James Maynard, we’d like your intelligence in Wyoming http://www.freestatewyoming.org/ , where the numbers don’t require hopelessly large numbers of electable libertarians (The NH State legislature is over 400 members, right? So you have to elect 201 to have a simple majority right? Not going to happen, with this herd of cats.)

Sharon: Keep in mind that Eric is friends with Scott Kohlhaas(semi-competent) and Sean Haugh(incompetent) who have been cooperating together to systematically destroy the petitioning careers of several longtime libertarian activists (Because they are either 1 of the 4 petitioners he defrauded in NE in 2006, or they are like myself and know that he never made good on that fraud, but allowed the LNC to cover part of his debt —link: http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:0IcuPe0r-AgJ:www.lp.org/archives/lnc20070721.pdf+LNC+Pittsburgh+Nebraska+Scott+Kohlhaas&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us ). There is a lot of evidence that Eric and Scott also conspired to misdirect the effort in WV, when they realized that Shane Cory was totally in charge there, and totally unsupervised by Russell Verney (and that I was the only libertarian activist who had answered the call to save WV, thus making it an effort that could fail, and I’d be blamed, becuase they’d be left holding the bag, and I’d presumably have too few financial resources to sue them for payment).

The Libertarian Party, in being divided, has allowed itself to come under the influence of completely disreputable people .

Redpath is competent (as evidenced by his work in 2004), but can’t bring himself to act responsibly, becuase it would mean firing several people all at once, late in a campaign season.

Eric Dondero survives by mixing fact with fancy. Were he to tell a complete lie, absolutely noone would pay attention to him, and he thus would not be an effective agent provacateur (as he may literally be. Remember: he has no allegiance to the LP, and regularly claims to be a big R “Republican”).

Sean Haugh is utterly and completely incompetent. A simple google search of him at Last Free Voice will return Andy Jacobs’ interactions with him, among others. Immediately after Scott Kohlhaas hired me to go to CT, Sean Haugh fired me, after I defended my reputation against a slander that was CCed to him by Shane Cory. Cory is also completely incompetent (as a petition drive coordinator), as evidenced by his work in WV. The only reason there was even the slightest difficulty in completing any 2008 LP petition drive was that 6 of the traveling petitioners from 2004′s ballot access drive were being attacked from a position of “hidden authority” within the LP.

Eric Dondero is roughly correct that anything Phillies is doing to access the ballot is detrimental to the LP, unless it is the NH LP’s intention to have him continue his action for the purpose of CREATING A LEGAL PRECEDENT. This may be the case, or may not. Either way, the only defensible action is that Barr and Barr only be placed on the ballot in NH. The trouble with Eric being roughly correct is that, in addition to being roughly correct about that one thing, virtually all of his supporting details are incorrect, or designed to slander his critics (most of whom are actual libertarians).

As a good example, ever notice how all of the actual libertarian party petitioners he dislikes are all “leftists” or “anarchists”?

They are nothing of the sort. They are people a lot smarter than he is who have destroyed his arguments online in the past. Andy in particular has taken the time to pick through each argument of Dondero’s and destroy it, in several online forums. Dondero doesn’t like anti-war libertarians (I think there is room in the LP for many libertarians and libertarian sympathizers, I would question anyone trying to shove anyone else out of the party). That said, Eric has real problems understanding basic libertarian philosophy. He thinks gun rights and fully informed juries are unimportant, for instance.

Rich T (from the FSP boards?):
“At the very least we could have released the pros sooner to finish CT, RI and ME if even 10 more LP members had put in a full day collecting.”

Keep in mind that I had been hired by Scott Kohlhaas at the time that WV was ending, to go into CT (on Jul 31, 2008). Keep in mind that when I replied to a slander of my character and petitioning that Shane Cory sent out, Sean Haugh fired me via email (on Aug 1, 2008), as a petitioner, since I guess I was supposed to just accept being slandered in a CC to Verney, Redpath, Kohlhaas, etc… Keep in mind that Haugh has a history of losing his temper, cussing and swearing at people, even in emails, and that his reason for firing me was the “tone” of my email. Keep in mind that for the next two days Kohlhaas didged my phone calls, and so I was uncertain if I was hired or not in CT (Did Kohlhaas have the authority to hire me, above his boss, Sean Haugh? Did Sean Haugh really mean to be so irrational, and fire me? Did he have the authority to do so, according to Redpath, or the LNC, or anyone?! Was I hired or not?) The rental car clock was ticking, and so I had no choice but to leave for another state, and work for a more honest political party than the LP. Sadly, I am a libertarian and they needed my help. So I then went to AL and worked for the Constitution Party.

