The LP WIre

- News and Views of the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin -

July 2024

From the Chair

From unusual circumstances, in late June I assumed the role of Acting Chair of the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin (LPWI). As many of the readers might know, I joined the Party more than three decades ago. Over those years, I thought I might someday—with enough experience, energy, wisdom and ideas—aspire to the chair’s position with the confidence of the members in convention. While my duties as the Vice Chair of the LPWI require it, I enter this new acting chair role without much joy.

I have no mandate of my own from the membership for this temporary job. In light of that, and faithful to my personal ethics, I have a life-long commitment to and for the good of the LPWI. Therefore, I will always act to the best of my ability to serve and safeguard the interests of the Party, in any role I may have.

As a short-term goal, I will oversee and guide the process, per our Constitution and by-laws, to secure an interim chair for the LPWI, to serve the remainder of this term, which expires in April 2025. All members should take an interest in this process, and participate in the manners outlined in our guiding documents.

As for the medium-term goals, we have state and Federal elections this year, including Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat, for US President and Vice President, respectively. More importantly, we have our own Phil Anderson and his campaign for the United States Senate. Beyond that, we need to find libertarian-style candidates and plan campaigns for non-partisan elections in Wisconsin for next spring. I consider all these initiatives highly important.

As we do all of this, the LPWI must continue to grow its membership, create affiliates, and do fund raising, in addition to the active campaigns. From readers and even more from members, we need help to do this, to build and succeed in our mission statement: To free Wisconsin in our life-times. As libertarians and Party members, we can and must do no less.

In service,

Tim Krenz

Acting Chair, LPWI

Vote of No Confidence for State Chair

On June 16 the Executive Committee voted to censure our state party chair. On June 26, in accordance with our state party’s Constitution and Bylaws, the Constitution and Bylaws Committee voted unanimously to suspend the chair’s authority.

Prior to the National Party Convention the chair had improperly entered into an agreement with a faction at national that placed our state into a disadvantaged position; diminishing our state’s authority at national. This agreement also obligated us to pay the region we would be placed into an unknown amount of money which is in direct opposition to our state party’s bylaws as only the Executive Committee my allot funds. The chair was also accused of hiding this agreement from the Executive Committee and delegates chosen for the national convention.

It is the editor’s opinion that our national party has become an unreliable partner, as evidenced by our recent switch to a different customer relations management software. The motives for the chair doing what he did are uncertain yet the actions taken were thought severe enough to remove him from office.

Disrupt The Corruption is on the ballot!

Phil Anderson and his team have secured ballot access for this November, collecting almost 3100 signatures. The next step is debate access, and here's the plan to meet the debate criteria set forward by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association...

1) We need at least 10% in a recognized poll, so please, spread the word that if anyone is contacted by a poll, insist that Phil Anderson be included. Also, make a phone call to the Marquette University Law School office, ask for Dr. Charles Franklin's office, and ask politely that Phil Anderson be included in polling. (414) 288-7090 Mention that he polled at 9% in 2016, that the campaign has already exceeded totals raised in 2016 and 2018, and that he is working with both the Chase Oliver and RFK JR campaigns.

2) We need to raise at least $500,000 total by July 31st. We need YOUR financial support to make this happen, in the form of contribution OR A LOAN. If you can loan money for a few weeks, giving before July 31st and getting paid back after August 1st, we can achieve our goal. See this page for more info- https://www.andersonforussenate.com/petition Loans are a legitimate demonstration of support, per the WBA: this is a way to help get Phil in the October debates for just the cost of a few weeks interest! The limit for the pre-primary period is $3300. Let's do this!

If there is a fair, parade, event, meeting, anywhere you want the candidate or campaign to be, email [email protected] and we'll put it on the schedule.

Thanks for your support!

Missing Members

I am pleased to announce that all of the membership cards (v.01) have been mailed out to members for whom we had good snail mail addresses. I thank those of you to whom I reached out via email and responded with good snail mail addresses as well. You should have all received your cards by now.

I have cards for registered, paid members for whom we do not have a good snail mail address, nor do we have a good email address to reach out to you with. If you are one of these OR know someone on this list and can let them know to get in touch with me, I will send them out to you as soon as I get your information.

As always, I am looking for any ideas of suggestions that can help LPWI look toward enhancing your membership and giving you tools to help spread the word that Liberty remains alive and well in Wisconsin. I thank all of you for the opportunity to serve you and the LPWI.

Michael Conard – Membership Director

Updates From the Treasurer

I hope everyone was able to enjoy the holiday weekend and spend some time with those you cherish and love. As I reflect on the holiday and our national history, I am invigorated and reenergized by the actions of that small remnant that spoke up, voluntarily cooperated with their neighbors, and fought back against tyranny! While our country (and state, and counties, and municipalities) have drifted far from our founding principles and liberty, I retain a hopeful optimism that we could be a part of a new remnant willing to fight back and achieve greater liberty for ourselves and our neighbors.

In order to do so, we need two things from my perspective - one, to continue to grow our memberships towards a critical mass of voluntarily associated individuals; and two, to continue to increase our available resources that will enable us to achieve our goals - spreading the message of liberty, supporting libertarian candidates, and the enactment of pro-liberty policies.

In an effort to do so, the Executive Committee at its last meeting approved a motion that will set membership dues at either $5/month if contributing monthly, or $75/year if contributing annually. This policy will be effective as of January 1, 2025. The goal of this policy is to encourage more monthly memberships ($15 annual discount) to help make our revenue as an organization more consistent and make for easier budgeting and planning. If you still prefer the annual membership option that will still be available. If you think you will stay on the annual plan, I would also then encourage you to renew that annual membership on our website before January 1, 2025 so you can lock in the lower rate of $50, which is available for the rest of this year (membership would continue for 365 days from renewal date).

In other news, our new website hosted on NationBuilder is also live! If you had recurring contributions (monthly or annual) set up on the previous site that was built on CiviCRM, those payments were through PayPal. Our new site uses Stripe for payment processing. If you do not login to your PayPal account to cancel those recurring transactions, they will continue. If you want to cancel those contributions but cannot figure out how to do so through PayPal, please email me at [email protected] with your name and stating that you wish to cancel those PayPal payments. Then, please login to our website and set up new recurring monthly/annual payments to continue your LPWI membership. Again, please feel free to email me with any questions at [email protected].

In pursuit of liberty,

Brian M. Bell, MPA

Treasurer, LPWI

Kickapoo River Clean Up

Let me know soon if you're planning to join us for the 6th annual Kickapoo River cleanup weekend of July 12-14th.

Everything provided camping equipment, food, boats... just need you to show up.

Bring your bike and swim suit. Wilton is a great location for both. _ Chris Nass [email protected]

What is Wrong with National ?

“Following Chase Oliver’s Presidential nomination victory at the Libertarian National Convention, Chair Angela McArdle announced she supports Oliver in blue states to help Trump defeat Biden.

Without getting into ethical considerations and potential fiduciary violations of a national party Chair de facto supporting a nominee of another party, I wanted to test McArdle’s belief that Trump will take a majority of support from Joe Biden.“

The article follows here https://jakeporter.substack.com/p/analyzing-chase-oliver-2022-senate

The LP WIre is published monthly. Permission to publish has been given by the LPWI Executive Committee. Editor in Chief is Kevin Litten. The editor of this newsletter may be reached by email at [email protected] Submissions are welcome but are subject to editing for applicability and length. Copyright © 2024, permission to copy only given for research, scholarship, criticism, or comment.

This newsletter is intended for Wisconsin Libertarians and interested persons. Articles are welcome. Images are appreciated.