Since 2004 Pinellas Libertarian Voter Registration INCREASED by 400+

Dear Pinellas Libertarian,

We are now an archive site.

The LPPC project goals were completed in February, 2010 and a historical website archive was created.  With nearly 70% of the State Party public offices held by Libertarians in Florida, we had surpassed the initial goals.

Since 2004, I would like to congratulate past LPPC Chair Michael Gilson who conceived  a project where we completed the Pinellas Libertarian Party of Florida goals along with:

• Increased Pinellas Libertarian Outreach with public forums, radio shows, TV appearances, press/media stories, non-partisan coalitions, meetings with elected local officials.
• Increased Pinellas Libertarian Web Search presence
• Pinellas Libertarians in Public Office Advisory Boards.
• Increased Libertarian Voter Registration in Pinellas County
• Hosted Libertarian Party of Florida Annual State Convention in 2005 Pinellas County – St. Petersburg.

LP Pinellas HOSTS Libertarian Party of Florida 2005 Convention

After running as a Libertarian candidate in the successful statewide Libertarian Party of Florida “Full Slate” Campaign in 2002  and being elected Libertarian Party LNC Region 4 Rep by Florida Libertarians in 2004, Michael Gilson was ready to lead the way in reactivating the Pinellas Libertarian Party of Florida affiliate. In August of 2004 Michael Gilson became the new Chair of the Pinellas Libertarian Party of Florida. The new affiliate started off with a bang, being the first large affiliate in recent memory to contact all leads yearly from registereds on, hosting one of the most successful large statewide Libertarian Party of Florida Statewide Conventions in 2005 putting the Pinellas Libertarian Party of Florida back on the map and back in the public eye and gaining over 400 more Registered Libertarian Voters.  As the most active Libertarian Party of Florida County affiliate, it also became a top Libertarian Party of Florida web search with a combination of publicity via meetings, outreach, Libertarians in Office, Press, TV,  Awards, and videos. Under the direction of LPPC Chair, Michael Gilson, the Pinellas Libertarian Party of Florida has become one of the largest County Libertarian Party affiliates in the US.

However, as of December 2009, our 400+ members and supporters felt they could no longer give moral sanction to what they felt was the current takeover of the LPF,  and much of the US LP, by extreme-right Conservative GOP operatives and other anti-Libertarian elements and candidates. This was coupled with complaints of the flood of GOP registered  ”libertarians” e.g. crashing our meetings at LPF state and US LP direction or joining the LPF and forming pro-GOP “affiliates” and related culture of harrassment. 

We could either spend 90% of our time fighting this nonsense, or carry on. Our Board had instructions to close down from the consensus of the supporters in December by April 1 or earlier  if certain things occurred, also with the supporters voting to boycott the LPF and USLP as long as the problem exists. However, since the Pinellas effort was designed to be run basically by the non-partisan LIO Club, the project there continues. LPPC was created at LPF as a courtesy on our part, a courtesy that has ended.

Thanks for your efforts which created what we all feel is the best team of its kind in LP history. Many feel that if the USLP cannot eject these people it will go the way of the Reform and much of the Green Party. The outgoing National Political Director of the Libertarian Party says a purge is on, and many LP affiliates are reported as taken over or non-functional. We hope for the best. If anything, this shows the LIO Clubs Project or something similar is the way to go. Other final information that comes in will be posted in due course. 

Again, non-partisan activity continues at www.PinellasLib.uni.cc …see you there if you’re not participating already.

–Ralph Swanson, outgoing LPPC Chair

Co-founder, Libertarian Party of Florida, 1970; Charter member, US LP

County Commission Youth Advisor Board Member Kira Gilson speaks on lowering park fees with Libertarian ideas. We can help you get in office…and make a difference! Check out activist photos.

