LSOCK NEWS, April 15, 2014
Libertarians Of South
Central Kansas (LSOCK) meet for Supper and discussion every Tuesday at Cathy’s
Westway Cafe located at 1215 W. Pawnee in Wichita,
Kansas at 5:30 PM. If we have
official business to conduct or a featured guest speaker, that will begin at
6:00 PM. All who support personal responsibility and individual liberty are
invited to attend.
To receive the LSOCK NEWS and LSOCK
NEWS Alerts! via email please contact Steven Rosile at sarasile@att.net or 316 618-1339.
Contact the
Libertarian Party of Kansas or LSOCK at:
LPKS / LSOCK
P.O. Box 2456
Wichita, Kansas
67201
Ph. (800) 335-1776
On the Web
please go to LPKS.org or to the LSOCK Blog at:
Also
see: Sedgwick County
Libertarians on Facebook. Their meeting time and location are the first
Saturday of every month at Meads Corner Coffee Shop at 1:30 PM.
Meads Corner Coffee Shop is located at
the northwest corner of Douglas and Emporia in
downtown Wichita.
LSOCK NEWS
IN THIS ISSUE:
- From The Editor
- LPKN Convention Update
- LSOCK Elects Officers
- Convention of States
- RIP David Moffett
1. From
The Editor
Hello
everyone,
Politics in Kansas
has gotten a lot duller. This is due to a bill recently signed into law by
Governor Brownback that purportedly was to protect the integrity of primary
elections. It supposedly does this by preventing voters that are registered as
affiliated with a party from changing their registration to another party from
early June, when the filing deadline is for major party primary election
candidates (and minor party candidates nominated by convention) until after the
primary election is certified by the Secretary of State (SOS), which is
anywhere from a few days to a few weeks after the primary election.
This period
varies so much due to how many recounts need to be done in tight races and
whether these races are local or statewide. Statewide recounts can take
considerable time and delay certification.
The
rationale purportedly was to prevent people from switching party registration
and voting in the other party’s primaries. It was claimed that as many as two
hundred people had done this in an election.
The real
purpose of this new law, in my opinion, was to prevent a losing primary
candidate from switching to another party and running for the same office as
another party’s candidate. This is called a sore loser law and many states have
them.
In Kansas,
no one can run as a party’s candidate unless they are registered into that
party. The window for cross party candidates used to be from the day of the
primary election until the day that election is certified by the SOS. A
candidate, realizing he was not going to win the primary, could change their
party registration and be named a replacement candidate for a particular office
and run for that office as a candidate from their new party.
That
possibility no longer exists and the establishment parties can rest easier
because it means that they will be able to resist the wishes of the voters of Kansas
for new blood and a new approach to politics in our state and nation.
The effect
of the new Kansas
law is even worse than the typical sore loser law. Our new law eliminates not
only candidates that lost their primary but also anyone registered into a party
from reregistering and changing their party to be eligible to run as a
candidate from that other party.
I know this
is confusing so let me give you an example. A few years ago local Wichita
area businessman Wink Hartman ran against Mike Pompeo in the Republican Primary
for US House, 4th District, but lost. Hartman knew that candidate
substitution was possible and openly flirted with the idea of running against
Pompeo as the Libertarian candidate for that office. This possibility resulted
in the LPKS receiving a lot of media exposure all over the state. My estimate
of the value of this publicity to the LPKS is roughly $50,000. It is doubtful
that the LPKS would have agreed to have Mr. Hartman run as our candidate and,
as it turned out, Hartman abandoned the idea but the attention and publicity it
brought our party was incredible.
This process
has been used by both the Kansas Democratic Party and the Libertarian Party of
Kansas in the past. In fact, it was because the Democrats had used the
procedure in the late 1990’s that we (LPKS) knew about it and used it in the
early 2000’s. Since then there have been several instances where there were
persons who were candidates in other party’s primaries we might have
substituted for our candidate, but who declined. There were also some who were
interested in running as our candidate for a particular office and contacted us
about doing so. Unfortunately, in those instances we did not have a candidate
nominated for that particular office and so could not make the substitution.
As the LPKS
gets more active, visible and involved in the political process and landscape
we can be sure the establishment party will be taking measures to protect
themselves from competition. It is my opinion that this and other recent
measures that they have taken, show that they are doing so and this is a sign
of our growing support.
This year
Senator Pat Roberts is facing a serious primary challenger in Dr. Milton Wolf,
whose candidacy is backed by the TEA Party. You can tell by Robert’s recent
voting record (much more conservative than before) and attack ads he is running
against Dr. Wolf that he is taking this challenge seriously.
Senator
Roberts has been part of the problem with Washington
for decades and needs to be replaced. But the party elites in Kansas
and Washington
want him to remain in office.
That is the
real purpose of this new law, not protecting primary elections as stated. That
this is the case is obvious when you see that independent voters can still declare
a party on the day of the primary election to register and vote in that party’s
primary or otherwise change their voter registration from independent to
affiliated with a party at any time. Only independent voters are allowed to do
this under the new law.
