Posted to the The Washington Times
‘This is a coming out party’: Libertarians prepare for political war
By Jennifer Harper
May 28, 2015
Now underway at a splashy hotel in the glittering city of Las Vegas: The Libertarian Political Expo — LPEX — a fierce four-day event meant to ramp up the libertarian skill set in a complicated political marketplace.
“On the national level, we’re not as effective as we could be. We have not had the proper tools, but that’s all going to change,” Brett H. Pojunis, the founder of LPEX, tells Inside the Beltway. “This is a coming-out party for libertarians. We’re not just all about legalized marijuana or running around in Birkenstocks and long beards. This is a serious training event, with organizational help from American Majority, the same grass-roots conservative group behind CPAC’s training.”
Forty organizations and 30 speakers will articulate basic libertarian tenets, such as small government and tax reform, for voters who increasingly describe themselves as independent or unaffiliated; attracting the attention of small business owners is another goal. The varied speakers’ roster includes Republican Reps. Joe Heck and Cresent Hardy of Nevada, Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, radio host Larry Elder, poker kingpin Frank Kessela, Leadership Institute founder Ron Nehring, multiple state and local elected officials, Libertarian Party heavyweights, media strategists, investment advisors, grass-roots activists — the list does go on. The organizers consider the event nonpartisan.
“For too long, the liberty movement has played defense. It’s time to take control of the narrative, make our message clear, and win. We’re not going to let the Libertarian Party get hijacked, either. We’re into training. That’s the single biggest reason why we’re here,” says Mr. Pojunis, who is also chairman of the Nevada Libertarian Party — adding that the emphasis in on basic political organization — running a winning campaign, raising funds and communicating the takeaway message.
You never know what people don’t tell you… illegal income, spending they are ashamed to admit to, etc.
In the course of my job, I often learn what a household brings in annually as far as income. Since I live here and pay bills here, I know what things generally cost. There are some households with two professionals, which combined should be more than six figures, who drive older cars but still seem to have trouble making their insurance payments. Then I have some families with maybe only one working parent, or a whole bunch of kids, or what I understand to be low paying jobs who have newer cars , maybe a boat, motorcycles or such. It’s really hard to understand how households figure their budgets.
I admit that it drives me crazy.
LP Nevada’s office is nicer than any state LP office I have seen in any state ever, or for that matter any of the national LP offices I have been to (that would be all of them since 2000 – 2 or 3 different ones in the Watergate as well as the current one).
I looked at the campaign finance reports for the LP of Nevada and the LP of Clark County a few months ago, and I did not see any indication that either organization was raising much money.
He’s told me he’s not rich.
He’s owned some companies, but I’m a little fuzzy on what they actually did. He told me; it sounded pretty nebulous. He also said they were not really generating income currently, and that he is doing LP activism full time.
Not sure how that supports the Nevada office (which is very nice), all his travel, from what I have been told several other full time people working at LPNV office, all the equipment… but somehow it does.
“paulie
June 11, 2015 at 6:09 am
According to comments on statechairs list Brett lost $60k personally on LPEX, but still wants to do it again next year.”
Is Brett rich or something? If so, how did he make his money? If not, where is the money coming from? Most people can’t afford to lose $60k, and a lot of people don’t even have $60k to lose.
Ah-oh, look what I found:
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/nevada-gop-congressman-my-kids-will-not-be-a-drain-on-society-like-disabled-children/
Brett seemed disappointed that I hadn’t made it out to LPEX. With all due respect, I think people without 9 to 5 jobs forget how it is to have to work 9 to 5. I’m not saying we work harder at all, it’s just that we have to be there and have limited time off available.
He also said he will be flying back and forth between Florida, Vegas, and the Charlotte area (actually South Carolina suburbs) for the next few months.
According to comments on statechairs list Brett lost $60k personally on LPEX, but still wants to do it again next year.
i facebookedyou a question, stwrt
Going to conventions takes time and money away from real political activities — not to mention your “real” life. We already ask members to go to county conventions, state conventions, and a national convention held every other year. Most people cannot take time off from work for extra events like this, and the interest drops when we hear of republican elected officials as speakers.
i have hosted an LSLA, so I know what is involved. It is certainly not an easy task, and off year events are more difficult to promote.
