Reason on Libertarian POTUS race

Brian Doherty, the author of Radicals for Capitalism, posted a long dispatch on the Libertarian Party National Convention on the Reason website yesterday. While it was mostly devoted to The Story – Donald Trump's appearance at the convention – Doherty also reported on the POTUS nomination race within the party.

Inside the Libertarian Party's Decision To Host a Trump Speech | Reason | Brian Doherty: 

May 24, 2024 - "It's certainly unusual for small political parties to invite their most charismatic rivals to come try to steal their voters.... But the L.P. leadership faction that engineered the stunt, including National Chair Angela McArdle, counter that it has already reaped a nearly unprecedented amount of media attention, bolstering the finances of a party that for the past two years has been bleeding money and membership. 'Convention sales, and donations, have been explosive following the announcement of Trump (and others) since the beginning of this month,' said Todd Hagopian, who has been L.P. treasurer since May 2022, via email. Hagopian, who opposed inviting L.P. competitors Trump, President Joe Biden, and the attending independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said that full numbers won't be available until after the convention, but: 'Best period of fundraising since I've been on the board'....

"Part of the McArdle/Mises Caucus pitch for having the Trump and RFK Jr. circuses at the convention is that the much lesser-known L.P. presidential candidates will have the kind of spotlight they never otherwise would have dreamed of. And political reporters will be witnessing a nominating race that is currently wide open.

"The Mises Caucus is backing Michael Rectenwald, a former Marxist professor at New York University who became disillusioned with the politically correct 'social justice creed taking over universities all across the country.' Rectenwald railed against speech codes and microaggressions initially via an anonymous Twitter account, eventually suffering pushback from colleagues and the university. He retired in 2019 and embraced Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism. Rectenwald thinks his already-established relationships with such right-leaning media stars as Tim Pool and Glenn Beck make him the candidate most likely to bring more new attention to the party. (The Mises Caucus thinks Rectenwald has what it takes to help pivot a growing L.P. audience into being the linchpin of a new media empire.) He prides himself as being the candidate most dedicated to loudly and proudly hating the state and feels qualified to throw elbows on stage with Trump, whose foreign policy he sees as essentially indistinguishable from Biden. Rectenwald has raised over $67,000 as of the start of May.

"A wide range of party members and watchers from both sides of the divide think that the Mises Caucus will be coming into the "convention with around 40 percent to 48 percent of the body, not a dominating majority. A Mises Caucus convention strategy memo circulating this week tells members to vote Rectenwald and for Liberty Lockdown podcaster Clint Russell for vice president. (The two votes are separate, with president going first.) Another old Mises Caucus stalwart who didn't get the group's official nod, Joshua Smith, is as of this writing coming in fifth in the donation-based straw poll that will define which five of the nine candidates listed get to debate at the convention.

"Chase Oliver, another presidential hopeful, is an L.P. legend for having consigned the Republicans to a minority in the U.S. Senate in 2022, when he received over 2 percent of the vote in a Georgia Senate race, thus forcing a runoff that Republican Herschel Walker lost. He's been the only presidential hopeful to campaign in all 50 states, to "demonstrate the work ethic that I would bring to the table. So I feel great going into the convention, knowing so many delegates have gotten to see me face to face.' By doing so, Oliver believes he has beaten back the reputation his online detractors had tried to pin on him of being too lefty, too enamored of identity politics. 'I came to the party as part of the antiwar movement within the Democratic Party,' he admits, but now says he's a 'hardcore free marketer' and a straight-line Libertarian on everything from foreign policy to taxes to guns and has no tolerance for 'socialism and communism.' His appeal could roughly be described as more normie political-traditional than the fire breathers he is mostly competing with. Oliver has raised over $74,000 as of the start of May.

"Lars Mapstead, a tech entrepreneur who hit it big in early social media, is offering both an unusual strategic vision for L.P. impact and the ability to self-finance his campaign in the seven figures. Mapstead's strategy is to concentrate on the states of Maine and Nebraska, which divvy up their electoral college votes rather than being winner-takes-all, which could net an actual electoral vote or two and prevent either major candidate from getting a clean win. He tweeted following the Trump/L.P. convention booking that "I have the only plan to spoil this rotten election." He can tell he has gotten the Republican's attention, he says, because Trump's team has included him in internal polling where he's pulled about 1 percent. Mapstead has raised over $737,000 as of the beginning of May, around $719,000 of which came out of his own pocket.

"Mike ter Maat is that rarity, a Libertarian former cop (from Florida), though he stresses he was able to avoid vice squad duty or anything else that would cause him to violate libertarian principles. "You learn that your last line of defense of the Constitution is a cop in many cases," he says. In an L.P. nominating process that goes to as many rounds as it takes for someone to win a bare majority of the delegate vote, with the lowest-vote candidate dropped each round, ter Maat thinks his ability to "take support from every element of the Libertarian Party," from the Mises Caucus to the Classical Liberal Caucus to the Christian Caucus, makes him a strong contender. His large staff and "background in policy and public service" give him a combination of policy boldness and the credibility needed in a general election, he insists, where he intends to borrow as much money as necessary to run a campaign that can "disrupt American politics." Ter Maat has raised over $233,000 as of the start of May, with $209,000 of that loaned or donated by himself....

"[T]hough only Rectenwald supports the Trump appearance, the rest of the Libertarian presidential field does not seem inclined to whine about it, though all are full of comments about where they differ from Trump, from spending to trade to foreign policy to COVID lockdowns. Trump's appearance and the resulting publicity is 'something our candidate will have to overcome,' Oliver says. 'I want to be an extreme contrast to Biden and Trump, and send a loud and clear message that we are not the party of Trump.'"

Read more: https://reason.com/2024/05/24/inside-the-libertarian-partys-decision-to-host-a-trump-speech/

RFK Jr. eying Libertarian POTUS nomination

Libertarians could supercharge RFK Jr’s campaign. But can he prove he’s one of them? | Semafor | David Weigel: 

February 9, 2024 - "In California, where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lives, he needs 219,403 valid signatures to make the ballot — or 75,000 registrations with his new “We the People” party. In North Carolina, he’d need 82,542 valid signatures by May 5. And on Friday morning, the Democratic National Committee filed a Federal Election Commission complaint against Kennedy’s super PAC, accusing it of 'illegally coordinating' with the campaign to get him on state ballots.

"One weird trick could fix that problem. The Libertarian Party, with automatic ballot access across most of the country, will pick its nominee in 107 days. And Kennedy might go for it. 'We have a really good relationship with the Libertarian Party,' Kennedy told CNN’s Michael Smerconish last week. 'I feel very comfortable with most of the values of the Libertarian Party.'