CAR, or County Activity Report, was first developed by LIO leader M. Gilson, LP Political directorRon Crickenberger, and a team of Florida activist reviewers. Surprisingly, at that point there were no measures of LP success. The standards are “best practice” goals that look at what has already been done, how, and sets guidelines. The standards were developed to be done easily by the avaerage activist group at low cost. They are those of the LPPC /Lib Club plan (see previous article) with the addition of an LPF goal of 2% increase in registereds per year (plus processing e.g. sending of info packet or phone follow-up) by the state party and LIO Club until a best practice level of 120,000 (1000 per State House district) is attained. Pinellas agreed to pilot the standards with a focus on appointive office in the first 6 years and appointive/elective thereafter, Lee Region to use them as guidelines with a focus on elected office, and other LPF Regions as they developed. Additionally, Pinellas Libertarians work primarily through the LIO Club, a non-partisan group, with the LPPC focused on improving relations with other parties and the elections supervisor. Mr. Gilson agreed to personally supervise the project using the LP 2004 platform and LIO materials. (Lee focuses on conservative-Libertarian outreach with current LP materials). The result is the two areas ( a county and a multi-county region) have done better in all areas simultaneously in the period than the rest of the LP, which declined significantly using other approaches. (Costa Rica LP at www.libertario.org adopted similar guidelines and is also doing well with a Libertarian-Liberal centrist approach.) Final results were reviewed by Ralph Swanson, past LPF Chair and LIO Board advisor who also became actively involved. A full manual will be published in due course by LIO (www.Libertarian-International.org ) for use by all teams.

• Since the LPPC Pinellas County Libertarian Party of Florida became an LPF affiliate in late 2004, Pinellas County has gained 400+ new Registered Libertarian Voters (about 50%)…Pinellas County has been ranked the #1 county in Florida with the highest number of Registered Libertarian Voters. Would you enjoy helping us hand out over 20,000 pieces of Libertarian literature  or share links such as DISCOVER LIBERTY, Lew Rockwell, ISIL, and more?? To get free pack.
• Our aims this year: to complete the “I LEAP!” cycle with documentation, begin the Operation Saturation project test, prepare activist campaigns long tertm, and additional outreach to Lib in office prospects and people in office via the quiz.  
• Working in parallel with the non-partisan LIO Libertarian Club, we’ve seen our Libs in Public Office rise from 0 to 12 in  5 years. We also played a material role through outreach materials in the election of a Libertarian mayor in Pasco.  Info.
• In coalition with many community groups, we’ve a  growing list of policy wins and projects in tax reduction, election reform, and more! We don’t ask your money, we do ask your involvement. Besides handling the government paperwork…We spread the word, help set an example,  mentor on what works, and save you time and money with free manuals  and tools (plenty more at right), plus reminder groups and phone calls to keep you pumped up. We know you’ll do the rest. Consider registering Libertarian…and have a ball and join us at our next meeting, below…and bring family and a friend.

The LPPC has adopted the same plan as the Libertarian Club of Tampa Bay for Pinellas to organize a Libertarian team in every precinct and get 30 people in public office as a first milestone; at present (2009) we have 11 in 19 positions and growing:

First, our main function here is to mentor and reward, and handle the administrative stuff from the state which must be done timely and accurately. Most of the Libertarian activity is via the LIO Club, which serves as a permanent platform for networking of Libertarians with local activists to implement the plan. To find out what’s going on go to http://www.PinellasLib.uni.cc for the non-partisan club. They’ll be posting a blog soon, and our members have started a photo site which will be up soon.

We’re very interested in getting people in public office following the balance of appointive and elected office in Florida: over 19 appointive to 1 elected, most of which are non-partisan.  (Libertarians generally get 30% of their people in elective office over time). However. we’re well aware that all this makes sense only in an environment of building Libertarian interest and conversancy amongs the public, hence the PLAN. In the last few years we’ve used the PLAN format to do a lot of basics that have put us way ahead of many Libertarian affiliates. We’ve contacted all our inquiries, joined or formed several coalitions, and begun training people in actual Libertarianism. We’ve started building a ‘farm team’ of Libertarians in public office. This has created a basis of activity and local wins and credibility.

