The Treasurer said that the numbers will permit a minimally functional National Committee next year.
The budget calls for $900,000 in general income and $220,000 from the joint fundraising committee. The $220,000 that is assumed to be received from the Kennedy Victory Fund agreement was particularly amusing.
The ExComm currently has six members. Rutherford was not present. Ford was at a city council meeting and arrived a few minutes late. He joined at 7:10. Malagon is serving as Secretary. Most LNC members are absent.
We can petition in Arkansas, Maryland, North Dakota and New Mexico. The estimate is close to $100,000. The first two were viewed as more promising.
There is a balanced budget of $1.16 million for next year. The estimate for this year is 1.5 million. Most budget numbers for next year are based on this year’s expenses.
This year we have been averaging $84,000/month in income excluding the Kennedy victory fund. The decline from a Presidential election year to the next year has historically been in the range 10% or 35%. We are assuming that the decline will be 10% so. For October Kennedy raised $39,000, which is less than what is assumed for January.
Redpath moved that the ExComm recommend this budget to the LNC at its December meeting. The motion passes 4-0, the Chair not voting.
Meeting adjourns.
Actually, it is the law, pertaining to political party building funds in general, not just to the L.P., and in the case of the L.P. using the funds for any other purpose would also specifically be fraudulent, since the prior fact was a prominent aspect of the building fund pitch. Furthermore, this has already been pointed out and proven to Andy ad nauseam in prior discussions. That some building donors are no longer alive changes none of this.
I served on the LNC when we bought it, and was actually part of the building search committee.
While I agree that times change, the main reason there is no need for building is that nobody wants to work in DC or the DC area.
A sale is a mess. A number of safeguards were put in place around the building fund to prevent this from happening. Yes, some money would have to be returned. My question is, who has been tracking any of this for the past decade?
I think it was a bad idea to buy the building in the first place. The trend toward remote workers was already happening before the LNC purchased the townhouse office and the LNC has at least some people working remote as far back as 2006. The party never really gained any benefit from having an office in or near DC as few people outside the party knew it was there and this is still the case today. The office is not even big enough to host LNC meetings so when the LNC meets in that area it still has to pay for metting space at a hotel. The office is not even really any good for storage as the party still has to pay for a storage locker in Colorado. The reason the DC metro area was chosen as an area to buy an office never had any practical reason behind it, it was just because some people in the party wanted to project the image that they were important players in politics and that having an office in the DC metro area meant that they were battling the establishment political class who control the federal government. Reality is that it never accomplished anything productive and was just a waste of money. It is an overpriced townhouse in an expensive area with high property taxes and was also an expensive area for staff members to live, and being that all of the staff jobs can be done remote I do not blame staff members for not wanting to move there to work at the office. If the party just wanted to have an address in the DC metro area because some people think it looked impressive the party could have just gotten a P.O. Box there or rented a virtual office/mail drop service.
I said all this before the LNC made this purchase and the passage of time has proven that I was correct.
The party status petition in Maryland is good for two general elections, so it will be good for 2026 and 2028.
I recall that New Mexico has some unusual thing in the law to where if a party runs a candidate for Governor (which like most states is up during the even non-presidential year) and they get less than .05% of the vote the party loses ballot status, however, if the party does not run a candidate for Governor they can stay ballot qualified for the presidential election.
Arkansas requires 3% for President and 3% for Governor to retain ballot status. Governor is up in Arkansas in 2026. The LP has never received 3% or more for President or Governor in Arkansas, but it has come close before. One time their candidate for Governor missed getting 3% by around 500 votes. The LP of Arkansas has run lots of candidates in every election since 2012 so I think it will receive priority for this reason.
North Dakota requires 5% of the vote to retain ballot status, but it applues to several statewide offices. I doubt they can do it for Governor (unless a certain individual I know in North Dakota who is a pro-liberty Ron Paul style Republican decides to switch to Libertarian, which this person told me they have thought about doing, decides to run for Governor as a Libertarian; this person has the name recognition and credentials and fundraising ability to easily surpass 5% for Governor, but I do not know if they want to do it), but they could do it for Secretary of State or Attorney General or State Treasurer. The LP of ND has gotten 5% plus of the vote before in races for the lower level states offices, so if they recruit candidates to run for statewide offices besides just Governor they may be able to retain party status for 2028.
The New Mexico petitioning is possibly because their former affiliate there is now the affiliate of the liberal party USA.
But yes, petitioning in off years with federal funds is a complete waste if it doesn’t get you access on the ballot in the next presidential election.
The Libertarian Party of New Mexico, the affiliate which disaffiliated with the LNC and which became an affiliate of the Liberal Party, also lost ballot access in New Mexico. The put Laura Ebke on the ballot for President and she got less than .05% of the vote.
If the party was in good shape there should be no question about getting ballot access in every stare and in DC for every election. The purpose of a political party is to run candidates. However, if resources are limitef to the point where the party can’t afford to do this, then yes, it makes sense to prioritize states based on a variety of factors, one of which is in which states could a ballot access druve conducted for this cycle also guarantee ballot access for the 2028 election. See my comments on this in another post in this thread.
Will petitioning in 2025 in those four states get us 2028 ballot access?
I hope so
If not, that is a terrible waste of money in a year when we have none.
Sell the HQ building and return the donations to those who want their money back. Use remaining money (if any) to do something more useful than petitioning in expensive states.
If Mises sells the office, I will take back my donations. I can’t believe we have a fully paid for office with no staff. My kid joined to get a membership card and LP dues have enough money out staff to send him one. Sad, piss poor mngt.
The office is obsolete and it was that way BEFORE Mises Caucus affiliated people won a majority of seats on the LNC.
The townhouse office in the northern Virginia suburbs of DC was never really necessary as the trend for remote workers started before the LNC ever purchased this office and the LNC had at least some people working remote at least as far back as 2006.
There is no reason at all for the LNC to hold on to an obsolete asset, unless they can make money renting it out.
The party got the donations for an office and it got used for that until it outlived its usefulness. I see no reason to hang on to something that is obsolete, unless they can make money renting it out, nor do I think the LNC is under any obligation to return any money from the sale of the building to donors.
It’s not a matter of opinion. It’s a matter of law. If the party sells the office it can only legally refund the donations or use the money to buy another office.
Actually, that is not entirely true that the party has to roll all of the money into another office or return it to donors (some of whom may no longer be alive).
Former LNC office staffer Robert Kraus wrote a great article about this where he said that the office is not necessary and that the party should sell it or rent it out. Note that Mr Kraus worked remote the last couple of years or so of his tenure as an LNC staffer. If I.can find his post about this I will post it here later.