On October 1, 2026, the Libertarian National Committee filed suit against Angela McArdle and Austin Padgett. Damages of a quarter million to a million were proposed. There is an extensive list of specific issues, of which Freedom calls, a Rally, and a fundraising contract were mentioned.
Those of you who donated should have been asking for specs and designs.
I told Hinkle in 2010 exactly what those specs should be months before the campaign started, on a phone call in my California bathroom. Nobody listened. I was right, yet again.
Those specs were simple: located in DC; shared space for LPDC; enough office space for staff operations, to hold in-person LNC meetings and to establish a lobbying presence on Capitol Hill; and enough storage space for the physical gear for the conventions and the outreach booth.
In post-COVID reality, the Party can be run with a cloud server for the virtual parts and a 40′ shipping crate for the physical parts. (Come to think of it, a branded semi for storage is a hell of a moving billboard…) But 10 years before that, nobody was thinking that way and virtual meetings were almost nonexistent.
You need a DC office for two lobbyists/press persons.
The other things need a building someplace cheap to fly, close to several universities, with plenty of parking, all those things you mentioned in the same place. Staff in one place so that they learn from each other and the top person knows what is happening and where activities are lagging.
The mere fact that an insufficient level of internal administrative and financial controls allowed any initial payments to be sent without an approved and fully executed contract should be an indication to current and potential donors of the instability and unreliability of this organization.
As noted above, this is not something you can just wave a wand at and make disappear. The party has failed.
As a former member and contributor to the organization, I find this highly offensive. As a former board member, I can only say that the members of the board during her tenure acted entirely irresponsibly in not immediately stopping this when the first payment was made. You failed, and if you don’t understand why then you are even worse than the criminals you allowed to steal from your organization.
For anyone interested, here’s the link to the case docket: https://odysseyweb.traviscountytx.gov/app/RegisterOfActions/#/853117B2801A559247D5642A0DECFA1DDFDC992433132A5E36BA147E14D2C914920D2A9163EB93ED625920581A2AD8EBB4215299C8F26FECF34C68AFDDC568AEEC1CE2D384FF47E428C35C34C9AAC483/anon/portalembed
I can’t believe it took the court 5 days to issue a summons. Crazy. I wonder if it’s sent out for service yet.
Austin Martin is pulling his usual chicanery and undermining the LNC’s case publicly. How is this not breach of trust and grounds for removal?
The LNC cannot remove a regional representative.
It is a breach of trust and fiduciary duty.
LNC should take away his posting privileges on the List permanently as he is trying to undermine the case against McArdle. He should be able to respond to business only.
As far as removal, only the state chairs in his region can remove him.
It violates the Bylaws for the LNC to suspend a regional member, in whole or in part.
Good job, Evan and LNC.
A necessary step…A matter of principle.
Are board members, of various types of organizations, granted a certain degree of immunity from lawsuits by the organization?
I’m not sure what the law is in this case.
No. They are against only certain types AGAINST the organization. I am sure there are some “from” the organization as well, but this is a well pled complaint.
It’s about time. It is a very well-written suit.
I agree, Caryn. The lawyers presented a very thorough, detailed and clear description of Angela McArdle’s and Austin Padgett’s misdeeds. I hope the Libertarian National Committee will be successful in its suit.
A judgement against her won’t even come close to making the Libertarian Party whole. Headquarters is gone. So are the members and donors who left. It seems like the only thing the LNC spends money on anymore is suing people. At least this one makes more sense than the trademark nonsense.
I totally agree!
The members and donor are slowly coming back, with most taking a wait-and-see attitude, which is understandable considering all that’s happened the past 6 years.
But this suit is about the other part of libertarianism: personal responsibility and accountability, which a lot of people forget about and libertarians often forget to talk about, too. It’s the FO to the FA.
As for the HQ, it was never conceived and implemented correctly, and over time it showed, and in the post-COVID virtual world, it’s almost unnecessary anyway except as a symbol.
So those of us who donated deserve to have our money misappropriated?
100% agreed with every word, Jenn. I’m gone and I won’t be back. Other than not having bothered to contact the party to remove my life membership I have zero remaining connection to them. If I bother to change that at all at any point it will be to ask them to go ahead and revoke that life membership rather than giving them anything else to burn – money, time, or effort of any kind.
I casually noticed they are once again falsely publicly listing me as being an Ohio rather than Alabama resident as they have added the lifetime member listing back to their website, which is another nudge in the dynamite only remaining bridge direction.
I don’t know how they arrived at that other than that I joined the Ohio party because I didn’t have to send them any money or live there or anything else to do it and someone asked me to. The last time I was actually an Ohio resident was in 1990-1, before I started voting for them in 1992 and well before I started donating to them, signing their silly pledge etc in 1994-5. All that happened after I moved to Alabama, where I’ve been based ever since.
Come to think.of it, maybe them listing me as an Ohio resident is a sign that I shoul go back to a time before I was one of their members. Since I suckered myself into.paying.for a life membership in 2000, that might unfortunately involve actually contacting them, which might be challenging given my current communication method limitations but it’s yet another nudge. I might have to bite the bullet and log into email or arrange a rare voice phone call to them specifically for this.
The only other thing I can foresee having to do with them in the future is joining a class action lawsuit against them by building donors if or when it will happen, if the only thing it requires is signing on. I was way too minor of a donor to do anything separately.
To say I won’t be back in their party is an understatement, but to be fair, it’s not like anyone misses me there, and I’m sure at least some people are glad I’m gone besides me. I don’t wish or predict anything good for them as an organization any.longer. I’m sure the feeling must be mostly mutual to.the extent anyone remembers me at all.
I remember you. You kept this site alive.