https://www.youtube.com/@LibertarianParty/streams will get you there. So will https://www.youtube.com/live/TbU6408onQc?si=toYpaxurNCdS86Ar courtesy Adrian Malagon.
Public comments: I cannot catch names of speakers. I am told that they are
The speakers, in order:
#1 Jay Gillotte
#2 Andrew Duke
#3 Dana Carver
#4 John Hudak
#1 My county affiliate was disaffiliated by the state. You received my letter.
#2 We must draw a line between free speech and sabotage. Condemns NH. Condemns former national chair. Our party is broke financially and morally. New members will join a sinking state. Condemns MI state Chair. To survive, LP must stand for its principles.
#3 Complains LNC did not support LPMI members against LPMI chair and alleged improper behavior.
#4 Speaks in support of censure motions against LPNH and LPCO. This is the needed first step in fixing matters.
#5 Pat Ford: We will have a tour of the 2026 National Convention Facility. We are exchanging booths with FreedomFest, for free.
Advance to attendance. Hayes, Lam, Nanna absent Alternates Present. Region 1 Rep complains that will of state chairs of region 1 was not respected. Region 1 elected someone who was not a member at the time. Chair invalidated entire new election. Region 1 alt appeals decision of chair. Malagon asks to call the question — we know how this will go. Vote was 10-3. No one asked for a roll call vote.
Ford asks to add Convention Oversight Committee time. Malagon objects..no written report submitted. Objection overturned. Martin asks for time for his proposal on operator contracts. Wants to be able to pay people locally by paying proven activists to do work. Malagon objects that Martin is giving a presentation. Someone says Martin has floor. Wants Committee to work together rather than fighting each other. Wants 30 minutes. Effort to strike Malagon motions from agenda. Claims that these would hand control of party over to a small number of people. Final answer was unclear. Redpath asks dding public comments at end of meeting. Done.
Chris Rufer Speaks. Rufer is a potential maximum donor. He says: Our progress has stalled. Is the issue philosophy or messaging? We are the party of principle. There are personal principles. There are natural principles, e.g. physics and chemistry.Some invocation of Ayn Rand. People seek to be happy. Violence and theft decrease happiness. Claims this statement is a natural law. He is going on about libertarian philosophy. We should reject the idea of liberal libertarians and conservative libertarians. Argues that you need near-unanimity for progress. Says that our challenge is with the culture not with the number of political victories. Dances around the ‘taxation is theft’ line. Very long discussion of philosophy. I hear a distinct mild prejudice against women (phrasing somewhat like’liberals and women think’.). Want messaging that lures people into our philosophy. We want to oppose coercion. There is too much division in our party. At some point you have to stop talking and act. At some point minority should stop objecting. Proposal: We have a social philosophy with political implications. Reached a recess. Livestream ended for the nonce.
Comments are blocked on the youtube channel.
We reach officer reports. They are on the one-note
Chair:
Darr: 3/4 of the fundraising is mine.
Redpath: April preliminary report sent to board.Joint Fundraising committee being phased out. We have about $206,000 in cash, low 40s of credit card balance, cash balance of $161,000. Membership revenue has averaged $58,000/ month so far. Apparent net income is $17,000 but there are charges not in the current preliminary document. We are not broke. It will be a struggle to break even going forward. We have $60,000 in revenue. We will try to lower accounting expenses during the second half of this year.
Malagon: Worst case scenario, not counting selling building. Do we have a few months.
Redpath: I would like to answer that question later in the day.
Chair:We are in the process of selling the building to the neighbors in as is condition. There are roof leaks, dry wall damage, etc. Redpath: Under FEC regulations we do not have funds restricted as building funds. FEC restrictions are not the same as ours. Funds we received for the building were filed with the FEC as general contributions, not as building funds contributions, so FEC rules do not restrict how we spend building fund money. There may be donors who specified that money was to be sent to the building fund. The LNC may or may not owe money to a realtor or real estate attorney.
Secretary lists dates at which various things need to be done under the bylaws.
Executive director gives report. For KVF we projected 220,000; they sent $119,000. Membership report: Strategic plan was 17,500; we actually losing members. We could use a more realistic goal. Our income comes almost entirely from dues-paying members, because most life members are not donors.Most of our money comes from recurring monthly donations. Increasing that would get more money and also more reliable projections.We are collecting money from 6000+ members, not nearly 10,000 members. 12.5% of the life members are donating. Most money is from recurring monthly donations. We have better and worse single months. Darr has done most of the board fundraising. Six have raised money. We are paying $3000/month for Voter Gravity. Costs of Voter Gravity are discussed. There is a Unified Membership Program. Currently someone can join the state and Federal with one action and the money goes to the both. the Executive Director appeared to say that you can no longer join national without paying, but that may not be what she meant. The database is still being cleaned up to make it usable.There are a series of projects that with current manpower will take months and months to advance. Some projects are paused. One requires finishing fixing the data base. Harlos reminds all that the membership numbers need to be correct fairly soon in order to allocate delegates correctly.
