State affiliates, seeking Floridians

The Boston Tea Party is moving forward as fast as we can. Obviously, with the LP nominating someone who in his career had prosecuted people for things libertarians do not consider crimes, it seems doubtful that good results are going to come out of the LP this year. (I also heard from many LP members who were frustrated by efforts to block all changes to the platform.)

Currently New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee are accepted affiliates meeting all the requirements.

Colorado is in process of being accepted, and we have interest in California, Texas, Massachusetts, Wyoming, Kansas, Michigan, and North Carolina.

I think there are now four members in Colorado, in fact, so it should not be long before they have an affiliate.

Florida, it turns out, is a good state for ballot access. Anyway, according to our founder Tom Knapp, all we need to do is have an affiliate organization there and a national party organization, and we can get on the ballot there.

So, anyone in Florida? Please contact me on the forum, or off.

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Submitted by planetaryjim on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 22:55
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Comments

1

planetaryjim:

Things are going along there very well. There has been an organizational meeting, and there is a new Florida BTP group on Yahoo. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FloridaBTP/

If you are from Florida, please get involved.

If you are outside of Florida, you could do well to emulate their progress. They have minutes for their organizational meeting which suggest it is an experienced and well-organized group. John Wayne Smith is the chairman of the state party there, and he has an excellent team working with him.

06/25/2008 - 16:44
2

planetaryjim:

Charles Jay informs me that the Florida affiliate is getting organized with help from Darcy Richardson. You guys are welcome to post contact details here.

06/11/2008 - 17:16
3

admin:

The deadline for seeking election to Florida's state legislature isn't until July. A lot of the seats have uncontested incumbents running ...

... and having one or more legislative candidates would help establish that the BTP is an "organized party" for presidential ballot access purposes.

06/07/2008 - 14:20
4

darcyr:

Dear Jim,

As a resident of Jacksonville, I'm also interested in establishing an affiliate organization here in Florida. Thus far, I've recruited one other interested member in northeast Florida.

In addition to Charles Jay, please let me know of any others who might be interested in launching the Boston Tea Party --- what a great name, by the way --- here in the Sunshine State. Thanks.

With best wishes,

Darcy G. Richardson

06/05/2008 - 16:50
5

planetaryjim:

that has come up is John Wayne Smith. He's on our group on Facebook and I am sending his contact particulars to you by e-mail.

06/11/2008 - 17:17
6

planetaryjim:

Several members of the Boston Tea Party group on Facebook are from Florida. John Wayne Smith gave me his e-mail and phone number and I can pass those along to you if you wish. Simply click on my name under the subject for this post and go to my profile on this site, then send me a private e-mail. I'll need your e-mail to reply fastest. Thanks for helping to coordinate this new state affiliate project!

06/06/2008 - 00:37
7

charlesjay:

Put me down as someone who would be willing to help in any way possible to establish something in Florida. I am a resident here and have also - in another portion of this forum - expressed interest in the presidential nomination.

Thanks,

Charles Jay

06/02/2008 - 18:14
8

southernpatriot:

To become "ballot qualified" in Florida, simply write a letter to the Secretary of State with the name of the party requesting ballot access. Then there are 3 ways to have votes counted for the BTP candidate. Florida Statute "As used in this section, the term "national party" means a political party established and admitted to the ballot in at least one state other than Florida." Louisiana and Tennessee should be easy to get on. A $500 fee gets us on in Louisiana, and 275 signatures gets us on in Tennessee (although as an Independent).

Minor Party Candidates
(1) A minor party affiliated with a national party holding a national convention to nominate candidates
for President and Vice President may have the names of its candidates printed on the general election
ballot if:
(a) by August 29, 2008, the minor party submits a certificate naming the candidates for President
and Vice President to the Department of State; and
(b) by August 29, 2008, the minor party submits a list containing the names and addresses of 27
persons to serve as electors to the Department of State. Each elector must be a qualified elector of the
party he or she represents.

(2) A minor party that is not affiliated with a national party holding a national convention to nominate
candidates for President and Vice President may have the names of its candidates printed on the general
election ballot if:
(a) not later than July 15, 2008, petitions are signed by 104,338 registered electors of the state. The
petition format may be downloaded from the Division of Elections website at
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/forms/pdf/DSDE18a.pdf. The Supervisors of Elections will charge a fee
of ten cents per name for verification of signatures. The candidate may file an undue burden oath with
the Supervisor of Elections in each county in which petitions are submitted to waive this cost; and
(b) by August 29, 2008, the minor party submits a list containing the names and addresses of 27
persons to serve as electors to the Department of State. Each elector must be a qualified elector of the
party he or she represents.

Write-in Candidates
Write-in candidates may have a blank space provided on the general election ballot for their names to be
written in if:
(1) the candidate files an Oath of Candidate (Form DS-DE 85) with the Division of Elections between
8 a.m., July 1 and Noon, July 8, 2008. Form DS-DE 85 may be downloaded from the Division of
Elections website at http://election.dos.state.fl.us/forms/pdf/DSDE85.pdf; and
(2) not later than August 29, 2008, the candidate submits a list containing the names and addresses of
27 persons to serve as electors to the Department of State.

05/28/2008 - 01:07
9

planetaryjim:

It is curious to me whether the bylaws provisions forbidding the BTP from raising enough money to be required to register with the FEC would make sense in the context of:

a) if we have a Florida affiliate, and want ballot access, doesn't Florida require us to have an FEC status as a national party?

b) if candidates for national offices want to run campaigns and raise money beyond a certain trivial amount, won't they need/want us to be registered as a party with the FEC?

It is an interesting issue. Not sure we need to take any action.

05/27/2008 - 23:04
10

admin:

Jim,

The idea behind that whole bylaws thing was to minimize -- hell, eliminate -- any need for bookkeeping, etc.

I don't have anything AGAINST amending it if we decide that we want to be a "real" party like many others, but here was my thinking at the time, and I still lean toward some of it:

- Most REAL party political activity is done at the grassroots level. No need for most, if any of it, to be funneled through a central planning body like a national committee.

- Most REAL party political activity that's NOT done grassroots is done at the state level. Presumably some state affiliates might decide to be organized and active enough to need to have a treasurer, set up bank accounts, do government paperwork, etc.

- Aside from party activities, there are campaign activities ... and the main reason a national party would be FEC-involved on that end is to conduct "coordinated expenditures." Personally, I'd rather have the campaigns manage their own money, and direct as much money toward those campaigns as possible than have what's essentially a competing fundraising entity vying for the same money with those campaigns and spending the money "for" them.

- And yeah, anarchist me just hates the friggin' FEC. When I ran the Draft L. Neil Smith campaign, the first thing I did was volunteer for the position of treasurer (the legally culpable individual versus the FEC), and then send the FEC a letter telling them to piss up a rope, that there would be no filings. Never heard back from them, presumably because they assumed that that campaign did not raise or spend more than the $5,000 "trigger" level to be forced to report anyway.

Anyway, like I said ... I don't have any real problem with amending the bylaws to allow for fundraising, etc. If a good case is made for it, I'll even support such an amendment. But the above is where I've been and substantially where I'm at.

Regards,
Tom Knapp

06/06/2008 - 10:41
11

Neal Conner:

There are lots of Florida-only parties:
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/online/parties.shtml

So you wouldn't need FEC national status.

Neither do you have to be a state-wide party to start up your own local county party.

06/06/2008 - 08:32