The Libertarian Party of Tennessee

Minutes of the Libertarian Party of Tennessee State Convention 3 & 4 April 2004 Hilton Gardens Hotel Downtown Chattanooga
Compiled by Joey B. King, State Secretary

9:20

Convention is opened with a welcome speech by Ray Ledford, State Chair. He thanked the distinguished guests including Rep. Chris Clem (Republican) from Lookout Mountain, (Hamilton County) Tennessee for agreeing to speak at the convention. Mr. Ledford said he was excited about the convention and hoped it was the best convention ever. The major business to be accomplished during the state convention was to approve a budget and select delegates to the Libertarian National Convention to be held in Atlanta GA May 2004.

9:30

Mr. Ledford took a moment to recognize two Libertarians who were running campaigns for the Tennessee House of Representatives. Mr. Dan Lewis from House District 26 (Hamilton County), stated that he wanted to run a race that concentrated on the Tennessee Constitution. Mr. Brent Benedict (Hamilton County) was also introduced as a Libertarian candidate for House District 29. Mr. Benedict said he wanted to run a campaign based on Libertarian principles.

9:40

Mr. Ledford announced that the web domain name of www.lptn.org had been re-acquired thanks to an outstanding effort by the official webmaster, Jonathan Wright, who had donated part of his salary towards that end. Mr. Ledford also thanked Bill Bolen (Hamilton County) and the rest of the convention committee for their hard work setting up the convention.

9:45

The chair formally recognized Mr. Joe Dumas for his efforts in starting a political action committee specifically targeted towards helping Libertarians get elected to local office in Tennessee. At that time Joe Dumas introduced the first guest speaker Rep. Chris Clem, Republican from Hamilton County.

9:50

Rep. Clem spoke on the following topics:

1. How to present issues to the General Assembly
2. Tennessee Legislative update on a few issues important to Libertarians-
   1. Carry permits
   2. Ballot Labeling
   3. Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR)

He then opened the floor to a question and answer session.

10:05

Mr. Ledford took center stage again and introduced LPTN Vice Chair and Wilson County TN County Commissioner, Heather Scott. She spoke to several issues relating to success of the LPTN at the county level generally and the Wilson County in particular. Here topics included:

1. County employee drug testing in Wilson Co.
2. Commuter Rail in Middle TN
3. TABOR in Wilson Co
4. Staying philosophically Libertarian while serving in office
5. State payment to counties for prison inmates
6. Schools and education.

She then opened the floor for a Q & A session.

10:20

Mr. Ledford re-took the state and thanked Commissioner Scott and encouraged others to run for local office. Trevor Southerland who is the chair of Hamilton County, played a video clip of the Michael Badnarik's (LP Presidential hopeful) debate in Chattanooga with Allen Russo and Gary Nolan.

10:30

Breakout sessions began Steve Trinward's session was entitled "Why are we here?" and Dan Lewis had a session on the Tennessee Constitution.

1:30

Session was called to order and guest speaker Tamara Mallow LP VP Candidate made a presentation

1:55

Tom Knapp made a presentation on behalf of A. Russo who is running for the LP Presidential nomination

2:10

Sharon Harris was introduced by Bill Bolen for a speech. Her topic was "Communicating Libertarian Ideas Effectively"

2:45

The body was adjourned for a short break

3:10

Business meeting called to order by LPTN Chair Ray Ledford and recognized Brent who made an announcement of DVD's for sale for Presidential Debate on 1 March 2004. The cost is $10.00. Bill Bolen was then recognized and had a contest for door prizes.

3:15

36 members were credentialed per the bylaws for voting purposes.