Redpath: Who are our current employees and contractors? Kennedy: I will forward that list to you.
Fundraiser event 7:30-10.
Party Attorney: Notes that he has spent a great deal of time, namely two derivative suits, two investigative committees, the JFK suit. Malagon says he is leaving because Chadderdon has broken attorney-client privilege and other members have leaked confidential material. Chadderdon objects to the statement. . Chadderdon denies. Malagon says he sent screenshots of Discord material proving his claim to the chair, three months ago. Discussion becomes heated. I think the party attorney got some words in, but I am not sure and cannot tell which ones. Malagon said he is leaving because he does not want to be deposed.
They are going to executive session and then to lunch. Wrto lunch, this is a wise decision that I will emulate.
Afternoon: We reach Regional Reports.
Region 1: There has been lobbying of state legislatures. There was back and forth, The 15 states of region 1 have been very badly treated by the LNC and are considering very drastic action. Harlos claims the LNC action was valid. The issue is that someone was elected while his dues had expired. (A similar issue arose with respect to R Lee Wrights many years ago; the error appears to be remediable) Other reports were submitted and are in the one note.
Audit Committee: Auditors gave an unqualified opinion, meaning the financial reports are solid.There was a delay about referencing litigation in the Auditor’s Report. Report notes that unapproved disbursements were made, specifically cash disbursements. The Auditor said that someone should look carefully at our monthly bank financial reports. Does the auditor mention the RFAIs now pending?
Ballot Access: The Chair was Nanna, who resigned from the LNC. There is no report from him about 2024. Redpath’s voice keeps fading. Acoustics have crashed.
EPCC report is confidential. Claims that there are wrong numbers on the internet. We hired Larry Sharpe and someone else as fundraisers on commission.
Historical Preservation – Someone: I submitted my report.
Ethics Committee Report – report is inaudible. I can catch an occasional word. There is a motion to adopt someone’s recommendations. There are apparently recommendations demanding that LNC members exhibit unanimity, in contradiction to the bylaws right of all members to file complaints to the Judicial Committee. Many sentences are inaudible. Harlos says more workshopping needed. Malagon speaks in favor of it. Martin: We are here to respect the members. I am being told that I am to be loyal to the board not to my members. Many members are very upset about matters. If you do this I will sue. Someone: If you are on the board, your duty is to the board. We need professional standards. The goal here is not to beat up on people but to set higher standards. Much material is hard to hear. Chadderdon appeared to express concern that the rules might be applied unevenly. Martin: Proposal makes disloyalty a removable offense. Chair of Ethics Committee denies analysis. Malagon agrees with Thompson: There is a lack of trust on the board. Membership and Donations are down. All this proposal asks is that people behave themselves…this is a no brainer. Instead we get worries about how the rules would be interpreted. We should not let perfection be the enemy of the good. Harlos moves to return to committee to resubmit at the next meeting.I think the motion passed.
Final Kennedy Victory Fund royalty received. $224K last year, $113K this year. In the last week we have responded to the FEC RFAIs. There are three entities: Team Kennedy, the LNC, the Joint Fundraising Committee. We will discuss with Team Kennedy about mutual interests.
Discussion of lobbying state legislatures (I think). Discussion of passing Defend the Guard. Michigan Bill sent to die in Committee. There is a discussion of an overnight vote on the Bylaws Committee. They are apparently proceeding with it. Discussion on ending today’s meeting. They went into executive session. Mr. Malagon again withdrew. They emerged from executive session.
We return to the Malagon motions. He reports a list of people who have endorsed them. Q: Does the list of qualifications being added by these motions would apply to current EPCC members? Malagon said no, but it was up to the Chair. Chair rules it does not. Mostly impossible to follow discussion. Objection that it gives EPCC powers greater than that of the LNC and Chair. Malagon interrupts Martin and says Martin does not understand the motion. Martin: Credentialism is a mental disorder. Malagon keeps interrupting Martin. References keep being made to consultant’s opinion. Revelation: EPCC Traditionally approved contracts to consultants as well as staff. Former chair claimed EPCC did not have authority over consultants. Motion would give EPCC control over consultant controls. Malagon says there are EPCC members who are not qualified.There is an argument about voting the motions as a body or one at a time. Malagon keeps interrupting. Motion: Amendment to replace ‘shall only’ with ‘should’. Much discussion is inaudible. Amendment is being debated. Strange bell-like noise. Discussion as to what is a point of order. Many faint voices. Committee agree to discuss this motion for ten more minutes, vote, and put everything else off until tomorrow. Malagon confirms from the chair that any member of any LNC Committee can be removed by vote for the LNC. Motion passes as amended.