Yes, you have to get involved to be justified to complain. But being involved also means prioritizing to make the most use of your time. LPEX was not even on the list for anyone in South Carolina, and it certainly won’t be next year when we have state and national conventions taking place.
oh and the LSLA attendance was abysmal, if you dont like certain things , if you want a bigger voice if you dont like the way somethings being managed you dont get to just bitch you have to get involved and offer or be a better option…shame on you state leaderships who did not bother to even try to come
heres my entirely unbiased opinion….I may be in NV and I do support Brett but cannot be considered just a mouth pice..
It went way, way better than i would have thought….for an inaugural year just the fluidity was impressive….Did I love the speakers…Nope, not at all , that is to say the elected ones that spoke. however I am still impressed they showed at all. Brett was wand is well aware of the speaker “issue” and explained it as in order to get the sponsors we had to have some power names to bring them in. Do I with that wasnt true, you bet, do I get it, I do. rest assured the few politicians that took questions got the full libertarian onslaught
now to the training, it was TOP NOTCH! Brett pulled off some small miracles getting them there. I actually learned new things…and my only complaint is that people dint realize how important is was to sit in on these lessons and speakers and chose socializing instead..it made our numbers look smaller. The 3 best ones for me were the former San Diego Chair, yes now a GOP on little things to do or not to do thjat make a big difference…the social media girl training and the CRM training which honestly seemed almnost too good to be true with its awesomeness. A fucking holy grail for data bases
Brett lost money Im sure , but he did a helluva job and deserves kudos and respect for it. Im ashmed i didnt help out more actually.
for all the debate about cali’s convention being rigged to exclude, they had a big turnout, and got the house cleaning they wanted I believe..
The panel of our state tresurer and controller and assistant controller and a cpl others made me realize not all those elected are bad amnd some are more fiesty than you think and most important….some with listen to your side if you ask nicely and build inroads and who knows, something we taught them may make a difference….
Im convinced we would make them more lib before they make us less so…which brings me to the LPN resolution to work with anyone on a cause and to oppose them on another if need be. I love it……….
the biggest surprise was Wayne Root speaking about his being targeted by the IRS , ah Wayne….I kept my mouth shut thanks to 2 other LP members flanking me and meeting my incredulous eye stares and listening to my whispered outrage……in case you were wondering WAR is still War but has changed his stump speech, he no longer leads with son of a butcher….he was entertaing, full of shit, relentlessly self promoting and in case you were wondering is about to single handely bring down the Obama Administration who he calls a terrorist in the white house. I think we can all applaud that he’s the RLC’s problem now.
this is my assessment , there will be another one…if you want a better variety of speakers, volunteer to find some, or be that speaker, convince libs from every variety to attend or some other way to get involved…
oh and people, not from vegas, you STILL TIP CONVENTION LUMNCHEON SERVERS, EVEN IF A GRATUITY IS INCLUDED IN WHATEVER WAS NEGOTIATED, YOU STILL TIP…this is all
From David Colborne
“Barbara Cegavske talked to us at #LPEX. Very knowledgeable, very friendly Secretary of State.”
NV convention
Hmm, I don’t have any of that, but they did say they were going to give out the powerpoints for some of the presentations by email. I should have them soon. I will warn you, though, that they did Powerpoint right – they didn’t shove the whole presentation onto the slides, just put a few key words on there to remind them what to talk about. The workshops were pretty interactive, and so aren’t captured well by the slides. People should be able to take away some value from the slides, though, although many won’t make sense out of context.
The reports I heard from the event were good. I heard there was a Republican emphasis, and there was a lower turnout than had been hoped, but everyone seemed to feel it was time well spend. I like some of the Nevada people very much.
I wonder how much $$$ the LPC is on the hook for this?
Thanks!
I’m looking for anything and everything that wasn’t already announced ahead of time:
*Links to photos on anyone’s FB pages or anywhere else
*Links to any news coverage anywhere
*Videos
*Links to tweeting, liveblogging, or any form of reporting by anyone from any of the events
*Personal accounts of events
*Minutes (LSLA, LPCA, LPNV)
*Anything else.
Paulie, what kind of news are you looking for? I didn’t take any photos, but I can tell you that Friday and Saturday had full days of speakers, usually one in the main room with 1 or 2 smaller breakout sessions. Most were workshops conducted by American Majority or the Leadership Institute, and a few were by Turning Point USA about campus activism.