Incidentally, the LP’s petitioner problems arise from the fact that there is no protocol for dealing with petitioners.

There are no signed contracts, in plain English, not legalese, that describe what petitioners’ rights and responsibilities are. (And oral contracts don’t mean anything to the LP any longer. Oral contracts in the LP have come to mean: YOU WILL GET SCREWED.)

This means that when the LP gets corrupted (as it currently is), it is possible for those in titles of authority to “purge” longtime libertarians from the LP. Not a good thing, since we rely on those activists as our base.

Doubt anything I say? Call me up. I promise to be civil. 907-250-5503.

This is a heated subject, and it’s easy to lose the emotion behind what is typed online. I am not sitting here crying and pulling my hair out. I am presenting my view of the facts, which are measurable have ample available supporting evidence. Call me with your questions, and you will recieve answers.

Bob Marston Said:
” What I find curious is why the LP did not focus their efforts on becoming a permamently qualified party in New Hampshire. ”

LOL, yeah, that would be nearly impossible. Mostly because no one wanted to help with that effort. The combined effort for the last 16 months netted less than 9,000 petitions. We’d likely need 18,000+ to qualify as a party. So that’s either another $20K from national to pay petitioners or another 200 volunteer hours, which are incredibly hard to come by even on a good day.

Oh, and that petition would only qualify us for 2008. We’d still need 4% of the vote to remain an official party in 2010. Hence we go for candidate petitioning.

The above comments by Eric and others cannot overstate how hard it is to petition in NH. All the paid petitioners said they got their lowest numbers by far compared to any other state in any year. Unless you are collecting on election day or maybe July 4th you just cannot count on more than 80-100 in a day. And even then, it’s still tough. I worked a town election and only got 50.

I have no idea if Phillies sabotaged the petitioning effort. Yes, he and others were still collecting to get on the ballot after the convention. The thinking of a good number of them was indeed that since George only needed 200 more, better to finish and at least have a candidate on the ballot rather than risk missing it. They could have collected for Barr instead. In George’s defense he and some of his supporters did help us collect 12 petitions for Barr at the Merrimack 4th of July parade, but he’d already qualified in 1st district so it didn’t cost him anything.

Our collecting for Phillies earlier did affect the Barr effort. Our certification rate in the places where we collected in the spring is lower for Barr (by 30%) than in the rest of the state b/c of the “sign only once” law. It did affect where we sent petitioners, but since we knew where the Phillies sigs were collected we were able to work around it fairly easily.

Incidentally, this sign once law kept Badnarik off the ballot b/c the petitioners the LPUS sent in also collected for Nader, invalidating a lot of sigs in the process.

I really wish we could have done this all with volunteers, but given the difficulty of petitioning in the summer and the general lack of participation by LP members, we needed the help from national to get Barr on the ballot. Even with the new volunteers and candidates we picked up because of the Barr nomination. At the very least we could have released the pros sooner to finish CT, RI and ME if even 10 more LP members had put in a full day collecting.

“We’re talking Maine here. This is NOT West Virginia. Maine has had an existing Libertarian Party for decades. West Virginia, Rhode Island and the Dakotas have had barely existing LPs.”

Actually, my recollection/impression is that the Maine LP was effectively moribund for several years and only recently started trying to put an organization back together.

That recollection/impression is supported by the fact that the Maine LP’s web site is a blog with a grand total of two posts and a note that its executive committee roster is “not yet complete.” That blog seems to have replaced a site that went from at least as far back as August of 2007 to at least January of 2008 without updates (the January 2008 archive of the site is still topped by an invitation to an August picnic).