3:20

Item #1: The following members were selected as delegates to the LP National Convention to be held in Atlanta Georgia May 2004:

1. John Sebastian, Oak Ridge
2. Deryl W. Martin, Baxter
3. Samuel R. Ledford, Jr. (Chair), Cleveland
4. Tony Wall, Kingsport
5. Steve Trinward, Nashville
6. Jonathan Wright, Nashville
7. William Bolen, Chattanooga
8. Kelly Wall, Kingsport
9. Trevor Southerland, Chattanooga
10. Chris Snyder, Cosby
11. Alicia Mattson, Cookeville
12. John Storey, Cordova
13. Joe Dumas, Signal Mountain
14. Chereé Dumas, Signal Mountain
15. J. Wayne Chastain, Kingsport
16. H. Pete Norris, Knoxville
17. Brent Benedict, Hixson
18. Michael Maness, Kingsport
19. Brian Carey, Knoxville
20. Daniel Lewis, Chattanooga
21. William M. Hutchinson, Memphis
22. Jonathan Lee, Dyersburg

The Alternates are:

1. Joey King
2. Aubrey Wick Sebastian
3. Heather Scott
4. E. D. Jahn
5. David Hutson
6. Sheree Blansett-Hutson
7. Sidney Petrelak
8. Bill Willis

Note: The paper ballots were counted by Mike Croteau

3:30

Item #2: Mr. Ledford made a brief presentation on the need for Tennessee Libertarians to run local and state races that are principled.

3:35

Item #3: Proposed new region at the LP National Convention. Steve Trinward, current Libertarian National Committee (LNC) Representative for Region 7, which currently includes TN, MS, LA, AR, TX, NV, and NM. Several large Southwestern states are trying to form a region. There is also a proposal floating around to form a "Big South Double Region" with 2 Reps and 2 alternates. There is also a proposal that will be presented at the LP NatCon that will offer to hold regional caucuses in "off convention" years.

Deryl Martin had a question about other proposed regional organizations. Steve Trinward responded that Sean Haugh was the driving force behind some of these ideas, and had expressed an interest in becoming a rep. Mr. Childress from VA is also interested in becoming a rep in a "Double Region." Mr. Trinward said he planned on running for the Alternate LNC Rep position at the LP National convention especially if the double region concept comes to fruition.

Mr. Ledford wanted to know if Steve felt it beneficial for the delegates to vote to join Region 4. Steve thought that might be our best plan of action. S. Trinward move to instruct the delegation to join Region 4, Trevor Sutherland seconded, the vote was: 28-For 0-Against 1-NOTA

3:50

Deryl Martin and Steve Trinward spoke to the group on the general topic of "What to expect at the LP Convention."

4:05

Ray Ledford called for a motion to give official LPTN recognition for candidates Dan Lewis and Brent Benedict who are running for State House races in southeastern Tennessee districts. Mr. made the motion with seconds around the room. During the discussion a question came from the floor as for the qualifying deadline to run a state house race. Mr. Ledford replied that the deadline was 1 April 04. Some local races have later deadlines. The question was called by John Storey and was unanimously in favor.

4:10

Bill Bolen brought an issue to the floor called "Project 1943" in Georgia. Which takes its name from the fact that no 3rd party candidate has been able to gain ballot access in Georgia since 1943. Mr. Bolen wanted to see if anyone was interested in volunteering to help gain access for our friends in Georgia.

Trevor Southerland stated that the Clayton County Georgia Libertarians were active with this project.

D. Martin wanted to know how many signatures were needed for access and T. Southerland did not know the number required, but that Georgia had the toughest ballot access laws in the US.

Mr. M. Morrison said the Georgia law was an unintended consequence of a lawsuit. He was looking for some folks who were willing to help the Texas LP as paid petitioners in their ballot drive.

Mr. Wayne Chastain wanted to get some volunteers to help the Virginia LPwith their ballot drive.

Brent Benedict thought it was a good idea to help out local LP affiliates in other states with their ballot drives.

Steve Trinward noted that our helping out would help out if the "Super Region" scenario plays out at the convention.

Ray Ledford said that Jonathan McGlumpy, formerly of the Hamilton Co. LP, now living in VA might be an asset in that state's efforts.

4:20

The chair moved for a 15-minute recess

4:45

The meeting was re-convened by the Chair. Mike Croteau submitted the official list of LP National convention delegates (listed above).

