Harry Heyoka at Allvoices.com:
snubbed Oregon delegates incite NOTA sweep
Las Vegas, Sunday May 6. After nominating two-term New Mexico governor Gary Johnson for President and Judge Jim Gray as his running mate on Saturday, delegates at the Libertarian Party’s national convention ousted all of their national officers. A fervent “None Of The Above” campaign instigated by a rejected Oregon delegation caught fire and barred Chairman Mark Hinkle’s reelection before the day’s end.
On Sunday past Treasurer Geoff Neale defeated incumbent Vice Chair Mark Rutherford for the chairmanship for the next two years. Texan R. Lee Wrights, runner-up for the presidential nomination, was elected Vice Chair on the first ballot for that position. Incumbent Treasurer Aaron Starr and Secretary Alicia Mattson, both seeking reelection, were replaced by Nevada CPA Tim Hagan (seated with the Georgia delegation) and convention organizer Ruth Bennett.
The convention, attended by over 600 delegates from all over the USA, opened on Wednesday with a glorious acapella rendition of the national anthem. Controversy arose that morning over credentials denied without notice to one of two competing Oregon delegations after those delegates had arrived and tried to sign in. Credentials Committee members M Carling and Carla Peal, Oregon members from the Reeves faction, had refused to recuse themselves despite an apparent conflict of interest. Carling and Pealer are also plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Wagner faction, which is recognized by the national party’s Judicial Committee and by Oregon’s Elections Division.
“The Libertarian National Committee stacked the deck against us by putting them on the Credentials Committee,” said snubbed Oregon Chairperson Wes Wagner. “Their votes made the difference, and Libertarians won’t tolerate dirty dealing.”
After losing a floor vote to substitute Wagner’s delegation for the one already seated, most of the rejected Oregon delegates found seats with other delegations. “Thanks to Georgia’s gracious hospitality,” said Secretary Bruce A. Knight of the Wagner group, which has ballot status in Oregon, “three of us sat and voted with them. And others were members of both Oregon delegations, since our legitimate group just accepted the first fifteen members who applied for our fifteen seats.”
Wagner too was invited to join the Georgia delegation, half of whose members had stayed home in protest of a $94 “floor fee” required before delegates could vote. Wagner declined, citing a conflict of interest. “In good conscience I cannot participate in a national body that is violating the rights of legitimate Oregon Libertarians.”
Members of Wagner’s group allied with other delegates unhappy with how the national party was run under Hinkle. On Saturday, placards saying “Re-elect no one to the LNC” appeared on the convention floor, courtesy of the numerous Texas delegation, and chants of “NOTA, NOTA” sometimes filled the Red Rock Resort conference hall.
After Sunday’s elections swept the incumbents from office and replaced them with officials sympathetic to the legally recognized Oregon party, Wagner’s Treasurer Mark Vetanen said, “We knew the odds were against us when we came, but we had nothing to lose.By taking our chances and playing the odds, we’ve proved that the house doesn’t always win.”
Added Knight, “We’ve nominated a great presidential ticket, and we’ve done some serious house cleaning. Now Libertarians can pull together, elect Gary Johnson President, and make this the best year ever for the party of freedom and responsibility.”
Copyleft 2012 by Harry Heyoka. Feel free to reproduce or republish this article at no charge in any appropriate forum, in its entirety unchanged from the copy you obtained from allvoices.com.
Harry Heyoka is based in Portland, Oregon, United States of America, and is a Stringer for Allvoices.
It’s a policymaking body that decides the direction of the party in a variety of ways by directing and selecting staff, appointing platform, bylaws, convention, credentials and other such committees, making spending decisions, and so on. All of those play a role in deciding who gets elected or re-elected and who doesn’t. In other words it is not like hiring a secretary for your office, more like choosing someone for the board of directors of a company you own stock in. If that position on the board involves secretarial duties, and the person being chosen happens to be very good at those, it does not absolve him of her of the consequences of helping to steer the company in a direction that many shareholders may not like. However, that can certainly be one legitimate thing for such a person to campaign on. Unfortunately for the candidates for non-chair positions, their time for campaigning was cut due to all the drama (and many of us would say BS) of the chair’s race.
@11: “Were a majority of the delegates aware of the details of her actions in what amounted to two years (and then some) of open factional war? Probably not.”
You mean you don’t think the hundreds of copies of each issue of Liberty for America that got mailed to delegates every month had any effect? Close to half the 2012 delegates got the issue analyzing the bylaws changes and what they would do to the party…the Bylaws changes that were rejected.
Almost anyone who was a 2008 or 2010 delegate got multiple issues of Liberty for America (yes, some people vanished; I doubt my data is perfect). A considerable fraction of the repeat delegates are permanent subscribers.
Close to half the delegates got the coverage of my telling Hinkle about the Republican candidates on the LP.org web page, and his response, and his plans for 2012-2012, and what he actually did about them.
