2007 LP Nevada Convention
download PDF here - right click and choose 'save target as'
The 2007 LP Nevada Convention was held in Las Vegas on February 10. Normally, these even numbered conventions are held in a rural county of Nevada. The fact that it was held in Las Vegas is a testimony to the failure of the current leadership in meeting the needs of rural Nevada.
Delegate attendance reached 17 during the day.
The State Chair Jim Duensing said the 2004 campaign was a success because our Assembly candidates did better in average percentage of the vote figures than in the last election.
But this is due only to one race that of Assembly 13 where the candidate had only one major party opponent and got 24.28% of the vote. All the other races were mediocre. I get the actual average of the vote at 9.57%. There were only 4 Assembly races (out of 22 possible) and the vote percentages were 3.31 in Assembly 1, 5.49 in Assembly 13, 24.28 in Assembly 16, and 5.22 in Assembly 24 in Washoe Co.
There were in fact only 4 Assembly candidates due to the current policy of not running any paper candidates, and opposing all potential candidates who are not in the "Vote for a Change Caucus" from being nominated at all.
The Independent American Party, who the current excomm denigrates for running too many paper candidates, in fact ran 13 Assembly candidates just in Clark and Washoe Co. They had 5 candidates who only had one major party opponent, so their vote percentages were 14.69% average. The five candidates garnered 33.83, 32.68, 38.68, 24.53 and 25.10 percent of the votes in districts that had only one major party candidate.
Unmentioned but of more consequence was the Senate Race run by Tim Hagen. Tim polled 7.62% in Dist 5 but more important his vote total was more than the margin of victory of the Democrat over the Republican in the race. This is the only race that counted for any vital sign of political power, since it is generally understood that LP candidates take votes from Republicans, and Tim could be understood as making a real impact in that race. But, the State Chair did not seem to understand that as it was not mentioned.
I pointed out that none of the LP Congressional candidates received the requisite votes for ballot access. The votes needed to retain ballot access were garnered by Tom Koziol running for Washoe Co Assessor. That candidate of course was the candidate that I placed on the ballot as an emergency candidate according to state law and for which action the "Vote for a Change Caucus" had me removed as State Chair.
Ballot Access Guru Richard Winger told Janine Hansen, ballot access coordinator for the IAP that the excomm should apologize to me for what they did, but no apologies were forthcoming at the convention. The Vote for a Change Caucus continued to oppose me and impugn my character.
At the beginning of the bylaws portion, they asked for and the convention gave them leave to suspend the rules and introduce bylaws that were not posted on the web thirty days before the convention.
All of my proposals were defeated. Then they introduced a bylaws package that was approved. It solidifies the LP Nevada as a top down centralized organization controlled by two families in Las Vegas.
There are now no active rural county affiliates for the LP Nevada. The Vote for a Change Caucus refused to recognize a Washoe Co reorganization convention because they voted for me as chair. The Nye County affiliate is gone because VFAC pressured the chair there to run for Congress when he wanted as a first time candidate to run for Assembly. I believe because he was under too much pressure as a Congressional candidate, that caused him to mishandle the NYE Co convention. Now there is no Nye Co affiliate party.
The LP Nevada ran no statewide Candidates for Nevada State offices in 2004. This was particularly embarrassing when the opportunity came to demonstrate against the exclusion of minor party candidates from the debates when gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons unexpectedly asked for them to be included. The Vote for a Change Caucus drove Tom Hurst, a physics professor at UNLV and Rebecca Iocacca, a dealer who is a former teacher, out of the caucus because they were printing their own pamphlets on issues that were deemed to be too extreme by the caucus. Rebecca had wanted to run for Governor, but she was thwarted by the VFAC caucus. Tom Hurst has a genuine feel for rural Nevada and worked hard at visiting rural Nevada in the 2004 election. He could have been a valuable candidate, despite or possibly because of his political views that were considered too radical by the excomm.
I pointed out that the LP Candidate this election cycle who did the most for the party was the Montana Senate candidate who put the Democrat in office and gave the Senate to the Democrats by garnering more votes than the margin of victory over the Republican. That candidate is a black helicopter conspiracy theory pro life candidate who has turned a permanent shade of blue from taking too much colloidal silver. That candidate would never have been allowed to run if the VFAC caucus was in Montana.
