The Libertarian Party of Illinois has recruited a fantastic and highly active slate of candidates for statewide office and they worked tirelessly to get them well over the 25,000 petition signatures needed to appear on the November ballot. In fact, they gathered over 43,000 signatures in just 90 days!

But the victory was short lived. The IL GOP challenged those signatures and sent a team of staffers and interns to the Illinois State Board of Elections to ensure that the voices of those 43,000 people were silenced.

The process for defending those signatures is long and unnerving. The Libertarian Party of Illinois needed to answer the GOP’s attack by gathering volunteers at the state election board’s office in Springfield for several days. From 9am to 7pm you sit in a chair, petitions and GOP objections in hand, working with the election board staffer to locate the petitioner in voter rolls. Arguing with the GOP interns over matching signatures, legal name changes, and whether LSD in Chicago actually means Lake Shore Drive.

Knowing they would not be able to match the GOP’s presence, they called on us for help. And we had to act on short notice.  We committed ourselves to the state party’s efforts, and we brought out the big guns. We sent in LNCC Executive Director Evan McMahon last week for a few days.

Evan returned home this past Friday, just in time to celebrate his nephew’s first birthday, and is already back on the road heading to Springfield. Evan will stay in the area for the rest of the week. Including a couple of days to assist Lex Green, LP Illinois Political Director, with paper work and preparing documentation for any additional legal challenges.

The Libertarian Party of Indiana, being a good neighbor, not only sent their State Chair Dan Drexler for a day of assistance, but they also helped pay part of the expenses for Evan’s first week in Springfield.

Of course, placing Evan in the field for this task comes at a price.  There are additional costs we bear to cover his transportation, room and board. Then there is the opportunity cost. While Evan is in Illinois, he has limited time to address the day-to-day tasks of the LNCC.

We are here to turn the tide and change the course of America. And our ability to accomplish this depends on you. With your help we can make a dramatic impact on the liberty movement.

If you believe as I do that providing practical support for Libertarian candidates and local parties is need for our success, I ask you to stand with me and our mission by underwriting our efforts.

Please click here to donate online today.

Very Truly Yours,

Mark W. Rutherford, Chairman
Libertarian National Campaign Committee

Earlier this month the Libertarian Party of Colorado filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State to ensure the candidates in this hotly-contested recall election are given the time allowed by the state constitution for petitioning to be on the ballot.  

Well… they won! You can read the full statement on the LPCO website.

They have recruited a great candidate, Jan Brooks, to run for the Colorado State Senate.  However, the courts have given our party a very short window — only until this Monday, August 26th – to gather nearly 1,000 signatures to get her on the ballot. This, along with planning and running the campaign, is a monumental task. The Libertarian National Campaign Committee supported the lawsuit and is now fully committed to supporting Jan Brooks’ campaign.

With the lawsuit victory in hand, the LPCO called on us for help. And we had to act on short notice.  We committed ourselves to the campaign and the state party’s efforts, and we brought out the big guns. We flew in LNCC Executive Director Evan McMahon last night, arriving in Colorado Springs from Indianapolis to help organize and advise the local team.

Evan is scheduled to be there on the ground through September 5th. He is helping the Colorado team to train and task volunteer petitioners and lay out a quick-draw campaign strategy. This grassroots campaign is all about organizing very quickly, as the election will be held on September 10th … less than three weeks from now.  

More important than this one campaign, though, is the opportunity we have for Evan to teach the Libertarian Party of Colorado practical nuts-and-bolts campaign skills to help them with future campaigns. 

Of course, placing Evan in the field for this task comes at a price.  There are additional costs we bear to cover his transportation, room and board. Then there is the opportunity cost. While Evan is in Colorado, he has limited time to address the day-to-day tasks of the LNCC. 

We are here to turn the tide and change the course of America. And our ability to accomplish this depends on you. With your help we can make a dramatic impact on the liberty movement.

Colorado is just the first of many states to follow.  If you believe as I do that providing practical support for Libertarian candidates and local parties is needed for our success, I ask you to stand with me and our mission by underwriting our efforts.

Please click here to donate online today.

On the local level, the media and the voters started really seeing our serious candidates as just that, serious.

