Low-Hanging-Fruit Opportunity for California Libertarians
May 6
Dear California Libertarian,
As you know, the June 3, 2014, primary will be coming up shortly.
Because of the passage of Proposition 14 (“Top Two”) in 2010, we only have six partisan California candidates running for office as Libertarians this year.
They are:
• Attorney General — Jonathan Jaech
• CD 7 — Art Tuma
• CD 25 — David Koster Bruce
• CD 33 — Mark Matthew Herd
• CD 51 — Michael Benoit
• AD 8 — Janice Bonser
And because Top Two only allows the candidates with the two highest vote totals to go onto the November primary, it is unlikely that any of these candidates will make it onto the November ballot — unless voters show an almost unprecedented degree of Libertarian support. That means NO Libertarian choice on the ballot come November’s general election.
However, there is another — easy — way to place up to 21 additional candidates, running as Libertarians, on the November 2014 general election ballot.
One of the unintended consequences of Top Two is that there are 21 districts where only one candidate has filed for the office.
Welcome to Soviet-style one-party rule!
Fortunately, there is a way we can use this to our advantage. As we have noted, only the Top Two candidates get to proceed to the November election.
Luckily for us Libertarians, write-in ballots in the June primary are still legal. (By the way, they are not legal in November!!!)
This means we can run write-in candidates, which require only 40 valid signatures, and NO filing fee, and assuming they are the second place finisher in the June primary, their names WILL appear on the ballot in November as Libertarians.
The Peace and Freedom Party used this tactic in 2012 to get three candidates who did appear on the November general election ballot.
It is possible that we could get Libertarians on the ballot with as little as one write-in vote. To be safe, we’ll try for many more.
The purpose of this email blast is to see if you’re willing to be a candidate in one of these 21 districts where either no Republican or no Democrat has filed for office.
If you’ve been a candidate before, you know it’s an ideal way to spread the Libertarian message, which is SO needed these days, especially here in California.
A recent nationwide Rasmussen poll indicates that 53 percent of likely voters “Think Neither Political Party Represents the American People.”
Here’s your opportunity to give the American people an alternative to the status quo!
Here is the web page that lists the seats where only one candidate has filed for partisan office.
If you’re willing, and if you live in one of these districts, please email Bob Johnston to volunteer to be a candidate and find out what’s required, and/or help another Libertarian to become a valid write-in candidate.
Please note that, because the California party is not a federal reporting organization, the LPC is not permitted to subsidize congressional candidates.
If you want a real choice in November on your ballot, here’s your chance to make that happen.
Please consider becoming a write-in candidate.
Yours in liberty,
Carla Howell
Political Director
National Libertarian Party
P.S. — Act today! The deadline for submitting 40 valid signatures and the paperwork to be a valid write-in candidate is May 20. There is NO filing fee!
It won’t go down without a fight, but go down it shall. Let’s help that along.
tak3n0more May 8, 2014 at 5:27 pm said: “Bitcoin isn’t activism, although the premise, concept and use are fascinating.”
I disagree with you here. Anything that gets people out of the Federal Reserve System and can help people avoid paying taxes is a good thing. If a critical mass among the population started using alternative currencies and stopped paying taxes it would cause the government to become irrelevant and collapse, which is the fate that it deserves, although it likely won’t go down without a fight.
California imposes a filing fee to qualify for the primary ballot. The filing fee for state legislature or Congress is 1% of the annual salary; for Governor and other statewide offices, the filing fee is 2% of the annual salary.
Instead of paying the filing fee, one can collect signatures of registered voters, in the numbers mentioned above -“Statewide candidates need 10,000 signatures; U.S. House and State Senate candidates need 3,000; Assembly candidates need 1,500.”
Before the “top two” system was adopted, Libertarians only needed 150 signatures of registered Libertarians to qualify for the statewide primary ballot, and 150 or fewer signatures to qualify for a Congressional primary or state legislative race. The higher numbers required now reflect the fact that any registered voter, regardless of party- can sign the petitions.
Tenth Amendment Center sends out action alerts re: liberty-oriented bills in individual states. Keep an eye on their site:
http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com
This is where the activism is at. I pay attention to the bills being introduced, share them with people and get myself/them on the phones calling.
