We continue our description of Kennedy and Republican efforts to corrupt the 2024 Libertarian Presidential nomination process, as reported by Jake Porter on jakeport.substack.com .
Roos opined on the issue on his Substack from August of last year.
June 2024: Libertarians for Kennedy Seek a Peaceful Solution to Chase Oliver’s Unpopularity, States Declare Not Seating Oliver, Talks About Switching Oliver Ticket, and the Trump and Biden Debate
As the summer heat kicked in, Libertarians for Kennedy sought to resolve the unpopularity of Chase Oliver by asking him to work with the Kennedy campaign, releasing certain states to nominate Kennedy instead so he could qualify for the upcoming CNN debate. Many states, especially those with delegations that voted NOTA, took the drastic step of declaring they would not seat Oliver as the nominee. Behind the scenes, talks began about switching the Oliver ticket to something more palatable for the party. Meanwhile, the national Trump-Biden debate was heating up, and the party was caught in the middle, struggling to find its place in a fractured political environment.
In Colorado, the state party went so far as to endorse RFK Jr. for President and attempt to place him on their ballot line.
Under a resolution adopted unanimously on Monday by the Colorado Libertarians’ governing board, the party refused to place Oliver and ter Maat in contention for the state’s 10 electoral votes, .
“This decision was not taken lightly, it reflects the will of our delegation, which voted (none of the above) in the final round of voting, and reiterates our deep concern that the national ticket does not align with the values and strategies that the (Libertarian Party of Colorado) holds dear,” the state party said in a statement.
“We call on the Libertarian National Committee to decertify the Oliver/ter Maat ticket and align with the true principles of liberty that our party stands for,” the Colorado party added. “At a minimum, the (national committee) must allow states to pursue their own electoral strategies to maximize Libertarian outcomes.”
A few weeks later, the Libertarian Party of Colorado chose Kennedy as their candidate.
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will appear on Colorado’s presidential election ballots, as a Libertarian.
The Libertarian Party of Colorado announced its members have agreed to form a “partnership” with the RFK campaign.
“As part of this partnership, the Libertarian Party of Colorado will place the Kennedy/Shanahan ticket on the Colorado state ballot for president and vice president,” the party said in a statement. “This move reflects our commitment to offering voters a choice that transcends the traditional partisan divide and promotes individual liberty, personal responsibility, and limited government.”
The attempts to place Kennedy on the ballot were blocked by national party Secretary and Libertarian Party of Colorado member, Caryn Ann Harlos, who directly submitted the paperwork to the state despite direct orders from McArdle not to do so.
In previous Presidential elections, the national party sent certificates of nomination directly to the Secretary of State or Board of Elections. Secretary Harlos indicated that was the intention in an e-mail with the party’s Executive Director days after the national convention.
It would be real nice if the LP did something such as sending out bumper stickers, t-shirts, yard signs, and any thing else with a message such as “The National Debt is Childs Abuse.” Some of us do care about getting the message out.
Chase Oliver was not kept off of any ballots by anyone in the Libertarian Party in 2024. A few rogue individuals in Colorado did try to keep him off the ballot but that effort was thwarted by then LNC Secretary, Caryn Ann Harlos. There was some bluster in a very small handful of other states about people not putting him on ballots but it was just hot air.
Tennessee refused to support his petitioning efforts. Montana refused to put him on the ballot.
Do pay attention.
In Massachusetts, the recognized state affiliate did NOT put Chase on the ballot, but the disaffiliated LAMA, which DID have ballot access put Chase on instead.
The recognized state affiliate would have needed to collect 10,000 valid signatures to put Chase on the ballot. That was unlikely to be an option. LAMA needed fewer than two dozen signatures.
The Libertarian Party of Montana did put Chase Oliver on the ballot.
The LP of Tennessee state committee did not help Chase Oliver’s petitioning effort for ballot access effort, however, there were a few Libertarians in Tennessee that did volunteer for it. Tennessee has the easist petition requirement in the country for an independent presidential petition at only 275 valid signatures. It became apparent that volunteer petitioners were not going to finish so paid petitioners were hired. I made two offers to facilitate this effort. I, and two other Libertarians with a lot of petitioning experience were working in Kentucky at the time on the LP ballot access petition for Chase in that state, a drive which we finished 11 or 12 dayd prior to the deadline. I offered for one or two or all three of us to go to Tennesse for say 1-3 days (which is likely all it would have taken). I also offered to refer some good experienced petition circulators I have known for years and who have good track records to go to Tennessee. Unfortunately, my offers were rejected and two paid petition circulators none of us had ever heard of and who had little to no verifiable track record for success got hired to go to Tennessee and they screwed the job up. Between the paid petitioners and the volunteers enough signatures were turned in for Chase that he could have been on the ballot even if the validity rate on those signatures had been aa low as 59%. The validity rate was below 50%. I think it was something like 47%. The paid petition circulators brought in low validity signatures, low enough to drag down the group validity rate with the signatures from volunteers, and the paid petitions also decided to take the weekend off which was a few days prior to the deadline even though the weather was nice that weekend. I do not necessarily have a problem with a person taking a day or two off (although I rarely do it myself during a ballot access drive), but two people taking two days off a few days prior to a deadline when they were the only two paid people working the drive and when it looked like they drive was on the margin for making it or not making it was pretty irresponsible. They obviously did a poor job to have brought in validity as low as they did. I gathered petition signatures in Tennessee before and my validity rate was much higher than the validity rate on the signatures they gathered. Kentucky is very similar to Tennessee for the petition form and the demographics and percentage of the population which is registered to vote and the validity rate gathered by myself and the other two Libertarians whom I referenced in Kentucky was significantly higher than what those two in Tennessee got.
So a bad hiring decision put the nail in the coffin for Chase Oliver’s chance at ballot access in Tennessee.
The state chair of Tennessee refused to endorse him, *after* he was the official Presidential nomination, because his “lifestyle” did not align with Tennessee’s party members’ so-called “values”.
He was on the ballot in Montana.
At least to my recollection.
The LP’s presidential nomination was already corrupted by Republicans who were not really Libertarians in 2008, 2012 and 2016.
100% reality check
Well then that absolutely absolves your efforts to undermine the delegates.
That is sarcasm just incase you are too slow to grasp it, Hector.
<3