 |
Santa Clara Libertarian |
| Volume 28, Issue 1 | |
| March 2000 | |
| For Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness |
|
Santa Clara Libertarian |
| Volume 28, Issue 1 | |
| March 2000 | |
| For Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness |
Remember to vote Libertarian on March 7th!
Inside This Issue
Annual Meeting Report
by Graham Thorsen
LPSCC Publicity Chair
The LPSCC executive committee elections held on Wednesday went smoothly with little opposition for any of the candidates. Only the LPSCC Chair position stood in contest between former LPSCC Chair Marvin Rudin and Richard Relph. With a new year ahead of us the LPSCC has elected a fine group of leaders to pave the path to success in obtaining the numbers needed to meet the required registered Libertarian growth percentage in Santa Clara County.
Chair Marv Rudin addressing attendees at annual meeting
A great amount of energy will be spent this year seeing that publicity and membership increases. Roger Ver, the new Membership Chair, has already shown great enthusiasm in finding new ways to increase registered Libertarians. Our new Campaign chair, Ray Strong, seems to be the perfect person for getting the job done when it comes to campaigning issues. It will be little time now until we sky rocket as a party. With competent leaders such as Bill Car, our new Vice Chair, the new millennium promises only success. I, Graham Thorsen, your Publicity Chair, will serve you in bringing the name of this party to all four corners of this county. And who could write an article such as this without mentioning James Aven? James Aven will be our Secretary, he will be taking care of the "who’s who" and "what’s what". Another issue that was brought up in past years of the LPSCC was fund-raising. How will we bring in a surplus cash flow in order to support our candidates and party activities? We need a person who is capable of finding intelligent ways of bringing cash into the party. That person is Frank Groffie. He will be our Fund Raising Chair into the new year. And who will keep track of our funds in a frugal manner? Such responsibility could only be given to Jon Hugdahl. It will be a person like him that keeps our funds safe and organized. Some might ask, what are we going to do as a party this year? Events? Activities?
Full house for our annual meeting
With Don Cormier as our Activities Chair there will be many activities for us to do as a party. I believe that his job is paramount in keeping a unified and active party. There is not another person that we as a party would rather represent our ex-com than Tom Spielbauer. Tom, who is our State Ex-Com Representative, will deliver a clear message to the people for whom he represents. Jascha Lee the man who makes this newsletter so invaluable, works day upon day organizing people to put this newsletter together. And as a result we have a excellent system of feedback for our members.
Lively debate at the LPSCC convention
These people are what is going to make this year a year unprecedented in this Party’s history. We will dive into the new millennium with passion. This is not just a race in getting better statistics for our party or success in numbers. It is a race to win freedom and liberty for all our fellow Americans.
"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
- Declaration of Independence.
Chair's Column -- Let's Get Growing
by Marv Rudin
LPSCC Chair
The LPSCC Elections
Thanks to those of you who voted for our Cegap2000 slate of candidates. I’d like to have returned to a less hectic schedule, but without dedicated leadership the risk was high that my Cegap2000 growth plan might die aborning. By next January it should be well established, and I’ll be ready to pass the torch to a new chair. Are you interested in picking it up? If so, please call me at 408-736-5626 and let’s talk.
The LP Is The Fastest Growing Party In Santa Clara County!
Believe it or not, based on our county’s latest voter registration figures below the local Libertarian Party has surprisingly been growing much faster percentage-wise than any other party over the past two years at 14%. During those two years only two categories have increased; and leading those two is the LP. The other category is not a party but "Decline to State". But before we get too carried away with our exalting this good fortune, we should be sobered by the fact that at the present rate it will take many decades to be the size of the two major parties. We must grow much faster!
CEGAP2000 Plan
The new updated Cost Effective Growth Action Plan for 2000 (CEGAP2000) is based on what was learned in 1999. It’s goal for minimum net growth this year has been reduced to 20% net growth, because we learned that the registrant loss rate is about 66%. So it looks like we’ll need to recruit as many as 3000 new members (about 60% of the present 5000+ registrations) this year just to net the 1000 we need to grow by 20%.
Youth Movement
Despite this daunting task I am far more confident this year. Dynamic young Membership and Publicity Chairs Roger Ver and Graham Thorsen, and the schools and colleges leaders at Presentation High (Monica Silva) and San Jose State (Joel Johnson) will be the nucleus. We have seen at the county fair that young people are measuring Libertarian on our quiz in far greater percentages than the over-40s. Despite government schools’ propaganda, many students are consulting the web when getting ready to vote at 18, and are choosing the LP. This year I think we will go all out to register them in big numbers.