"The ex-Democrat called for the release of Julian Assange at the New Hampshire libertarian PORCfest; he denounced 'turnkey totalitarianism' at last year’s FreedomFest. That speech earned him an invitation to this month’s California Libertarian Party convention in Orange County, where he’ll join the party’s presidential candidates in a forum, as a potential challenger. 'I’ve unironically been told that I’m platforming Bobby Kennedy,' California Libertarian Party chairman Adrian Malagon said, with a laugh. 'In what universe am I platforming a Kennedy? He’s platforming us.'

"Kennedy, who has benefitted from voter angst about President Biden’s age and Donald Trump’s rap sheet, has built a following among many Libertarians. He’s done so while holding views that contradict the party — especially after the 2022 victory of the Mises Caucus, a radical faction irritated by the nominations of ex-Republicans (former Rep. Bob Barr, former Gov. Gary Johnson) who didn’t share their more doctrinaire views. Johnson was booed at a 2016 Libertarian Party debate for supporting the 1964 Civil Rights Act and for being the only candidate against abolishing driver’s licenses.

"Kennedy’s differences run deeper. The current party platform opposes state intervention in the economy; Kennedy has proposed tax-free government bonds to help Americans buy homes. The party believes that 'people should be able to travel freely' across borders; Kennedy promises to 'close the border' with Mexico and finish the border fence with a day one executive order. The party is 'anti-war in every context,' a point its official account reiterated on X after Kennedy explained his stem-to-stern support for Israel. 'His vibes go well with the current Libertarian Party, but the policy specifics don’t,' said Brian Doherty, a senior editor at Reason magazine and historian of the movement.... 

"This week’s events showed exactly why Kennedy, the best-known third party candidate in America, is polling so much better than other outsiders in recent election cycles. In just one hour, last night, Joe Biden flubbed a reference to Egypt (he said 'Mexico') in a press conference called to dispel doubts about his mental fitness, and Donald Trump — celebrating a Nevada caucus win that was preordained by the state GOP — said 'Turkey' when he meant 'Hungary.' In that environment, third parties have an unusually strong chance to prove their relevance, and policy litmus tests and specifics simply don’t matter as much. 

"Kennedy holds some views that are antithetical to the Libertarian Party. But he’s been with them on three defining issues of the Biden era: Opposing vaccine mandates, battling tech companies over free speech, and halting any further military funding for Ukraine. And Kennedy takes Libertarians seriously. While he hasn’t been campaigning at state Libertarian Party meetings — the California convention will be his first — he’s made himself available to movement influencers. Dave Smith, a comedian and leader in the Mises faction’s LP takeover, conducted an 80-minute interview with Kennedy last week about his support for Israel. They couldn’t find common ground, but they wanted to....

"The purists are not making way for Kennedy. Michael Rectenwald, whose platform calls for abolishing the income tax and shuttering most of the national security state,... said [Kennedy], 'thinks he can ride into Washington like a white knight and fix all of our problems'.... The Mises faction’s critics are skeptical, too. Nicholas Sarwark, who chaired the LP from 2014 to 2020, ... saw opportunity for Libertarians if they welcomed 'never Trumpers' who were abou to be politically homeless; he saw far less upside if the party embraced Kennedy. 'They’re casting around for somebody who gives a shit about their stupid right-wing anti-vax politics, and nobody does,' said Sarwark.... 'It’s probably the stupidest political strategy I’ve ever seen.'"

Read more: https://www.semafor.com/article/02/09/2024/libertarians-could-supercharge-rfk-jrs-campaign-but-can-he-prove-hes-one-of-them

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. considers libertarian run | CBS 17 | February 1, 2024: 

Mises Caucus wins control of US Libertarian Party

Mises Caucus Takes Control of Libertarian Party | Reason - Brian Doherty: 

May 29, 2022 - "A four-year battle for control of the Libertarian Party (L.P.) ended Saturday in Reno with a victory for the Mises Caucus at the party's national convention. The faction's chosen candidate for chair of the party's national committee, Angela McArdle, won on the first round of balloting.... McArdle, a paralegal and current chair of the Libertarian Party of Los Angeles County, said in her speech to the convention Friday that the government response to COVID has left many working-class Americans thirsty for personal liberty, and 'we don't want to ignore them.' They have, she argued, 'low-resolution views of freedom…and we need to bring that vision into focus by communicating our message clearly and by supporting our candidates and affiliates.'

"While McArdle was the Mises Caucus candidate, the behind-the-scenes mastermind of its victory was caucus founder and leader Michael Heise. His disapproval of William Weld, Gary Johnson's running mate in 2016, was an initial inspiration for the caucus' launch.... The caucus's official platform is plumb-line libertarian, but its foes say that too many Mises Caucus members and fans downplay libertarian positions that might offend the right, are intentionally obnoxious and bullying...., The sense the caucus is soft on or actively encourages racism attracted the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Center just before the convention began, which aired the concerns in a story reported with cooperation from many Libertarian Party members upset with the Mises Caucus. Both Heise and Mises Caucus stalwart Joshua Smith, who won the vice-chair election Saturday, denied the charges of racism. 

"Heise said in a phone interview prior to the convention that the basic vibe they are seeking is online youths into edgy comedic podcasts, a new counterculture for whom the old L.P. holds little appeal. Heise believes that the current rumored frontrunner for a Mises Caucus–approved presidential nominee in 2024, comedian and podcaster Dave Smith, is so well-connected to the Joe Rogan world that legacy respectable mainstream media will be meaningless for party messaging moving forward.

"In his nominating speech for McArdle before the vote, libertarian antiwar author and podcaster Scott Horton insisted that he's seen thousands of new convention-attending members energized by the Mises Caucus in the last couple of years.... Meanwhile, during that same period, fierce factional dueling has played out in hundreds of hours of podcasts, hundreds of thousands of words of tweets and Facebook threads, and often on the business listserv of the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) itself. One such fight, summed up at length in Reason in June, involved a faction of non-Mises libertarians in New Hampshire attempting to create a new L.P. affiliate so that the national party could disaffiliate the Mises-dominated one and recognize the new one. The gambit, which ultimately failed, led to the resignation of then-national chair Joe Bishop-Henchman and caused one of the party's few elected officials, Dekalb, Illinois, City Clerk Sasha Cohen, to quit in protest as well, saying 'we are a big tent party, but no tent is big enough to hold racists and people of color, transphobes and trans people, bigots and their victims.'