Every candidate, state chair and local activist can tell you that after the election we heard from an unprecedented number of people that are tired the strangle hold the two-party system has on this country and that they are ready to get involved with the Libertarian Party. The momentum is on our side and we can’t let that slip away. As a political party we can’t rest on our laurels or be content with getting 1%, 2% or even 15% of the vote. We must keep Moving Momentum.

Moving Momentum: 2013 LNCC New Year’s Resolution

1. Assist state and county chairs in the recruitment and training of candidates
2. Develop and host monthly Campaign 101 video webinars
3. Start a 12 week intensive campaign leadership school
4. Get all 135 currently elected Libertarians Reelected to office
5. Support 25-50 candidates who are starting their 2014 campaigns NOW
6. Work with state chairs to develop a localized Get Out The Vote (GOTV) plan
7. Create a Precinct Captain training program for local activists and volunteers
8. Recruit 500 volunteers to operate the LNCC Phonebank
9. Recruit 2,500 volunteers to promote Libertarian candidates via social networks
10. Do whatever it takes to at least double the number of elected Libertarians in 2014

Help us make our New Year’s Resolution a reality… Click Here to Donate Today and support the mission of the LNCC.

Advice to Libertarians who wish to run for City Council:

You may or may not follow my path.  It’s a change of life and a lot of work.

Find a leadership area in your community that’s of interest to you.  Seek a volunteer or appointed position in a community organization such as PTA, charity, local committee, city board or commission.  Attend City Council and commission meetings regularly.  Know the agenda topics. Write and speak to the City Council. Write letters to the editor.  Establish name recognition.

After you have a community resume and some name recognition, start a city council campaign 6-12 months before the election.  Know approximately how many votes it takes to be elected and focus on getting those votes.  Votes are all that matter.

Form an organizing committee.  Recruit campaign committee members to coordinate volunteers, manage a bank account, file state forms, and prepare your printed material (brochure/door hanger, signs, newspaper ads, campaign mailer).  You the candidate must do fund raising (about $15,000 for my successful re-election campaign for the Nov 2012 election).  You also must develop your campaign priorities and platform to reach voters, answer questionnaires, attend press interviews, attend candidate forums and walk precincts to meet voters.

Those are the essentials.  As an elected official you do not need to preach everything that is contained in the Libertarian Party Platform. There are enough bad policies and squandered taxpayer dollars to reasonably argue against.   You must have complete command of the facts involving a wide range of Council agenda topics and just use common sense in policy making.

They had expected to be flush with cash pumped in by the online fundraising machine that helped Obama shatter fundraising records in 2008.

They had expected Mitt Romney to emerge from the Republican primaries irreparably damaged — defined in the minds of voters as an out-of-touch “vulture capitalist” who couldn’t relate to average voters.

Instead the Obama campaign was nearly broke, and most voters still hadn’t made up their mind just who Mitt Romney was.

Rather than wait, Obama and adviser David Axelrod went all in, gambling the campaign’s money on an early onslaught of attack ads that caught the Romney campaign by surprise.

Romney failed to react, eventually costing him the election as he was unable to shake the caricature the Obama campaign had painted of him.

You should do the same.

Don’t hesitate to attack your opponent.

In fact, relish it.

Voters may say they hate “negative advertising” but consultants keep doing it for one reason — it works.

And if your opponent has voted to raise taxes, explode spending, waste public funds, engage in unethical official behavior or other things that disqualify him in your mind, voters have a right it know that.

The earlier you bring it up, the better your odds will be of knocking him back on his heels.

That’s not to say you should call your opponent names, mock his or her physical appearance or bring up issues about his or her marriage or family.

Those are personal attacks.  And they often end up damaging you and helping your opponent.

Voters have a right to know why you are the best candidate, as well as why your opponent does not deserve to be in public office.

Attack your opponent early.

Attack your opponent often.

Attack your opponent with enthusiasm.

Most importantly, stick to the issues and make your attacks credible, believable and fully researched and documented.

My rule is “if Grandma would hate what I said more than what he did, don’t do it.”

Our freedom wasn’t won by people playing nice and sitting around a table “debating” each other.