Help Me Please?
To accomplish our ambitious program I need your help with phone polling. Without market research we’ve been flying blind. Polling is a key market research tool. We need to know things like
If you will help please call me at (408) 736-5626 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
DATE DEM REP AIP GRE LBT NLP P&F REF MISC DTS 10/9/99 46.50% 31.77% 1.83% 0.66% 0.73% 0.20% 0.44% 0.70% 0.04% 17.14% 10/12/98 46.78% 32.77% 1.82% 0.65% 0.69% 0.20% 0.42% 0.61% 0.08% 15.99% 1 yr Oct to Oct -0.60% -3.04% 0.64% 1.32% 6.85% -1.93% 2.57% 14.00% -44.39% 7.19% 2 yrs Oct to Oct -1.67% -5.64% 5.94% 8.71% 14.14% 2.46% 7.02% 0.04% 3.08% 16.35% 3 yrs Oct to Oct -3.01% -4.80% 3.66% 9.85% 20.61% 13.35% -6.32% 7.58% 10.35% 19.12%
Membership Chair Report
by Roger Ver
LPSCC Membership Chair
I would first like to thank the many active Libertarians out there who are working hard to increase party membership. There are many of you out there and you are doing a great job. However our task is far from being complete and there is still a tremendous amount of work left to do. Let’s get to work!
Students Registration Up!
There are a wide variety of outreach projects that I know of that have been going on and I would imagine that there are even more that I don’t know about. There are many things that are taking place that should really encourage us all. For example recently myself and Mat Talbot went to Gavilan College located in Gilroy with about 50 Libertarian T-shirts that were ordered from http://www.liber-tees.com. We set up a table with all of the usual outreach material provided by national at http://www.lp.org/hq/products.html. We displayed a home spun sign that read ‘Free T-shirt’ along with another sign that read simply ‘FREE’ We also had on the table about $15 worth of soda and doughnuts. We figured that this would help attract college students. We were right! The students flocked to the table and at times we couldn’t answer all of their questions. We told the students that they could have free doughnuts and/or soda as well as all the free literature they would like. I explained to students (most of whom were very receptive) that I was running for state assembly and that I needed their support. I told them that the reason I was running was because I felt that individuals like you and I know how to run our own lives and spend our own money better than any politician in Washington or Sacramento could spend our money or run out lives for us. This went over extremely well with most of the students and most of them decided to register Libertarian right there. We received over 50 registrations in the course of about 4.5 hours and at a cost of about $250. This was a very good deal for me because it saved me approximately $600 in filing fees. I would much rather spend $250 on Libertarian T-shirts and doughnuts than have to give even $50 to a government agency. It was definitely a win-win situation.
Successes At The Santa Clara County Gun Show
I would like to give a big thank you to Dana Albrecht for organizing the Libertarian booth at the Santa Clara County Gun Show. Things went very well at the gun show. Dana and Mat Talbot manned the booth for the entire day Saturday and did a wonderful job collecting approximately 25 new registered Libertarians as well as numerous signatures for the RKBA petition from Geoff Metcalf of 560 KSFO. On Sunday Mat Talbot and myself manned the booth. We managed to collect about 20 more registered Libertarians and more signatures for the RKBA petition. On both days many Dana Albrecht for Assembly (AD23), Roger Ver for Assembly (AD28), and Thomas Spielbauer for Superior Court Judge (Seat 14) flyers were handed out. I was especially encouraged by the fact that many gun show patrons came by our booth and told us that they were already Libertarians and that we should keep up the good work.
What’s Next
Planned outreach events that are tentatively scheduled for the future include more DMV outreach tables, more T-shirt for registration drives at local colleges and perhaps a Libertarian table at a San Jose rave. If you have any ideas or suggestions for outreach and ways to increase membership do not hesitate to email me at roger_ver@hotmail.com or you can call me personally on my cell phone at (408) 313-1853.
Thank you, and keep up the good work.
Libertarians Gain Ground on College Radio
by David Scott
Libertarian points of view are rarely heard in the media, but one courageous local radio talk show host has made a commitment to providing a forum for these views to be heard. The show is "Naked Radio", and it can be heard on KSJS, the San Jose State University radio station, every Thursday evening. The host, Arquimedes Garcia, has turned the third Thursday of every month into "Libertarian Night" featuring LPSC Chairman Marvin Rudin and other guests.
