Mike Kane: LP of Florida Commitee Report Region 14 – FInal

Mike Kane:

Colleagues,

Over the past year, the Libertarian Party in Region 14 has grown tremendously in terms of both members and activism.

Miami Dade has grown from a small but dedicated social group into a strong group of hard working activists. One candidate, Marcos Miralles did a phenomenal job with his grassroots campaign. He received 23% of the vote for Hialeah City Council, against a heavily entrenched long term incumbent. Marcos put up such a strong campaign that the incumbent had to spend $736,000 for re-election.

In a Community Council race on Fisher Island, a Libertarian has a strong chance of being elected. There are 6 seats open for re-election, and aside from him, no one has yet declared. In Miami, these groups oversee zoning laws and other local issues. The election is in June.

Miami-Dade has also begun holding social events aside from their business meetings. Just this week, a “Toke the Vote” event had over 60+ attendees. Attendance in the social events have grown, as has both LPF membership and registered Libertarians. Late last year, during an anti-common core event, I saw at least 80 individuals show up for a social speaker event. This is more than delegates who showed up at last years state convention!!

In the near future, the Miami-Dade County is poised for exponential growth.. Principled Radical Libertarianism, coupled with outreach, good candidates, and most importantly the hard work by their activists can all be attributed to their growth to date and moving forward.. There’s no doubt that Miami-Dade will soon be strongest and most active affiliate in all of Florida.

Monroe County has made progress as well.. Here in Key West and other areas, especially Islamorada and Tavernier have seen a substantial growth in Florida Party membership.

Countless social events have been held, with as many as 13 people showing up at one event. Unfortunately, many individuals attend only sporadically. Rather than being a lack of interest problem, low attendance can be attributed to most people having variable work schedules which makes regularly scheduled meetings rather difficult.

The great news is that there are Libertarians who are interested in becoming more involved. While no one has yet committed to run for either County or City council, I’m caustically optimistic that we can identify one before deadline.

Just this past week, Adrian Wyllie traveled to Key West. He secured two interviews with radio stations, in addition to featured on the front page of the Key West Citizen (the only daily paper in the lower Keys). He attended a meet and greet at a BBQ restaurant and a social gathering afterwards at the Garden Hotel.

All of the Libertarians who I spoke with were incredibly excited about the media mentions yet were disappointed with the turnout for his events. A local activist William Dail who helped facilitate these events and I agreed that with more notice and with the right promotion , attendance will definitely be higher which will in turn help to start the affiliate that I’ve been trying to start for so long.

As I’m sure you are aware, I do not attend to seek re-election on the the Executive Committee this year. I’m confident that Suzanne Gilmore, provided that she does seek election, will provide a radical voice of reason on the committee, one that the committee so desperately needs. In the event that there are no candidates from this region who are seeking election, I would be hard pressed to serve on the state committee this year.

While there have certainly been disagreements amongst each other hereon the EC, I believe we are all happy with the progress of the LPF as a whole over the past year. Here’s hoping to an even incredibly stronger party this year, and the years to come.

While 100’s of individuals have played a role in the Region’s rapid growth, I would personally like to commend the following individuals for their efforts, in no particular order. Suzanne Gilmore, Tony Sellers, Abigail and Sacha DuBearn, Pierre Creveaux, Eric Faden, Marc Golub, Lauren Sonnenberg, Dianne Thorne. Here in they Keys, Nina Rodrguez, Vic Olson, and William Dail have contributed as well.

Karl Dickey, Vicki Kirkland and Donald Sheldon have also helped immensely, despite them them living out of the region.

I’d also like to thank each and every individual who gave me the constant encouragement to stand up for what was right despite the adversity it brought. You know who you are. 😉 😉 🙂

I look forward to seeing everyone at the state convention in just a few weeks and hopefully then again in Columbus in June. Onward!

With warmest regards,

Mike Kane
Libertarian Party of Florida Region 14 Regional Representative
Member – Libertarian Natioanal Credentials Commitee

ps: If it doesn’t shrink government, it’s not Libertarian!!!!