You hired Neal Boyd as a campaign manager, and then proceeded to waste any work he did. The problem with you Scott, is that you are a hard worker, but you do not know the first lick about what other people (the voters) are thinking. This is a common problem with Libertarians.

In a hardcore pro-gun, pro-marijuana, anti-tax, anti-eminent domain, anti-federal control state, you managed, repeatedly, and still to the current day, to find all of the issues that are confusing to Joe sixpack, and marginal at best, and all well below 15% public support within Anchorage.

Let’s recap:
1) Exempting Anchorage residents from draft registration (Which I was still naiive enough to work on)
2) Ending the curfew. (targeting those who are too young to vote, and encouraging “pied piper of Hamlin” criticisms)
3) Seceding from the Union (the one you’re currently working on, at this point in time) Talk about getting the cart in front of the horse!

As far as your campaign goes:
Neal Boyd – a “doer” in the US army, was your completely disrespected campaign manager. After months of abject neglect, he stole around $170 of your campaign dollars and used them to effectively get us media coverage. Money very well spent.

Here were some of his very legitimate complaints about you as a candidate.

1) You sat on a week’s worth of solid research that Boyd had collected about your race, demographics of your district, and opportunities, for a month, after refusing to meet with Boyd to plan an active and intelligent race.
2) You refused to stand for the pledge of allegiance during a local community meeting that you attended, as a candidate, making yourself look like an out-of-touch nutbar. (Yeah, I’m against meaningless oaths of allegiance too, but not at the expense of running a serious campaign.)
3) As far as I know, you never went door-to-door, nor did you have any desire to aggressively reach enough people to get elected. So why would I bother, in Alaska’s winter?

Anyone who was a pro-war domestic libertarian had absolutely no place in the party you ran. They were kept out, by your choice (even though the focus should OBVIOUSLY have been local issues where everyone agrees with us.)

Obviously, you couldn’t make it happen in Alaska. Ever since you were removed as chair (a process you tried to interfere with by sabotaging the convention, and calling the speakers and telling them not to show up once you realized there were enough votes to oppose you), the AK LP has moved forward, placing the smoking ban repeal on the ballot -An issue that might not be successful, but one that at least shot the AKLP to the forefront of the local media as a respectable political force.

If they lose the issue on election day, they will have still gained massive positive media attention.

The party is slowly recovering from your mismanagement and single-minded focus on the war to the exclusion of vastly more relevant local issues.

Your primary criticism of me is actually somewhat true, and I never said it wasn’t: I did need to make money, so I left. I still do need to make money. Without making a significant paycheck for myself, I had no real way of implementing my ideas in Alaska, while I was working for you.

Every excellent idea I had, you shitcanned, without a single thought. My ideas were and still are excellent. There were universally recognized as such when the party offered me the chairmanship, right before I left to make money in the lower 48. It was too little, too late.

When I return permanently to Alaska, libertarians will get elected within one year of my return.

Even though I am working out of state, I have had a greater impact than you have had, this last year. Moreover, as proof that I would be more productive than you, given a decent cash flow, take a look at the last time I went to Alaska:

1) A hot local issue made its way onto the ballot, and I and the others involved received massive POSITIVE media attention for our efforts. I gathered the first 500 signatures for the effort.
2) Neal Boyd successfully initiated the protest against the smoking ban. We all spoke in front of a crowd of supporters assembled at the city assembly meeting.
3) Zach Keeton made it happen the rest of the way, without the chairman standing in his way, full time.
4) I spent over 1,000 dollars on national party literature, and a new banner for the meetings, that was handed out at the AK state fair. I also bought the full-color district maps (and had them professionally laminated) for the state party, so if they cared to look professional and intelligent at their meetings (and office), they could do so.
5) I still talk to the people who are doing things in AK every couple of days, and we SOLVE PROBLEMS when we talk.

The chairman of any political party that has no executive director is its mouthpiece. You were silent on every issue that mattered. Therefore, the AKLP could not proceed forward with you at the helm.

That is my criticism of you. You are a horrible strategist.

You are very organized when you want to be, and can get a great amount of physical groundwork done. However, for you to be useful, you must be pointed in the right direction, and seem unable to set aside your personal desires to look objectively at strategy.

MOST libertarians have this defect. They are politically naiive, and unwilling to get serious about playing politics.

That said, the current AKLP people are taking dramatic steps in the right direction. Yes, there are still weaknesses, but at least the chairman goes to press releases, gets on the news, and represents us well. Moreover, he stays out of the way of those who are doing constructive work, and when he is asked to do something essential, he does it (usually).

More than can be said for the complete lack of vision during your tenure as chair.

Stick to fundraising and petitioning, Scott, or, start telling Alaskans what they want to hear about the Libertarian Party, and not the three or four things that make them think we’re NUTS (see above).

Having said that, I am making money faster than I ever have before. Soon, I will have fixed the mess of a life I had made for myself as a radical for capitalism, who was continually ordered into battles that didn’t need to be fought, to the exclusion of ones that did. I will finally be free of working for freedom under losertarians who have not the slightest idea what will cause the public to vote Libertarian, and what will not.

When I come back to Alaska, if it isn’t too late (in which case I’ll happily leave the country), Libertarians will quickly gain control the statehouse.

