Issues

Accountability

Libertarians deserve to know what their representatives are doing. Due to motions introduced by me, all official minutes are now posted on lp.org. I have worked with Secretary Bob Sullentrup to get minutes approved by mail ballot between meetings as quickly as possible. The list of roll call votes I distribute with this letter and post on my website is a helpful guide to LP members and Convention delegates.

Staff

Following though on my campaign promise, this term a Political Director was hired to work full time on candidate recruitment, candidate support, and ballot access. Additionally a Volunteer Coordinator was hired to develop a database of volunteer expertise and better leverage our human capital.

Website and Database

As Chair of the IT Committee I have lobbied the LNC and staff to restore historical information to lp.org, such as LNC meeting minutes before the 2004 term, old LP News issues, lists of past presidential candidates and elected Libertarians, and the Success 97/99 seminars.

The membership database is the heart of our operations. When the national office switched from FoxPro to Raiser’s Edge, database dumps to states became less reliable and frustrated numerous volunteer state database administrators. I have lobbied for a consistent database field order and field format, automated imports and exports, and useful database software for state affiliates. So far I have been unsuccessful in votes on both website and database issues (see the roll call votes).

Ideology

As a delegate there are aspects of the Platform I would change to better market libertarianism, but I believe LNC members and staff have a fiduciary responsibility to respect the Platform passed in Convention when speaking in the name of the Libertarian Party. Negligence in LNC oversight of staff resulted in the Iraq Exit Strategy of 2005 (advocating more foreign intervention in the form of redeployment) and an April 2008 press release on child pornography (advocating centralization of federal power). I opposed elimination of the Advertising and Publications Review Committee, which monitored releases for ideological compliance. The APRC should be restored.

Prospecting

The national office should be aggressively prospecting for new donors, volunteers, pledgers, and candidates. If we don’t prospect, attrition will eat away at our donor and volunteer base.