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/
You can track as many bills as you please, and all the contact information is available. There are several bills currently in committee.
Don’t like what the current Rep/Senator is doing? Let them know. To them, one phone call is considered to be the voice of a thousand people.
Bitcoin isn’t activism, although the premise, concept and use are fascinating. Many members of my family homeschool. I do not have this issue to deal with. FIJA is a great organization and I have shared this information with many people. I track candidates, legislation and ordinances. I volunteer where I choose. My activism is local and at the state and federal levels.
But I don’t sit around waiting for others to lead the way for me. That’s what government does and I have no interest in that. I don’t need government, organizations or people to tell me what to do, what’s important or how to get things accomplished. I just do them because I understand the difference between right & wrong, what should be important and how the message of Libertarianism is universal.
Mr. Phillies, agreed. However, for those who are financially unable to do so, they should make their minds up much SOONER about becoming a candidate and being proactive. I know candidates who will be in the primary this year and have been campaigning for the last 2 years doing all the groundwork to make sure getting those signatures isn’t an impossible chore. It’s not like we can’t see the elections coming. We ALL know when they will occur.
Jed, So far as I can tell, the alternative to collecting these vast numbers of signatures is to pay a filing fee, which is figured from the office’s salary but converts to a fraction of a dollar equivalent per signature. Assuredly, if I were running for Governor, I would rather pay a few thousand dollars than try to collect ten thousand signatures.
“Why didn’t the LP already get candidates on the ballots in these districts in the first place? What are the requirements to get on the ballot in California that are so onerous?”
From Ballot Access News:
“Statewide candidates need 10,000 signatures; U.S. House and State Senate candidates need 3,000; Assembly candidates need 1,500.”
“The reason minor party candidates have virtually stopped filing for office are entirely because of the top-two system, which (1) increases the number of signatures needed for petitions in lieu of the filing fee; (2) makes it virtually certain that minor party candidates can’t run in the general election.”
I do, however, wish the candidates who filed would have done so in “safe” districts, where it is less likely that a major party challenger would challenge the incumbent.
Why didn’t the LP already get candidates on the ballots in these districts in the first place? What are the requirements to get on the ballot in California that are so onerous?
“Vernon May 7, 2014 at 9:38 pm
Oh but Andy! We have so much in common. Don’t we? Gold, silver, home schooling, gun ownership….we should be such great friends. Wait…are you actually home schooling your kids? Because I am home schooling mine. Do you own any guns? Because I own quite a few. Do you even have any gold and silver? I have pounds and pounds of both. I suspect you are actually all talk and no action on most if not all the above. Who are you calling a troll and agent provocateur, you troll and agent provocateur?”
You have a gun. That’s great. Put a bullet in the chamber. Then point the barrel so it is aiming at your own head. Then do the world a favor and pull the trigger.
Oh but Andy! We have so much in common. Don’t we? Gold, silver, home schooling, gun ownership….we should be such great friends. Wait…are you actually home schooling your kids? Because I am home schooling mine. Do you own any guns? Because I own quite a few. Do you even have any gold and silver? I have pounds and pounds of both. I suspect you are actually all talk and no action on most if not all the above. Who are you calling a troll and agent provocateur, you troll and agent provocateur?
“Vernon May 7, 2014 at 8:44 pm
Personally I recommend joining the Northwest Front. http://northwestfront.org/ Genealogical research to make sure your mate is racially pure, stockpiling survival supplies, studying the history of the Third Reich, collecting German WWII gear and having lots and lots of children are great too. I agree about gold, silver, home schooling and gun ownership!”
So sayeth “Vern,” IPR’s resident government troll and agent provocateur.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkkXHjQSyEI
Personally I recommend joining the Northwest Front. http://northwestfront.org/ Genealogical research to make sure your mate is racially pure, stockpiling survival supplies, studying the history of the Third Reich, collecting German WWII gear and having lots and lots of children are great too. I agree about gold, silver, home schooling and gun ownership!