Surprisingly, Garcia is not a Libertarian. The outspoken host has said that he doesn’t consider himself a liberal or a Democrat either, but one would be hard pressed to arrive at a different conclusion after listening to his opening monologue in which he routinely supports gun control and praises President Clinton.
Arquimedes Garcia, host of the SJSU Naked Radio talk show
On previous Libertarian Nights, guests have been able to discuss a wide range of topics, often inspired by Garcia’s comments during his opening monologue. Superior court judicial candidate Thomas Spielbauer discussed his campaign to have the public defender be an elected office. LPSC newsletter editor Jascha Lee focussed on gun-related issues, and force-versus-persuasion philosophy. And party activist Joel Johnson appeared on the show to promote the new San Jose State Libertarian organization he leads. Joel said, "We’ve talked of everything from guns, drugs, and taxes to political apathy, big media, and big business."
Of course, presenting revolutionary ideas is never easy. Guests must not only deal with the host and his sympathetic callers, but also with Naked Radio’s broadcast engineer, who is known only as "The Duck Lady", possibly for her fondness of playing duck-quacking noises to celebrate every first-time caller. Her opinions typically promote socialistic politics, which has the positive side effect of making the Libertarian comments seem more reasonable, but can also create a challenging environment for the guests.
Thomas Spielbauer and Marv Rudin getting ready for the show
During the January 20th show the situation was made even more difficult by the repeated prank phone calls of a disgruntled Southerner upset with the host’s opinion that the Confederate flag is offensive and should not be flown over state capital buildings. The Duck Lady (who also answers the telephone) was so upset by the harassment that she took the phone off the hook so listeners could not call in for much of the show. "It didn’t help that some ignorant red neck was calling in every few minutes and cussing at her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she linked my topic to his type of person," said Jascha Lee, who had a difficult time discussing gun rights with her. "She was very hostile towards the subject".
Another obstacle is the friendly, though often heated, rivalry that has formed between host Arquimedes Garcia and LPSC Chair Marvin Rudin. The host has developed a habit of interrupting Rudin every time Rudin attempts to speak. It is almost humorous how Garcia constantly erects strawman arguments based on the first half of a sentence Rudin was never allowed to finish. "If only he’d allow me to speak without constantly interrupting!" said Rudin. Garcia’s tactics may be an attempt to encourage passionate debate, according to Joel Johnson. "Arquimedes intentionally tries to give his guests a hard time to make for good political discussion. I would have it no other way." All of the guests interviewed said that despite the situation, they would be willing to appear on the show again.
Joel Johnson and Thomas Spielbauer
Apparently the Libertarian message is getting out to the public and is having an impact on the show’s audience. Garcia says that the number of libertarian-leaning calls on non-Libertarian Nights has been steadily increasing. This makes for an exciting opportunity. "Appearing on a non-Libertarian, usually leftist-hosted, university show gives me and my Libertarian guests a chance to bring our view to prospects we don’t normally reach," said Rudin. As future guests, Rudin hopes to bring senatorial candidate Gail Lightfoot and other local candidates.
"Libertarian Night" on "Naked Radio" can be heard on the third Thursday of every month from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on KSJS 90.5 FM. The next two Libertarian Nights are March 16th and April 20th. You can also hear a webcast of the show at http://www.ksjs.org or http://www.nakedradio.net. Libertarians are encouraged to call the program at (408) 924-KSJS (924-5757) and give their support.
Libertarian Positions on the Issues
Take this with you when you vote on March 7th!
