This article originally appeared at Freedom Gulch.
That’s right fellow Libertarians, with a new leadership team in place and a plan created in 2014, we have already put some wins under our belt. Let’s do a quick recap:
It all started waaaaaay back in the beginning of 2014 with a very impatient young Libertarian (myself) and a dream to get Libertarians elected to public office in order to repeal shitty, restrictive laws and let us keep more of our money from an ever intrusive authoritarian government. So, I started recruiting some awesome people to run as Libertarians for state office. Long story short; state LP leadership didn’t agree with my methods or plans so we recruited a super-majority for the 2014 convention and voted them all out just one year into their two year terms. I became the new Chairman for one term, our candidates and activists poured their hearts and souls into their campaigns, and a few months later…here were our election results:
8 candidates made it through “Top-Two” and 4 of them received over 30% of the vote. These are definitely some kick-ass results for Libertarians (for exact details on election results, check out our wiki page). We basically smashed all historical Libertarian vote totals in Washington State. Great results! However, we didn’t win any elections. It’s kinda hard to change public policy if we aren’t in public office.
Fast forward to 2015…out of our 17 Libertarian campaigns we scored 5 newly elected Libertarians taking our total elected Libertarians in Washington State to 9! Check out the results here:
We more than doubled the amount of Libertarians in Washington State. So in 2012 we only had our Presidential candidate on the ballot, 2014 we had 12 candidates, 2015 we had 17 candidates on the ballot. Are you ready for 2016? Well, as the former LPWA Chairman, I can honestly say that the party is not ready.
We have had tremendous growth and success in a very short amount of time but it’s not enough. Our membership and fundraising is still down. We need to raise at least another $5,000 in the next month to secure our convention in April. One $5,000 donation would do it, or five $1,000 donations, or fifty $100 donations, or just DONATE whatever you can! Seriously, there has been a small group of dedicated Libertarians shouldering the work for everyone over the past few years. Would it be ok if you joined us?
Now I am asking you to support the new leadership who were elected at our 2015 LPWA Cascade Liberty Summit and Convention. Our Chairman elect is Steven Nielson. Steven was one of our awesome Libertarian candidates in 2014. He ran again Washington State Republican House Minority Leader Rep. JT Wilcox. Nielson was the first Libertarian candidate in Washington State history to advance through the “Top-Two” primary system that so many Libertarians complain about. He studied hard, practiced his skills, and ran an impressive campaign. Steven received 28.2% of the vote and won an entire precinct, something unheard of in most Libertarian campaigns.
As the former Chairman, I have been doing my best to support Nielson and the new leadership team and I encourage you to join us. Give your time, energy, and funds. We only live once, might as well do something worthwhile like give future generations more freedom than we have now.
Sincerely,
C. Michael Pickens, Libertarian Activist
P.S. Washington State law allows for donations to political parties in unlimited amounts from anywhere in the country. That’s right, if you have a hundred thousand or even a million dollars laying around that you don’t need, you can send it here. The cause of liberty would greatly appreciate it!
C. Michael Pickens is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cannaire, Inc. (www.Cannaire.com), former Northern Vice-Chairman of the LPCA and Chairman of the LPWA, author of the book, “Libertarian Leadership” and co-author of the upcoming book, “Libertarian Lion.” (www.LibertarianLion.com) Speaking inquiries, questions, or general comments- [email protected]
Richard is right again.
Most of the minor party victories for legislature are in races with both major party candidates running. For example, the last time the Libertarian Party won a legislative race was in New Hampshire in 2000, where Libertarian Party nominee Steve Vaillancourt had both Dem and Rep opponents. In Alaska, all the Libertarian wins for the legislature (in 1978,1980, and 1984) were in races with both Dems and Reps as well. The last time the Green Party elected a state legislator (not counting the strange Arkansas races in 2008 and in 2012 in which the Green Party nominee was the only candidate on the ballot) was in 2004, when John Eder in Maine was re-elected running against both a Democrat and a Republican.
The stunning victories of independent and minor party candidates for Governor, in Maine in 1974, 1994, and 1998; Minnesota in 1998; Connecticut in 1990; Alaska in 1990; in Rhode Island in 2010, were all races with both a Dem and a Rep. The path to minor party victory in partisan elections is to have both major parties in the race so the minor party candidate can win with as little as 35% of the vote. Two-person races give an opportunity for minor parties to get a high percentage of the vote but they are not pathways to winning. But the top-two system keeps minor parties out of races that have both a Dem and a Rep running. The best way to victory is to get rid of top-two systems. Here in California there has been a continuous string of lawsuits against top-two or some aspect of top-two. A new lawsuit here in California was filed by the ACLU just a few months ago. It has top-two proponents running scared, which is why they are planning a new initiative to remove all party labels from the ballot in state office elections.
C. Michael Pickens is an LP member, so this makes him a big “L” Libertarian.
This C. Michael Pickens character is the best thing to happen to the LP in quite a while. Winners attract winners, and I expect that if he walks districts, he’ll eventually win an SL race or two, marking himself as a serious small-L libertarian.
Congratulations! I admire your optimism and resiliency, Michael. California still hasn’t recovered from the shock of top-two, but we’re doing our best to move the party forward.
Richard, we might not be at that level yet but we are getting there. I am looking forward to the day when I can say that we have defeated either the Republicans or Democrats in a 3-way race. That time is coming and it’s coming soon. I won’t stop until we win.
Excellent point, Richard.
In my first sentence above I forgot to say “in a top-two system”.
So far, in the whole USA, there is no exception to this rule: in a race with both a candidate with the ballot label “Republican” and a candidate with the ballot label “Democrat”, no minor party member will qualify for the November ballot.
The Washington Libertarian 2014 election returns mentioned above are very good, but not exceptional for two-candidate races. In 2014, Libertarians for the legislature in two-person races in November exceeded 25% in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. Also in Colorado in 2014, a Libertarian in Colorado got 40.53% for Regent of the University, district 7, a partisan race.
The Californian in November 2014 who got 25.75% for the legislature in a two-person race was Patrick D. Hogan, in a district in the foothills, running against the Republican incumbent.
Click on the second, lower and smaller picture – they’re listed on there. If you click on it it increases the size so you can actually read it.
Just skimmed the article. What offices did they win?
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