FCLPO Election Results

The following individuals were successfully elected for the following roles.

Central Committee

Chair – John Stewart

Vice Chair – Chad Harris

Secretary – Michael Sweeney

Treasurer – Jordan Bertke

Executive Committee

Chair – Christopher Gill

Vice Chair – Drake Lundstrom

Secretary – Ken Holpp

Treasurer – Pat Hoffman

At-Large
Michael Sweeney
John Stewart

Congratulations on a successful election and eyes on the future.

Learn about Chris Gill…

Do you have any experience you feel would suit you to this role? 

Libertarian since 2009. Ran as a Libertarian for state rep same year. 
I’ve been on the Franklin County Central and Executive committees, as well as the Ohio Central and Executive Committees at various times through 2016. 
I have been a delegate to the Libertarian National Convention since 2010, and severed as the Delegation Chair in 2016.
I was in SC as a high school science teacher 2017-2019. I was active in the SCLP, although I was not an officer.

County Party Appointed Roles

There are also roles that are open for appointment. Directors and coordinators are appointed by the Executive Committee Chair, with input from the full Executive Committee, but not requiring a full vote. These roles do not need to be members of the County Central Committee or even members of the Libertarian Party (it would just be preferred). Each of these roles has an important part to play in a functioning county party.

Communications Director – Coordinate monthly email newsletter, update county party website, develop social media strategy with Social Media Coordinator.

Finance Director – Coordinate fundraising and outreach, develop and executive strategy for growing party funds

Political Director – Reach out to recruit local and countywide candidates, develop strategies for supporting candidates and issue campaigns, write and submit press releases for local and statewide news media

Legislative Committee Director – Solicit, research, compose, propose and seek endorsement for local and statewide issues campaigns.

Social Media Coordinator – Coordinate strategy for growing social media reach and exploring new platforms.

Events / Volunteer Coordinator – Work with Communications Director for outreach and develop volunteers for local, county and statewide events and volunteer to grow party membership and audience.

Information Technology Coordinator – Manage technology platforms, website, contact relationship manager, phone banking, video/phone conference, electronic voting and any other technology needs to support the county party members.

Learn about Drake Lundstrom

Do you have any experience you feel would suit you to this role? 

My name is Drake, and i am a relatively young libertarian at 24.  I have been involved with the liberty movement since 2014, and from 2014-2018, I was a member of a Young Americans for Liberty at the University of Cincinnati.  I spent 1 of those 4 years as treasurer, and 2 as president, and brought a club that was on the verge of collapse with roughly 4 remaining members to over 15 members regularly attending meetings, hosting the largest political debate on campus every semester, and with an email list of hundreds of other students.
Since graduating, I have stayed in the liberty movement mostly by moonlighting as a researcher for the libertarian infotainment channel freedom toons, and I occasionally contribute article or am interviewed on libertarian podcast as a policy expert.  I have done a small amount of volunteer work for the Franklin county libertarian party, tabling at a few different fairs and the gay pride parade, and am hoping to get more involved in the party in a position where I can make the most impact in pushing liberty forwards.
Other relevant leadership experience that I have had would be being the president of the UC kendo club for 2 years, UC marching band section leader for 2 years, and since graduating, I have been the rotary 6690 district outbound chair for youth exchange, and this last year joined the the executive committee of my local rotary club as a social media and youth services chair.
Please let me know if you have any question, and I would be happy to send links to interviews i have done if you want to hear about my positions on libertarainism in some more depth, and i have attached a photo of me, a photo of the YAL club I was part of at a state convention, and a photo of me with a few YAL friends at a Mises institute event, just to prove my libertarian street cred.
Thank you for your time,

Candidates for Central Committee and Executive Committee Roles

What are the Organizing Roles for Party Committees?

There are 4 roles open for the County Central Committee, and 7 roles open for the County Executive Committee. These roles are explained in the FCLPO By-Laws. Each of these roles has an important part to play in conducting party business.

