From the Veterans Party of America website:
On April 30th, the Veterans Party of America activated the Utah Veterans Party of America. We have now activated a party in all 50 states–after ONLY 16 months as a political party.
How does that compare? The next major third party in age to the VPA is the Constitution Party. After 23 years, the Constitution Party still has state parties which they have never activated.
But what is next for the VPA? We will now consider a state in “Completed Status” after having a full state leadership team and federal recognition as a non profit political party.
Always on the move. This is only possible due to the hard work of all of you. Please, keep sharing us and growing the party!
In an old ruling from the FEC they said this about the Maryland LP at the time: (Does this still apply?) AO 2004-40 Status of State Party as State Committee of Political Party
The Libertarian Party of Mary- land (the Party) satisfies the require- ments for state committee status.
The Federal Election Campaign Act (the Act) defines a state com- mittee as “the organization which, by virtue of the bylaws of a political party, is responsible for the day-to- day operation of such political party at the State level, as determined by the Commission.” 2 U.S.C. §431(15). In order to achieve state committee status under Commission regulations, an organization must meet three requirements. 11 CFR 100.14 and 100.15. It must:
• Be a political party that gained ballot access for at least one federal candidate who has qualified as a candidate under the Act;1
• Have bylaws or a similar document that “delineates activities commen- surate with the day-to-day opera- tion” of a party at a state level; and
• Be part of the official party struc- ture.
The Libertarian Party of Mary- land meets all three requirements. It satisfies the first requirement—ballot access for at least one federal candi- date. Harry Browne appeared as the Party’s Presidential candidate on the Maryland ballot in 1996 and 2000, and he met the requirements for
1 Gaining ballot access for a federal candidate is an essential element for qualifying as a political party. See 11 CFR 100.15.
becoming a federal candidate under 2 U.S.C.§431(2).2
The Party satisfies the second requirement because its bylaws de- lineate activity commensurate with the day-to-day functions of a politi- cal party on the state level and are consistent with the state party rules of other political organizations that the Commission has found to satisfy this requirement for state committee status. It is also an affiliate of the Libertarian National Party, which qualified for national committee status in 1975. See AO 1975-129.
Finally, as the Libertarian Party’s state party organization in Maryland, the Party is part of the official party structure and, thus, meets the third requirement as well. See AOs 2004- 34, 2004-9, 2003-27 and 2002-10.
Date Issued: December 2, 2004; Length: 4 pages.
—Amy Kort
Jim from LI–
The reason you and I can register as Libertarian (even though it is not an official party as such term is defined in New York Election Law) is because of a ruling in a federal case called Green Party vs. NYS Board of Elections. Judge John Gleeson (EDNY) ruled that the BOE must permit voters to register as Libertarian, Green or Right to Life (those were the three co-plaintiffs then) by putting a line on the registration form after the word “Other” and permitting us to write in one of those three independent bodies.
His decision was affirmed by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the early 2000’s.
Since then, the Green Party has obtained official party status in New York and RTL has disappeared. The LP remains an independent body which continues to successfully petition its way on to the ballot every two years. There are currently approximately 6600 people registered Libertarian in New York State. Our new Chair Mark Glogowski has made increasing that number one of his priorities.
Their position on church & state and environmentalism and campaign-finance might be categorized as left-wing, but I’d just call it conservative-populist.
The weird exposition on secularism seems largely aimed squarely at the CP, and differentiating themselves in that regard. If so good for them, I suppose. The rest of it is pretty standard conservative fare, though. Not far-far-right, and some sense of moderation and centrist-populism. But like you put it, “vaguely conservative” would be apt, definitely not “non-right”
http://www.veteranspartyofamerica.org/#!platform/c1ffx
Looks pretty clearly right-wing to me.
We have this party categorized as non-left-right and right wing in different articles. What are their actual issue positions, if any?
In response to Mark Axinn’s comments about New York State. I have been a registered Libertarian for about five years. I don’t know for sure if New York State “recognizes” the Libertarian Party but Suffolk County does.
From the name, I’d guess that a core principle of the Veteran’s Party would be to increase entitlement benefits and legal protections for veterans.
“How does that compare? The next major third party in age to the VPA is the Constitution Party. After 23 years, the Constitution Party still has state parties which they have never activated.”
Yes, that is sad indeed. In fact the CP has state parties that are currently failing into inactivity and/or losing ballot access currently.
I think they do actually have some sort of vaguely conservative ideology; Veterans Party is just the name.
Aren’t political parties supposed to have some defining philosophy or guiding principles (whether or not they follow them is, of course, another matter)? What the heck is the Veteran Party’s principle? The beliefs of my veteran friends range all over the map from Libertarian to SoCon to NeoCon to Leftist and even pacifist. They want you to join just because you happened to volunteer, or were conscripted, into one of the U.S. Armed Forces?
Sounds like people who couldn’t cut it being in the Republican Party. Some people just want the lime light. This group I suppose has facebook pages for all 50 states. Does that qualify them as a 50 state party?
They are certainly not a party as such term is defined under the Election Law in New York State.
But then, neither are the Libertarian Party nor the Constitution Party.
I’m guessing that they have found a person in each state that says they will take the lead in organizing, or something like that.
“non-profit political party”…I think they want “FEC-Filing” or perhaps not. Political parties are not 401c non-profits.
No idea. I was on the fence about posting this, but I was finding so much stuff from socialists that I felt I needed some balance, even if it didn’t make a lick of sense.
Just what does “activated” mean exactly?