The Libertarian Party website now lists 93 party members who won elective office on November 2, 2021. As of December 14, the list only had 79 winners. It takes time for communication. Here is the list.
The Libertarian Party website now lists 93 party members who won elective office on November 2, 2021. As of December 14, the list only had 79 winners. It takes time for communication. Here is the list.
Again, how many are partisan and real offices instead of dog catcher or poll worker?
How many elected Libertarians are there across the country now?
Looks like the vast majority of these are in Pennsylvania, and several dozen are small town Constable or Auditor positions… probably uncontested elections in many cases.
The attempt to spin this year’s results as “historic” by the LP’s comms folks feels a bit silly.
It should actually be a huge embarrassment that this is the best they can do after 50 years, but when all you have is a turd, what better choice do they have in the short term than to polish it as best they can and act like they struck gold? Starting next year, perhaps, they could begin a real effort to Make the Libertarian Party Libertarian Again by electing Mises Caucus leadership, and maybe even start making it relevant for a change. They’ll have a long way to climb to undo the damage of the past decade and rehabilitate the party enough to make it presentable to normal voters.
TOTAL failure in 18 States to do issue voter petitions for state const amdts — since 1970.
esp about
equal ballot access
one election day — NOOO extremist primaries
PR
APPV
TOTSOP
—-
ie Natl LP has rotted to the core Bylaws — infected LP state parties.
“Austin Cassidy on December 22, 2021 at 2:33 am said:
Looks like the vast majority of these are in Pennsylvania, and several dozen are small town Constable or Auditor positions… probably uncontested elections in many cases.
The attempt to spin this year’s results as ‘historic’ by the LP’s comms folks feels a bit silly.”
It was a record number of Libertarians elected in Pennsylvania, however, that is in part due to Pennsylvania election law filing periods for minor parties and independents being after the deadline for major parties, so the minor parties or independents can look for uncontested offices, as in low level offices for which nobody else was running, or offices for which only one major party candidate filed for the race. I know that this can be done in other states, but that it can’t be done in some states. A lot of these races were ones in which no other candidates ran, or there was only one other candidate. I think all or most of them were non-partisan races. They were pretty much all low level offices, but I know that at least one or two of them are mayors of small towns. This is still better than nothing though.
I am not sure what the number of elected Libertarians is now for the country, but I would guess that it is still below the number of elected Libertarians that the party had back in 2003, when it was somewhere around 600-650.
“Dallas Twain on December 22, 2021 at 3:00 am said:
It should actually be a huge embarrassment that this is the best they can do after 50 years, ”
There is truth to this. When I joined the party back in the 1990’s the party was electing people to low level local offices. The party also elected more state legislators back then than it has today. The LP went for 20 years, from 2000 up until 2020, without electing anyone to a seat in a state legislature anywhere until that guy won that seat in Wyoming last year. That is pretty pathetic.
Also, all of these years electing people to local offices, yet the only time that the Libertarian Party ever took control of a local government was in Big Water, Utah for a couple of years back in the 1980’s. That is also pretty sad.
In the U.S., minor parties can have influence even if they never elect anyone. This is standard political science/history. The 1840 Liberty Party was the first organization of any type to advocate for an end to slavery in the U.S. Before the Liberty Party was formed, no one even thought about that; they just thought about limiting the spread of slavery. The Prohibition Party, starting in 1869, originated the idea of making the sale and transportation of alcohol illegal, and that became policy. The Greenback Party of 1874, the Peoples Party of 1892, the Socialist Party of 1901, all spread ideas that had not been discussed before those parties formed, which became policy.
The Libertarian Party has state legislators in two states now, Maine and Wyoming. Never before has the Libertarian Party had legislators in two states simultaneously.
Richard Winger said: “The Libertarian Party has state legislators in two states now, Maine and Wyoming. Never before has the Libertarian Party had legislators in two states simultaneously.”
How did the Libertarian Party pick up a state legislator in Maine? Did this person get elected as a Libertarian, or did they get elected as a Democrat or a Republican and switch to Libertarian?
Representative John Andrews switched from Republican to Libertarian on December 14, 2020.
Congratulations to all the Libertarian Party candidates who won election in November. I appreciate their activism and willingness to serve. They are commendable.
The LP has become communist. Look at their dictatorial leader Whitney Bilyeu who once again refuses public comment in meetings. Look at Tara DeSisto, a PAID member of he party who says petitions against a state board are acts of aggression and against the NAP.