“tak3n0more May 7, 2014 at 6:23 pm
While my heart remains Libertarian, these issues discourage activism. And I am no longer active in the LP. Take less, give more. I do it in my own way now.”
I recommend getting involved in Fully Informed Jury ( http://www.fija.org ) activism as well as promoting alternative currencies (gold, silver, Bitcoin, Litecoin, etc…). A couple of other good things to promote are home schooling ( http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/ ) and gun ownership.
While my heart remains Libertarian, these issues discourage activism. And I am no longer active in the LP. Take less, give more. I do it in my own way now.
While 40-65 signatures seem easy, the hard part is having enough signatures to qualify, when everyone knows that some of them will be thrown out. Having 2 or 3 times the required signatures gives a much better shot. Saying ‘only 40’ is misleading.
It’s perfectly clear on the CA SoS website: http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/statewide-elections/2014-primary/governor-lieutenant-governor-2014.htm .
In addition, once the primary passes, then those write-in candidates will be required to file with the FEC, as their federal candidate rules state. Then the conversation about candidate committees begins, with additional paperwork regarding filings and contributions.
And how about Jonathan Jaech? Are there enough volunteers to work on his campaign? I know he had some assistance from some LPC ExCom members. And my other question is that while recruiting is terribly important, why is it just now happening? Is it incumbent upon the state party to recruit candidates themselves, or shouldn’t all good Libertarians, be doing that with each person encountered or reach out to? Are people sharing their contacts and friends to help garner opportunities for candidates to speak to different groups and people? And will the write-in candidates receive that same support in the 2 weeks prior to the primary? What if those write-in candidates put as much time and energy into the current candidates? What kind of results would we see if people put as much time into supporting those candidates, as they spend time bashing others?
I am surprised at how some Libertarians claim that individual rights are so important and that we each must take care of ourselves (and/or others IF we so choose) but then expect the state party leadership to do something they don’t do, or aren’t willing to do, themselves and then have the nerve to get upset about it. It’s completely hypocritical.
Every person who is a Libertarian should be out there doing ‘something’ if they believe that REAL change has to occur. Whether it’s running for office, recruiting members and candidates, etc. The county parties are affiliates. The state party (of ANY state) is not the parent, nor the boss. Don’t see something happening? Don’t like something happening? Well, I recommend two courses of action: #1 – Run for state party office and fix it yourself; #2 – ASK the leadership. No one is a pie-in-the-sky god that can’t be reached. What are your Executive Committee At-Large representatives for? It’s not like activists haven’t had practice in calling state Reps/Senators or federal Congressmen. Amazing that lack of communication, from either side, construes a lack of action on anyone’s part.
Stop assuming, people. Get up off your butts and do it yourselves. And no one is going to hold your hand. Get in or get out.
And last, but not least:
Dear National Party,
Please remove the plank from your own eye before trying to remove the splinter from someone else’s. If you’d like more candidates from a particular state affiliate, maybe you should prevent your National chairman from telling people that they have no shot, as found here: https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2014/05/libertarian-party-closes-escrow-on-its-new-office/#comments. Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
I think this is a brilliant idea! Here’s hoping the LPCA is able to capitalize on it.
“It certainly is a shame our state party is doing nothing about this. Ted and I in LA are working on it, but I have heard zippo-nothing-zero-zilch-nada from the state party, new headquarters in Sacramento notwithstanding.”
Yeah it’s not a good sign when national is doing the candidate recruitment instead of the state party.
Great news!
It certainly is a shame our state party is doing nothing about this. Ted and I in LA are working on it, but I have heard zippo-nothing-zero-zilch-nada from the state party, new headquarters in Sacramento notwithstanding.
I was wondering if there was any action on this. I believe there’s some U.S. House districts where only one candidate is running? In 2012 there were no LP candidates on the ballot in any U.S. House race in California, it would be nice to have at least one in 2014.
We need somebody to run against Kevin McCarthy in district 23 and Janice Hahn in district 44.
We have at least two people in my region (Pasadena/Glendale) who are doing this. I know Gail Lightfoot will do it as well. This article suggests contacting Bob Johnston at National, but someone interested can also contact me or Ted Brown. I’m [email protected] or (626) 375-0947.