"Despite bad blood, I detected no booing or walkouts today when McArdle's victory made the caucus' victory manifest. None of the anti–Mises Caucus delegates or supporters that I have spoken to at the convention — including people from Illinois, Florida, Texas, Massachusetts, and even Mises stronghold New Hampshire — said that this takeover would make them walk. Two former significant donors to the L.P., Kyle Varner and Michael Chastain, both with decadeslong history in the party, did say in phone interviews that the Mises turn, which they see as importing a level of racist edgelording they have no taste for, has made them stop funding L.P. candidates.... Varner and Chastain see a distinctly right-wing culture and policy bent from the Mises faction.... 

"The caucus also wants to completely eliminate any mention of abortion.... A document of internal Mises Caucus strategizing that began circulating before the convention explicitly said ... that 'one of the major goals of the Mises Caucus is to make the LP appealing to the wider liberty movement that is largely not currently here with us. That movement strongly rejects wokeism and the word games associated with it. This along with the deletion of the abortion plank will display that there are serious cultural changes in the party that are more representative of that movement'.... (Disgruntled non–Mises Caucus libertarians in Pennsylvania have left the L.P. and formed the new Keystone Party.)...

"Heise wrote on Facebook Friday night that his faction already controls a majority of the LNC, having swept the votes for regional representatives to the LNC in meetings Friday night.... Mises Caucus favorite Caryn Ann Harlos, who was booted by the LNC from her elected secretary position over Mises-related faction fights, re-won her elected position Saturday as well.

"The Mises Caucus people often dub themselves the revival or continuation of the Ron Paul revolution of libertarian ideas in the GOP's 2008 and 2012 presidential races. (Paul spoke at a party the caucus hosted Friday night.)... In those 2008 and 2012 races, however, Paul studiously avoided anything that might be construed as 'anti-woke' and generally avoided talking to his campus audiences about abortion and immigration, where he was at odds with many other libertarians. While the Mises Caucus might argue that the threat of progressive woke thought control was less severe then, the podcaster/memelord edgy-offensive-insult-comedy stance they often embrace is entirely opposite to how Ron Paul presented himself and won his huge audience as a presidential candidate."

Read more: https://reason.com/2022/05/29/mises-caucus-takes-control-of-libertarian-party/ 

Libertarian Burt elected to Wyoming state House

Libertarian Candidate Marshall Burt Wins Wyoming State House Race | Reason - Brian Doherty: 

November 4, 2020 - "The Libertarian Party (L.P.) had high hopes for a win in the Wyoming state House in two different races — and one of them came through. Marshall Burt has won in District 39 against Democrat Stan Blake, 1,696 to 1,420, according to Apollo Pazell, who was running the L.P.'s campaigns in the state. This is only the fifth time the L.P. has won a state legislative seat with a candidate running only under the Libertarian label. 

"In Wyoming's House District 55, Bethany Baldes, who in 2018 lost a state House race against an incumbent GOP majority leader by only 53 votes, lost to Republican Ember Oakley by only 32 votes, 2,058 to 2,026.

"In other L.P. races of note around America, Donald Rainwater, in a three-way race for governor of Indiana, has earned 13.1 percent of the vote with well over 90 percent of the results in. That is right in line with polling from last month, even though third-party results tend to fall precipitously from earlier polls when actual votes are cast. Rainwater came in ahead of Democrat Woody Myers in nearly two dozen counties around the state. Republican incumbent Eric Holcomb won reelection.

"In Arkansas, with 81 percent of the vote counted, the L.P.'s Ricky Harrington got 33.3 percent in his race to dethrone Republican Sen. Tom Cotton. (No Democrat was on the ballot.) Harrington won outright in two counties. In Pulaski County, which contains the state capitol of Little Rock, Harrington leads Cotton 59 percent to 41 percent.

"In Kentucky's Senate race, which Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won with 58 percent of the vote, Libertarian Brad Barron got 4 percent while losing Democrat Amy McGrath earned 38 percent.

"In Montana, L.P. gubernatorial candidate Lyman Bishop currently has around 3.5 percent with about 52 percent of the votes counted. That's more than 10,000 votes in a race where the declared winner — Republican Greg Gianforte — is presently ahead of Democrat Mike Cooney by about that many votes."

Read more: https://reason.com/2020/11/04/libertarian-candidate-marshall-burt-wins-wyoming-state-house-race/

Libertarian Party chooses Jorgensen / Cohen

Jo Jorgensen Wins Libertarian Party Presidential Nomination | Reason - Brian Doherty:

May 23, 2020 - 'In a day-long virtual meeting, after four ballots, the 1,035 delegates assembled for the Libertarian Party's online convention selected Jo Jorgensen as their presidential candidate. She won with slightly over 51 percent of the vote (not every delegate voted in every round) on that fourth ballot, with 524 votes. Jacob Hornberger came in second, with nearly 28 percent of the vote. Vermin Supreme came in third, with 20 percent of the final vote....

The party's voting procedure involved six candidates officially in nomination: Jorgensen, Jacob Hornberger, Vermin Supreme, John Monds, Judge James Gray, and Adam Kokesh. (Members could vote for other people if they wanted, or for none of the above, and many did.) Jorgensen led the vote in every round, though she was only 12 votes ahead of runner-up Jacob Hornberger on the first ballot.

"As per the party's procedure, the lowest vote getter in each round was technically eliminated for the next one. Kokesh was eliminated after round one, Gray after round two, and Monds after round three. Jorgensen's lead grew with each round, to 82 votes over Hornberger on the second ballot and a 126-vote lead on the third. Hornberger's support remained pretty steady, rising only to 285 from his first-round 236 votes.

"Jorgensen vowed to 'make this the most successful campaign we can' in a speech after the results came in." Runner-up Hornberger said in a concession speech that he 'hold[s] her in the highest respect and esteem.'"

Read more: https://reason.com/2020/05/23/jo-jorgensen-wins-libertarian-party-presidential-nomination/

Libertarian Party Picks Spike Cohen as Its Vice-Presidential Candidate | Reason - Brian Doherty:

May 24, 2020 - "Spike Cohen, who runs Muddied Waters Media, won the Libertarian Party's nomination for vice-president today. On the online convention's third ballot, Cohen got 533 votes — 52 percent of the total — narrowly edging out former presidential candidate John Monds.

"Jo Jorgensen, a Clemson psychologist who served as the party's vice presidential candidate in 1996, was chosen as the Libertarian presidential nominee yesterday in a separate vote. Jorgensen had expressed a preference for Monds to be her vice president. Cohen has linked himself to political satirist Vermin Supreme, who ran this year for the party's presidential nod."