4:50

Microphone handed to Alicia Matson, LPTN Treasurer, for the budget presentation. The LPTN took in $828.95 more than it spent with $17,946.86 in the bank now. The 2004 convention was estimated to break even. The group thought it would be a good idea to send a thank you card to the hotel for the accommodations. Ray Ledfrd commented that our web site was praised by others at the state chairs conference. Trevor Southerland wanted to know about the literature expense. Alicia said it was mostly postage, fundraising letter expenses, and Voice-of-Freedom related items.

Alicia opened the floor to discussion.

S. Trinward - made a motion to raise the support to the LNC rep by $50 to continue our attempt to shift the paradigm towards state support of the regional reps. He suggested the $50 come from the chair's discretionary funds. Heather Scott seconded the motion. Tony Wall made the only comment that he thought it was a good idea. John Storey called the question, which was seconded by W. Winter. The motion was unanimously passed to increase the support to the LNC rep to $300 per year.

The John Storey called the question to approve the budget as submitted by A. Matson. It was seconded by Dan Lewis and unanimously approved.

As a side note A Matson said that all IRS 5027's have to file an 8827 form and that we did not need to pay income tax last year due too the low amount of income we generated.

5:08

Ray re-took the floor and said the 2012 LP convention may possibly be held in Nashville.

5:10

LPTN Awards nominations

Steve Trinward nominated Vernie Krueger for the Keeper of Liberty Award in her successful court battle with the IRS recently. The motion was seconded by John Sebastian.

S. Trinward spoke to his motion by describing Vernie's case and success in the criminal phase.

B. Benedict had a question as to what the award actually was (a plaque).

The question was called by John Storey and seconded by A. Wall. It passed unanimously.

5:12

Steve Trinward nominated State Rep. Donna Rowland (R. Murfreesboro) "Keeper of Liberty Award" which was seconded by Trevor Southerland. During the discussion Steve noted that Rep. Rowland had been very helpful in presenting the ballot access issue, anti-income tax and the "whistle blower" web site. J. Lee called the question and J. Story seconded. The vote was unanimous and the motion carried.

5:15

Tony Wall made a motion to give a "Keeper of Liberty" award to State Sen. Tim Burchette (R-Knoxville) seconded by S. Trinward. After a brief discussion the motion was called by Trevor Southerland and the vote was unanimous.

5:17

Joe Dumas made a motion to give a "Keeper of Liberty" award to Commissioner Heather Scott of Wilson County for her support of a local TaxPayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) in her county. The motion was seconded all around the room and was not discussed. A unanimous voice-vote carried the motion.

5:20

Mr. Ledford brought issue to the floor for discussion concerning disbursing funds to counties for specific projects from the state coffers.

Trevor Southerland of Hamilton County was not sure about a fair way to disburse funds.

Heather Scott of Wilson County suggested making the counties come up with matching funds if the receive anything from the state.

Mr. Ledford noted that as the bylaws are currently written, the only place outlays of this nature could be dispersed is from the chair's discretionary funds.

Tony Wall of Sullivan County made the comment that because of the issue with James Chesser's near-win of the chairmanship in 2003 the whole issue needs to be addressed. There needs to be a forum over the next year to formally bring the issue to the state conference next year.

Dan Lewis said a similar arrangement with national to the states could be set up with the counties.

Trevor Southerland thought the matching funds to be a good idea.

Steve Trinward noted that the UMP# is a different matching # and this issue needed to be tabled until the bylaws committee can address the issue in 2005. Ray's discretion is fine for this year but a combination for matching funds is important enough for more analysis.

Mr. Ledford noted that he was jus seeking input at this point.

Aubrey Sebastian thought a "grant program" might be a good idea.

Ray Ledford said he also relied on the input from the state officers for ideas on dispersing funds.

Tony Wall also wanted to point out that Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) laws needed to be followed.

Mr. Ledford said that as long as funds are going for local parties, BCRA does not apply for the most part.

Steve Trinward wanted his sentiment placed in the official records: "Screw BCRA!"

Mike Croteau noted that we are funding something similar to a "grant" program now.

The open discussion on this issue was closed.

5:40

Drawing for door prizes was held.

5:45

John Storey made a motion to adjourn and the motion received seconds around the room and was overwhelmingly approved.

See also LPTN 2004 Convention Recap & Photos