Dear LP National Delegate,

Thanks for visiting my site!  I'm Guy McLendon, and I'd like to serve as your LNC Region 4 Alternate.  If Region 4 becomes a super region, I would accept a full LNC seat.  Our national committee directs the office of LP Executive Director, and provides support & guidance to our state party affiliates.  The LNC is a service organization, and its effective operation is critical in helping our members be a credible electoral presence in our respective communities.

Here are my goals relevant to my post as your LNC Rep.:

1.  Support state affiliates in my region with whatever mentoring & guidance I'm able to provide. 

My intention is to attend state conventions to the maximum extent possible, and to be available for consultation to members in the states I cover.  Visit my YouTube channel to see if you'd like me to be the keynote speaker at your next convention.  As qualifications, consider that I've served as County Chair in Harris County, and was recently re-elected to my third term in that office.  Harris is home to Houston, and is the 3rd most populous county in our nation.  In addition, I've served one term as the Vice-Chair of Texas, and a term on the Texas State Executive Committee.  Many volunteers in Texas draw upon my knowledge of the Texas Election Code as we run our election processes in Texas.  In 1980 I served on the Mississippi state executive committee as Membership Chair, and was a student activist on the 1980 Ed Clark for President campaign.

2.  Keep party expenditures focused primarily on tasks that only a political party can perform.

While education is certainly an important secondary benefit, the limited resources of the LP's organization need to remain focused on handling election functions.  The best way to educate the populace is for our elected officials to serve as a good example from their city council seats.  [Of course, individual candidates make their own decisions relevant to their personal priorities.]

"The New Path" slate of LP candidates should be asked what their vision is for the party relevant to PRIMARY focus.  Should we focus mostly on educating the US populace while campaigning to win election is handled almost as an afterthought?  Many LP members believe that.  While an admirable goal, there are serious flaws in that approach:  briefly, a political party is uniquely ineffective as a mechanism in achieving that goal.  A political party must get ballot access, and donations come from donor's net pay rather than gross pay.  If our PRIMARY purpose is educate, for example, the Advocates for Self Government would be a much more effective vehicle:  that fine organization does not suffer the expense to retain ballot access, and their donations are tax deductible.  It makes no sense to needlessly fight a head-wind.

New Path Vice Chair candidate Carolyn Marbry's web site says a goal is "... develop and support Libertarian think tanks".  Will this cost money that the LP does not have?  Do organizations such as the Advocates for Self Government, CATO & others need to LP to "develop" them?

3. I support the goal to maintain 50 state ballot access.

4. Provide non-lavish office space and modestly paid personnel.

The landlords & employees of the LP should know the LP is frugal with donor's money ... even cheap & miserly.  To assure "continuity of operations", a "load shed" plan should be present in LNC to manage the risk of falling revenues (if it's not in place already).  However, figuratively speaking, if we want to dig a ditch, we've got to own a shovel.  As an example during Texas ballot access drives, the LP raised the money and paid petitioners to get signatures.  The Constitution and Green Parties both tried to strictly use volunteers.  Guess what?  Only the LP of Texas shares the ballot with the duopoly.  Harris County, Texas has seriously considered hiring a *county* Executive Director ...  The people of the United States will not take back our government without some modest investments.

Reference the New Path's LNC Treasurer's statement:  James Oaksun.  Mr. Oaksun asks why a national party needs office space at all.  He asks why the national LP needs more than one employee.  My response, "Mr. Oaksun, ouch!"  If this is the "New Path", then I fear it will lead the LP straight into a ditch!

5.  Retain the current National Platform format & style.

The LNC appoints 10 members to the National Platform Committee, so the LNC thereby influences the direction of our national platform.  In my opinion, the current platform is far superior to the 2004 platform.  The 2004 version was nearly 7X the size of the 2008 version, so the highest priority concerns got lost within that bloated text.  The 2008 platform can be easily read & understood, and its brevity puts focus on what we do say.  A very long platform can not be maintained via the biannual convention process:  for example, the 2004 platform recommended the elimination of many federal agencies that had been eliminated or renamed many years before.  Please <click here> to see how the size of the national platform grew from our party's inception to today.  Today's platform is about the same size as our original 1972 platform.

New Path candidate for LNC Secretary Rob Power was a leader in the "Restore 04" caucus during the 2008 convention.  I concur with Rob's website comments that "ideology matters", and that the LP should outreach to libertarian-leaning liberals in addition to conservatives.  However, my colleague should be asked to clarify his vision for the 2012 National Platform.  Would the New Path seek to re-radicalize the platform?  Would they seek to bloat & dilute our message?  In my opinion, reverting back to a bloated and radicalized platform would be SERIOUSLY detrimental to the LP and our candidates.

Want to see the DRAFT 2010 LP National Platform?  Click Here.  I endorse the 2010 Committee Report's content & style, and challenge my Platform Committee colleague Rob Power to do the same.

Please support my campaign to serve as your LNC Region 4 Alternate.

Yours in Liberty,
Guy McLendon
Houston, Texas