeal the Massachusetts state personal income tax in 2002 and again in 2008 and one to cut the state sales tax in 2010. She ran for office in Massachusetts for U.S. Senate (2000), Governor (2002), and State Auditor (1998) on the Libertarian Party ticket. In December 2011 she became executive director for the Libertarian National Committee. In 2010 she headed the Alliance to Roll Back Taxes, backing a ballot initiative to cut the Massachusetts sales tax from 6.25% to 3.0% which was on the November 2, 2010 ballot as Question 3. Her group collected and submitted 74,131 approved voter signatures in the fall of 2009, and another 14,023 signatures in the spring-summer of2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Harris
Sharon Harris is a libertarian political activist and president of the Advocates for Self-Government. Harris holds a bachelor?s degree in journalism and a master?s degree in psychology. In 1972, Harris was a founding member of the Libertarian Party of Georgia. In 1994, Harris ran as the Libertarian candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture in Georgia, garnering 301,416 votes for 22.61% of the total vote in the two candidate general election. Harris is best known for her work with the Advocates for Self-Government, through which she recommends various rhetorical strategies for convincing voters of the tenets of Libertarianism. Harris also frequently promotes the use of the World?s Smallest Political Quiz in conjunction with the Nolan chart in an event called ?Operation: Politically Homeless?.
Danny Bedwell is the former chair of the Mississippi LP and a former and current candidate for US House in northern Mississippi.
Thanks for anything you can do by way of passing this along.
paulie
Paul Frankel
205-534-1622
*Alternate, Region 7 LNC (AL, MS, TX, OK, LA)
*Alabama Director, Our America Initiative
*Ballot Access Petition Contractor
*Volunteer Reporter, IPR https://independentpoliticalreport.com/
Body of the post for those who read comments but not posts
Alabama and New Mexico Libertarians are having their state conventions this weekend. If anyone in any of these states is able to provide live updates please do so in the comments here. Please also post links to any twitter feeds, photos, videos, livestreams, blogging or news coverage elsewhere, etc., in the comments. Some information about the conventions can be found at http://www.lp.org/blogs/staff/2014-state-conventions by clicking on each state?s name.
I will be reporting in the comments from Birmingham, Alabama where I am right now.
See also for schedule details of each state?s convention:
Alabama Libertarian convention coming up Saturday, May 10, 2014 https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2014/05/alabama-libertarian-convention-coming-up-saturday-may-10-2014/
New Mexico Libertarian convention coming up Saturday, May 10, 2014 https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2014/05/new-mexico-libertarian-convention-coming-up-saturday-may-10-2014/
UPDATE: Per Bruce Majors in the comments:
The Libertarian Party of DC convenes today from 1-4 in Room A-9 of the MLK Library at 901 G Street NW, where they will elect delegates to the national committee and create a state central committee.
If anyone reading is at the NM or DC conventions please post some coverage of those also…
A few people are here now that were not here for business session and at least one has left.
Correction from above 3 from Mississippi (Danny and Sherri Bedwell and Ross Scalise), 2 from Louisiana (Jennifer and Beth from National Org of Libertarian Women). Speakers Sharon Harris of Georgia, Carla Howell (currently of Virginia) and Judge Gray of California. Sharon Harris is up first.
Alan Barksdale is here from Huntsville district but will not be ditrict rep. He will try to get Tim Cowles to do it.
We are adjourned. Lunch, then speakers.
Amanda Cooke (Montgomery region) would have been here but is sick today. Not sure if that means she is still on EC or not. Bylaw change passed.
There were quorum problems with last term. Christopher Allen nominated for State House 52 (nominations were reopened for this).
Now back to the bylaw.
Bylaw change to eject exec comm members who miss more than two meetings (they can be voted back in if they show up for the 3rd and participating in email and skype counts).
Bodenhausen elected 9 to 6 (for NOTA)
Dennis Knizley re-elected as the rep for the Mobile region
Mark Bodenhausen is running for District Rep for Birmingham-Tuscaloosa-Anniston region
16 Nicole 15 Charles. I got one write in vote (I was running before we had 2 people for 2 positions but withdrew.
Nicole Jordan and Charles Kessler running for At Large
15-1 Pate
16-1 Ross Lowe. Laura Pate nominated for Director of Outreach
14-2 for Watkins. Ross Lowe nominated for re-election as Treasurer
Aimee Love 15-1 NOTA. Aaron Watkins nominated for Secretary.
Additionally there are 2 people here from Louisiana and 2 from Mississippi , not sure about any AL non-delegates
Aimee Love nominated for Vice Chair
LaChine re-elected Chair 16-1
State party officer positions after break.
Nominations closed for now … LaChine will be delegation chair for national convention
Now officer reports
That was Jefferson County also
Mark Bodenhausen Assistant Tax Assessor
Nicole Jordan Jeffco Tax Assessor
Shane Carlisle Shelby County Coroner
Kevin Knight Bibb County Sheriff
Willie Hill Jefferson County Sheriff
Aimee Love State Senate 15
Leigh LaChine State Senate 20
Laura Pate nominated for State Senate 18
Ken Bailey nominated for Shelby County Sheriff
Former MS chair Danny Bedwell:
Republican incumbent Nunnelee in his race (MS-1 US House) was hospitalized with an abnormality in the right side of his brain.
There is a Democrat, but the Democrat is a far left progressive in what Danny says is the most conservative Congressional district in the country.
We are about to get started a little over an hour late.
Thanks Bruce. Post updated.
Alabama convention is late getting started. We are just milling around.
The Libertarian Party of DC convenes today from 1-4 in Room A-9 of the MLK Library at 901 G Street NW, where they will elect delegates to the national committee and create a state central committee.