Freedom must be fought for, and that’s how we will win it back.

But Obama coasted to a re-election victory last week.

How did he do it?

Simple.  As a former community organizer the Obama White House understands voter identification and mobilization like no other.

They understand you don’t need a majority of the people behind you to win — all you need is to get more people to the polls than the other guy.

That starts with identifying everyone who supports you.  The Obama campaign made that priority number one.

“Obama’s campaign probably spent $200 million to $250 million — a quarter of every dollar collected — to create a state-of-the-art voting profiling operation that allowed it to more accurately assess the electorate than standard polling,” POLITICO reports.

“Like generals with good intelligence, Obama campaign officials could move resources quickly around the battlefield — like the late deployment of volunteers to critical Cuyahoga County in Ohio.”

As he laid out in his 2005 book, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe took simple neighborhood-level political organizing and replicated it by an exponent of thousands to carry Obama to two historic election wins.

According to Obama adviser Jim Messina one Columbus, Ohio woman told him: “I know everybody in my neighborhood — the ones that will always vote, the ones who don’t — and what it takes to get them to vote,” the woman, a committed Obama volunteer since 2007, told him. She added, with a chuckle: “They just shipped in a Romney staffer a couple of weeks ago. … Who do you think is going to win around here?”

Do you know your neighborhood?

Can you walk down the street, point to each door and tell someone whether the residents are Libertarians, Republicans, Democrats, swing voters, inactive voters or not registered?

If not, you need to learn that.

1) Talk to your state or local Libertarian Party.

2) Make sure they have the voter registration database.

3) Use party registration or primary voting history to determine your Libertarians, Republicans and Democrats.

4) Use the party membership list to identify non-voting Libertarians.

5) Also take note of lawn signs or bumper stickers on cars in the driveway

In short, be like a beat cop.  Collect information.  Learn your neighbors.

That way, next November, you know which Libertarians and Libertarian-friendly voters you need to get to the polls to pad LP election numbers.

Email all of your supporters and remind them to vote.  Don’t just assume they know the election is Tuesday, or that they will even remember to vote for you.  Your supporters are intelligent, but they are also busy people with families, jobs and businesses.

Prepare your election night speech and press statement for three potential outcomes: a win, a loss and an inconclusive result.

Use your email, Twitter account and Facebook to post updates and tweets throughout the election day.

The minute the race is called, post a thank you note on your website, and any social media feeds, thanking your volunteers and donors.

Prepare list of people you must call after the results are announced.  The first should be your opponent to either congratulate (should he or she win) or thank (should you win.)   The next on the list should be your biggest donors.

BEFORE Election Day, contact an attorney experience in election law.  Let him know you may need his services should your voters or poll workers need assistance.

Speaking of which, if your race is called, and the margin is close enough to be in doubt, DO NOT CONCEDE!  Simply tell the press and your supporters very politely and professionally you will wait until all the votes are counted AND VERIFIED before declaring victory or defeat.  Immediately contact an attorney experienced in election law.

No matter the result, be gracious and professional.  Remind your supporters of the same.

There’s no such thing as Election “Day.”

Thanks to more states opening up early and absentee voting, the use of mail-in ballots in states like Colorado and Oregon and because of our increasingly busy lives, in many elections more than half the votes counted on Election Night are cast in the weeks ahead of Election Day.

That while it’s a good idea not to spend all your money in the early days of a campaign, it means campaigns must hit mailboxes, phones and doors earlier than ever.

If you’re a Libertarian candidate, or running a Libertarian campaign, find out when absentee and early voting begin.

Make sure the voter registration list you purchase has the voter’s history on it.  Most voter registration lists also mark who cast an absentee ballot or voted early in person.  Make sure your campaign has contacted those voters as soon as early voting begins.

[Make sure you spend all of your volunteer's time only mailing, calling or knocking on the door of people who are 1) Registered to vote. 2) Show up to vote and 3) Aren't supporting your opponent(s.)  Don't waste time contacting people who don't show up to vote, knocking on every door, "converting" your opponents or doing voter registration drives.  There's a reason they didn't bother to register to begin with.]

