By Richard Winger, posted at Ballot Access News. Links by Sicilian Pastry Productions.
The California Libertarian Party held its annual state convention in San Ramon, California, April 20-22. On Saturday evening, five candidates seeking the party’s presidential nomination addressed the attendees. Each of the five was given 30 minutes. A random procedure dictated the order. The five candidates, in the order in which they spoke, were Steve Kubby, Dave Hollist, Mike Jingozian, Daniel Imperato, and Wayne Allyn Root. Candidate Christine Smith had been expected, but she did not appear. George Phillies did not appear, but campaign literature on his behalf was circulated. Also, campaign literature was circulated, urging that Karen Kwiatkowski (who says she only wants the vice-presidential nomination) be drafted for president.
Steve Kubby, speaking first, displayed skill as an orator. He also allowed time for questions. Kubby, of course, has been a member of the Libertarian Party for at least a decade, and was the California party’s gubernatorial candidate in 1998. He responded to a question about immigration policy by saying he favors open borders. He introduced his campaign treasurer, who was in the audience. He stressed that long-time Libertarian Party activist Tom Knapp is acting as his campaign manager, even though Knapp doesn’t use that title.
paul) Tom, I know you at least were using the title…is that no longer the case? Not that I care that much about titles, just slightly curious.
Dave Hollist, a California Libertarian who has sought the party’s presidential nomination twice before, started to use his 30 minutes by showing a video of himself making a speech. The sound quality was poor. After ten minutes, state party chair Aaron Starr interrupted the video presentation and persuaded Hollist that the video was a bad idea, so Hollist then spoke for himself for ten minutes more. He criticized the other presidential candidates for not proposing an immediate end to taxation, and suggested that his idea for contract insurance could replace the lost tax revenue.
Mike Jingozian spoke next. He is an Oregon businessman who is fairly new to the Libertarian Party. His presentation was devoted almost entirely to an attack on the failed policies of the Republican and Democratic Parties. He had circulated copies of his campaign literature which labels him an “independent candidate for president”. He took questions. Asked about the label, he said he is a Libertarian but that the “independent” label is designed to draw the attention of voters who might not be as interested if he didn’t use that label. His answers probably didn’t dispel a feeling among the audience that he may not be sufficiently in sync with party core beliefs.
Daniel Imperato spoke next. He is a Florida businessman who is very new to the Libertarian Party. He said that he will be elected president in 2008, or, if not then, in an election in the future. He stressed his familiarity with people all over the world and said his company has offices in 70 nations. He spoke a smattering of Arabic. He answered questions. As in the case of Jingozian, he probably didn’t dispel a feeling among the audience that he may not be a match for the party. He said that he would have U.S. military forces stop fighting in Iraq, but remain there, and that he would demand that Iraq repay the U.S. for the costs of U.S. military expenditures so far.
Wayne Allyn Root spoke last. He lives in Las Vegas, is CEO of a company that gives advice to people who bet on sports outcomes, and hosts the Fox TV network show The Winning Edge. Like Kubby, he displayed impressive oratorical skills. He gave more information about his past political life than the other candidates had done. He said his father had helped establish the New York Conservative Party. He said that his own personal heroes are Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. He is also new to the Libertarian Party. He emphasized his skills with television, and revealed that a cameraman who had been filming all day long is working for him, and that the filming is for a proposed Reality TV Show about his quest for the Libertarian nomination. He didn’t take questions, since his presentation consumed his full allotment of 30 minutes.
Christine Smith didn’t attend the CA state convention because they changed the rules on short notice and she would have
had only a few minutes rather than the time originally
promised. She WAS well received at the San Diego County Convention recently and looks forward to attending additional
county conventions in California.
This is the first time i’ve seen Wayne Allyn Root or Mike Jingozian doing anything to gain support for the LP Nomination. I am interested in seeing what else will come about from these two. Imperato seems to be well funded by himself and may have a shot at winning, however his flip flop party from Independent to Boston Tea to Reform to now Libertarian may hurt his chances. Hollist has no chance at all. I think that is obvious, IF it were up to me i would say Kubby had the better input at the Convention.
Any numbers on what the turnout was?
MHW
Micheal,
I believe that there were about 100 registered delegates at the convention. I’m not sure what proportion of the total attendance they amounted to.
Daniel,
Root and, I think, Jingozian, both attended the LSLA event in Florida last month.
Joseph,
Can you be more specific about what “rules” were allegedly changed at the California convention?
Regards,
Tom Knapp
Interesting, thanks for posting this.
Was there some reason why Phillies didn’t make it to this convention?
Elfninosmom:
Inability to be on both sides of the continent at the same time. I had an all-day event, with perhaps 15 times as many people in attendance, in Amherst MA, that ran from noon to 6 in the evening local time. And I’d promised to speak at the Amherst Extravaganja, a marijuana re-legalization event, long before the CA scheduling was announced. I was also helping my staff launch our NH general advertising campaign, because the LPNH made me their nominee (which, because the LPNH is not a major party, has no effect on the ability of anyone else to run as a liberterian in NH) .
Similarly, this weekend includes the KS, NY, and NC conventions, and the weekend after has state events in MI, PA, and MO, and two weeks later are conventions in GA, WV, CO, and IN.
I expect to reach NY, PA, and GA.
