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LNC Meeting of August 2001
LNC Region 2/California Report
for the LNC meeting of
25-26 August 2001
by Joe Dehn
Candidates
Year 2001
By again making use of the "Operation Breakthrough" method the LPC was able to set a record for the number of
Libertarians running for office in an odd-numbered year (there are fewer offices up for election in California in odd-
numbered years). A total of 86 Libertarians are known to have filed for office this fall, of whom six were elected
automatically because there were not more candidates than positions. Including the six candidates who ran earlier in the
year, the total number of candidates for this year is 92. One of the candidates in the spring won, in a contested election,
making a total of seven Libertarians elected this year so far.
For a complete list of candidates see: http://www.ca.lp.org/e2001/
Year 2002
California has an extremely early primary for partisan offices, and the filing period for candidates running in 2002
begins at the end of September 2001 (i.e., about one month from now). There are a total of 164 partisan offices to be
voted on in 2002 -- 7 statewide, 4 Board of Equalization districts, 53 US House, 20 state senate, and 80 state assembly.
Candidate recruiter Ted Brown has been hard at work identifying potential candidates and has already found people to
run for all but one of the statewide positions as well as many of the district offices.
The combination of this early filing period with the redistricting process could lead to difficulties in getting our
candidates qualified for the ballot. Every candidate must circulate a petition, which can only be signed by registered
Libertarians in the specific district. The various methods for accomplishing this all depend on being able to obtain a list
of registered Libertarians broken down by district, which of course will not be possible until the redistricting process is
complete and the election offices have coded the appropriate information in their databases. At this point it appears that
the process is going smoothly, but if there is a delay either in approval of the new districts or in data processing at the
county level there could be a serious problem.
Membership
As in most states, dues-paying membership continues to drop every month. Two special projects were undertaken this
summer to bring in new members: (1) a mailing to about 15,000 recently active registered Libertarians and (2)
telephone solicitation of the registered Libertarians who were being contacted as potential candidates through Operation
Breakthrough. Both have brought in new members, but only enough to temporarily stop the decline - unless something
else significant is done, at the national, state, or local level, the count can be expected to continue to drop for the rest of
the year.
Office/Staff
Earlier this month Juan Ros, who has served as the LPC's Executive Director since 1998, announced that he was
resigning to take a position with another non-profit organization. His last day was 22 August. David Molony, chair of
the San Francisco region, has been hired as the new Executive Director and started this past week. The office will
remain in Panorama City.
Convention
The 2002 convention will be held over the Presidents Day weekend in Santa Maria, in Santa Barbara County. For
details see: http://www.ca.lp.org/conv/2002/
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