The Libertarian Party of Virginia will have eight federal candidates on the ballot this November, the most federal candidates in an election in their history, and the most federal candidates on a ballot in the state for a non-establishment party since 1934, when the Socialist Party ran nine candidates for the US House of Representatives.
The party will have a US Senate candidate, and seven candidates for the US House of Representatives.
Virginia has difficult ballot access. A US House candidate must collect at least 1,000 signatures from registered voters in their district, and a statewide candidate must collect 10,000 signatures from registered voters in the state, with a minimum of 400 from each of the 11 congressional districts.
Further, to become a recognized party, a statewide candidate must get 10% of the vote.
The candidates are:
•Rob Sarvis – US Senate
•Bo Brown – US House 4th
•Paul Jones – US House 5th
•Will Hammer – US House 6th
•James Carr – US House 7th
•Jeffrey Carson – US House 8th
•Bill Redpath – US House 10th
•Marc Harrold – US House 11th
From LPVA chair Bill Redpath, “While the Libertarian Party of Virginia was shooting for a statewide slate for Congress, seven is a record number of US House candidates for the LPVA. This is big step forward for our state party.”
Virginia will be key in 2016 presidential. I hope our candidates understand this and take advantage of a state party moving forward.
I wish them all the best!!
It’s very disappointing about Xave. He was yanked around by a petitioner who claimed to have 400 signatures but actually had none.
I personally put Paulie in touch with Xave’s campaign manager at the state convention though. Not using him was a poor decision. I also repeatedly warned candidates they should be collecting signatures and doing their turn-ins very early rather than waiting until the last minute. Candidates pretty much never listen to that advice.
I hope Xave runs in 2016. And I really hope one of these years candidates finally learn to start (and finish) petitioning much earlier.
In the meantime, I’m very excited that Virginia has so many wonderful candidates on the ballot this year! Best of luck to all of them!
I signed the petition. Although I’m in the initial process of starting a county affiliate here in the FL Keys, I’m hoping to spend some time in VA in September campaigning for Mrrs Sarvis, Carson, and Harrold. (I should have a few weeks off from work during that time).
It will depend on finances and on whether we’ll be running candidates down here locally. A recent email to Adrian Wyllie about working to help each other was rebuffed strongly. He was unwilling to reach out to his campaign volunteers locally to become involved with the affiliate. This is totally disappointing. I’m still on the fence on whether it’ll be productive to share this email with local activists here in South FL and the Keys.
I agree. Hopefully he will run again and learn some lessons on what to do and what not to do in managing petition drives. Third time’s the charm?
On another VA note…
http://volunteer.robertsarvis.com/debate_petition
Sarvis for Senate [email protected] via sendgrid.info
4:39 PM (6 hours ago)
to me
paul —
Thank you for signing the Debate Fairness Petition from Sarvis for Senate. If you haven’t already, please considering chipping in with a contribution of $10 or more today.
And please forward this email on to your friends, family, and neighbors and encourage them to sign the petition.
Here’s the full petition:
Debate Fairness Petition
Whereas: A record number of Americans, including a plurality of Virginia voters, consider themselves independent of either “major” political party;
Whereas: In order to achieve ballot access, Robert Sarvis overcame demanding rules not required of either “major” party candidate;
Whereas: Debates between only two candidates often devolve into little more than joint press conferences without substantive clashes on the issues;
Whereas: The two “major” party candidates have virtually indistinguishable positions on a number of vital issues, and Virginia voters deserve the opportunity to hear them challenged directly on those issues;
Whereas: The arbitrary and vague debate invitation guidelines perpetuate a vicious cycle by excluding candidates based on polls, which are themselves affected by candidates’ exclusion from the debates;
Therefore: I urge you to invite Robert Sarvis to participate in the debate with Mark Warner and Ed Gillespie.
Sign here: http://volunteer.robertsarvis.com/debate_petition?recruiter_id=2032
I feel really bad for Mr. Draper. Not only did he fall short 2 years ago, he fell short again this time around. He’s a man of integrity and would do a decent job of representing LP ideals.
I love the memes you posted. I wish I had spent time speaking with Will Hammer at the National Convention.
Yep! Best alt party coverage of congressional districts since 1934 is no small achievement.
This is excellent news for LPVA.
No. Same reason as last time – penny wise, pound foolish, came close but not close enough.
At the VA convention in February, I let folks now I would stay in Virginia for the weekdays between then and the Students for Liberty conference in DC the following weekend, and that I would be willing to volunteer a work week’s worth of signatures in exchange for a place to stay and someone to work with me i.e provide transportation and witness the signatures, regardless of whether they also gather some. No takers.
Then for the last week I did go up to VA and for most of that week helped Paul Jones in the 5th. Then on the last day we got yanked to try to get Xave over the top in the 1st, but it was too little, too late and did not succeed in saving the drive. Luckily, Paul Jones still made it; I would have felt bad if he had failed because we got yanked to unsuccessfully try to save Xave that day.
Xavian Draper didn’t make it?
Overall a great effort. Sorry to see some of the remaining districts that came close, could have made it and didn’t, but still 7 of 11 for US House is historic. Good luck to the LP candidates in their races!
Bravo! Keep up the excellent work!