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Executive Committee

LNC Meeting of December 2000

LNC Region 2/California Report

for the LNC meeting of
9-10 December 2000

by Joe Dehn

(This report covers California. Dan Wisnosky is reporting on Nevada.)

I. Membership

A. Registered Voters

As of the pre-election registration deadline, the number of registered Libertarians in California was an all-time record of 94,937, which is 0.60% of all registered voters. The steady increase over the past several years has been "natural", without any large-scale registration drives.

We are currently in fifth place, behind the American Independent Party with 2.05% and the Greens with 0.88%.

For a graph of the history of Libertarian registration in California, see:

http://www.ca.lp.org/lpc-hist-regvot.html

B. Central Committee Members / Dues-Paying National Members

Although there are still a few cases where these two sets don't exactly correspond, the difference in the counts is now less than 1% so they can be considered the same for the purpose of discussing trends.

Basically, paid membership in California has been flat for the past two years as it has been nationwide, and over the last year it has actually declined:

Dues-Paying National Members

1999 2000

31 October 6375 6052 -5.0%

30 November 6499 6080 -6.4%

Note: The 30 November 1999 figure was the all-time high, and might be considered anomalous because it was the delegate allocation deadline. However, the decrease comparing 31 October figures was also significant.

II. Finances

While LPC finances this year have not been in crisis mode as they were a year ago, this has only been achieved by severely cutting back on the state newsletter (LPC Monthly). Although it continues to be "published" monthly, and is available online, it is now printed and mailed only about every other month.

III. Local Organizations

The LPC is currently divided into 59 regions, of which about 45 are considered "active". There is only one region remaining without a contact of any kind. The rest of the regions have one or more "contacts", but not an actual organization.

IV. State Office

This year saw an upgrade of the LPC's office, to space rented in an actual office building. (Previously the Executive Director worked out of his home.) Along with this a part-time assistant was hired.

Executive Director Juan Ros continues his heavy involvement in media work and fundraising along with support of the full range of activities at the state level.

V. Candidates / Election Results

A. Partisan

The LP had more candidates for partisan office in 2000 than ever before. There were 113 candidates on the ballot (in addition to president and vice-president):

1 US Senate

45 US House (out of 52 districts)

15 State Senate (out of 20 districts elected this year)

52 State Assembly (out of 80 districts)

Note: These were the only partisan offices up for election this year, and we covered 113 of the 153 possible positions. All local elections in California are non-partisan.

Statewide results:

PRESIDENT
Al Gore	Democrat	5833974	53.47%
George W. Bush	Republican	4542793	41.64%
Ralph Nader	Green	415370	3.81%
Harry Browne	LIBERTARIAN	45291	0.42%
Patrick J. Buchanan	Reform	44817	0.41%
Howard Phillips	Am. Indep.	16974	0.16%
John Hagelin	Natural Law	10864	0.10%
Total		10910083

US SENATE

Dianne Feinstein Democrat 5904899 55.87%

Tom Campbell Republican 3865528 36.57%

Medea Susan Benjamin Green 323854 3.06%

Gail Katherine Lightfoot LIBERTARIAN 186859 1.77%

Diane B. Templin Am. Indep. 133940 1.27%

Jose Luis Camahort Reform 96100 0.91%

Brian M. Rees Natural Law 58291 0.55%

Total 10569471

Best results for district races:

US House all districts	43: Bill Reed	15.63%
US House against D&R	45: Don F. Hull	3.83%
State Senate (against D&R)	09: James M. Eyer	5.19%
State Assembly all districts	05: Gene Frazier	24.09%
State Assembly against D&R	65: Bonnie Flickinger	8.22%

The candidate who many considered to have the best prospects in an Assembly race, Bonnie Flickinger, did get the highest percentage among similar races. However she did not come anywhere close to winning. The winner of this race (a Republican) is not going to take office because of her involvement in campaign finance violations, and some activists are urging Flickinger to run again in the upcoming special election. Note: State Assembly is the smallest type of district among partisan offices in California, but these districts are not small; they are almost as large as a Congressional district.

There has been some controversy about the fact that Ron Paul sent a letter to registered Libertarians in two Congressional districts asking them to vote for the Republican.

B. Non-Partisan

As a result of the unprecedented recruiting project "Operation Breakthrough", there were about 200 candidates for local office in California this year. Six of these candidates automatically won office because of lack of opposition, and eight won on Election Day.