As I said at
the beginning of this article, politics in Kansas
just got a lot duller.
And less
subject to the will of the people, as well.
For Liberty,
Steven A.
Rosile
Editor,
LSOCK NEWS
2. LPKN
Convention Update
As I write
this the LPKS 2014 Nominating Convention is less than two weeks away. It will
take place in Wichita, Saturday, April 26, at the
Holiday Inn East I-35 (US
54/Kellogg at Rock Road
in east Wichita)
in the Southern Ballroom, right off of the lobby.
The business
meeting is Saturday morning and afternoon and is FREE to attend. Please
register for the business meeting on LPKS.org. This is open to members, guests
and the general public.
If possible,
bring your voter registration card showing that you are registered as Libertarian
to make it easier for us to determine if you are qualified to vote at the
convention. Voting by registered members will be for nomination of candidates
for public office, amendments to our Platform, Constitution and Bylaws,
Delegates to the National Libertarian Party Convention in Columbus, Ohio in
June, and any other items that may come up for a vote. Only registered
Libertarians will be allowed to vote at the convention.
Again. It is
FREE to attend the business meeting.
There are a
number of activities featuring former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, the
2012 Libertarian Party Candidate for President. These activities do have a cost
as Governor Johnson is raising funds for his 2016 campaign. These activities
can be found on LPKS.org and tickets for these opportunities to spend time with
the Governor are as little as $10.
Friday
evening, April 25, from 6:00 to 11:00 PM there will be a mixer featuring
Governor Gary Johnson. The mixer will be at the Green Mill Restaurant located
right inside the hotel just a short distance from the Ballroom. There will be a
$10 fee to attend this mixer. Tickets can be purchased on the website or you
can pay when you arrive at the Green Mill.
There also
will be a Banquet Saturday evening where Governor Johnson will be the featured
speaker. You must purchase your banquet ticket by Thursday, April 24 in order
to attend. Again, you can purchase your ticket(s) online at LPKS.org.
For those
who do not wish to eat dinner at the Banquet, seats will be available after the
meal is over to hear the Governor speak. Cost for a seat is only $10 and can be
purchased online now or the Saturday at the convention.
Please go to
LPKS.org and register for FREE for the convention business meeting, Saturday,
April 26, as soon as you can.
Hope to see
you there!
2. LSOCK
Elects Officers
Libertarians
of South Central Kansas (LSOCK) held its annual election for its officers on
February 21, 2014. Serving one year terms are Gordon Bakken-Chair, Steven
Rosile-Vice Chair, Drew Holland-Secretary, Shawn Smith-Treasurer, Mike
Brincefield- 1st At Large, John Kostner, 2nd At Large.
Thank
you all for your service.
3. Convention
of States
On
Tuesday, March 21, LSOCK members and guests were expecting a bonus for our
supper group as Kansans for Liberty
were holding a meeting immediately after ours. That meeting featured Kris Ann
Hall, Kansas Director for the Convention of States.
This
newly formed (less than a year old) group is advocating, promoting and
organizing, a Convention of States, per Article V of the US Constitution. This
convention would be to formulate and propose constitutional amendments for the
states consideration and ratification as there is a need for new guidelines for
reigning in the out-of-control federal government and re-establishing the
states’ control over what they (the states) created, i.e., the federal
government. If three fourths of the states (38) did ratify any amendment(s) it
then would become part of the US Constitution and binding upon all the states.
More
can be found on this worthy organization at their website:
conventionofstates.com
4. David
Moffett, RIP
Long time
Libertarian activist David Moffett passed away February 3, 2014. He was sixty
four years old. I met David through the Libertarian Party and he became a close
personal friend. David served in various offices in the LPKS (Treasurer,
District Coordinator and Editor of the Free Kansan Newsletter and ran for
public office several times as a Libertarian candidate. He also served as LSOCK
Chair and Vice Chair.
David was
born in Manhattan, Kansas
but grew up in Fort Collins,
Colorado. He was an electrical engineer
and worked for several firms in the computer industry and for Boeing Company in
Wichita.
A devout
Christian, David supported his church, Three Angels Seventh Day Adventist, and
helped send his grandchildren to the church school. His memorial service was
held at the church and I, Steven Rosile, LSOCK Chair Gordon Bakken and former
LPKS Chair and current Sedgwick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn all attended
his service.
David was a
fiery advocate for individual freedom and religious liberty. He is, and will
be, missed very much.
Vera
Kichanova is a libertarian elected official and activist who has been
described as one of "Putin's Unruly Children." In 2012, she was
elected as a municipal deputy in Moscow's Yuzhnoye Tushino district. In 2013,
she received a Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy. While
in Washington, D.C., to receive the award, she met with National Security
Adviser Susan Rice in the White House. Back in Moscow, she works as a
journalist and is a frequent and vocal advocate for liberty who has been
detained or arrested many times for her activities. She has become one of the
most visible and internationally known faces of the Russian opposition, and has
been featured in articles in the New York Times, the Washington
Post, Der Spiegel, and more. Vera is 22 years old.