| California Elected Offices For more information see http://www.ca.lp.org/e2000/index.html. | |
| US Senate | Gail Lightfoot |
| Congress (CD13) | Howard Mora |
| Congress (CD14) | Joe Dehn |
| Congress (CD15) | Ed Wimmers |
| Congress (CD16) | Dennis Umphress |
| State Senate (SD13) | Jack Hickey |
| State Senate (SD15) | Gordan Sachtjen |
| Assembly (AD20) | Mark Werlwas |
| Assembly (AD23) | Dana Albrecht |
| Assembly (AD24) | Ray Strong |
| Assembly (AD28) | Roger Ver |
| Superior Court Judge Seat 14 | Thomas Spielbauer |
| California Propositions For more information see http://www.ca.lp.org/e2000/prop-primary.html or http://www.lpty.org/prop. | ||
| YES | Prop 1A | "Gambling" |
| NO | Prop 12 | "Bond: Parks, Water and Coastal Protection Act" |
| NO | Prop 13 | "Bond: Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water, Watershed Protection, and Flood Protection Act" |
| NO | Prop 14 | "Bond: California Reading &Literacy Improvement and Public Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act of 2000" |
| NO | Prop 15 | "Bond: Forensic Laboratories" |
| NO | Prop 16 | "Bond: Veterans' Homes" |
| YES | Prop 17 | "Lotteries: Charitable Raffles" |
| NO | Prop 19 | "Peace Officers" |
| NO | Prop 20 | "California State Lottery: Cardenas Textbook Act of 2000" |
| NO | Prop 21 | "Juvenile Crime. Initiative Statute." |
| NO | Prop 22 | "Definition of Marriage." |
| YES | Prop 23 | "'None of the Above' Ballot Option. Initiative Statute." |
| NO | Prop 25 | "Election Campaigns. Contributions and Spending Limits. Public Financing. Disclosures. Initiative Statute." |
| NO | Prop 26 | "School Facilities. Bonds. Local Majority Vote. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute." |
| YES | Prop 27 | "Elections. Term Limits Declarations for Congressional Candidates. Initiative Statute." |
| YES | Prop 28 | "Repeal of Additional Tobacco Surtax Enacted by Prop 10. Initiative Statute." |
| NO | Prop 29 | "1998 Indian Gaming Compacts. Referendum Statute." |
| The LP of California has taken no position on Props 18, 30, and 31. | ||
SJSU Libertarians Mobilize for Action
by Joel Johnson
After three semesters of work to launch a campus libertarian group at San Jose State University, the SJSU Libertarians have finally become a reality. Now, the group is ready for that at which they are aimed - action!
The newly-formed, five-member-strong SJSU Libertarians held their first meeting of the semester on Thursday, February 3, to plan events to stir up the SJSU community. And, so far, after revamping the website (http://www.sjsu.edu/orgs/libertarians/), there are already three projects in the works.
The first project is to maintain a continuous advertising blitz of the SJSU campus. Since flyers tend to disappear fast and frequently from campus billboards and buildings, the SJSU Libertarians plan to keep a healthy stock of advertising and issue-oriented flyers handy to post routinely around the campus, hoping to gain as much attention and recruits as possible. And, we are pleased to report, that after only one day of posting flyers, we have already increased our membership by almost 20% (with the addition of one new member)!
The second project in-the-works is an event focused upon gun policy and the Second Amendment. Sometime around mid-semester, the SJSU Libertarians plan to run a week-long booth to introduce students to the libertarian approach to gun rights. The group also hopes to bring representatives of the local NRA to campus to possibly speak in more detail about the danger of increased gun control.
Thirdly, the SJSU Libertarians plan to help advertise local libertarian candidates for the upcoming primary elections. Any and all candidates are encouraged to contact Joel W. Johnson (jwjohnson@netmagic.net) for advertisements around the campus and possible opportunities to make speeches.
In all, it looks like it will be a promising semester for the SJSU Libertarians, and we look forward to reporting on some of our successes next month.
Candidate Profile - Donna Courtright
by Donna Courtright
I would like to encourage the Libertarian voters in the 24th Assembly race to take a look at voting for me in the primary on March 7th since Ray Strong will be unchallenged in the primary.
I am currently serving as the president of Silicon Valley Taxpayers, Inc. and have just received the endorsement of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. I was the NRA and GOC endorsed candidate for the '98 race and I expect to receive their endorsement this time, as well. I believe that all facets of our government (federal, state and local) are far too expensive, expansive and intrusive.
Let's work together to ensure that, in the November general election, we have a Republican on the ballot who most closely matches the Libertarian principles.
Please support this winning strategy for liberty.
Donna Courtright can be reached at: (408) 402-0524
[Editor's note: Donna has graciously invited us to submit a story to the Taxpayers Newsletter. Thanks, Donna!]
Other News
Remember to vote Libertarian on March 7th!
Former Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso endorses libertarian Judicial candidate Thomas Spielbauer. The race for seat 14 is a hot one, with the establishment opponent raising over $60,000 and media backing. Will liberty prevail? We’ll see March 7th!