The winners:

Geoff Braun Placentia Library District

Gilbert Carroll Guadalupe-Coyote Resource Conservation District

Joseph Corey Galt Fire Protection District

John Dennison Alexander Valley Unified School District

Ray English Descanso Community Planning District

Greg D. Flores Santa Maria Water Conservation District

Erik Henrikson Tahoe City Public Utility District

Teri Kahn Tehachapi Health Care District

Michael McFarland Fulton-El Camino Recreation and Park District

Kelly McKnight La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District

Gary Molle Guadalupe-Coyote Resource Conservation District

Robert R. Mendez Vista Irrigation District

Kate O'Brien Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District

Linda Strom Lakeside Community Planning Area

These are in addition to Tom Tryon, who was re-elected to the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors last spring, making a total of 15 Libertarians elected to local office this year.

There is a good deal of enthusiasm about these results, and it is very likely that an expanded version of Operation Breakthrough will be implemented for future years.

C. Ballot Measures

The LPC took positions on each of the eight statewide measures in this election. As usual, the LPC was not really active in supporting or opposing any of them -- and as usual the majority of voters went against the LPC's position in many cases.

One measure which passed is a new campaign finance law. This sets contribution limits for state offices, where there were previously none, and sets "voluntary" spending limits. Along with the spending limits comes, for those who agree, a new offer of paid space for a candidate statement in the voter pamphlet (previously limited to information about ballot measures, except for a temporary program implemented by the past Secretary of State). It is not yet known what the price will be, or whether this will become something that most candidates end up purchasing. If the price is high but most candidates of other parties pay it, it may be necessary for us to do so as well to avoid being left behind. This could turn out to be a significant new expense for some of our "paper" candidates who otherwise would have raised and spent basically nothing.

VI. Ballot Status

There are currently seven qualified parties in California. The LP is qualified for the 2002 election both by having sufficient registrants (86,212 required) and by having had statewide candidates receiving 2% of the vote in the last gubernatorial election year (1998).

If Libertarian registration continues to increase steadily, it is likely that the LP will remain qualified beyond 2002 on that basis alone. However, registration typically drops somewhat after a big election. Also, the number needed to qualify will be recalculated for 2004 and 2006 based on the 2002 election turnout. Some combination of these factors could put the Libertarian count back under the threshhold for 2004.

On the other hand, at least one statewide candidate has met the 2% vote test in every gubernatorial year since 1982 and there is no special reason to expect that not to happen again in 2002.

So, assuming no unexpected changes in election law, our ballot status seems fairly safe for the foreseeable future.

Worst case, if as a result of the 2002 election the LP fails to qualify under either rule, there should be time to correct the situation for 2004 by doing a registration drive in early 2003. (Such a drive would not be starting from scratch -- it would only need to make up the difference to reach the new threshhold.)

VII. Conventions

The next state convention will be held over Presidents Day weekend (16-19 February 2001), in San Jose. All officers (two-year terms) and at-large members of the state Executive Committee (one-year terms) will be up for election. For further information see:

http://www.ca.lp.org/conv/2001/

The third annual conference of region activists is tentatively scheduled for August in the Fresno area.

VIII. Concerns

There is concern among many activists at the state level about the fact that membership isn't growing, and the associated financial limitations. At the current level of membership, and given the fact that the LPC bylaws mandate a local emphasis by allocating 60% of UMP revenue to the regions, even with a monthly pledge program and some attempts major donor fundraising it has proven impossible to maintain both a paid Executive Director and a monthly newsletter. (As noted above, this has been dealt with so far by cutting the newsletter.)

Basically, the LPC committed to having paid staff in the expectation that growth from national, state, and local efforts would allow for this expense to be sustained along with other traditional functions, but that simply hasn't happened.

Along with this has been a frustration both at the state and region level that many approaches to membership recruiting are precluded by the current allocation of dues revenue, because funds expended for recruiting projects can't be expected to be recovered and used to sustain the effort even if the project is reasonably successful. (After all the money is allocated, the state party only ends up with $4.80 for a basic new membership, and that is spread out over the whole following year.)

This problem could be addressed by a change to the dues allocation scheme to provide additional funds to state and local parties which recruit new members, either by an explicit recruitment bonus (see separate proposal by Aaron Starr) or by increasing the overall payout rate for affiliates which show above-average growth.

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