Caryn Ann Harlos announced her resignation Sunday as Secretary of the Libertarian National Committee, citing a breakdown of trust with Chair Steven Nekhaila and broader frustrations with the committee. She also shared her resignation from several subcommittees.
The announcement was posted to the LNC’s public Business List, where Harlos said she had “lost all faith” in Nekhaila. She pointed to a recent message from the chair stemming from a proposed motion to investigate her conduct, calling it the “last straw.” Harlos also claimed that harassment complaints she previously filed under the party’s Policy Manual were never acknowledged.
“I will not break confidentiality but I want to be free to speak my mind about the absolute hellscape this has turned into,” she wrote. “I am not putting myself through any more.”
Harlos, who was most recently reelected secretary during the Libertarian Party’s 2024 national convention, expressed broader disillusionment with the committee, stating that nearly the entire board should resign, with a few exceptions. She also accused At-large member Adrian F Malagon of abusive behavior directed toward her and other members, calling for his immediate resignation and an investigation into his conduct.
Her statement followed a proposed resolution submitted Saturday by Malagon ahead of the committee’s July special meeting. The resolution sought an investigation into Harlos for allegedly interfering with the Libertarian Party of Colorado’s recent state convention, which the state party labeled “illegitimate” due to concerns about how it was noticed. Malagon cited an advisory letter from parliamentarian Jonathan Jacobs to Colorado Chair Hannah Goodman, which argued that the event had been improperly noticed and warned that any individuals claiming to act on behalf of the LPCO in connection with the event would be committing an “act of deliberate misrepresentation.”
Malagon would separately introduce motions to remove Harlos from the Bylaws Committee, the Advertising and Publication Review Committee, and the Convention Oversight Committee. He also proposed two Policy Manual amendments that would replace the secretary’s seat on the Convention Oversight Committee with that of the national chair.
Harlos denied any wrongdoing and put forward a counter-motion calling for Malagon’s own removal. She later put fourth a separate motion to also remove him from the Employment Policy and Compensation Committee.
Chair Nekhaila initially ruled both Harlos’ and Malagon’s respective motions dilatory. However, he later reversed his decision following an appeal by Region 5 Representative Otto Dassing, which he cited as demonstrating sufficient support for the motions’ inclusion on the agenda. He also publicly criticized Harlos, writing that it is “time to stop pointing fingers and start showing leadership.”
“I’ve taken appropriate steps within my authority to curb this situation,” Nekhaila wrote. “But I am not a referee for personal grievances, and I will not be pulled into cycles of escalation. It is now on you to decide how you react and whether you are going to help stabilize this board, or continue adding to the chaos.”
As of this Monday afternoon, the LNC is voting on whether to formally accept Harlos’ resignation. An updated agenda for the July meeting includes Malagon’s Policy Manual proposals, while other motions appear to have been withdrawn following Harlos’ announcement. Nekhaila has also since appointed Malagon as secretary pro tem pending the selection of a permanent replacement.
Your friend: you are the same person, so you are both banned for making an overtly false claim to the moderators..
A rhetorical question is an opener of a statement, followed by an answer of some length from the same speaker. We did not encounter this here. If you actually ask a rhetorical question, you must as part of the question supply the answer. The answer, from the same speaker, is the point of asking a rhetorical question. “implied answer” is a dishonest debating technique, because the speaker, hearing dissent, can always claim that wasn’t what he meant.
My friend Curious always posts in the form of questions. Her point was that Robert’s Rules is hot garbage, which it is. Many other excellent points were raised by way of rhetorical questions, for example that it’s precisely the point of weighing their procedures down with so much complexity and formalism to create the illusion of activity while accomplishing little, nothing, or negative progress towards stated ultimate end goals. There was much more, which was very unfortunately wiped out.
What is wrong with asking rhetorical questions? Were any of the implied answers in themselves out of bounds here?
We had an extended series of posts with people being impolite to each other. There was a post using the rhetorical style of pretending to ask questions that were in fact assertions. Several posters stated that other people has committed named crimes. These posts were deleted. If you are going to try arguing with rhetorical questions, you should first learn what a rhetorical question is as a rhetorical structure..
I’ve been partying since Sunday morning! The party might be saved unless Harlos runs for chair next year.
@ Actually and Caryn Ann Harlos:
“Happy independence day”
July the Fourth be with you!
The libertarian party might be perpetually and penultimately ineffective and inefficient, but it’s unbelievably effective and efficient at being so.
Despite already being at the zenith of known possible achievement in the sublime arts of self sabotaging, self contradiction by definition, self unawareness, and self perpetuating for the sake of self perpetuating, it somehow keeps unlocking hitherto unknown and unimaginable levels of setting itself up for more and more decades of running around in circles while exchanging both dummy and live rounds.
This acrobatic performance is so far beyond stellar that nothing even remotely close to words in any human language exists to adequately describe it. The libertarian party is both inherently ironic and its own point.
Congratulations to ex-Secretary Harlos for the second year in a row for her long overdue self-emancipation from yet another level of this self-imposed slavery in hell. Freedom isn’t free, but her freedom just got more free, again. Last year it was a “caucus”, which is sort of like an extra punishment secure housing unit inside a penal colony within a gulag. This year it’s the lnc – which is sort of like the penal colony in this puerile overwrought criticism by analogy of an equally puerile and overwrought organization. Next year, here’s to discovering a further level of freedom. How many layers remain is yet unknown.
Or as more normal people might put it, happy independence day. This year it came a few days early, but still at almost exactly the right time of year. Many happy returns!
And good riddance indeed, not to Caryn Ann, but to the giant LNC monkey on her back. They / it never deserved her to begin with, and Atlas has finally shrugged them off at long last.
“People, not politics.”
I will commend that you categorized the letter to the LPCO Chair as a “warning letter.” Note, however the lines you partially quoted states, ” Any claim by these individuals of acting on behalf of the LPCO will be an act of deliberate misrepresentation.” There is no claim that anyone had, at the point that the letter was written, represented that these individuals were making the claim.
They hopefully will not do so and will attend the properly called meeting.
>what is the possible point of voting as to whether to accept a resignation?
It’s required to have a vote under Robert’s Rules. See 32:5.
Time to investigate Harlos. The timing is very suspect.
Good riddance.