Read more: https://reason.com/2020/05/24/libertarian-party-picks-spike-cohen-as-its-vice-presidential-candidate/

Government incompetence unmasked

Governments Have Screwed Up Mask Purchase and Distribution. Maybe Everyone Should Be a Libertarian in a Pandemic | Reason - Brian Doherty:

May 8, 2020 - "As of mid-April, The Wall Street Journal reports, the federal government had for whatever reason dedicated millions in contracts, involving at least 80 percent of the 20 million N95 masks it was trying to procure, from 'suppliers that either had never done business with the federal government or had only taken on small prior contracts that didn't include medical supplies.' Predictably, some of those vendors 'missed delivery deadlines or have backed out because of supply problems'.... At least one would-be contractor has now been nabbed for fraud on such a mask deal.

"ProPublica tagged along with what the Journal called the 'largest N95 mask contract given out by the VA [Veterans Administration], for an initial $35.4 million ... with potential for ... a total of $64.9 million, according to federal contracting data'.... The fiasco ended with no masks delivered — ... Despite months of scrambling, the Veterans Administration was not prepared to keep its hospitals equipped with masks. As of now over 2,000 V.A. employees have tested positive....

"The feds aren't the only ones making bad mask decisions. California is currently trying to get a refund on a $456.9 million wire transfer it sent as a down payment on a $600 million contract for 110 million N95 masks .... to a firm called Blue Flame Medical, which, The Wall Street Journal informs us, was 'founded days earlier by former Republican fundraiser Mike Gula'.... Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports that Gov. Gavin Newsom of California is refusing 'to reveal the contents of a $990-million contract for purchasing protective masks from a Chinese electric car manufacturer'.... Even the state's legislators are being blocked from learning details of the deal....

"The Transportation Security Agency decided to hoard more than 1.3 million N95 respirator masks (which it received from Customs and Border Protection) rather than distribute them to hospitals or agencies or people who might lack them — even, as ProPublica reported, 'as the number of people coming through U.S. airports dropped by 95% and the TSA instructed many employees to stay home to avoid being infected.'

"Other wasteful, clumsy, or even macabre stories have arisen from government attempts to help with or procure medical equipment. In Seattle, the county Public Health Department sent a Native American community health board body bags instead of requested medical supplies....

"Before COVID-19 hit, certain pundits were promoting 'state capacity libertarianism'.... The idea was, at best, an attempt to turn libertarian energies toward making government better at what it does. But these not-at-all-shocking snafus show no obvious way the concept could help, other than hand-waving calls to have better people making better decisions.

"Mask procurement is not going awry because government lacks the capacity to do anything. They have plenty of money, essentially as much as they want to have, and they have plenty of staff. It's not because they don't have professional experts and bureaucrats trying to manage things, and it's not because Republicans hate government and want it to fail.

"Even in a relatively free market, fraud and incompetence exist. The government in its mask decisions ha[s] shown a keen ability to find market actors who are very bad (deliberately or not) at what they do and offer them ungodly amounts of money. But government's unique combination of endless money and impunity for messing things up mean that the state is going to get things more wrong, more often. And that's true even, or perhaps especially, when it's urgent that the state get things right. The evidence is in the news every day, even if ideological blinders prevent non-libertarians from acknowledging it."

Read more: https://reason.com/2020/05/08/governments-have-screwed-up-mask-purchase-and-distribution-maybe-everyone-should-be-a-libertarian-in-a-pandemic/

A graphic novel on libertarian Rose Wilder Lane

Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story by Peter Bagge | Drawn & Quarterly:

"Peter Bagge returns with a biography of another fascinating twentieth-century trailblazer —the writer, feminist, war correspondent, and libertarian Rose Wilder Lane.... Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story is a fast-paced, charming, informative look at the brilliant Lane. Among other achievements, she was a founder of the American libertarian movement and a champion of her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in bringing the classic Little House on the Prairie series to the American public....

"Bagge’s portrait of Lane is heartfelt and affectionate, probing into the personal roots of her rugged individualism. Credo is a deeply researched dive into a historical figure whose contributions to American society are all around us, from the books we read to the politics we debate."
Read more: https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/credo-rose-wilder-lane-story
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Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story – Reason.com - [from article intro by Brian Doherty]:

June 2019 -  "Rose Wilder Lane was born on December 5, 1886, in the territory of South Dakota. Her early years were a hardscrabble settler's life similar to that of her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder.... After an early career writing for newspapers and penning popular biographies of figures such as Jack London, Charlie Chaplin, Herbert Hoover, and Henry Ford, Lane worked with the Red Cross in Europe in the 1920s. She adventured through Albania and parts of the Middle East....

"Throughout the 1930s, Lane assisted her mother with her fabulously successful series of children's books.... During that same period, under her own byline, Lane was a successful novelist and one of the most popular fiction writers for the Saturday Evening Post, a leading bastion of anti-Roosevelt, anti-New Deal sentiment. Lane worked with proto-libertarian editor Garet Garrett until he was no longer welcome at the publication, which reversed its stance after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

"As war approached and the state grew, Lane saw her vision of old-fashioned American liberty on the ropes. In response, she produced one of the ur-texts of the modern American libertarian movement, 1943's The Discovery of Freedom, a song of praise to human growth and political liberty's role in furthering it.

"Lane was a revolutionary; while believing America's experiment in liberty arose organically from its frontier experience, she thought the American model could and should spread beyond the nation's borders. America 'is a totally new world,' she wrote. 'This new world is an intricate interplaying of dynamic energies, a living network enclosing the whole earth and linking all human beings in one common effort, one common fate'....

"The Little House books remain part of the American canon, with the Wilder family still standing as the template of the self-sufficient pioneer spirit. Lane herself was childless, but she had a habit of quasi-adopting young people, one of whom went on to change the political history of libertarianism: her 'grandson,' the eventual Libertarian Party presidential nominee Roger MacBride. Though her own writing is now less well-known, Lane undeniably served as an intellectual foremother to a foundational generation of mid-century libertarian educators and activists."
Read more, and see sample pages: https://reason.com/2019/05/01/credo/

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More sample pages here: https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/sites/default/files/docs/samples/credo.sample.pdf

WY Libertarian loses statehouse race by 53 votes

Libertarian Bethany Baldes Gets Within 60 Votes of Victory in Wyoming State House Race Against Incumbent GOP Majority Leader - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Bryan Doherty:

November 7, 2018 - "Bethany Baldes, a Libertarian Party state House candidate in Wyoming's District 55, got so close to defeating incumbent Republican David Miller, who is the House majority leader and has held the seat ever since 2000, that until the absentee ballots were counted local news outlet County 10 was reporting a 54–46 percent win for her....