The next LPC Executive Committee meeting will be March 18th - 19th at the San Jose Doubletree hotel.
Two libertarian letters to the editor were published in the Mercury news in January: one by national activist Scott Lieberman dealt with the presidential debate commission locking out Third Party candidates, the other by our Chair Marv Rudin extolled people to vote for "Unbuyable Tom Spielbauer" for Judge.
Internet Links For More Information
Schedule
Executive Committee Meeting
The next LPC Executive Committee meeting will be March 18th - 19th at the San Jose Doubletree hotel.
Libertarian Night On KSJS
Don't forget to tune into 90.5 F.M. on Thursday March 16th from 5 to 7 p.m. for Libertarian night on KSJS. This is a talk show which features us the third Thursday of each month. You can also hear a webcast of the show at http://www.ksjs.org or http://www.nakedradio.net.
Speaker's Meeting
The next speaker's meeting will be Wednesday March 8th at 7 o'clock at Coco's restaurant. Come and critique a libertarian speech, discuss and debate, socialize and eat. We use these meetings to polish presentations/speeches that we will be giving to various groups. If you wish to deliver such a speech or have a group that would like to hear a libertarian speaker, please call Ron Berti at (408) 255-0248 or email him at boomer@batnet.com. Speaker's meetings are held the second Wednesday of every third month.
Business Meeting
The next business meeting will be Wednesday April 12th at 8 o'clock at Coco's restaurant. Business meetings are held the second Wednesday of every third month. These are meetings in which, with a quorum, we are able to conduct official party business.
Directions To Coco's
Coco's restaurant is located on the corner of Oakmead Parkway and Lawrence Expressway. From 101, take the Lawrence Expressway exit South to Oakmead Parkway.
Officers
| Chairman | Marv Rudin | (408) 736-5626 | rudin@lpty.org |
| Vice Chairman | Bill Carr | (408) 507-2300 | william_r_carr@yahoo.com |
| Secretary | James Aven | (408) 436-7992 | james@AvenEstate.com |
| Treasurer | Jon Hugdahl | (650) 965-3744 | jon@NoMoreTax.com |
| Membership | Roger Ver | (408) 313-1853 | roger_ver@hotmail.com |
| Campaign | Ray Strong | (408) 268-8466 | hrstrong@hotmail.com |
| Publicity | Graham Thorsen | (408) 517-0571 | dolfbardo@hotmail.com |
| Fundraising | Frank Groffie | (408) 935-9652 | fgroffie@aol.com |
| Activities | Don Cormier | (408) 296-7264 | saintfond@usa.net |
| Newsletter | Jascha Lee | (408) 267-6740 | jascha@sebastian.com |
| State ExCom Rep | Thomas Spielbauer | (408) 279-3336 | thomas@spielbauer.com |
| Alt ExCom Rep | (The Chair has ruled that this position is not authorized by the by-laws) | ||
| Judicial Committee | Paul Rako | paul@rako.com | |
| Richard Relph | richard@netgate.net | ||
| Allen Rice | puffed3@aol.com | ||
Do you have something to say? Submit a newsletter article!
2301 Shibley Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125-4068
This newsletter is the publication of the Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County, a non-profit political organization. For further information, call (408) 243-2711 or see our Web page at http://www.sc.ca.lp.org or http://www.lpty.org.
The Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County Membership Application
Please print out and mail with payment to:
Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County
663 South Bernardo Avenue
PMB 107
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
Please Print
| Name: | ______________________________________________________ |
| Address: | ______________________________________________________ |
| City/State/Zip: | ______________________________________________________ |
| Phone: | ______________________________________________________ |
| E-mail: | ______________________________________________________ |
| I choose to set my dues at: | ||
| $25 | Basic | ________________ |
| $100 | Sustaining | ________________ |
| $250 | Sponsor | ________________ |
| $500 | Patron | ________________ |
| $1000 | Life | ________________ |
| Plus an additional contribution to the LPSCC: | ||
| $___________ | Monthly pledge | ________________ |
| $___________ | One-time donation | ________________ |
| Total: | ________________ | |
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| ___________ | Check payable to "Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County" |
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The Libertarian Party is the party of principle. To assure and affirm that our party never strays from its principles, we request our members to sign the pledge below. (Non-signers cannot vote on party business).
I hereby certify that I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals.
Signature: ______________________________________________