The Libertarian National Committee opted not to fill two vacant At-large Representative seats during its August 3 special meeting, despite previously setting that evening for both elections. The committee instead held nominations and postponed the vote to allow members additional time to consider candidates.
An agenda published by the LNC in advance of the meeting initially outlined that the national committee would be filling two positions following the resignations of At-large Representatives Adrian F Malagon and Kathy Yeniscavich earlier last month. However, following some discussion, the committee decided to table the vote after nominations were completed to give members a seven-day window to rank candidates via approval voting using OPAvote software.
According to a meeting liveblog published by Third Party Watch, some members raised concerns about not having sufficient time to review each nominee’s qualifications and background, cautioning about a rush to judgement. Others cited procedural clarity and fairness as factors in the decision to delay. The committee ultimately chose to use the meeting time to accept At-large nominations, as well as allow for three-minute speeches and question some nominees on their backgrounds and motivations for wanting to serve.
Eight individuals were nominated during the meeting. Region 1 Representative Aron Lam nominated Austin Martin, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Hawaii and Region 1 Alternate. Region 5 Representative Otto Dassig nominated both Ben Weir, Chair of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, and Gregory Deal, Vice Chair of the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania. Region 6 Representative Pat Ford nominated Thomas Eddlem, Political Director of the Unified Libertarians of Massachusetts.
Vice Chair Paul Darr nominated Douglas Knebel, who currently serves on both the Libertarian National Committee’s Audit and Investigatory Committees. Region 2 Representative Jonathan McGee nominated Samuel Bohler, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Alabama. Current At-large Representative Robert Vinson nominated Jacob Bradly, a member of the State Libertarian Executive Committee in Texas. Region 3 South Representative Keith Thompson nominated former Libertarian National Committee Chair Nicholas Sarwark.
Several candidates had previously announced their interest in the positions ahead of the meeting, including Sarwark, Pietro Geraci, Outreach Director for the Libertarian Party of New York, and former New York Chair Tony D’Orazio. Larry Gillis of the Libertarian Party of Florida had also expressed interest but withdrew before nominations, stating satisfaction with the quality of the field. Neither Geraci nor D’Orazio were formally nominated by any committee members.
Minor difficulty: The list of nominees mostly did not overlap with the list of people who reportedly were going to be nominated.
Pretty ridiculous that they wouldn’t just vote on the same day as the nominations. What is LNC doing? Just seems like efforts to not get any work done efficiently