None of the other candidates except Tom Hurst and I have ever to my knowledge published any articles as Libertarians that have been published in Nevada Newspapers. None of the other candidates are involved in their communities enough that they have ever spoken at events such as the Reno Anti War Coalition rallies, the Smokers Club Convention in Las Vegas, or any other rally or event . The Vote for a Change excomm spent $10,000 on pamphlets that were primarily distributed on streetcorners, often by running out into traffic and giving them to motorists.
Ten thousand dollars, in my opinion, would have been better spent on a few good radio ads then on expensive brochures handed out in such a random fashion.
The Nevada LP now consists of a tiny Las Vegas contingent controlled by two families. Rural Nevada has been deserted by them. Washoe Co, the second largest county in Nevada, has no affiliate party. The Public Access show, with Liberty and Justice for All, (www.libertyandjusticeforall.tv) that has run on the Cable produced by myself and other libertarians (and lib republicans and IAP constitutionalists) for ten years is no longer sponsored by the Washoe Co LP.
The strategic plan for the LP has in it that the experience of being a Libertarian volunteer should be as pleasant and rewarding as possible. The VFAC caucus has certainly violated that provision.
The Convention nominated me to be Northern Nevada rep on the excom but Joe Silvestri got up and said he would rather the position be vacant than have me on it. The vote was 9-7 against.
I was expelled from the VFAC Caucus and the State Chair because I put two rural Nevada candidates on the ballot for County offices, Tom Koziol for Washoe Co Assessor and Liz Smith for Eureka Co Clerk after the convention. This is a provision of Nevada law designed to help third parties grow. The VFAC caucus does not believe that it is worth while to use this tool. Non partisan or other minor party candidates who come to the LP for help in getting on the ballot for lower offices at the county level have no recourse with us now. The LP is not interested in having people already in government be LP members through this provision of law. Only those who come to LP meetings and kiss the VFAC ring can be active in the LP Nevada as candidates. As the chair's father, who is also on the excom, said at the Convention, we don't want those people to be part of our organization. This nepotism was also ratified at the convention by the 17 delegates as they filled the Judicial Committee with relatives of the excom again. The judicial committee is supposed to be a check on the excom for those who wish to appeal its decisions.
My name did not appear on the $10,000 brochures at all although I ran for Senate, a statewide office. Only VFAC members get LP Nevada funds. No money or mention was spent on the county races or the non partisan race for Sheriff in Storey Co. The excom is too busy promoting VFAC to help people with winnable races.
The VFAC people point to the California experience where the Candidate for Governor once spat at a talk radio host as the example of the dangers of putting people on the ballot. However, this candidate was not a post convention addition. He was, in fact, nominated at the California convention and was active in the California LP for years. He even had a Libertarian youth organization he created, called the Wolf Pac.
No one is saying the LP should add candidates post convention that we do not know well to policy oriented candidacy positions. However, Tom Koziol is a sitting member of the Washoe Co Board of Equalization who had a reputation as a tax fighter, and already had endorsements in hand from tax groups, and the support of activists. Unlike Clark County, Washoe Co actually has real life activists who go to county commission meetings and lobby at the legislature. Clark County LP members are too busy devising five year plans to take over the state to bother with that sort of activism. Tom Koziol's only problem was he decided to run late in the game and needed our help. He ran an excellent campaign, considering he received no help from the LPN and in fact was harassed by them to the point he filed a complaint with the FBI. He even had a lawsuit filed against him that was dismissed because it was too late and filed in the wrong venue. (The State Chair is an attorney.)
The VFAC Caucus talks about these people who come to the LP for help as "jerks" and "idiots" or "whackjobs" because they did not "have their act together" as far as understanding ballot access laws or whatever reason why they need our help.
The VFAC caucus writes articles accepted by the LP News which often sound like they were written by Pravda as they have a definite propagandistic manner. In fact, VFAC loves to talk about how they are in the propaganda business.
The only thing they have shown me is that they are Libertarian Leninists. Leninists believe they are the vanguard and that the party is the most important thing there is.
In opposition, I believe that the people are the most important thing there is, and that liberty itself is more important than the party. Insofar as the party puts the people down it fails to promote liberty.
Insofar as the LP Nevada continues to purge people from active participation as candidates by using this device of a Caucus that controls the state party they will cause people to turn away from the LP. No one wants to be bossed around by a central committee, 5 year plan, Libertarian Leninist party.
Brendan Trainor,
Former Chair, LP Nevada
http://www.brendantrainor.comBrendan Trainor
:info@brendantrainor.com
mobile: (775) 229-0065
tel: (775) 473-4618
(702) 216-1771 (Gizmo)