Several of you have talked to me about running for Governor of Washington State this year. A couple of you actually volunteered to help! I have been thinking about it since I ran in 2004 when I got about 63,000 votes and the difference between the winner D and the loser R was just 133 votes! I will have to admit that that was fun.
But after much thought and discussion with my family, I have decided that I can better serve the Libertarian Party by running for National Chair. I thank you who have supported me in this decision.
The Libertarian Party, in my opinion, has been in decline since 9/11. We can no longer use that as an excuse for low membership and internal troubles, however. I have heard many reasons for the troubles we have been having, but the real reason is that there is just no substitute for the real work of politics- organizing, getting out the vote, running for office, lobbying and being nice to people who may support us now, or in the future..
These are the real world, real work of politics that I have been doing for most of my 30 years in the Libertarian Party.
I am running for National Chair because I know that the way we attract more good, principled people is by being good, principled people ourselves. I want the entire Libertarian Party, from the National Committee and Office through each state and local affiliate to be transparent in operation and welcoming to everybody.
I guess that what I really want is to change the basic culture of the Libertarian Party from the nasty, infighting lack of civility that I see too often to a more respectful, rational, civil Libertarian Party. I think I can offer the integrity and influence to do just that.
I am currently serving in my third one year term as President of the Board of Trustees People's Memorial Association.
During that time, we have gone from one organization to three, the others are a 501(c)3 educational organization and the newest, the world's largest funeral co-operative. Our budget has expanded from about $180,000/year to nearly one million dollars a year for the 3 organizations. Staff has gone from 4 part-time to 4 full time and 6 part time employees. Our revenues are up and within 8 months of operating, our funeral service co-op is profitable. We have 100,000 members in Western and Central Washington.
I know that I can bring these leadership skills to the Libertarian Party.
My web site should be up in a couple of days. If you think that now is the time for the Party to once again move forward with integrity, then please consider endorsing me. I would also like your financial support. Being National Chair is a costly proposition. There are LNC meetings to attend and visits to the National Office, let alone the costs of campaigning for the office.
I am planning on establishing a National Chair's Discretionary Fund. David Nolan has already pledged $50/month for my term. I hope you will also consider a one-time or continuing contribution. How the money is disbursed will be available to anyone on the web site. You may send a check directly to me, or try my web site by Sunday.
If you are attending our National Convention in Denver May 23-26, I do hope you will vote for me. Convention details can be found here (and there are some GREAT airfares right now to Denver!)
I know that there are thousands of people that used to call themselves Libertarians. I want to reach out to them. I know that there are thousands more who felt belittled or ridiculed by Libertarians and I want to make our Party a safe place for them to come back to. I want to reach out to the Ron Paul supporters to show them a viable alternative to the Republican Party. I want to reach out to people of color and to to ethnic communities and to the Gay and Lesbian community and to all the other people who feel marginalized and alienated and disrespected by the huge corporate political parties to show them that they are welcome in our Party.
I thank all of you for your work for Liberty. We really don't appreciate each other enough and that is something else I want to change. If we can't be civil to each other, even when we disagree, why should anyone listen to any of our ideas?
Please join me on this journey of hope for a more peaceful, prosperous and joy filled world.
Please return soon to see our complete campaign website, as well as information on donating to the campaign and/or to the new Chair's Discretionary Fund!
