Link to the January 2023 Michigan Libertarian
By Andrew Chadderdon, Chair
I hope this Article finds you well, and that you enjoy the holiday season with your loved ones (ideally by a warm fireplace). With the coming 2023, it is my honor to announce an exciting new campaign for our Party which will see us put more candidates into office than ever before: Operation Win Local!
Please read on for further details. With that said, given the many twists and turns our Party experienced in 2022, a brief recap of events is in order to ensure we are all on the same page.
LEC Composition Determined by Judicial Committee Ruling
Between the national convention in May and our state Candidate Nominating Convention on July 9th, several of our state officers and LEC representatives resigned from their positions. These positions were then filled during that Convention with insufficient notice, and I was removed from the position of Chair (having been placed there by the preceding resignations). Due to this violation of the Party Bylaws and absentee members’ rights, I filed an appeal to the Judicial Committee after the November 8th election. I timed the appeal after the election out of respect for the efforts of our candidates.
The Judicial Committee ruled in favor of the appeal, thereby resolving the matter. As a result, in 2023, the current leadership of our Party will lead the implementation of the plan described below.
New Campaign Opportunities in 2023
With a new year comes new campaign opportunities, both in the spring and the fall. Most of these are local elections, and these represent the heart of Operation Win Local. It’s vision for future elections involves a significant increase in focus on local candidate recruitment, and state Party support of their smaller but far more winnable campaigns. Make no mistake: the Libertarian Party of Michigan will still appear in the larger races, and we will preserve our ballot access and order, but our limited resources will refocus on the most winnable races.
In addition to a local focus during campaign seasons, candidates will receive better access to training resources and assistance in organizing volunteers, such as through RunAsLibertarian.com and state Party financial support. This will aid in raising awareness of our campaigns in the public eye, and also provide information about Michigan voters which our Party can compile to apply our efforts with increasing efficiency. We will establish a new standard for knowledge transfer from past campaigns to those most current, and reap the compounding benefits of this continuity year by year.
With this new strategy in mind, I charge all Michigan Libertarians to join in pursuit of these noble aims, putting past division behind us. If we channel our time and effort toward these goals, we will drive results scarcely imaginable in years gone by. With each success our Party will grow, and as Operation Win Local bears its fruit, we can consider objectives never before thought possible. I look forward to working with all seeking to realize this project’s vision, and wish all of us a very happy and prosperous
new year!
Andrew Chadderdon
Chair, Libertarian Party of Michigan
