101 responses so far ↓

• 1 Galileo Galilei // Jul 5, 2008 at 7:50 pm

  I’ve had enough!

  Of Sean Haugh!

• 2 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 8:19 pm

  http://lastfreevoice.wordpress.com/2007/05/13/the-hills-have-eyes/

• 3 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 8:27 pm

  Kohlhaas is slated to be working on salary in RI.

  However, it is true that some of us were in MA and did not need flights, rental cars or motel rooms in RI.

  If Scott was needed to get signatures, he could have been flown in to any state in the country.

  It so happens that RI is the one state I know where LP, Greens, CP and Nader all needed signatures simultaneously.

  Scott made a big stink over other petitioners working on more parties than just LP (even though many Libertarians, including Bill Redpath, encourage this).

  Later, we learned (second hand) that he worked Nader in 04 himself.

• 4 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 8:29 pm

  1.) Fincher has a criminal history with regard to violence against woman. The statement shall stand alone.

  What is this history? I’m not aware of it.

• 5 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 8:30 pm

  2.) As a former staffer for the LPC, it is essential that the staff be allowed to choose its own vendors. If Redpath is unsatisfied with Haugh’s work, Haugh can be fired. If Haugh blackballs too many petitioners, he will find his choices limited and change his policy.

  There are plenty of petitioners. Unfortunately, some of them are like the company hired in Chicago which had 1,500 valid signatures out of 5,500 which was hired by national.

  This situation would have continued if Chris had not caught it.

• 6 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 8:32 pm

  3.) Based on past experiences with Fincher, including a stalking incident,

  What stalking incident?

• 7 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 8:37 pm

  As an anarchist, I cannot condone using the police to resolve our internal conflicts.

  What choice did he have? All factions on the LNC are apparently lined up against him. The Judiciary committee considers this outside their jurisdiction per the bylaws.

  I have been told by a reliable source that Sean will not be fired “unless he murders someone”.

  It’s not like the party seems likely to do anything about it.

  Nor is there a private arbitration system to turn to. Vigilante justice is not viewed favorably by the police state.

• 8 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 9:07 pm

  In July of 2007, I witnessed as Fincher and Jacob tried to manipulate facts to extort personal money (not LNC money) from Starr, Redpath, Sullentrup and several other donors in Pittsburgh. I cannot trust Fincher to relay facts correctly.

  I was there too. I don’t think Andy and Gary tried to extort any money.

  They were trying to collect damages for the pay being late by a year, which caused daily chaos in all our lives (including mine) in trying to deal with this situation.

  In addition to the time and lost opportunity costs in spending a year in trying to recover the money (Andy paid me himself, but I still had to spend time helping them get their money, every day, for almost a year) , there were real costs.

  For instance, Gary chose not to repair his car, thinking payment was imminent, as Scott told him. He ended up without a car.

  He delivers RVs when he does not petition.

  He ended up with real motel, car rental, bus trip and other costs he would not have otherwise had.

  He also had to do a lot of walking he would not have had to do had he repaired his car, or bought a new one as he was planning to do if he had been paid.

  As a result, he developed a sore on his foot that ended up causing him to spend a month in the hospital. That, in turn, affected me and now (almost a year later) he still owes me a lot of money from that job. In addition to losing that month of work, and much more, he almost lost his foot.

  This is just one of the examples of many of why Andy and Gary were seeking damages.

  It is true that LNC members paid them out of their own pockets, and did not have to do that.

  However, that was not the only way it could have been handled. The party could have fundraised to finish the LPNE drive, paid them with that money, finished the drive AND paid damages, for example.

  By the way, Scott did pay himself the full projected 40% commission for the whole Nebraska drive up front and then stopped raising money, rather than paying himself 40% a week as called for in his contract. He also started paying the LPNE treasurer $100 a week, which was not in the contract; the LPNE treasurer subsequently changed his name (not for the first time) and disappeared.

  Scott is currently ballot access director for LP National.

• 9 libertycrusader // Jul 5, 2008 at 9:23 pm

  Angela Keaton wrote: 1.) Fincher has a criminal history with regard to violence against woman. The statement shall stand alone.