I see that the new Maine LP site lists Mark Cenci as a member of its executive committee, which is a good sign that real activity is either already occurring or soon to come.

“As it was, the Phillies effort continuing to gather the signatures while we were up there, worked to undercut our effort. As mentioned before, someone who signs the Phillies petition first, disqualifies the Barr petition.

If the Phillies people had simply stopped petitioning they would have been extremely helpful to our effort.”

What was Phillies short at the time 300 Sigs?

Statistically those few sigs had ZERO impact on your efforts.

“But, as we all know, they chose to actively work against the Libertarian Party. But hey, they’re Leftwing Anarchists. Causing Chaos and Screwing things up is their middle name.”
“Though, once you realize that the Maine LP is loaded with a bunch of Leftwing Crazy Anarchists types, just the types who love someone like George Phillies, well, um, you get the picture.”

If you were saying things like this while you were in NH and CT by the time you arrived in Maine you would loose local support. As I said earlier you would be as welcome as General Sherman when he arrived in Atlanta. My recomendation top National would be to not send you to Maine again you arn’t politically astute enough to relize that you are burning your bridges.

If New Hampsire by some unfortunant event failed. I who have been a libertarian for decades will know it wasn’t because of Phillies it was because Barr’s effort started too late.

I will also know that the LP members in Maine were exercising their rights to support whom the choose. They aperently don’t like or trust Bob Barr enough to work for him.

Eric, A real man takes responsibility for his short commings and doesn’t look for another to blame.

Was it at the Rush concert at the Verizon Arena in downtown Manchester?

If so, then you are indeed correct. I was getting 20 signatures an hour there, actually more like 30 to 40. But it only lasted 2 to 3 hours.

If I was at my usual hang-outs, Nashua City Hall or the Manchester DMV, I’d be happy to get 8 to 10 an hour.

RW:

The Barr petition validity will not be known until August 27, but it is likely to be valid.

Eric:

And in the end Richard, that’s all that really matters.

(Though, if for some reason we miss it by a few sigs, all hell will break loose. It will be a whirlwind of hatred for the Phillies people of Tsunami proportions, and I swear to Christ, if I have my way, every single Libertarian in the entire United States will know who is to blame for the NH failure. I may even personally knock on every door of every dues-paying Libertarian in the State of NH to inform them of what happened on my own dime. And you know damned well, I’m fully capable of doing that.)

Of – f*cking – course he was!!

We’re talking Maine here. This is NOT West Virginia. Maine has had an existing Libertarian Party for decades. West Virginia, Rhode Island and the Dakotas have had barely existing LPs.

The Maine Party is well-established.

Imagine our suprise when we arrived and were told by the paid hired gun on the ground that “not a single volunteer was assisting from the local Libertarian Party.”

What?!? Bloody What???

If I was petitioning in North Dakota such a statement would not have shocked me. But in Maine?

Though, once you realize that the Maine LP is loaded with a bunch of Leftwing Crazy Anarchists types, just the types who love someone like George Phillies, well, um, you get the picture.

The “strategy was to finish the drive and collect the few hundred more signatures to assure there was a Libertarian on the ballot…”

Are you FRIGGIN’ KIDDING ME?????

That is a stupid ass remark if I ever heard of one.

Seth Cohn and the leadership of the NH LP were ENTIRELY AWARE!!! that the National Libertarian Party were shipping in THE VERY BEST PETITIONERS IN THE COUNTRY!!! to help the NH LP get on the ballot.

The chance of success for the National LP drive to gain the necessary 7500 gross signatures was very high.

As it was, the Phillies effort continuing to gather the signatures while we were up there, worked to undercut our effort. As mentioned before, someone who signs the Phillies petition first, disqualifies the Barr petition.

If the Phillies people had simply stopped petitioning they would have been extremely helpful to our effort.

If they had stopped petitioning, AND collected a few volunteer signatures for the LP ticket, as well, we would not be discussing all this today. It would have been a done deal.

But, as we all know, they chose to actively work against the Libertarian Party. But hey, they’re Leftwing Anarchists. Causing Chaos and Screwing things up is their middle name. What else could you expect?