Dear LPVA members & friends:
Today is a significant anniversary for me in my history in the Libertarian
Party and the LPVA.
Before Saturday, March 5, 1988, I had never petitioned before. But, I had gone
to Seattle on Labor Day weekend 1987 to nominate Ron Paul as the Libertarian
Party candidate for President of the United States, and I badly wanted him to
be on the ballot for President in Virginia in 1988.
So, that morning, I took two clipboards, and petitions and pens, to the main
post office in Arlington, Virginia, and petitioned for the first time. I was
by myself. I got 57 signatures in three hours. Not bad, I thought, for the
first time out.
Three days later was the Super Tuesday 1988 primary day. Carol Thies and I
petitioned all day at a polling place in Reston and we gathered 299 signatures
that day. With the help of other volunteers, we were on our way to placing Ron
Paul on the ballot in Virginia.
A lot of you have petitioned over the years, and I want to profusely thank
those of you who have gone out and helped place LP candidates on the ballot.
But, the volunteer effort in the past has never been enough to put candidates
on the ballot for statewide office (including President). We have always had
to pay professional petitioners to put us over the top and get our statewide
candidates on the ballot.
And, it has been costly. The LPVA spent nearly all of its remaining funds in
2012 to successfully complete the petition to put the Johnson/Gray presidential
ticket on the Virginia ballot. I have met recently with potential LP
candidates for statewide public office. Unfortunately, I have had to tell them
that $25,000 will be needed just to get their name on the ballot. And, they
should assume that the $25k will have to come out of their own pocket.
It shouldn't have to be this way. The Libertarian Party of Virginia is
currently the sixth largest state party in the LP, in terms of the number of
paid members. We shouldn't have to put the burdens of future statewide
petition drives on the shoulders of potential candidates or the Libertarian
National Committee, or bankrupt the LPVA in the process.
And, petitioning burdens should not fall heavily on a just a few volunteers.
If a lot of us roll up our sleeves and do just a little, we will be able to get
candidates on any ballot in Virginia for any office anytime we want--with zero
dollars spent.
It currently takes 10,000 valid signatures to complete a petition for statewide
office in Virginia. If we had 100 people who would each gather 100 valid
signatures of registered voters in a statewide petition drive, we could have
statewide candidates anytime we want.
I am asking you to join the new LPVA Petitioners Corps. When you join, you
will commit to a just a few hours work during each statewide petition drive
asking your friends, relatives, co-workers and, yes, even strangers (they don't
bite!) to sign a petition for more choice on Virginia ballots.
And, you will help make the Libertarian Party of Virginia a force in the
Commonwealth's politics. It will give us the ability to always be there, to
always show up, to be something to be reckoned with.
If you can be a part of the new LPVA Petitioners Corps, please email me at
william.redp...@lp.org. Please join today. On behalf of the many more
candidates that this Corps will create in the future, I thank you.
Bill Redpath
Political Development Committee Chair
Libertarian Party of Virginia
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