LNC Secretaries have two tasks, one being taking notes on minutes and the other being serving on the ExComm. The last ExComm appeared to me to be working on being the worst of all time.
TK you pretty much nailed it. I would add the fact that she was on four or five committees and when I saw the quality of work that those committees put out I decided change was for the best.
LP Observer,
I’ve heard Mattson described as an exceptionally competent secretary by nearly everyone, including her opponents.
If she’d stuck to being an exceptionally competent secretary and voting her own conclusions and conscience on matters before the LNC, even where those conclusions or that conscience didn’t reflect the sentiments of a majority of likely delegates, she’d probably have been re-elected.
But instead she spent the last two years jetting around the country, raising hell, causing accidents and abusing her “parliamentarian” credentials in various bizarre attempts to get the things her clique/faction wanted, bylaws be damned.
Were a majority of the delegates aware of the details of her actions in what amounted to two years (and then some) of open factional war? Probably not. But her opponents among those delegates apparently did a reasonably good job of painting the general picture and that, along with other factors (Bennett’s mic time, etc.), was enough to cost her her seat.
um Tim Hagan is not a CPA , dont know where they got that , and I know Tim didnt say that… its always interesting to find the genesis of mis-information.
Mob scene? Um Tim Hagan is very qualified and lemme be very clear , he is NOT a radical and is beholden to no faction , he is fair , honest and simply beyond reproach …
Yes, some very qualified people were thrown out of office by the mob-scene at the convention. Hope the newly elected people have the skill sets and are up to the task. And yes, Ms Mattson may have been the best Secretary the LNC has ever had or may ever have– outstanding attention to detail. Forget the politics or philosphy–we need professionals in the officer positions. It is a board of directors, not some carnival side show.
I think the author meant past Treasurer. Aaron was defeated in 2010, and sought the position without success again in 2012. If I’m not mistaken his percentage actually improved this time.
I think Alicia was defeated because of her LNC voting record/coalition partnerships and, as Brian notes, Ruth Bennett having better mic time/prominence at the convention. I can’t imagine that it had anything to do with her actual performance of her duties as secretary, which I think was exemplary.
I saw that she was crying when she lost, and I wished I had something I could say to make her feel better then. I couldn’t think of anything at that moment.
“Incumbent Treasurer Aaron Starr and Secretary Alicia Mattson, both seeking reelection, ”
Huh?
Alicia Mattson was seeking reelection. Aaron Starr however was not the incumbent treasurer.
Either one seems much more plausible than the article explanation above.
I suspect that both what I said and what Brian said played roles in it.
Paulie’s explanation sounds far more plausible, but I question whether the average delegate was aware of the things on Paulie’s list. This is the first I’ve heard of some of them.
Such complaints certainly motivated the NOTA organizers, who had a turnout plan and signage and perhaps coordinated with Ruwart in her position that nobody on this LNC should be returned.
Perhaps the real lesson is that organizational groundwork can tip an outcome that would otherwise be a coin flip.
But it’s hard to generalize across all these LNC elections. My theory is that elections are largely determined by microphone time/performance (hence the rule about speakers running for party office).
Wrights had a lot more positive mic time than Redpath, who had to handle the bloody Chair race, so Wrights won Vice Chair.
Bennett had lots of good mic time as convention organizer, while Mattson presided over a Platform debate in which the delegates rejected nearly all of PlatCom’s major proposals.
Starr was going to have an uphill race against any solid non-controversial candidate.
The five at-large seats were largely won during the nominating speeches. GJ’s two endorsees won, Cloud had banquet mic time, Vohra gave a speech even better than Cloud’s, and Starchild had great nominator support (Ruwart and Sarwark?).
Very well said, Paulie. I wonder if anyone got the message.
Yep, this explanation seems off.
I have a different one.
The delegates said once again as we did in 2010 “Please knock off the infighting BS and build this party.”
In 2010 we elected what we believed was a unity LNC slate with people from “both” sides and a chair with a positive, growth-focused agenda.
What we got instead was the committee majority filling vacancies with their factional allies, continued bitter infighting, threats to censure other members or even kick them off the committee, threats to impeach or effectively take away the power of the chair, two contentious Judicial Committee hearings, perceived gamesmanship over the placement of the national convention, and the Chair’s positive vision from his race in 2010 was not only not implemented but was never even placed on the agenda for a vote.
So, my best interpretation of the message the delegates sent this time was something like
“In case you did not understand us last time we really do mean it. Knock off the BS and get to work building this party. If you don’t you will all be turned out on your ear two years from now as well. Please pay attention this time. Thank you.”
The delegates were upset that they themselves had voted to seat the bylaws-following Oregonians over the bylaws-shredding Oregonians, so they retaliated against the LNC incumbents.
Right. Got it.