These groups work more often with Republicans, but what they taught was non-ideological. It focused on building a small organization into a larger one (except TP USA as noted.) There were workshops on effective use of social media, targeting your approach, managing relationships – all things that work regardless of ideology. In fact, one of my favorite sessions was based on Saul Alinsky.
Because they are used to working with Republicans, they slipped up a few times, saying things like “all of us on the right.” One speaker didn’t slip up and continually referred to us as a ‘center-right coalition’ which annoyed me, but I was still able to learn from him. Yes, they had a tendency to see us as allies of Republicans against the ‘evil Democrats,’ but, again, I can learn from someone without agreeing with them.
There was no ‘pitch’ to try to convince libertarians to become Republicans or work in the Republican party, all the training was focused on organization building, leadership, and effective campaigning.
All in all, it was great training for building more effective organizations and running serious campaigns. I’m excited to bring what I learned back to LPCT.
David Colborne commented on his photo in Libertarian Party of Nevada.
David Colborne 5:55pm May 31
Not much drama at our convention this year, honestly. Our Executive Committee was largely reelected and is now as follows (I think – running from memory):
Chair: Brett H. Pojunis
Vice-Chair: Jason Smith
Treasurer: Tim Hagan
Secretary: Piper Kassela
Northern Rep: David Colborne (me)
Southern Rep: Candy Binnings Nickens (I think?)
At-Large: Frank Kassela
At-Large: Steve Brown
At-Large: Jason Weinman
We also passed the following resolution:
BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the Libertarian Party of Nevada ally with positions, not politicians. We shall work with anyone willing to work with us towards advancing each of our issues on an individual basis, regardless of party affiliation, and shall work against those same people when they choose to advance issues that are contrary to ours.
Past that, Brett spent some time discussing the Save Nevada Business Coalition (http://www.savenevadabusiness.com/), along with some other coalitions and efforts that our office is pioneering. Frankly, things have been running well enough that there wasn’t much need to recap or spend much time arguing about anything.
Paulie Cannoli 5:53pm May 31
Must have been drama free, unlike some recent past years…
David Colborne 5:41pm May 31
Already adjourned, by the way. Got done in about an hour.
David Colborne 5:41pm May 31
Working on it. Stand by…
Paulie Cannoli 5:40pm May 31
We have some live reports from CA’s at IPR, anyone want to the same for NV’s?
David Colborne 4:33pm May 31
Live at #LPEX, it’s the LP Nevada convention!
“We’re not going to let the Libertarian Party get hijacked, either”… Then why invite Republicans to speak, and the founder of the REPUBLICAN Leadership Institute.
Do we have updates from LPEX other than the LPCA convention, and should they be posted on that thread or a different one?
Thanks Josh.
LSLA was yesterday, CA this morning, NV this afternoon.
LSLA: Largely open discussion about the training to be offered in 2016 and about ways to share knowledge. Discussed having email lists for each position: state treasurers, state secretaries, etc. We also talked about using the conference calls for sharing of ideas in addition to EC business, and encouraged people to call into them. There was more but those are the big things that come to mind. The minutes should be posted soon to statechairs.
Also, when are the CA and NV Conventions, when is LSLA and of course, what happened thereat?
Does anyone know how many people are in attendance?
I’m just curious Whether BOTH Michael Wilson’s KNOW each other?
They certainly do NOT have much in common. The first Wilson correctly identifies
himself as a “wet blanket”
The SECOND Michael Wilson is upbeat, optimistic and clearly positive about the future.
It’s really hope that some of the Second Michael Wilson rubs off on the first Michael Wilson
Thanks Richard.
Nice comment, Michael.
Some ten or so year ago I went to an event put on by a group in Oregon that had been working on marijuana legalization. It combined a bit of a celebration party with some training.Maybe 50 people were attending during the day. Many if not most were regular people; lawyers, a doctor, housewives and scrum bums such as myself. Some of the people there had been arrested, others raided but progress had been made over the years. And for the most part they were all well dressed.
The event started off slowly and then it began to build. After a couple of hours you could feel the excitement in the room. The atmosphere was almost electric. People were getting awards and backslapping. They talked about what they had done and what they were going to do and more awards were given out. By the time dinner was served the place was rocking. People were having a great time. They were learning and sharing ideas. And telling each other what a great job they had done. Then the doors were opened and more people streamed in.
And those people set the stage for the initiative that was just passed in Oregon.
I hate to be a wet blanket but people spend a lot of money going to these things and then what?