THE PLAN

The format sets best practice goals and encourages yearly focus on a mission of building Libertarian/Libertarian-interested or leaning  community through successive interpersonal, legislative, educative, activist, political-surge and documentary-consolidation means (this site is part of the documentation effort). While based on resolutions of some years ago, it’s only now that this is being developed and refined in the movement, and we’re a testing area. This site reports summaries of what’s been happening each plan year.

Next, right now we’re positioning to be  really trying to encourage formation of by-House District and precinct persons to saturate neighborhoods with literature and from there develop volunteers as has worked successfully elsewhere.That’s really the main growth vector.

Our PLAN, which follows the LIO standard plan of the Libertarian Club based on best practices and tools of the LPF/USLP strategic plan (plan/actual) and year focus :

2004

Libertarians in Public Office:1/2
Activist Projects:1/2
Literature Distributed/Ad reach:1000/2000

2008

Libertarians in Public Office:4/9
Positions held:6/19
Registered:1000/1200
Activist Projects: 4/7
Literature Distributed/Ad reach:50000/50000

2012

Libertarians in Public Office:15/
Positions held:20/
Registered:1400/
Contact List:2000/
Activist Projects:9/
Literature Distributed/Ad reach:100000/

2016

Libertarians in Public Office:20/
Positions held:30/
Registered:2000/
Contact List:6000/
Activist Projects:10/
Literature Distributed/Ad reach:400000/

2020

Libertarians in Public Office:30+/
Positions held:40+/
Registered:8000/
Contact List:20000/
Activist Projects:10/                                                                                                             Lib-leaning Precincts with 5-man Libertarian teams: 100-400/
Literature Distributed/Ad reach:400000 bi-yearly/

Please note that registereds is no longer a reliable tracking measure of Libertarian interest, as most people who vote Libertarian are from other groups. However, we encourage regsitration as a first step to activism.

VISION, TOOLS

In other words our vision is to use the club structure with every voter getting regular exposure to strict or general Libertarian news and ideas for replacing coercive government programs with proven and promising voluntary alternatives; organized and autonomous Libertarian teams in every precinct developing along the LIO guidelines as these are issued; and many people in public office and more influenced by the Libertarians (who tend to lead the boards that they serve) in a non-partisan atmosphere.

Also, these numbers are minimums, the best done by Libertarian groups so far, though they seem to reflect practical reality in terms of supporter time, etc. Similar stuff is underway by Libertarians in Costa Rica (www.libertario.org) and has been done in the past by Libertarians in NH and Alaska. However, we’re dedicated to a long term and conscious effort, which seems to be moving things along. As this happens and other groups imitate us, this will go a long way in both practical Libertarian implementation, and developing a political center by raising awareness of the 25% of the population that tests Libertarian-interested.

Finally, we tend to have activist meetings through phone round-robins. We have found phone conferencing of limited value, mostly for training.

To make this happen on the personal level is both surprisingly cheap and simple. We ask that every supporter do three things:

1. Sign up at the Club, get a sticker and put it on your vehicle
2. Do the Club reading program (see www.TampaBayLibs.org   and http://www.tampabaylibs.org/freelibertariantools.htm) and get tools.
3. Hand out literature such as DISCOVER LIBERTY or the quiz  (links at  that site also)  to everyone in your friends and even all in your  precinct (about 2 weekends of work plus we encourage supplemental  do drop-offs at local stores) and send interested people to us so we can get things started locally. The FREE LP bumpersticler we recommend is: http://www.lpstuff.com/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=2 as it has contact info, and for the Club http://www.cafepress.com/TampaBayLibsWeb.308780702

We also encourage people to consider getting a Light of Liberty Award (http://www.theadvocates.org/lights.html ) , doing Armchair Activism ( http://www.lppinellas.org/armchairactivism.htm ) or look into public office opportunities ( http://www.lppinellas.org/joinlocalboards.htm     ) plus other tools at the independent toolkit site (http://www.lppinellas.org/)

To get involved call 727-344-1038 today, or simply do the above and let us know about your success!

*Please RSVP if you plan to attend meetings so we know how many attendees to set-up for! RSVP by calling us at 727-344-1038
and/or RSVP online.