Best,
George
I believe George was already scheduled to speak in front of about 1,000 people in Amherst MA, and then was also scheduled to attend the Worcester County Libertarian Association event. The event in Amherst did receive a few news articles.
I wish Kubby could attend the Michigan convention on the 5th. Kinda feels like “the B Team” of candidates will be in attendence there.
Jason,
If you’re interested in hooking Kubby in via video, we can certainly do that. My next out-of-California travel plans for him, as of this time, are for October, although that might change.
Tom, as I understand it, the main beef is that they had a deadline for candidates to confirm and based on the number of candidates at the deadline, Christine would have had 20-30 minutes. As the time drew near, they threw it open to all comers and she was told she would have less than 8 minutes. Given that, Christine thought she would get more bang for the buck coming to California at county conventions where she would have more time. If my understanding is incorrect or if additional info becomes available, I’ll let you know.
Joseph,
That’s strange … none of these alleged rules or changes were ever communicated to the Kubby campaign.
The only change we were ever informed of was that — the week before the convention — the candidate time was moved from earlier on Saturday to late Saturday evening, and that was subject to the agreement OF the candidates, i.e. we were told that if it caused a problem with travel schedules or whatever, accomodations could be made. All of the candidates got 30 minutes.
Kubby hasn’t been able to visit as many conventions as he would have liked to, but we’ve been very open about the reasons why. You might want to consider (and investigate) the possibility that the information you’re getting about Smith’s approach to conventions isn’t … um, strictly accurate. Furthermore, deponent saieth not publicly.
Thanks for the response, Dr. P. It’s true, you can’t be in two places at once, so I can completely understand why you’d choose an event with more people in attendance.
While I still haven’t made any firm decisions about who to support for the LP presidential bid, this is an example of something I really, really like about Dr Phillies. He reads the blogs, and takes the time to answer questions personally. I have to respect that a great deal, since I’m sure he’s a very busy man.
Wish I could help you out Thomas, but I’m not 100% sure that I’m attending the Michigan Convention now. I may have a work related commitment that I probably won’t be able to get out of. Just found out today.
I have to say one thing that I did like about George Phillies is that he is one of the very few Libertarians who accepted my invitation to be on my show and also allowed people to call in and ask questions. For that, I appreciate him even more.
For a Karen Kwiatkowski statement on running for VP:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski180.html
Tom, I wasn’t in California or Oregon, but from what I understand The CA LP Convention deadline for presidential candidates to confirm their attendance was Dec. 31, 2006. Christine Smith was the first candidate to confirm her attendance.
Three candidates apparently had confirmed by that date, and the CALP scheduled a speaking time for those three candidates during Saturday’s lunch. A 1 hour 15 minute time, during lunch, was to be divided equally giving all three candidates 25 minutes to deliver their speech.
For three months Smith was assured she would be able to deliver her 25-minute speech. Four days before flying to CA, she was told the CALP had scheduled last-minute candidates and that now 6 candidates (or more if others suddenly decided to come) would be speaking within the same 1 hour and 15 minute lunch giving each candidate realistically approximately 10 minutes to speak (or less if more candidates chose to appear.)
Smith complained, notifying them she would not attend if unable to deliver her 25-minute speech as had been promised for three months. Smith cancelled when told the time was set. Two days later, organizers changed the schedule relegating presidential speakers to the last event late Saturday night so that each would have 30-minutes. But Smith had already cancelled her travel plans, and being the first candidate to commit to attending by the December deadline, she was not flying to California to perhaps begin speaking at 11:30 pm at night (as they intended to randomly choose the speaking order for candidates between 9:00 pm to midnight).
Kubby would not have been able to deliver a 30-minute length speech in California had it not been for Smith’s intervention on behalf of her speaking time as well as that of the other candidates.
Likewise, I am told that Kubby would never have been able to participate in the candidate forum at the Oregon LP Convention had Smith not stood up interrupting hours of internal political disagreement taking place at the Oregon LP convention and asked for a vote that they adjourn their state business so that their guests, all three candidates, could have the debate/forum promised them (rather than it being skipped completely or delayed until late that night when many would likely not have been there to listen). She asked that they respect the guests they had invited and provide all candidates the forum they had been promised. When the vote was unanimous to proceed with the planned presidential forum as was originally planned (but from which schedule they were deviating), Smith insisted Kubby be notified so he could be able to participate, and when the phone line to his room was constantly busy and event organizers said there was no time to physically visit his room, Smith consulting with one of the organizers encouraged them to have the operator break in on the phone line if necessary so Kubby would know that the delayed candidate forum was finally going to begin so that he, too, could participate. All three candidates participated in the promised candidate forum because Smith intervened on their behalf.
I hope Kubby AND Smith will find a way to visit more conventions – these visits are good for the states and the candidates. I will try to get MY candidate to every convention possible. Will you?
Joseph,
Naturally, I’ll try to get my candidate to every convention. And I think I can reasonably guarantee that he won’t piss and moan about the amount of time allotted him, or demand that the state party he’s visiting interrupt its business so that he can gladhand them, or throw a tantrum and cancel if he’s informed that more, rather than fewer, of his opponents, will be there as well.
Based on what Joseph said about Smith’s actions, with regard to making sure other candidates were accommodated, she just gained respect in my book.