Central Committee role candidates

Chair

Michael Sweeney

Vice Chair

Chad Harris

Secretary

Drake Lundstrom

Treasurer

Zachary Williams

Executive Committee role candidates

Chair

Christopher Gill

Vice Chair

Ken Holpp

Drake Lundstrom

Secretary

Ken Holpp

Treasurer

Pat Hoffman

At-Large

Michael Sweeney

John Stewart

Learn about Michael Sweeney

Do you have any experience you feel would suit you to this role? 

I have worked with the Franklin County Libertarians for the last 3 years, first as Vice Chair and then as Chair on the Executive Committee. I have also served on the Central Committee as Secretary.

Would you share any details about your background, philosophy or interests that might appeal to your fellow County Central Committee members?

My focus over the last three years has been on outreach, and growing our county party to better support local and state wide candidates for public office. Points of pride over the last three years include creation of a Legislative Committee to research, draft, propose and endorse issues based legislative campaigns, building a home grown outreach platform for phone banking and texting and keeping Franklin County Libertarians informed about local, county and statewide concerns.

Learn about Ken Holpp

Do you have any experience you feel would suit you to this role? 

I’ve been the Executive Committee Secretary for the past several years and I’d like to think I’ve done a good job at it.

Would you share any details about your background, philosophy or interests that might appeal to your fellow County Central Committee members?

I attended OU where I got a degree in Journalism. My wife and I are both Libertarians and both lean towards the Anarchist end of the spectrum. 

Urgent Party Business – County Central Committee Organization Meeting

In accordance with the By-Laws of the Franklin County Libertarian Party (FCLPO), the Constitution of the Libertarian Party of Ohio (LPO) and the Ohio Revised Code (ORC), the current County Central Committee members have scheduled our upcoming organizational meeting and County Convention for Saturday, May 30th, between 9am and 2pm, with possible party business as late as 5pm.

Voting for Central Committee Roles

In-Person Secret Ballot – 9am to 12pm, May 30th, 2020 at LPO Office

Voting for Executive Committee Roles

In-Person Secret Ballot – 9am to 12pm, May 30th, 2020 at LPO Office

Election Tally – 1pm, May 30th, 2020 at LPO Office

LPO Office

6230 Busch Blvd, Suite 102
Columbus, OH 43229

Map

How will voting happen?

The organizational meeting will include limited in-person voting to satisfy the need for a secret ballot, per FCLPO By-Laws.

There will be an election of Central Committee roles, election of Executive Committee roles, and then members are welcome to stay at LPO Office to participate in-person or go home and participate electronically.

In-person voting for Central Committee and Executive Committee roles will happen concurrently with two ballot boxes, supervised by a witness. Once the two election results have been tallied, they will be reported to all members.

As a courtesy for our new Central Committee members we will be splitting the entrances to the LPO Office, one dedicated for access to a private space for in-person voting, and the other door providing access to the main LPO Office space for participating in presentations and meetings. These will be marked clearly on arrival.

After all Committee Members have been contacted with the results from the two elections, the new Executive Committee Chair may decide, at their own discretion, if it is reasonable to hold a meeting of the new Executive Committee immediately or wait until a future time. If you are planning to run for election to the FCLPO Executive Committee we do ask that you plan to be available until 5pm, either in-person or electronically. (A quorum of 60% is required to conduct business, so if the new Chair finds at least that many newly elected members are available they can proceed with an official party meeting. A meeting without quorum cannot ratify official party business, but discussion of future business is certainly always welcome anytime.)

DeWine “safety working” groups favor campaign donors

“Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”

– Milton Friedman

It sounds reasonable at first. Create “working groups” to gather experts in different industries, such as restaurants, salons, and gyms, to form customized plans that best protect workers and customers.

Sounds good? Right?

The problem is, these are all heavily regulated businesses, some with hundreds of hours of required training and safety requirements. Each of these businesses are licensed by the state in multiple different ways, each held hostage at this time by an arbitrary and unlawful designation as “non-essential” from the Ohio Department of Health and Ohio Governor, disallowed to be open, generate revenue to pay employees, bills, rent or income.