"Alas, after the absentee votes were counted, what had been a raw vote total of 1,306 to 1,112 for Baldes became a 1,645-1,592 win for incumbent Miller.

"The near-win was the fruit of a strategy pushed by Apollo Pazell, a campaign adviser with the national Libertarian Party. 'We need to create a narrative of wins,' he said in a phone interview last month. To begin that narrative, he thought the L.P. should find races where the total number of votes needed to win was small and there was only one major party opponent, then find a good candidate with strong local roots, and dig in with retail campaigning.

"'Baldes, a fifth-generation Wyoming woman, was someone who was 'part of the day-to-day life of this small town, and they didn't ever see David Miller,' Pazell said. Miller didn't even spend all year in the state, Pazell said, and returned only late in the game to do any campaigning.

"Pazell led a team of six volunteers working full-time for four weeks to hit each and every door in her district, centered on the city of Riverton, three times. Baldes sought and received endorsements from the majority of the Riverton City Council, the county attorney, and more than one former mayor.....

"While Pazell says they did not necessarily fly the Libertarian label all the time, neither did they shy away from it.... Pazell says it was often a benefit in this race, as having been a Democrat might have gotten doors slammed in their face in the current political climate. Hearing Baldes was a Libertarian was actually 'often incredibly disarming' to voters, Pazell says....

"Pazell detailed in last month's phone interview a multi-layered campaign starting with overall voter data, followed by a generic first round of door-knocks to learn more about specific voters' concerns and attitudes. That resulted in six separate mailers for six distinct groups and get out the vote reminders. The campaign raised around $6,000, which is a big deal for a Wyoming state race, he says."

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/11/07/libertarian-bethany-baldes-in-wyoming-st
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Libertarian state reps defeated in NH, Nebraska

Libertarian State Sen. Laura Ebke of Nebraska Loses Re-Election Bid - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

November 7, 2018 - "Nebraska state Sen. Laura Ebke won office in 2014 as a Republican, but switched parties to Libertarian in 2016 because of her dislike for lockstep discipline in a party that she didn't think hewed to consistent small government principles. After coming in second in a three-way nonpartisan primary in May, with 33 percent for Ebke and 44 for Republican Tom Brandt, she lost to him tonight, 57-43.

Ebke was extraordinarily well-funded for a state legislative race in Nebraska. Due largely to big-money contributions from out-of-state libertarians, she raised nearly a quarter million, huge by Nebraska standards and more than twice Brandt's take....

"The Libertarian Party didn't put a lot of effort or time into Ebke's race, which seems fine with her. She wasn't stressing the party connection much in her campaigning or messaging; unless a voter directly asked her, she wasn't apt to bring it up.... Her campaign manager, Asa Bryant, agreed in an interview last month that trying to sell a voter on the entire L.P. package was less useful to them in a local campaign than just trying to sell the candidate. So he advised Ebke not to stress the party label and not to use the term libertarian in her promotional material."
Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/11/07/libertarian-state-sen-laura-ebke-of-nebr

Party-Switching N.H. State Rep. Brandon Phinney Gets Slaughtered as a Libertarian - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Matt Welch

November 6, 2018 - "Brandon Phinney was a model for one genre of elected Libertarian: The party-switcher. The New Hampshire state representative, elected to the 400-member body in 2016 as a Republican, switched to Libertarian in June 2017 after watching the machinery of allegedly small-government Republicanism up close.... He targeted archaic laws to be stricken from the books, helped effectively legalize visiting bands drinking beer on stage, and prepped for his first election wearing the 'L' right there on his sweater....

"He got trounced.... 'After two years of voting to protect personal freedom, control spending, provide transparency and after two years of proposing legislation to do the same (with two bills as a prime sponsor signed into law),' Phinney wrote on his Facebook page, 'my district rewarded me with 377 votes.... The Democratic candidate, who barely campaigned, received 1,548 votes. The Republican, who did NOTHING but put out yard signs, received 1,720 votes'....

"In another post, Phinney complained that 'voters care more about party than literally anything else and that's the biggest problem in this country.'" "
Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/11/06/party-switching-nh-state-rep-brandon-phi

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Vohra bashed for 'School Board shootings' line

Libertarian Party Vice Chair Jokes About Shooting Up a School Board; Party's National Committee Declines to Suspend Him - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

April 13, 2018 - "Arvin Vohra, vice chair of the Libertarian Party's National Committee (LNC), prides himself on being rhetorically uncompromising in staking out the most radical and potentially outrageous outer frontiers of libertarian thought. His past comments on the age of consent (he says it isn't the government's business) and the proper moral attitude toward members of the U.S. military (he says they're hired killers) caused the party's New York gubernatorial candidate Larry Sharpe (singled out by Politico as a 'rarity...a serious Libertarian candidate') to quit his position on the National Committee after it failed to suspend Vohra back in February.

"Since then, the rhetorical outrages have continued. In a post last month on the social network site MeWe, Vohra wrote: 'Bad Idea: School Shootings. Good Idea: School Board Shootings.'

"Vohra insists that was not a serious threat but a joke in 'poor taste.' But he also has tried to use it as a teaching moment over the question of when violent resistance might be justified.... [A]s he wrote on Facebook, 'I've routinely argued against any violence against the state, since I consider it unlikely to work. But for all the hardcore gun supporters who wear taxation is theft t-shirts: what is the level of tyranny that would be great enough to morally justify using violence in self defense?'

"He has 'no plans to ever advocate violence against the state,' but only for pragmatic reasons. 'I consider it unnecessary,' not wrong. 'I believe that Dr. King and Gandhi have showed that violence is not needed to fight the state. I consider it unlikely to work.' He absolutely believes in the right to use violence to defend yourself against state actions.

"Many LNC members found the seeming threat of school board shootings to violate a pledge [the non-aggression pledge - gd] party members take to 'certify that I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals.' Vohra seems to doubt that striking at agents of the state with violence is initiating such violence, but even he wrote off the school board shooting line as a joke.

"At the end of March, some LNC members publicly asked Vohra to resign, which he opted not to do. Another motion to suspend Vohra was introduced on April 3, and last night it failed. The vote was 11–6 in favor of suspending him, but the party's rules require a two-thirds vote of the total body for suspension, so it fell a vote short....

