News And Views From LPWI
“There are currently 229 elected Libertarians in office across the country — from the local level all the way to state legislatures. In 2021 there have already been several local elections and special elections, and Libertarian candidates currently have a 54% win rate! What does this mean? It means the American voters are ready for an end to the old parties’ status quo — and they are proving that with their votes. There are more than 200 Libertarian candidates on the ballot this November ready to join those already working in their cities and states.”
Isn’t this great news? Hearing it for the first time? – excellent. You already know this? – even better because then you subscribe to our National Party’s weekly email announcements. News so nice you want to hear it twice.
Policy and Procedure Manual for Party Business
Anyone familiar with our party’s Bylaws knows that it contains some serious omissions. There are elected party officials with no designated duties, how our money is spent is ill defined, and how we handle a dispute or ambiguity is largely dependent on the whims of who is in office. When things are run well, when the members of the Executive Committee can get along, this is not much of a problem. Most of the time it is. How many times since you have joined have the members decided enough is enough and “cleaned house” ?
At last year’s convention the members decided that the party needed a Policy and Procedure Manual. Rather than constant and continual updates to the party’s Bylaws to clean up the mess, a manual of Best Practices has been set up to guide the party leadership in getting their duties done, who is responsible for what, and how it should be carried out. With the help of past and present Executive Committee members the Bylaws Committee put their wisdom and experience into words and put that into our Party’s first P & P Manual.
The P & P Manual is a living document. How things ought to be accomplished today may not be the preferred method tomorrow; this document, unlike the Bylaws, can be easily updated to meet the needs of the time. It is vitally important that those running the party read and understand it. For it to do the party any good, members ought to ask those running for party office if they have read and understand it. If not, we have cleaned house before and we can do it again.
Candidate Support Committee
Here is the list of declared candidates so far for the 2022 election:
Jacob VandenPlas – US House 8th district
Neil Harmon – Secretary of State
Matt Bughman – Attorney General
Roy Martin – State Assembly 6th district (parts of Shawano, Waupaca, Outagamie and Brown counties)
Bryce Thon – State Assembly 67th district (parts of Chippewa and Dunn counties)
Tom Rasmussen – State Assembly 87th district (parts of Sawyer, Taylor, Clark and Marathon counties)
Several people, across the state, have notified the CSC that they are planning to run but have not yet filed. Candidates for county supervisor cannot file until December 1st .
If you are running or considering running for office and have not contacted us yet, email your name, contact information and the office you are running for or considering running for to info@lpwi.org and the Candidate Support Committee will contact you to get more information. We want to help. It all starts with you contacting us.
Candidates need volunteers to fill valuable roles in their campaigns. Your help will be greatly appreciated. Click the button below to sign up for a campaign today!
Affiliate Updates
It is official now, the first affiliate to earn the $200 for being active is Rock County. The second affiliate was the Libertarian Party of Central Wisconsin encompassing Marathon, Portage, and Wood counties. It is hoped these affiliates will make good use of the money, possibly by expanding their event kits, buying literature, expanding outreach, or any number of things. Congratulations to you both.
A new affiliate is forming, the Gogebic Iron Range Affiliate covering Ashland and Iron Counties. These are both large counties with minimal population. Some would call them prime libertarian recruiting territory; best of luck getting more than a few of them together at one time. John Olkonen thinks he is up for the challenge, possibly creating Wisconsin’s first multi-state affiliate. Wow! We like his optimism. To join or assist, John can be reached at john_olkonen@yahoo.com
Michael Schisel has completed paperwork to start a Manitowoc County Affiliate. Interested in joining? Maybe just sit in on a Zoom call sometime? Send Michael an email at michael.schisel@gmail.com
College groups aren’t like affiliates. Colleges have rules, sometimes they need faculty advisers, it is a different world. None of that should stop us from supporting them. The LPWI is aware of two groups, one at UW Madison and another at UW Milwaukee. The Executive Committee has allocated money to buy literature to send to these groups. If you are an alumni of either of these colleges and would like to assist in keeping these groups going, please contact Neil Harmon at neilanthonyharmon@gmail.com
Membership and Marketing Committee
The Membership and Marketing Committee has been incredibly busy with numerous projects in various stages of completion. Not only does it have its own work to do but it supports the Convention Committee and the Candidate Support Committee with their efforts. To this, Committee Chair Mike Hammond will propose adding fund raising back into the mix. It was originally part of the committee’s function until the last convention when an office of fund raising coordinator was established. This office was never able to be filled. “Parties take money to run. It might as well be us even if we are doing it only as a minor part of our activities.” says Mike.
The committee hopes to boost messages on Facebook starting soon. If members, when they receive these messages, will share them with their liberty mined buddies it will increase their effectiveness several fold.
CiviCRM, which runs our web site and database, has been undergoing an update. It is hoped that any inconveniences you have experienced because of it have now been cleared up.
Convention Committee
If you haven’t already marked your calendar, put April 29, 30, and May 1 at the Radisson in Green Bay for our party’s 2022 state convention.
How do Libertarians celebrate May Day? Do we …
a) make special baskets and dance around a pole
b) “come out”
c) shout special slogans like “workers of the world unite”
d) hold parades where we show off our nuclear weapons
e) none of the above
The committee has chosen Robin Koerner as one of our guests for the 2022 convention. You may remember him from our 2019 convention in Sturgeon Bay. He was very well received. Full bio to follow in the next few months.
Also appearing will be Max Kane. Not that Max Kane. The food freedom advocate speaking in his own home state. Should be interesting and informative.
Executive Committee Changes
Jason Kuks is our party’s new At-Large Representative. He can be reached at milwaukeebeerman@gmail.com Send him an email to say hello. Got a special issue or project you need help on? He might be willing to help, just be careful, he has issues of his own he might want you on.
District 1, 3, and 5 each need an alternate representative for ExCom. Interested? Talk the district rep into it. If he (sorry, all these CD reps are men) likes your drive and enthusiasm he will put your name forward at ExCom. You are in.
Short Bits
Team Rubicon, an organization supported by our Chair, Jacob Vandenplas and our Vice-Chair, Neil Harmon, to assist the Afghans at Fort McCoy is still actively taking donations. They can no longer accept – stuff. Someone must have tried to slip a file into a birthday cake or other nefarious act. Donations must now be made in a monetary form or purchased and shipped directly from Amazon. To support the organization #friendsofLPWI #LPWI #AfghanRefugees #libertyforall
The LP WIre is published monthly. Permission to publish has been given by the LPWI Executive Committee. Editor in Chief is Kevin Litten. The editor of this newsletter may be reached by email at kdlitten@charter.net . Submissions are welcome but are subject to editing for applicability and length. Copyright © 2021, permission to copy only given for research, scholarship, criticism, or comment. This newsletter is intended for Wisconsin Libertarians and interested persons.
Articles are welcome. Images are appreciated.
