Redpath Responds to Criticisms of His Petitioning Activities

From: Bill Redpath
To: LNC Board <lncboard@lp.org>; lnc-public_forward <lnc-public_forward@lp.org>
Subject: Response to my asserted Conflict of Interest Ethics Violation

I would not normally bother responding to people who assert absurdities, such as claiming that because I am a former Treasurer of FairVote (an electoral reform organization), which has received financial contributions from the Open Society Foundation, that I therefore “managed money for George Soros,” which then immediately qualifies me as a socialist, and that there are other socialists on the LNC, or that antifa has penetrated the LNC, or that I am a Federal agent who has infiltrated the Libertarian Party.

But, there are other people in the Libertarian Party who are questioning what all the ruckus being raised by certain people on the LNC about me concerns, and I think they deserve to know.

I have been a member of the Libertarian Party since April 30, 1984. I became an activist, at least in my eyes, in 1986. I became involved in my first ballot access petition drive in Virginia in 1988, because I wanted to get the LP’s presidential ticket on the ballot there. I was first elected to the LNC in 1989, and I became involved in ballot access at the National level in 1990.

Since then, I have run well over 100 Libertarian Party petition drives, covering most states. I have personally circulated Libertarian Party petitions in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

In 1988, I agreed to go to Massachusetts and Missouri to petition for LP candidates and the LP presidential ticket. On those two three-day weekends, I was paid for the signatures that I gathered. Other LP members were also hired on the same terms on which I was hired, because both petition drives needed a last weekend signature boost to succeed.

I was not paid for any signatures that I gathered for LP candidates or anyone else again until 2024.

I am currently a Co-Editor, with Richard Winger, of Ballot Access News (the monthly newsletter) and ballot-access.org.

I have always been in favor not just of ballot access for the Libertarian Party and its candidates, but for ballot access for candidates of all parties.

Over the years, in my work for ballot access for LP candidates, I have worked cooperatively with other minor parties and political candidates in running petition drives. I have encouraged petition signature swaps when petitioners can carry for more than one party or candidate at a time. Sometimes, but very seldom, I have gathered some signatures for candidates of other minor parties as a courtesy, with nothing expected in return. It has been common for minor parties and independent candidates to work together on matters of ballot access.

In 2024, when I was living in Illinois, I was hired by the Libertarian Party of Kentucky in May 2024 to gather paid signatures (I returned in August as a volunteer petitioner, with hotel paid for, as I recall, by the Oliver/ter Maat Presidential Campaign). In July 2024, I was hired by the Libertarian Party of Minnesota to gather paid signatures for it. I also went to Rhode Island in early September 2024 to gather paid signatures, which were paid for by the Oliver/ter Maat Campaign.

In June 2024, it was apparent that the petition drive for the Free New Mexico Party was falling short of the 3,562 signatures that were needed to place the Oliver/ter Maat ticket on the ballot, with a deadline of Thursday, June 27, 2024. The situation had become so dire that compensation of $10 per signature was offered then to induce people to petition. This was an offer that had been approved ahead of time and was open to anyone to accept. Even at that compensation, it was difficult to find people willing to circulate the FNMP petition.

There was a Ballot Access Committee meeting in mid-June 2024, at which the New Mexico situation was the main agenda item. Then BAC member Caryn Ann Harlos emphasized that the FNMP was a new affiliate, and that we needed to support it by successfully completing the petition drive. Because she knew my petitioning background, she urged to me go to New Mexico and petition. Because I wanted the Oliver/ter Maat ticket to be on the ballot in New Mexico, I agreed to go.

I agreed at that meeting that my compensation would be $10 per signature, plus reimbursement for all expenses, except hotel and food. Again, this compensation was available to anyone. Then fellow LNC member Adrian Malagon was already in New Mexico petitioning for that compensation. There were several other paid petitioners in New Mexico receiving the same compensation.

On Wednesday, June 19, 2024, I flew from Chicago O’Hare to Albuquerque. I was there eight days. I saved the LNC money, because FNMP member Dereck Scott offered to lend me his pickup truck, which had a manual transmission, to use instead of getting a rental car, for which the LNC would have paid. Even though I had not driven a manual transmission vehicle since 2001 and had never before driven a pickup truck, a 15 or 20 minute drive around Albuquerque got me sufficiently confident with the vehicle that I accepted his offer.