 "LNC Chair Nicholas Sarwark voted against booting Vohra.... Sarwark stood on the principle that, since Vohra was elected by the body of the members, the decision to get him out of his job should be left up to that body when it votes for the next vice chair at the party's convention in New Orleans this summer."

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/04/13/libertarian-partys-vice-chair-jokes-abou
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Ebke unveils model licensing reform bill

Libertarian State Senator Wants to Make it Easier for People With Criminal Records (And Everyone Else) to Work - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

April 6, 2018 - "Laura Ebke of Nebraska is the Libertarian Party's only sitting state senator. A bill she introduced to reform her state's occupational licensing regime got an enthusiastic and lengthy write-up this week in The Wall Street Journal.... The Occupational Board Reform Act (L.B. 299) would change the incentive structure and process by which Nebraska decides the most rational and least restrictive way to ensure consumer safety without unduly harming people's ability to work.

"The state has been interested in 'chipping away at occupational licenses one by one' for a while, Ebke said.... Then last year she 'was approached by the Institute for Justice to see if I would be interested in carrying some model legislation they had put together, and I was very interested.'

"One of the more colorful case studies, described in the Journal story, involves massaging horses, which leaves you open in Nebraska to a possible four years in jail and a $35,000 fine if you do it unlicensed.... Ebke saw it as a teachable moment: 'Does it make sense,' she asked her colleagues, 'to demand a license to give a rubdown to a 1,200-pound creature?'

"The final vote on the measure is expected next week, and Ebke is confident it will make it to the governor's desk and be signed. One of her main allies in the process is a Nebraska-based free market think tank, the Platte Institute, founded by the sitting governor Pete Ricketts.

"Being a Libertarian, Ebke says, has likely helped the bill's so-far positive prospects. 'Most of the co-sponsors are Republicans,' she says, but 'the fact that I'm not a Republican allows some of the more liberal members of the body to come and talk to me." She says she's found such members willing to work on getting the bill into a shape that they can support, 'and their willingness to do so speaks to the fact that a lot of times I have been with them' on issues where Republicans were not.

"Ebke is also proud that the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union has been an enthusiastic proponent of the bill, largely because of how it deals with how difficult current occupational licensing laws can make it for those with criminal records to find meaningful work.... As the Journal notes, 'Recidivism rates are lower in states where former criminals can find gainful employment.'

"In arguing for the bill, Ebke has found that some citizens are 'very protectionist and want to protect their [existing] licenses,' but many Nebraskans are excited for a chance to do meaningful productive work without jumping through unnecessary and expensive hoops."

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/04/06/libertarian-senator-gets-her-occupationa
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Kokesh files for Libertarian POTUS nomination

Today Adam Kokesh Filed Papers Seeking the Libertarian Presidential Nomination. Then He Was Arrested on Drug Charges. - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

January 16, 2018 - "Adam Kokesh, longtime anarcho-libertarian activist who first came to public prominence with Iraq Veterans Against the War in 2007 and was later a big Ron Paul supporter, today filed the paperwork necessary to officially seek the U.S. presidency. He is hoping for the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination.

"He also had his RV pulled over twice by Texas police, and was arrested the second time.

"A video of the second pullover that led to the arrest ... shows highway patrol officers instructing Kokesh to shut off his camera at the point a police dog, off-camera, was said to have 'alerted' to the RV. Kokesh was pulled over for driving 74 in a 65 zone, according to one officer in the video.

"According to the Texas ACLU, the police do not have the right to demand a citizen stop videotaping willy-nilly though they have the loophole I'm sure they'd summon here regarding 'truly interfering with legitimate law enforcement operations.' The ACLU notes that: 'Professional officers, however, realize that such operations are subject to public scrutiny, including by citizens photographing them.'

"A spokeswoman for the Wise County Jail confirms Kokesh is in their custody on four charges, one related to possession of under two ounces of marijuana, two related to possession of another controlled substance she was not able to specify, and one for 'tampering and/or fabricating evidence with intent to impair' a police investigation. He will likely be arraigned and have bond set tomorrow."

"Ben Farmer, the Kokesh campaign's chief strategist, says in an email that 'we don't know any more than you do at this time about the charges or the circumstances of his arrest. We do find it suspicious that Adam was pulled over twice within an hour of formally announcing his candidacy for President. Particularly, since he just came off of a 4 month, cross-country tour in the same vehicle without being pulled over once the entire time.'"

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/16/adam-kokesh-arrested-on-drug-charges-wit
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GOP calls It's a Wonderful Life screenings illegal

GOP to Libertarian Legislator: Your It's a Wonderful Life Screening Is Against the Law - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

December 5, 2017 - "Could it be a crime to give your fellow Americans a chance to enjoy a theatrical screening of that modern American myth, It's a Wonderful Life? The Nebraska Republican Party thinks it is. Or at least it thinks it of political benefit to say it is, in their quest to unseat one of America's few sitting Libertarian state legislators, state Sen. Laura Ebke.

"Ebke switched her party allegiance from GOP to L.P. in 2016, and she's up for reelection as a Libertarian in 2018. The Republicans are running Al Riskowski, a man who formerly ran the Nebraska Family Alliance. That's a conservative activist group obsessed with the legalities of gambling, gender identity, suicide, and 'human trafficking'....

?Ebke sponsored two screenings of the movie to celebrate the revival of a local theater in her hometown that had gone under when the switch to digital projection swept the industry. On Friday, the state GOP denounced the events in a press release. 'Not only is Ebke in potential violation of state law herself for attempting to bribe voters,' the email declared, 'but she is also putting those who attend the screenings at risk of committing a violation as well.'

"By giving voters a free movie, the Republicans claim, Ebke is bribing voters. That's a class II misdemeanor under state law, punishable by six months in jail and a thousand-buck fine. And so is accepting such a bribe.

"Undeterred, Ebke held two more screenings in other towns after the threat went out, and she has two more planned.... Ebke says that 'we read the rules' and that the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission (NADC) 'says that it's acceptable to use campaign contributions for social events for constituents.' She notes that the governor does something comparable when he hosts tailgate parties.....

"The Omaha World-Herald reports that the Republicans 'are reviewing the situation to determine whether to pursue any legal action'.... Ebke says neither she nor any constituent she's met takes this threat at all seriously, though she wouldn't put it past the GOP to go ahead and file some sort of complaint with the NADC. If they do, she's confident that it will go nowhere."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/05/libertarian-state-sen-laura-ebke-breakin
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Libertarian-bashing historian Nancy MacLean accused of "getting nearly everything wrong"

To Duke Historian Nancy MacLean, Advocating Free Markets Is Something 'The World Has Never Seen Anything Like...Before' - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

August 2, 2017 - "Duke University historian Nancy MacLean recently issued Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America, an alas quite hot book that purports to expose the dark secrets of Nobel Prize-winning economist James Buchanan and the 'radical right'/libertarian movement he's allegedly the brains behind.

