Lone Star Liberty newsletter

February 2007

1. TEXAS LIBERTARIAN PARTY CANDIDATES BREAK RECORDS AGAIN



2. STATE COMMITTEE MEETS AT SITE OF STATE CONVENTION, FEB 2

3. PATRICK BARTON JOINS STATE STAFF

4. DIXON TO ADDRESS UT, NEEDS YOUR IDEAS

5. WANT TO BE DELEGATE TO THE NATIONAL CONVENTION?

6. DIXON DISCUSSES GLOBAL WARMING ON YOUTUBE

7. MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

8. SCHEDULE OF IMPORTANT DATES:

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1. TEXAS LIBERTARIAN PARTY CANDIDATES BREAK RECORDS AGAIN



AUSTIN – January 2, 2008 – 173 candidates have filed with the
Libertarian Party of Texas (LPT) to run for federal, state, and district offices

in 2008. This number does not include candidates for President and
Vice-President. 



The LPT is also aware of 37 candidates who have filed for county-level
offices. 



For the first time, Libertarian candidates filed for every statewide
race. Libertarians filed for 30 of the 32 U.S. House seats, 12 of the 15
Texas Senate seats (80%, a record percentage), 102 of the 150 Texas
House seats (68%, a record percentage), and 5 of the 7 State Board of
Education seats (71%, a record percentage). 



Candidates will be nominated at county and district conventions in
March, and at the state convention in June. 



Several nominations will be contested. Among the contests, three
candidates filed for U.S. Senate, and four filed for Texas House in District
107. 



An unofficial list of candidates may be found

here:
http://www.lptexas.org/candidates.shtml



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2. STATE COMMITTEE MEETS AT SITE OF STATE CONVENTION, FEB 2

The State Libertarian Party Executive Committee of Texas (SLECT) will
be in Fort Worth this Saturday Feb 2, 1-5 PM at the Radisson Fort Worth
Fossil Creek (http://www.radisson.com/ftworthtx_north). Visitors are
welcome to attend.

This site has been chosen as the location for the 2008 state convention
June 13-15. More details about the state convention will be presented
in this newsletter as they become available.

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3. PATRICK BARTON JOINS STATE STAFF

The Libertarian Party of Texas has hired its newest staff member
Patrick Barton. Patrick joins Art DiBianca as a staff member working under
the direction of our executive director Wes Benedict.

Patrick is a recent graduate of the University of Richmond where he
majored in History, International Studies: Diplomacy & Politics and made
the Dean’s List and National Honors Society. He participated in the
Congressional Student Leadership Conference in Washington DC and was a
Field Assistant for the Brownback for President campaign.

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4. DIXON TO ADDRESS UT, NEEDS YOUR IDEAS

State Chair Pat Dixon been asked by the University of Texas
(UTLAMP.org) to make a presentation to approximately 150 people about the
Libertarian Party. The presentation will be on February 13. In order to help
with the presentation, he requests your help in preparing for this
presentation. He would like you to provide your best example of a person
that represents the far left and the far right. He is looking for one
individual on each side to use as examples to the audience. Please send
your extreme left and extreme right examples to Chair@LPTexas.org.

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5. WANT TO BE DELEGATE TO THE NATIONAL CONVENTION?

The Libertarian Party National Convention (www.lpconvention.org) will
be held from May 22-26 in Denver. That comes before the Libertarian
Party of Texas state convention, which by state law has to be held on the
second Saturday in June (June 14, 2008).

Normally the delegates from Texas to the national convention would be
selected at the state convention. But since the national convention
comes first, the party’s by-laws require that the delegates shall be
chosen by an open meeting of the State Executive Committee (SLECT).

That meeting is in Fort Worth on Saturday, February 2 (See topic #2
above)

As many items of interesting and important business occur at these
conventions, most in attendance desire to be credentialed as delegates so
that they can participate and cast votes. Texas typically has a large
allotment of seats for delegates and has not filled its delegation at
previous conventions.

If you would like to be a delegate to the national convention, please
contact members of the state executive committee
(LPTexas.org/leadership.shtml) prior to the February 2 meeting. You are not required to
physically attend the meeting as long as you have submitted your name in
advance.

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6. DIXON DISCUSSES GLOBAL WARMING

State Chair Pat Dixon presented the issue of Global Warming on the
weekly television show “Live and Let Live” on Dec 22. The video has been
uploaded and posted on Google video. It can be found at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=617434640025336908

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7. MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Fellow Libertarians,

We have completed our candidate recruiting and want to thank the
candidates for helping us break the record again. We had a goal of 250
candidates on the ballot, and fell short with 210 filed. Some of these are
contested nominations so the final number of candidates on the November
ballot will be lower. We really wanted to fill the races for state
representative. There are 48 districts in which a Libertarian will not
appear on the ballot for state representative. Out of those 48, 22 of
them had Libertarians on the ballot last time. While this is
disappointing, we still break the record of 2 years ago.

One of the critical issues for every candidate is to take the advice of
our staff in keeping their paperwork in order. Filing the required
reports to the state of Texas is very important and can be accomplished
with the help of our staff.

I want to thank our staff for the great work they do. We have now
hired Patrick Barton to join Art DiBianca working under the direction of
Wes Benedict. We have an ambitious but realistic budget this year and
need to raise additional funds to keep our staff working. Thus far 14
people have pledged over $11,000 toward our goal. Last year many of you
pledged over $48,000 to keep our staff going. Please consider joining
them in contributing to our efforts. Contact us at 512-442-4910 or
Director@LPTexas.org. You can make a secure online donation at
lptexas.org/membership.shtml.

To reward you for your support, we started a membership program last
year. We reward membership card according to the level of contribution
(gold, platinum, etc) each year. If you have not yet received your
membership card please contact us.

We continue to be asked about the Ron Paul campaign. He has far
exceeded the expectation of most people and has grown the liberty movement.

People often ask how they can support both Ron Paul and the Libertarian
Party.

To fully disclose, I have donated the federal limit to Ron’s campaign,
but I have donated more to the Libertarian Party. I have volunteered
at Ron Paul events and in the Ron Paul office in Austin.

The only restriction is that state law prohibits someone from voting in
the Republican primary and being a candidate or leader for another
political party. However, Brazos County activist Clyde Garland suggests
Libertarian candidates can influence many votes. A Libertarian
candidate cannot vote in the Republican primary for Ron Paul, but they can
publicly state their support for Ron’s campaign.

We do have an individual that filed to contest Ron Paul for the
congressional race. Our conventions will be conducted properly and allow the
delegates to decide who our nominees are. I as state chair cannot and
will not interfere with the ability of the delegates to make this
decision.

I think this is a great time for the Liberty movement. You might be
interested in reading our executive director’s opinion on this
(wesbenedictforlnc.blogspot.com/2007/05/my-600-says-ron-paul-presidential.html).
Remember that we will have lots of candidates on the ballot for
federal, state, and local offices that can benefit from the growth of the
liberty movement.

I have been asked by the University of Texas to make a presentation to
approximately 150 people about the Libertarian Party. The presentation
will be in February. In order to help with my presentation, I would
appreciate it if you would tell me what person you think represents the
far left and the far right. I am looking for one individual on each
side to use as examples to the audience. Please send your extreme left
and extreme right examples to me at Chair@LPTexas.org.

Lastly, you might enjoy my presentation on Global Warming. This has
been posted to Google video at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=617434640025336908
We are coming up on a busy March when our precinct and county
conventions kick off. Let’s be well prepared and be ready for the great
opportunity to grow the liberty movement.

Patrick Dixon
Chair, Libertarian Party of Texas