I gathered 404 FNMP signatures while I was there, and the petition drive succeeded in getting the Oliver/ter Maat ticket on the ballot in New Mexico.

While I was there, I received a phone call from Trent Pool, whose petitioning firm was gathering signatures for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to get on the 2024 General Election ballot for President in New Mexico. I had known Trent for a long time, and his firm had done petitioning work for the LP many times in the past.

I was offered, as I recall, $8 per signature to gather RFK, Jr. signatures, plus he agreed to pay for half my airfare for the trip, which saved the LNC more money.

I said “Yes,” for the following reasons (in no particular order):

#1: The chance to make more money while in New Mexico, #2: airfare savings for the LNC, #3: I thought RFK, Jr. should be on the ballot in New Mexico, and #4: I thought the LP might need Trent’s firm to do petitioning in other states later in 2024.
I made about $1,300 gathering RFK, Jr. signatures in New Mexico.

It turned out that the LP did need to retain Trent’s firm for petitioning in Kentucky and Alabama later in 2024. I had little doubt that the Oliver/ter Maat presidential ticket would not have made the ballot in Alabama, but for Trent Pool’s firm being able to complete the paid petition drive.

Because of my petitioning for RFK, Jr. in New Mexico, I have been accused of not reporting a Conflict of Interest to the Libertarian National Committee and, therefore, committed an ethics violation.

But, was it?

About this time in 2024, under an effort led by then LNC Chair Angela McArdle and approved by the LNC Executive Committee, the Libertarian National Committee entered a Joint Fundraising Agreement with Team Kennedy, which was the organization for the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Presidential Campaign.

I did not vote for the LNC to enter that agreement, and I was a signatory on both appeals to the LP Judicial Committee that asked that it rule that the LNC could not enter such an agreement with Team Kennedy.

Now, allies of former Chair McArdle currently on the LNC are claiming that I committed an ethics violation by not reporting an asserted “Conflict of Interest” to the LNC because I gathered signatures for RFK, Jr.

That is rich. Talk about wanting it both ways. Positions that hypocritical are rare, even in politics. No, I do not accept that judgement.

For full disclosure, Trent Pool also directed me to Team Kennedy, which was looking for people to defend the validity of petition signatures to put RFK, Jr. on the ballot for President of the United States in Illinois in 2024. I did this July 15 through 18, 2024, at the Illinois State Board of Elections in Springfield. I did not gather any signatures for RFK, Jr. in Illinois.

I was paid $200 per day to work three shifts each day (9-Noon, 1-4 & 5-8). Hotel expense was reimbursed. All other expenses were on me, although lunch was purchased for all such workers each day.

The Oliver/ter Maat ticket needed 25,000 valid signatures to make the ballot in Illinois in 2024. I pledged that I would gather at least 1,300 signatures, which would have been about 1/30th of the number of total signatures needed for the petition drive to succeed. I gathered 1,311 signatures. About 2,000 signatures were gathered by other Illinois LP members.

Under Illinois law, if at least 10% of the number of valid signatures required are gathered, and the petition signatures are not challenged, the candidate(s) get on the ballot.

Unfortunately, an Illinois resident whose LinkedIn page showed an affiliation with the Heritage Foundation challenged the LP petition, and the Oliver/ter Maat ticket was not on the ballot in Illinois in 2024.

All of that happened before the RFK, Jr. signature challenge started, so it was already known that the Oliver/ter Maat ticket would not be on the Illinois ballot.

Also, for full disclosure, I am a plaintiff with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Team Kennedy, the Libertarian Party of Illinois, and Angel Oakley (a Kennedy elector and an Independent candidate for US House in Illinois’ Third Congressional District in 2024, who is the Republican candidate for said seat in 2026) in a lawsuit in a US District Court in Illinois that challenges certain provisions of Illinois ballot access law. I am involved in this litigation in support of easier ballot access laws for minor party and independent candidates, as is called for by the Libertarian Party platform.

I also view neither my signature defense work, nor my participation in that litigation, as a Conflict of Interest.