"MacLean has been convincingly accused by many who understand his work and the libertarian movement with both less built-in hostility and more actual knowledge than she has (including me here at Reason) of getting nearly everything wrong, from fact to interpretation. She recently took to the Chronicle of Higher Education to allegedly reply to her critics.

"A quick wrap up of many specific problems found in her book by her critics — by no means all — that MacLean ignores even while allegedly "respond[ing] to her critics," and which the editors at the Chronicle let her ignore:

• Her claim of meaningful similarity between John Calhoun's constitutional vision and that of Buchanan and his public choice school cannot be reasonably maintained.
• Her assertion that the modern public choice/libertarian constitutionalist vision has nothing to do with James Madison is not true.
• Buchanan did not, contra MacLean, believe that all taxation above voluntary giving is theft akin to a mugger in the park.
• She attributed to Buchanan the belief that those receiving government aid "are to be treated as subordinate members of the species, akin to… animals who are dependent" though he used that phrase to describe the attitude that was the opposite of his.
• Her attribution of Buchanan's use of the Hobbesian term "Leviathan" to (racist, uncoincidentally for her rhetorical smear purposes) Southern Agrarian poet Donald Davidson rather than, well, Hobbes, falls apart with study of when and how Buchanan began using the term in his work.
•  She regularly cites libertarian thinkers as saying nasty things implying a contempt for the poor or for democracy that are not supported by the full context of the quotes; victims of her malicious misinterpretation including David Boaz and Tyler Cowen....

"MacLean speaks to none of the above specific critiques of her book in the Chronicle, merely generically complaining about being attacked and insisting that people who critique her work clearly hadn't read or understood it ...  she reached instead for sympathy by complaining these specific critiques on her methods and understanding as a historian made her 'feel vulnerable and exposed' and interpreting an intellectual metaphor for a physical threat...

"She certainly does not address a core problem with her book I detailed in my review: the 'historical fact' upon which her entire thesis depends, her book's distinguishing selling point, which she claims to have uniquely discovered through diligent archival work, that James Buchanan was the secret influence behind the political funding machine of Charles Koch and that that machine is deliberately and conspiratorially disguising its libertarian goals, is completely invented. She creates an illusion of proof by citing documents that do not support the thesis in any way, shape, or form."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/08/02/to-duke-historian-nancy-maclean-advocati
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Libertarian Party registered voters top 500,000

Libertarian Party Breaks Half a Million Registered Voters - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

November 15, 2015 - "The Libertarian Party (L.P.) started 2016 with around 411,000 registered voters. After a year of Trump and Clinton and the Libertarian's Johnson/Weld campaign with its record over 4 million votes for the L.P., nearly 100,000 other voters have seen wisdom in registering Libertarian.

"According to ballot access maven Richard Winger at Ballot Access News, the Libertarians are now the first nationally-organized Party in American history besides the Republicans and Democrats to break a half-million registered voters.

"The L.P. had never broken 400,000 registered voters before this year....

"Another sign of increased health for the L.P. is a yearly monetary take for the national Party of likely near $3 million, for what should be their highest-dollar year since 2000.

"And another: the L.P. got its most votes ever for U.S. House candidates, 1.67 million, even though it ran the same number of such candidates as in 2014, 122. That's a 73 percent increase in House votes over 2014, with same number of candidates run. (Voter turnout this year was about 58 percent higher than in 2014.)

"That's fewer than half the number of federal House candidates the L.P. ran in 2000, the last year in which their House vote total was close to, but not matching, this year's, with a total of 1.61 million. Thus, the Party's votes per candidate have gone up enormously."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2016/11/15/liberarian-party-breaks-half-a-million-r
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Mark Miller's 5% keeps TX Libertarians on ballot

Texas Libertarians clinch ballot access, Greens fall short | The Texas Tribune - Jim Malewitz :

November 9, 2016 - "Texas will give Libertarians a ballot spot during the state's next general election, after the party’s candidate for state railroad commissioner nabbed more than 5 percent of the vote — the threshold a party needs in a statewide contest to keep ballot access.... Mark Miller, drew 5.3 percent in a race that former Texas Rep. Wayne Christian easily won. No other Texas Libertarian met the 5 percent mark on Tuesday.

"Miller, who drew an unusual amount of newspaper endorsements in the contest, was hoping for more votes. But he was pleased to have achieved that 'minimum goal' for his campaign, he said Wednesday morning.

"'Ballot access is really important because it avoids a petition drive, which is very expensive, very time-consuming and very difficult,' he said. 'The fact that we were able to stay on the ballot – Libertarians are celebrating today.'"

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2016/11/09/texas-libertarians-clinch-ballot-access-greens-fal/

A Look at Some Key Lower-Ticket Libertarian Race Results - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

November 8, 2016 - "Miller for Texas Railroad Commission looks like he pulled the 5 percent needed ... to give the L.P. in Texas petition-free ballot access for 2018. It is a sad commentary on democracy that this lifelong professional petroleum engineer and teacher of petroleum engineering, running for the regulatory board that oversees the oil and gas industries, which he's written a book about, with endorsements from major papers covering much of the state's population, lost to a Republican, Wayne Christian (52.9 percent), who won Texas Monthly's coveted 'Worst Legislator' award and a Democrat, Grady Yarbrough (38.8 percent) who barely bothered running, and of course knew nothing at all about the industry."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2016/11/09/a-look-at-some-key-lower-ticket-libertar
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Joe Miller gets highest Libertarian Senate %age

Former Tea Party Republican Gets Libertarians Their Highest Ever Federal Senate Percentage [UPDATED] - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

November 11, 2016 - "Joe Miller earned the Libertarian Party (L.P.) its highest-ever vote percentage in a federal Senate race this week, with his 30 percent in Alaska.

"Generally when an L.P. candidate gets into double digits it is because one of the major party's isn't contesting the race at all. But Miller impressively got this 30 percent L.P. total coming in second place against a Republican (winning incumbent Lisa Murkowski, 44 percent), with a Democrat (Ray Metcalfe, 11 percent), and an independent (Margaret Stock, 14 percent) far behind him. Miller beat the combined total of the Democrat and the 3rd place independent.