The Alaska State House is –far and away– the easiest one, by all meaningful numbers, in which to gain libertarian control. The fact that the LP hasn’t focused their resources on Alaska simply shows that libertarians do not really desire freedom. They’d prefer it, but they won’t fight for it like their lives depended on it.

Otherwise, they’d have it already.

This can be said od NH as well, where they need to win 201 State Legislative seats to have a simple majority. Not gonna happen. Prove me wrong, and I’ll jump for joy. I’m not often wrong. (In AK, 21 seats need to be won for that simple majority.)

-Jake

One thing NH does have: numbers horribly skewed against freedom. There are waaaaaaaaaay fewer voters and offices to win than in AK (over 201 LP victories are needed in NH just to control the state leg.). have you even contacted Jason Dowell, or Zach Keeton in Alaska yet? If not, then move if you like, but don’t complain that Alaska isn’t moving towards freedom, if you won’t do anything to help it do so…

Have you helped out with “Stomp the Ban”? –I bet you’ll be disappointed when you get to NH, if you’re expecting it to be an easy ride to freedom. It wasn’t ‘pro-freedom’ for Carl Drega.

But hey, it’s a free country (kind of), do what you like.

Scott Kohlhaas, running in district 20 got 97 votes in his State house race. There were 9655 registered voters in District 20. 3094 of them voted 1786 votes won for the Democrat. The Republican trailed with 1205. If someone could have paid me to stay I could have dragged him screaming and kicking into office. Anyone who walks upright, speaks English, and knows what AK voters are all about could have easily done so. His district is amazingly receptive to the Libertarian message.

I worked it hard before I got kicked out of the largest supermarket in his district. It would have been no problem at all, but Scott (yes, the candidate) INSISTED on calling the police (I guess to unthinkingly violate the storeowner’s property rights). If anyone had wanted to run and win office as a libertarian, they easily could have, and still can.

Sara Chambers proved that. She ran a professional campaign, and waltzed right into office, in a hotly contested race in Juneau. If the LP spent enough to hire myself, Eric Dondero, and two other “hardcore PR/petitioners” to move to AK for two years, we’d have victories within 2 years.

Nobody went door to door for Kohlhaas, and he ran a wretched race, focusing mostly on other activities. (And inserted foot into mouth at every opportunity. For instance, not standing for the pledge of allegiance at city council meetings, etc… Yep, virtually nobody’s a philosophical, thinking libertarian –but guess what!? Win office and be one anyway.) He didn’t listen to a single word his campaign manager said (and had no election smarts himself –he ran an educational campaign).

He could have won with some hard work and street smarts.

If you aren’t bringing hard work and street smarts to NH, what makes you think you’ll be successful there? If you do have them, they’d make a hell of a lot more difference in Alaska, plugged into the AK LP, with voters everywhere being about the same in any halfway free state. BTW, we just got online contributions up and running, and we’re redoing the website to be done this month. http://www.lpalaska.org

You can contribute cash if you can’t contribute hard work. it’ll go towards expanding our already rockin’ media coverage. Google: Anchorage smoking ban libertarian … You get info on our repeal initiative that gathered over 12,000 signatures, and successfully qualified the effort.

A lot has been happening in AK. We’d love to see you help out with it. The smoking ban repeal effort is shifting public opinion to our side. Show up at the next weekly meeting, at the Denny’s at DeBarr and Bragaw every wednesday evening in the conference room from 6pm – 7pm.

YOu don’t have to wait until you get to a vastly worse opportunity for individual freedom in NH to fight for freedom, you can start right now. Now’s the time.

Wish I was there now to help, but I’m making money out of State. Working for the LP can’t pay your bills too well.

But if you want freedom, and you have enough money or can make it easily anywhere, AK’s the place.

Too late my friend. I’m packing my bags and moving to NH in the Nov 07-Feb 08 time frame.

I think this is fixed now.

I was a petitioner for national when the NHLP FAILED to do their duty in putting Badnarik on the ballot. They reported incorrect petition numbers, and I was sent to another state because of this. I viewed this sheer negligence as VOIDING the contract I had signed to move to NH. Moreover, AK was and still is an infinitely more logical choice for any “Free State” plan via organized electoral politics.

The FSP vote got us what every other vote in the US has gotten us:
A moderation of the best choice by the LCD and mediocre among us.

Pack up your guns and move to AK.

Love the site. I agree, about the kangaroo courts. YOu’d be much better moving within the 9th circuit, to Alaska. At least there, the judges recognize the 2nd amendment as an individual right.

If you’re dedicated enough to move, you should be dedicated enough to look at the numbers. The numbers (voters, votes, courts, culture, gun rights) favor Alaska.

BTW, this comment entry field is FUBAR on the Win98 machine I’m on. the right side of it is cut off and I need to guess that what I typed is correct. Might want to see about that. Email me if you want to discuss what I’ve posted.

-Jake

If you want to give NH another look, might I suggest the upcoming New Hampshire Liberty Forum. Come and hear John Stossel, Jack Cole of LEAP, Jim Harper of Cato and many more, and meet FSP members who have already made the move.

OK, sales pitch is over.