DeSisto needs to be fired and kicked out of the party.
Where did she say that?
One of her social media pages. Caryn Ann Harlos has a screenshot in her latest video.
Yikes! The LP is against recalls? Doesn’t sound very libertarian.
The far left has infiltrated the LP. Look at their last two presidential candidates.
Andy on December 22, 2021 at 8:50 am said:
“When I joined the party back in the 1990’s the party … elected more state legislators back then than it has today. … Also, all of these years electing people to local offices, yet the only time that the Libertarian Party ever took control of a local government was in Big Water, Utah for a couple of years back in the 1980’s. That is also pretty sad.”
There were zero Libertarians elected to state legislature in the 1990s without a major party cross endorsement. Steve Vaillancourt did it in 2000 and the last one before that was Andre Marrou in 1984.
Also, control of Big Water, Utah wasn’t just a couple of years, it was at least close to a decade and extended into the mid 1990s, if not beyond. I think their was a Libertarian Mayor elected in the 2000s, but I don’t know about town council. Also, Libertarians had a majority in Leadville City, Colorado for less than a year in 2001 – 2002, and also Crystal City, Minnesota in the 2010s.
Scott,
GOOD POINT. They’re badly due for a house cleaning, with all the leftist scum to be physically removed from the party once and for all, so to speak.
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Free helicopter rides!
Richard,
Wasn’t there a few months in late 2016 when the party had representation in 4 different state legislatures due to party-switchers — NH, Nevada, Utah and Nebraska?
Party switchers do not count since they were not elected. Nebraska is non partisan, and their rep was fake libertarian and NH party stealing
Ebke. The NV guy voted for the Raiders taxpayer funded stadium.
Andy,
That’s a smart move to use the filing deadlines to seek out uncontested seats, good play on Pennsylvania’s part!
My comment was directed at the LPHQ press release with a positively Trumpian title: “Libertarian Party Shatters Records as Unprecedented Number of Libertarians Elected to Office”
https://www.lp.org/libertarian-party-shatters-records-as-unprecedented-number-of-libertarians-elected-to-office/
This appears to have been an extremely precedented off-year election for the LP.
Tom,
Did someone put you in charge of deciding who “counts”?
Is Tom Tom Knapp?
Tom said: “The NV guy voted for the Raiders taxpayer funded stadium.”
That scumbag fake Libertarian state legislator in Nevada also voted to increase the sales tax for more funding for the police.
The guy got elected as a Republican, in kind of a fluke in the Las Vegas area. He knew that the Republican Party was not going to put much resources or support into his reelection campaign, so he switched to Libertarian while the legislature was in session. I think that he did this so he could bilk Libertarian Party donors for money, because he knew Libertarians would go gaga over the idea of having a state legislator in Nevada. He did in fact get a lot of money from Libertarians. I believe it was somewhere in the ballpark of $100,000. I know one big Libertarian donor gave him something like $50,000 for his reelection campaign. He ended up squandering the money, basically doing nothing to promote the Libertarian message, or even really trying to get reelected. Prior to the election happening, the Nevada legislature went back into session, and two bills were up for a vote. One of the bills was to increase the motel occupancy tax to fund a football stadium and a convention center, and the other bill was to increase the sales tax for more money for the police. This so called “Libertarian” voted yes on both of these anti-liberty bills, and on the bill to increase the motel occupancy tax to fund a football stadium and a convention center he was the deciding vote on this issue, which got publicity for the party, which I would say was negative publicity, as one of the headlines was something like, “Libertarian Legislator Casts Deciding Vote To Increase Motel Occupancy Tax For Football Stadium And Convention Center”. Fortunately, this guy lost his reelection campaign, and he disappeared from the Libertarian Party after this.
“Mr. Libertarian on December 23, 2021 at 8:37 pm said:
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LOL!
“Tom on December 23, 2021 at 9:38 pm said:
Party switchers do not count since they were not elected. Nebraska is non partisan, and their rep was fake libertarian and NH party stealing
Ebke.”
Not getting into the merits or demerits of the former Nebraska legislator, I do count non-partisan offices as Libertarian victories if the person who won is a party member, but yes, partisan victories are generally more impressive than non-partisan ones.
Jim said: ” Steve Vaillancourt did it in 2000″
Yes, and he ended up switching to Republican something like 6 months into his term, with the stated reason being that he did not support the Libertarian Party position on gay marriage.
Why would they have a position on any kind of marriage other than getting government out of it?