Video: Wayne Root Speaks at LPCA Convention

2008 LP Vice Presidential Candidate Wayne Root opened and closed his LPCA convention lunchtime banquet remarks on Sunday with this message:  "What this Party is missing, what it needs is a chief salesman, a chief spokesman, a chief rainmaker, and that's why I've announced I'm running for national chairman of the Libertarian Party."

Video and more excerpts after the jump:

LPCA Convention Slideshow

LPCA Convention Hears Warning of Prop 14's "Top-Two Primary"

A dark shadow was cast on this weekend's California Libertarian convention by Prop 14, the "top-two primary" initiative on the June ballot.  Keynote speaker and Ballot Access News editor Richard Winger called it the greatest threat to independent and third-party politics in America in the last 50 years.  He warned that it would make it effectively impossible for independents and third parties to challenge the incumbent parties in November elections.

 

Keynote co-speaker Christina Tobin said that opposing Prop 14 will be the core theme of her campaign for Secretary of State.  Tobin previewed her speech in a posting at FreeAndEqual.org, and her SoS campaign had already been endorsed by the LPCA Executive Committee.

Kevin Takenaga's Chair's report included the following:

LPCA Convention - Day 2

9:25 Called to order.  Attorney General candidate Tim Hannan spoke.  Says that the purpose of government is to "protect us from violence and fraud, and otherwise leave us alone."

9:33 Discussion of whether the 2nd LNC rep should be considered 1st alternate. No, because LPCA might again be part of a two-rep region.

9:39 62 delegates credentialed.

LPCA Convention - Day 1

8:45 Lt. Governor candidate and Pierce College economics professor Dr. Pam Brown speaks at breakfast

10:00 Convened with 54 delegates

Libertarian Trustee Opposes $4.3M In Tax Money for Clinic

Excerpts below from a Feb. 4 article in the San Mateo County Journal by Bill Silverfarb. Former LPSM Chair Jack Hickey, an elected trustee of the Sequoia Health Care District, is running in the June election for county supervisor.

The Sequoia Healthcare District pledged $4.3 million to help build a new clinic in the North Fair Oaks area of unincorporated Redwood City yesterday. The district board voted 3-1 to approve the grant request from the county-operated San Mateo Medical Center. Board members Don Horsley, Kim Griffin and Katie Kane approved the grant request while Jack Hickey voted against it. Boardmember Art Faro was not in attendance.

The Sequoia Healthcare District still collects $5M/yr in taxes, despite having sold in 1996 the Redwood City hospital which the district was created to build and operate in the 1940s. Since then, two civil grand juries, the Palo Alto Daily News, and district board member Jack Hickey have all argued that the board should be dissolved and its funds returned to county taxpayers.

A Feb. 1 article in the San Mateo Daily News said "Hickey, a Libertarian activist and member of the Sequoia Healthcare District Board, contributed $6,000 to his own campaign and recently said he plans to raise slightly more than that for a countywide mailer."

San Mateo Libertarians Oppose School Tax

From a Feb 3 article in the San Mateo County Daily Journal by Heather Murtagh:

Burlingame voters are asked to renew two taxes totaling $180 — Measure A, a $76 yearly parcel tax for eight years passed in 2003, and Measure S, a $104 annual parcel tax for six years that started in 2005 — for 10 years under Measure B. If passed, the measure would begin in July 2011 and continue generating $1.4 million annually for the district.

Opponents argue schools account for over half the state’s budget and their administrators should be able to live within those means. Parcel tax revenue is close to 7.5 percent of the district’s annual budget, said Marc Friedman, a former district trustee who is now treasurer of the Committee to Protect Great Burlingame Schools, which supports Measure B.

Jack Hickey, who signed the argument against the measure, wrote public schools consume over half the state’s budget and continue to ask for more. “We couldn’t stop Sacramento from raising sales and income taxes last year — but we can finally put an end to one long-standing ‘temporary’ parcel tax,” reads the letter signed by Hickey and Harland Harrison, chair of the Libertarian Party of San Mateo County.

Libertarian Supervisor Opposes Subsidized Rural Water Service

Libertarian Tom Tryon is serving his seventh consecutive term on the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors since first being elected in 1984. From an Feb. 3 article by Dana Nichols in the Stockton Record:

Ed Pattison, the water resources manager for Calaveras County Water District, reminded the supervisors that the cost to build water infrastructure and the struggle for Calaveras County to preserve water rights has powerful influences on the General Plan. That's why the water element calls for "looking to steer growth toward city centers." Pattison acknowledged that planning to concentrate people in towns will displease private-property rights advocates who hope to carve ranch land into ranchettes.

Pattison seemed to have some support for his views. Supervisor Tom Tryon said growth in community centers should be required to have municipal water, sewer connections and streets built up to standards. And he urged his colleagues in local government to send the message that property owners should not expect agencies to provide services such as water lines to rural housing tracts whose wells go dry.

"If you want to exercise your rights to rural sprawl, you're on your own," Tryon said.