These are substantive motions being passed without a roll call. Bylaws 7.13 The National Committee shall use roll call voting on all substantive motions.
“Funds we received for the building were filed with the FEC as general contributions, not as building funds contributions, so FEC rules do not restrict how we spend building fund money.”
I am told by someone with great knowledge this is 10000000% UNTRUE – All funds received were properly segregated & reported as such with the FEC (designated on form SA17 & memo’d as “Headquarters Account”).
Regardless – under GAAP they can do what they want. The donor restrictions on the funds were released once the building was purchased & the mortgage paid off. The issue is the FEC which likely has never faced this before since when the R’s or D’s sell a property the funds get recycled back to their building fund as they are usually buying another property.
I served on the LNC when the issue regarding Mr. Wrights’ membership came up. While the outcome and resolution may end up similar. Mr. Wrights membership dues were not delinquent at the time he was elected, so there was no question of an improper election in his case.
Similar, not the same. Was paying dues a correctable minor deficiency?
My memory is slightly foggy on this, but my understanding is that someone else had paid his dues. The question was whether that was allowed or not.
The issue has come up a number of times over the years, just not with as much controversy.
I remember that when I was first elected an alternate at the 2006 convention, I was informed later that day or maybe the next morning that I was not a dues paying member of the national party.
Of course I was, and I was able to confirm that through other members of our delegation. I had, as was the practice under our previous chair, given the money to the state party to send to DC. In cash.
That of course uncovered the controversy that quite a number of members of our state party had paid their dues, but the previous state chair and his membership committee chairman had never sent all the money to national. We never did find the money.
The person who paid his dues was an LNC office staffer (who worked remote from home in the same state as the now late former LNC menber).
Sean Haugh, specifically.
The case details are on lpedia.org.
Yes. I had forgotten who had paid for it.
Is Chris Rufer new to the party? I haven’t heard his name before.
Very long time maximum donor. If you use canned tomato products, he probably canned them and put someone’s label on them. A decade and then some ago, I saw an estimate of his net worth as a third of a billion. And he is a nice guy who did give to Massachusetts while I was state chair.
Thank you. I have read his name before. Outstanding man as I recall.
To be fair, I had to Google him and his company, The Morning Star Company.
Provides a majority of the tomato pizza sauce in the U.S. for Domino’s Pizza and the tomato paste ingredients in the U.S. for Heinz.
* Processes 40% of California’s tomato production
* Supplier to a significant portion of the U.S. industrial tomato paste and diced tomato markets.
* Processes about 5 million tons of tomatoes each year.
* Produces over 3,000 tons of tomatoes per hour.
* The company has 550 full-time employees and over 2,500 seasonal workers during harvest season.
* Annual revenue: exceeds $1 billion per year
There is this man, who has been in the news recently and who has a similar name. He actually lives in western Washington State as I do. He’s anti-woke and conservative. Christopher Rufo of the Manhattan Institute.
Chris Rufer has been in the LP for a long time, since at least the early 1990’s, possible since the 1980’s or 1970’s. I think he is the biggest financial don5g678or to the Libertarian Party ever, or close to it. He is a uvhCalifornia based entreprenour who founded and runs the largest tomato processing plant in the western region of the country. He started out driving a tomato truck, so he’s a pull yourself up from your boitstraps kind of guy. He ran for the state legislature in Califirnua as a Libertarian Party candidate in the early 1990’s but I do not think he was close to as wealthy then as he is now.
I met him in person once. He seemed like he’s the real deal to me, as in that he is really passionate about the cause of liberty.
The speakers, in order:
#1 Jay Gillotte
#2 Andrew Duke
#3 Dana Carver
#4 John Hudak
Camera angle and sound quality are horrible.
Not surprised.
Joseph —
I don’t know what is with the party and not having enough people in the party to handle A/V for meetings such as there.
I remember when I was at the LNC meeting in Chicago some time back, and the A/V was horrible in there back then as well.
AV quality has been an issue for many years.
Yeah, this is actually crazy. Especially given the technically inclined people in this party — with solid A/V experience. And they’re rarely utilized.