In many places you may contact election officials, who will agree to send you a list of voters who have requested mail-in ballots.  Have someone devoted specifically to knocking on their doors to hand them a flyer or call them on the phone as soon as possible.

There’s no such thing as Election “Day” anymore.  Many, if not most, of the votes cast in your race will already be cast by the time Election “Day” comes.  Make sure you are specifically contacting those voters as soon as voting opens, and BEFORE they cast their early vote.

Please go here to chip in $25 or more to help Brett win on July 31!

Can I count on you to help Libertarian Brett Bittner win his race, which is just a few days away?

Brett is running for the Marietta School Board in Marietta, Georgia.

And I can tell you few places need Libertarians more than government schools.

Brett is running a hard-charging campaign that is competing for a win.

Brett has been an active Libertarian for over a decade.

You’ve probably seen him supporting candidates, tackling issues, and working for solutions.

And As a member of the school board, Brett will continue to stand for his libertarian principles and ideals, seeking to do what’s right for the students and the taxpayers of Marietta.

Brett is no unknown.  He’s served as an appointed member of Marietta’s Historic Board of Review, as well as its Historic Preservation Commission, representing Ward 1 on both since 2010.  He is also active in county and state politics.

Brett is also partner in Forward Focus Media, a libertarian strategic web consulting firm with offices in Atlanta and Birmingham.

Needless to say, Brett is just like our hundreds of elected Libertarians.

But he needs Libertarians like you to push him over the finish line.

With just days left until voting, Brett needs help getting out the mail, getting literature on doors and driving voters to the polls.

Please go here to chip in $25 or more to help Brett win on July 31!

Of particular interest to Libertarian candidates, he writes:

In small races where a candidate isn’t campaigning much at all, the other candidate should frontend sign distribution along with the field campaign as much as possible. If there isn’t the budget for that, putting signs out just a few days or weeks before the election will have an impact. This is in line with a recent study out of Vanderbilt University.

Last year, political scientists, Cindy Kam and Elizabeth Zechmeister found that not only did yard signs increase candidate name recognition but also that nearly one-in-four people who drove by the sign over just a few days time preferred that candidate. In the experiment, the researchers made yard signs for a fictitious candidate, “Ben Griffin” for a real Nashville at-large council seat election. The signs were placed two months out from the election just as campaigns were beginning to connect with voters. Three days after the signs were posted, a local school parent-teacher organization sent out an email asking recipients to take an online survey.

The survey asked respondents who they supported for the at-large Nashville council seat listing five actual candidates and two fictitious ones, including Ben Griffin. Respondents listed their top three choices for the post and nearly 25 percent of those who had driven by the Ben Griffin sign put him in their top three, which was 10-percent higher than the control group. Essentially, not only do yard signs increase name recognition, but they also translate directly into votes in low-information races.

Notice how the study points out voters had “driven by the Ben Griffin sign.”  They did not “stop to read the Ben Griffin sign.” That brings up an important point when designing your campaign’s yard sign.

Readability is key, and less is more.

Other than legally-required disclaimers or other language, a yard sign should include only the candidate’s name (generally last name only or most recognizable) and the office he or she seeks (as short as possible.)  In some states, you may be required to put “vote for” or “for” if you are not the incumbent.

Generally you do NOT place slogans, your party name, district number, website addresses, photographs or other information on a yard sign.  Just name (generally only the last name) and office (as short as possible, such as “State House” instead of “Texas State House of Representatives, District 150.”  People know what state they live in, and they don’t need to know their district number.  It’s already on the ballot they’re handed.)

People do not READ yard signs, they SEE them.  Placing additional text or information offers more distractions in the few seconds a voter sees a sign.

As for colors, white letters on a dark color (blue is best) works best.  One color yard signs are generally cheaper than two or more colors.

And don’t waste money on corrugated plastic or plastic bags signs, unless you can get them cheaper than laminated posterboard, which is the most effective material.  Signmakers will tell you plastic is more durable, but yard signs are only outdoors for a few months at most.

A campaign yard sign has one main purpose, to increase positive name recognition.  That’s why your name, as it appears on the ballot, and the office are the ONLY two things that should be on a yard sign.