LNC Region 2/California Report

for the LNC meeting of
16-17 March 2002
by Joe Dehn

Candidates

Partisan

The California primary was held on 5 March. There were Libertarians on the ballot for 101 positions:

avail. actual

Statewide 7 6

Board of Equalization 4 3

Congress 53 45

State Senate (even districts) 20 11

State Assembly 80 36

--- ---

164 101

The only "contested" race was for Governor. Art Olivier, who was not able to get his name on the ballot because he failed to be registered Libertarian sufficiently in advance of the filing deadline according to state law, filed as a write-in candidate. (As in some other states, write-in votes are not reported unless a procedure has been followed to register the candidate as a write-in candidate.) The state convention took the unusual step of endorsing both Olivier and the candidate whose name was on the ballot, Gary Copeland. Copeland received 18,242 votes; it is not clear exactly how many votes Olivier got but it was certainly far fewer.

Non-Partisan

Seven Libertarians are known to have been contending in non-partisan elections on 5 March (all local elections in California are non-partisan; some are held at the same time as the partisan elections, some are held at other times):

Mendocino County District Attorney Norman L. Vroman 9549 51.93% 1/3 <-RE-ELECTED

Modoc County Supervisor District 5 David Porter Misso 128 21.59% 2/4 <-RUNOFF

Riverside County Supervisor District 5 Bonnie Flickinger 4442 16.67% 4/5

San Diego County Comm. Coll. District C Daniel M. Beeman 2272 8.75% 5/5

San Mateo County Supervisor District 3 John J. "Jack" Hickey 24918 30.22% 2/2

Santa Barbara County Supervisor District 5 William Wagener 451 4.75% 3/3

Santa Clara County Sup. Ct. Judge Seat 16 Thomas Spielbauer 33723 18.88% 4/4

There are only a few other candidates who have volunteered so far to run for local races later in the year, but through an expanded "Operation Breakthrough" program the LPC hopes to recruit several hundred. If successful on the scale envisioned this will, along with the partisan candidates mentioned above, result in a record number of candidates overall for California in 2002.

Convention

The 2002 convention was held over the Presidents Day weekend in Santa Maria, in Santa Barbara County. Attendance was not as high as some had hoped, but not as low as some had feared given the location.

In party elections, five at-large members of the state Executive Committee were elected for a one-year term. (The five officers are elected for two-year terms in odd-numbered years, and the five representatives of the largest regions are selected at meetings of those regions.) Elections were also held for Judicial Committee and representation on the LNC and national convention committees. Only about half as many delegates to the national convention were elected as there are positions, but the delegation is empowered to add more people in Indianapolis if they show up.

Relatively few and minor changes were made to the state Platform and Bylaws. An attempt was made to adopt a state Program, similar in concept to the national Program, but the Program Committee had difficulty coming to consensus on what sort of planks to propose and the delegates ended up failing to approve any.

A unique feature of this convention was a full day of candidate training in the middle of the schedule. Unfortunately, despite the fact that this was offered to all candidates for free and held at a time when no official convention business was being conducted, it was not very well attended.

Membership

Paid membership continues to drop in California along with most of the rest of the country If the decline continues at its current rate, in another 3-4 months it will drop below the lowest level we have had since joining the UMP. There are tentative plans for additional efforts along the lines of last year's successful mailing to registered Libertarians, but the feasibility of this may depend on what policies the LNC adopts relating to the UMP.

Membership Suspension

At its December meeting, the state Executive Committee suspended the membership of past treasurer Eric Lund, for one year. This resulted from the same incident as the previously-reported suspension of Cullene Lang. The 2002 convention amended the state bylaws to make clear that the Executive Committee has the power (by a 2/3 vote) to reinstate memberships that have been terminated in this manner. Apparently under Robert's Rules such authority does not exist by default - other state parties with provision for member explulsion may wish to review their bylaws and consider if they want to make any changes.

Registered Libertarians

Libertarian voter registration stood at 92,318 (0.60%) as of the primary. This figure has shown very little variation over the past year.

Office/Staff

The state office continues to operate with a full-time Executive Director, David Molony, and a part-time assistant, Lynda Kay.

Special Projects

The "energy tax revolt" project continues, but not at the pace previously envisioned. So far, petitions have been circulated in two cities. In Bellflower, the petitioning did not result in the measure being on the ballot, but the city council has been prompted to address the issue and has suspended the tax for four months. In Culver City, the petition was successful and the measure will be on the ballot at a future election. Plans are now in place to conduct a petition drive in Mountain View in April. An independent effort (not LPC-sponsored) put a repeal measure on the 5 March ballot in Santa Cruz County, where it passed 55% to 45%.

Plans are being made around the state for Tax Day activities.

There is a plan to organize a college scholarship program that would be promoted through visits by our candidates to high school classes.