Caryn Ann Harlos has reportedly used her authority as Libertarian Party Secretary to place Chase Oliver and Michael Ter Maat on the November ballot in Colorado. Our source is a screen shot of her announcement.
There is disagreement as to which Secretarial position was invoked, Colorado or National, but we currently believe that it was the National position, not the state position as we were originally advised.
The Libertarian Party of Colorado Judicial Committee has ruled against an appeal of the LPCO decision to run Robert Kennedy as their Presidential candidate. We quote the LPCO JC Decision:
Presidential Candidate – Appeal Hearing Decision
06/22/2024 / By LP Colorado / News
Mr. Vadney & LPCO Board,
After reviewing the Judicial Committee appeal by Mr. Sean Vadney on June 16, 2024, the Judicial Committee has decided by a unanimous vote not to hear the appeal. The Judicial Committee reserves the right to hear an appeal or to decline. The appeal, as presented, does not meet the burden of proof for an LPCO bylaw violation.
1. The appeal highlights events and decisions that the appellant believes violate LP National Bylaws. The LPCO Judicial Committee’s scope of duties does not include consideration of LP National Bylaws.
2. Section One – The claim in Section One is that one of the LPCO’s purposes is “nominating serious Party candidates for political office” and the resolution in question blocks this purpose and denies Colorado Party Members and Coloradans the option to vote for a Libertarian Presidential Candidate. The appeal is correct that the LPCO bylaws state that a purpose of the Party is to “nominate serious candidates.” While this statement is in Article II(f), there is no obligation in the LPCO bylaws to nominate any candidates for political office. Therefore, nominations, while a stated purpose of the Party, are decided at the discretion of the LPCO membership at convention and through its representatives on the LPCO Board.
3. Section Two – The appeal is disputing the claim that “the Libertarian Party of Colorado bylaws grant authority over presidential candidate nominations to the board” put forth by Ms. Stienke. Article XI Section 4(a) of the LPCO bylaws states the following: “(a) The United States Supreme Court has recognized that the nomination of candidates—under political party rules—falls under the First Amendment’s Freedom of Association protections and therefore overrides state laws when such rules so state. As such, all rules for nominating candidates are limited to only these Bylaws, and all state laws regarding nominating candidates are to be considered overridden and void. The Party reserves all First Amendment Rights in this regard.” From this statement, the LPCO has sole discretion in nominating candidates as a First Amendment right, whether by the membership of the Party through the state convention or through the LPCO Board.
The current LPCO bylaws do not require granting ballot access to the LP National Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates, leaving the decision to the LPCO membership. Timing is crucial for this decision, as the LP National Convention date will always occur after the LPCO State Convention. Therefore, without a special convention, the decision of placing LP National Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates on the Colorado ballot resides with the LPCO Board as representatives of the LPCO membership.
In liberty,
Eric Bueltel – LPCO Judicial Chair Pro Tem
Could the MC Asshats please go take over the Green Party?
WTF is this shit:
Subject: Re: NOTICE OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING 7/11/24 AT 9PM EASTER
We will not be closing public comment but we will shorten it.
For Thursday: Motion to authorize joint fundraising effort with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Angela McArdle
LNC Chair
By this time with all the other campaigns in the last 20 years there’s been an agreement in place. Where’s the agreement with Chase? Where the Joint Fundraising. Message Coordination, Data Sharing, etc?
Less funds for ballot access have been approved this year vs every presidential year in the past.
The Chair is personally sabotaging the campaign & the LNC is compliant – but the recent motion is a start. The Chair should resign. I’m curious (of course) if perhaps she or baby daddy is being paid by the Kennedy Campaign directly or indirectly?
The LNC should ask. Depending on the answer or lack thereof they should remove the Chair.
Thank you for catching this.
Who has authority to nominate electors in Colorado?
It was done at the state convention back in March. But those convention minutes have not yet been completed, so the names are not available. If for some reason LPCO does not submit them to the CO Secretary of State, Oliver will have to find ten of his own.
But while the nomination of the Presidential Electors is in the LPCO Convention Rules (which I wrote while still living there), there is no requirement under the CO Minor Party Law that the state affiliate handle it. It fell to LPCO because someone had to do it.
In fact, under Colorado election law, candidates can and regularly do find and select their own electors since getting onto the ballot there is relatively easy compared to most states.
Does she have any problem with the non-affiliated party in Massachusetts putting on Chase-Ter Maat?
The certificates of nomination used to be done prior to the end of the convention & delivered the SOS’s within a couple days after.
I was contacted by some of the powers that be about 6 weeks prior to the convention to go over the process since no one on the COC or LNC had any knowledge of how this worked & all the past staff with knowledge had been fired or let go. I also provided Bob Johnson’s contact info since he was always the person to directly lead these efforts. After the convention I confirmed that no one bothered to follow up with Bob & he was later hired to take care of this process by the Chase Campaign.
So my question is – why wasn’t the CO Certificate of Nomination taken care of 6+ weeks ago? How many other states has this not yet been done for? How stupid it would be to not get Chase on the ballot because a very simple step was dropped.
If you are sick of these deliberate attempts by the LNC to sabotage the Chase campaign by the LNC – please join me here: http://www.liberalpartyusa.org
@Kraus, there has been no attempt by the LNC to sabotage the Chase campaign; in fact, they have allocated funds to several states, including my own AL, to get him on the ballot. As for a delay in the Certificate of Nomination, well, guess what, the duties of the Secretary are plenty and take up a lot of time, coupled with health and personal stuff, and other committees. And BTW, the CO deadline is in 2 months. It might help you to cut the sour grapes for once. You used to be far better than that.
(Yes, that’s the same reply as over on IPR to the same post over on IPR. I left the Parmesan Cheese for the copypasta at home.)
Publicly as a body, no the LNC has not yet attempted to sabotage the Oliver campaign. But, Malagon voted against the LPCO Resolution and the Direction To Send Certificates of Nomination. And McArdle is clearly trying to pour ice on Harlos in that second ballot by saying “Would you like me to share what you later said in private about it?”
Here is something of interest:
Secretary of state has no power to decide between two sets of nominations.
When two sets of nominations, both by conventions purporting to have been held by the same political party, and each in apparent conformity with this section, are certified to the secretary of state, he has no power to decide between them, but should certify both tickets to the county clerks in order that both may be printed upon the official ballots. People ex rel. Eaton v. Dist. Court, 18 Colo. 26, 31 P. 339 (1892).
What convention nominated RFK Jr for the Libertarian Party?
What convention nominated 9 of the 10 Colorado Electors?