It cannot be overstated the tremendous amount of influence the ODH and Governor’s office hold over these Ohioans and their future ability to run their business without harassment, interference and corruption.

These working groups are simply not needed, the ODH and county health departments have already shown a willingness and zeal for creating and enforcing “social distancing” rules, mask requirements, and surely more regulations to come in time. Local police have shown a willingness to enforce these rules, and businesses are already forcing them on employees and customers alike.

In any temporary emergency, this arrangement makes sense. Over time the additional safety burdens will naturally relax on their own, as the public perception of danger decreases well behind the curve of actual danger. The public will be the first to stop adhering so strictly to the safety guidelines, police will grow tired of enforcing unpopular rules that show less and less benefit and eventually the health departments will relax their stance when they find themselves without easy enforcement. (This is how a free people manage themselves.)

These working groups serve three purposes, first they empower member business owners above their peers and grant political rewards for cooperation with unlawful govt influence, the second is to place an emotional and practical distance from the real source of the rule-making and enforcement, along with finger pointing and blame, and the third, most importantly to Mr DeWine and Mr Husted, this incentivises future donors to contribute to their political ambitions and those of their surrogates.

While proposed for crafting “non-binding” recommendations anyone familiar with the scope creep of govt committees knows how quickly these become mandates backed with govt force. Even if they tried to poll all possible members of an industry they can’t account for all concerns or business structures, and will naturally favor their own “expertise” from their own businesses over non-participants. Over time such groups wander from their original intention and begin pushing pet policies that benefit their individual members and place burdens on current and future competitors. Needless to say, while self-regulation is the goal of any open market, a regulation committee that is openly backed by obvious political influence cannot operate properly as a moderating mechanism for any market. The politicians, and opportunist business persons, will always lean heavily on the levers to favor their own agenda.

If this sounds sinister or paranoid look at recent events, look at history, look at the donor lists and “working group” members and decide for yourself. There are plenty of examples of “good intentions” that go horribly wrong, where even seemingly benign “advisory” groups create new bizarre burdens on small business. There are many more examples of politically motivated committees designed to carve power out of lucrative industries. 

Our political masters have seized on an opportunity to flip our world upside-down, re-write the rules of our society and they are taking full advantage. Make no mistake, while the coronavirus may have precipitated a health care crisis, the Governor and his cronies are creating an economic and political disaster to elevate their own interests long after this virus has been defeated.

Over 1 million Ohioans have been forced out of work, left to a broken unemployment system, without income for 4 or more weeks and forced to choose between food and rent, begging for help. These are our neighbors, friends and family. This might be you. They are increasingly desperate. They may agree to any govt condition that lets us get back to work and avoid being evicted, foreclosure or going hungry.
The coronavirus has not sickened or caused the death of enough Ohioans to cause this second calamity. This second disaster is entirely man-made, and crafted as a power play writ large against our entire state.

I call on all liberty minded Ohioans to stand against obvious and subtle power grabs, wrapped in the guise of public safety.
If you cannot protest in public, protest online.
If you cannot take time away from work or family, write a letter to the local newspaper pointing out this abuse of power and trust.
If you can afford it, donate, if you have the time, volunteer, if you have the will Run for Office.
We cannot sit back and hope for the best, we must take action, even if only to prevent our family and neighbors from needless additional suffering.

Stay vigilant and be safe.

#ThinkLibertarian

DeWine Forms Working Groups for Next Reopening Phase
https://woub.org/2020/05/02/dewine-forms-working-groups-for-next-reopening-phase/

Dozen Members of DeWine, Husted’s Ohio Economic Advisory Board Are Campaign Donors
https://tennesseestar.com/2020/05/05/dozen-members-of-dewine-husteds-economic-advisory-board-are-campaign-donors/?fbclid=IwAR02omnAVjla9JS1WFwrqU-