"Miller pulled this off possibly despite the Libertarian label more than because of it; he was well-known to Alaskan voters, having been the official GOP Senate candidate in 2010. In that race he famously was beaten by the incumbent Murkowski, who Miller exceeded in the primary.... Yet in the general election she triumphed via write-in....

"Miller did not start off this election season necessarily intending to contend with his old foe Murkowski again, but in September the L.P.'s original candidate for the Senate seat, Cean Stevens, dropped out and the Party substituted Miller, after what Associated Press reported as failed past attempts on the L.P.'s part to recruit him.

"Miller's ability to win what must have been normally Republican votes is a vivid sign of major party disenchantment that the L.P. should try to further capitalize on, said Jon Watts, the Alaska state L.P.'s chair, in a phone interview this week.

"It's an example of how 'moving forward there's a huge opportunity to enlarge our tent,' Watts says. 'As much as we talk about open borders,' Watts says (Miller's Tea-Partyish belief in border walls was a sticking point with many Libertarians), 'we want folks to come in to our Party, to assimilate and actually become libertarians and understand the non-aggression principle and self-ownership and negative individual rights and the whole platform'....

"Despite Miller's early high polling, the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) declined to help Miller's campaign with money; LNC member Daniel Hayes noted in an LNC business email list post that he's 'not looking to enable a Republican retread just looking for ballot access that plans to caucus with the Republicans' though admitting he hadn't done a deep dive into Miller's specific beliefs....

 "Miller for his part said in a phone interview this week that he's been, even when he was a Republican, 'talking about the corruption of the two-party system since the '90's' and is mostly happy with his new Libertarian Party home. Miller's web page, though, mostly refers to him as the 'liberty candidate' without explicit L.P. branding."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2016/11/11/former-tea-party-republican-gets-liberta
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Court to hear FEC Debates challenge - in 2017

Libertarian Debate News: L.P. To Get a Day in Court Against Debate Access Restrictions, But Too Late for 2016; Florida Senate Candidate Paul Stanton Excluded from Debate - Hit & Run -  Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

October 6, 2016 - "The Libertarian Party, as I detailed back in May, was involved in two distinct lawsuits that could have resulted in presidential candidate Gary Johnson getting into the presidential debates.

"One of them, Johnson v. Commission on Presidential Debates, .... is now, according to lawyer Bruce Fein in an email today, 'on appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. No briefing schedule has yet been issued and thus no oral argument date.'

"A second lawsuit, targeted specifically at the Federal Elections Commission for its alleged failures to properly curb the Commission on Presidential Debates, had been awaiting a decision on motions for summary judgment from both parties for months. Its official name is Level the Playing Field v. FEC.

"Level the Playing Field is a 'nonpartisan, nonprofit corporation not affiliated with any candidate or candidate committee…[whose] purpose is to promote reforms that allow for greater competition and choice in elections for federal office, particularly for the Presidency and Vice Presidency.' The Libertarian Party and Green Party are also plaintiffs in that suit.

"This week, a date was announced for oral arguments on the motions for summary judgment. The catch: they are set for January 7, 2017, too late to affect the debates before the 2016 election....

"The latest motion for summary judgment argues that the CPD has always been a deliberated duopoly for the two major parties and has 'been violating FECA and FEC regulations limiting debate-sponsoring organizations' ability to use corporate funds to finance their activities' since its efforts are not truly 'nonpartisan.' The suit accuses the FEC [of] 'refus[ing] to enforce the law and ignored virtually all of this evidence in conclusorily dismissing the complaints even though there is plainly reason to believe that the CPD is violating FECA'....

"The suit accuses the CPD's 15 percent polling requirement to be admitted to the debate as being effectively 'impossible for an independent candidate who is not a self-funded billionaire to achieve'....

"The motion for summary judgment finally requests that:

The Court should grant summary judgment for Plaintiffs, and direct the FEC to do its job, which is to enforce the law and put an end to the CPD's biased, anti-democratic, and fundamentally corrupt and exclusionary polling rule.

Those arguments will now be made in court in front of Judge Tanya Chutkan, alas too late to matter for 2016 no matter the outcome.

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2016/10/06/libertarian-debate-news-lp-to-get-a-day
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Johnson money bomb exceeds $1.5 million goal

Gary Johnson raises nearly $1.8 million in money bomb over two days | Independent Political Report - Krzysztof Lesiak:

August 17, 2016 - "Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party presidential nominee, often says that the only way he can win the election is if he is included in the presidential debates along with his major party rivals.

"Yesterday, Johnson’s campaign decided to make a full throttle attempt to get Johnson into the presidential debates by launching a money bomb. The money bomb is called '15for15,' highlighting $15 donations to help Johnson’s campaign get the candidate’s name out there so he can hit the magic number, 15%, to be included in the debates (donations of all sizes are accepted in the money bomb).

"As of 11:48 CT, over the course of just two days, Johnson’s money bomb has raked in $1,804,202, easily surpassing the campaign’s original $1.5 million goal and putting the money bomb well on its way towards the new $2 million goal....

[At Reason, Matt Doherty reports that the $1.7 million one-day total is "the largest single-day take for an official Libertarian Party presidential campaign in small donations ever." - GD]

"The Washington Post reported earlier today that Johnson’s campaign has raised over $2.9 million since the beginning of August. The Post quoted Johnson as saying, 'The fact that we received more than 90,000 individual small contributions is overwhelming.'"

Read more: : http://independentpoliticalreport.com/2016/08/gary-johnson-raises-nearly-1-8-million-in-money-bomb-over-two-days/
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Libertarian PAC runs TV & radio ads in Maine (video)

Gary Johnson-Supporting PACs Ready TV Ads - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

August 11, 2016 - "A newly launched PAC supporting the Libertarian Party's presidential ticket of former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld is ready to run a TV ad starting today (as well as a radio one) in the state of Maine's 2nd congressional district.

"The PAC has the major-party-baiting name of  'Americans Deserve Better' and the web address of http://votefortheadults.com/....

"Chad Crow, who works with the PAC that is managed by longtime Libertarian Party hands Geoff and Nancy Neale of Texas, said he believes this can have a big payoff since 'Maine allocates their electoral votes by CD instead of winner-take-all for the whole state, and that they have a long history of supporting independents'....

"The PAC intends to run the ad for two weeks, then poll to see if it seemed effective. They promise 'a pretty robust buy on broadcast, cable, radio and online.'"

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2016/08/11/gary-johnson-supporting-pacs-ready-tv-ad
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