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MICHIGAN LIBERTARIAN Volume 45:10

Out of Your Chair!

Wow, wow, wow!!! Anyone involved with the Party for any period of time can only feel a sense of excitement about the results of the November 8th election.

Almost everyone that has been part of building up the Party over the decades has seen the goal of becoming a “major party” (a misnomer to be sure) slip away time after time. Good candidates who worked very hard reached for the vote totals necessary – only to be lost due to the “wasted vote” argument, fear of the other side used by R’s and D’s, as well as other nonsensical arguments to not vote for a minor party.

johnsonLet’s be clear. Most of the reason for this success is the efforts of Gary Johnson and his team. Gary’s repeated appearances here, the demeanor and positions he advocated which earned the endorsement of the Detroit News and others, as well as the money invested in radio ads and signage created most of possibility that led to this success.

However, Michigan over-performed most other competitive states. In fact, only in Free-State advocate dominated New Hampshire did Gary earn a greater percentage in the so-called battleground states. He earned more votes in Michigan than Wisconsin, Ohio, or Pennsylvania. Part of that success comes from our history of running many candidates. The theory “the top helps the bottom and the bottom helps the top” proved vital in this cycle.

Several candidates for Congress did amazingly well. Diane Bostow, Lorence Wenke, and Lisa Gioia all exceeded 10k votes – with long-time Libertarian activist Ken Proctor earning 16,476 votes in US-7th District race for Congress. There are many great stories coming out of this election, but I’ll leave that to Scotty Boman, our Political Director, to share with you.

My main focus and what is most important to discuss now is the future of the Party.
One of the provisions of our current bylaws requires that we have a Special Convention within 90 days of achieving our new status.

So, a very important day will occur February 4, 2017 in Lansing. This Special Convention will be specifically for the purpose of adopting new bylaws for the Party to conform to some of the requirements of Michigan statutes as a consequence of our new status.

While very exciting – this is also incredibly challenging for us to get our hands around. In May, with the hope that this very result would occur, I asked Greg Stempfle if he would head a Special Commission on Bylaws to help us grow into the possibility now before us. His committee is working on understanding the intricacies of the law and molding our rules to help us be the most successful team we can be.  For more information about this process please visit his blog: https://gregstempfle.wordpress.com.

Please put February 4 on your calendar. In addition to the Special Convention, which we hope to wrap up in a few hours – the LEC has decided to have our Liberty Banquet that same evening. In many ways, we should see that day as a celebration of the many successes coming out of this election cycle – and, perhaps a new day of opportunity for the Libertarian Party of Michigan.

I feel so lucky to have been able to be Chairman during this time. I know that so many people in the Party – candidates, members of the LEC, and the hundreds of new members who have joined the Party this year – have all worked incredibly hard to give us this opportunity.

Michigan stuck a blow for ideas of liberty this year. Let’s work together to make this chance real and help us find an even larger audience for freedom.

Bill Gelineau


Nominations for Libbies

As the date for Liberty Fest was changed to correspond with the Special Bylaws Convention the deadline for nominations has been extended.  Please submit nominations no later than December 31, 2016.

Nominations are being accepted for the “Libby” awards to be given out at the Liberty Fest in November.  The three categories are:

  • Spokesperson for Liberty Award: To a member of the community whose patriotism and conviction have inspired contributions to the cause of liberty.
  • Promoter of Liberty Award: To a libertarian whose efforts have done the most to promote the LP and Libertarian principles.
  • Producer of Liberty Award: To a dedicated, behind-the-scenes Libertarian whose quiet labors over the years exemplifies the backbone of the LP.

Please do what you can to promote nominations for the Liberty Fest Awards, and send nominations to Jeff Wood at jeffwood531@gmail.com, or respond to this newsletter.

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