  This is total BULL and is made up to be a smear against me.

  Go ahead - do a criminal background check on me and you will discover this is false. My full namee is Gary Lynn Fincher and my date of birth is 11-30-61.

  I have NEVER been arrested for, or even charged with, a crime involving violence against women.

  I shall now be including Angela Keaton in a slander/defamation of character suit! This is going over the line, Angela.

• 10 Arthur Torrey // Jul 5, 2008 at 9:24 pm

  First off, what I know as an Officer in the LPMA - and NOT from Fincher…

  1. We hired Fincher as a petitioner, based on past good experiences and his reputation.

  2. Fincher collected approx 2,000 signatures, for which he was paid in full by LPMA and or Phillies for President campaign funds.

  3. Spot checks of the turned in petitions against a non-current voter registration list showed a validity rate well within expectations, and signatures clearly made by different people. While we have not yet put them to the “acid test” of getting them accepted as valid by the Registrar’s of Voters in our cities and towns, we have every reason to expect them to be quite acceptable. I know of NO reason that the LPMA (or the LNC) would be unhappy with the quality of Mr. Fincher’s work on THIS ballot drive.

  3. LPMA Political Facilitator Carol McMahon, acting in her role as petition coordinator received a phone call from Sean Haugh, in his official role of LNC Political Director, instructing her to burn the petitions collected by Fincher.

  4. It is a violation of state law to destroy signed petitions. It is also a violation to ATTEMPT to get others to destroy signed petitions, REGARDLESS of whether or not the attempt succeeds.

  My feelings about the other issues in this thread…

  1. I have seen postings on the blogs of what has been purported to be a copy of the e-mail where Haugh urged the petitions be burned - it isn’t PGP signed, but I have NOT seen ANYONE question it’s authenticity. Carol McMahon, whom has been a reliable person in my experience working with her on the LPMA State Committee has confirmed receiving the ORDER (not a request) to burn the petitions from Haugh, independently of Fincher. This represents *TWO* SEPARATE communications, an e-mail and a phone call. ONE communication I can accept as “hyperbole” or a moment of anger, TWO I see as a definite planned effort.

  2. I don’t have specific reasons to doubt Angela, but she alleges in her comments 1 and 3 that Fincher has a record of violence against women, and of stalking. While I don’t see that either is inherently an issue w/ regards to his petitioning appropriately, Fincher has said that he was cleared of any charges of wrongdoing in every incident that I’ve heard mentioned that relates to petitioning. Being accused of something, investigated *and cleared* does NOT indicate wrongdoing.

  Given that proving a negative verges on the impossible, the bare allegation that a record exists is in my opinion HIGHLY inappropriate as it amounts to a non-defensible smear. Before I regard Angela’s allegations as relevant I’d demand that she DOCUMENT them, in the form of time, place, event, AND a record of non-innocent disposition…

  3. There have been repeated claims that LNC staff are prohibited from commenting on public blogs. While I can understand such a rule, the fact remains that Haugh (or someone undisputedly claiming to be him) HAS posted on blogs in the past, as has been pointed out on LFV, with dates…

  In addition, I know of NO prohibition on Mr. Redpath or other LNC members posting - I’d love to see Redpath post and describe the “Measures he has taken to ensure there are no repeats”

  4. Angela alleges that Fincher has expressed unhappiness with his payment from LPMA. I’ve spoken personally with Fincher, and got no complaints (and as a member of the LPMA State Committee, I’d think I’d be one to complain to…) Nor has George said anything about hearing a complaint. Closest to a complaint was the comment that Fincher was paid a mutually agreed upon amount that was LESS than what the petitioners hired by Haugh were getting… The context was quite clear that he felt that LNC was being overcharged, not that he should have gotten more. (Though its reasonable to assume he wouldn’t have minded getting more…)

  5. I agree that Fincher’s problem is not a “radical vs. reform” issue, but I DO think that the response to it by LNC (or lack thereof) in addition to the other issues of improper petitioner activity (where is the investigation into the alleged Haugh hired petition firm wrongdoing in IL? Where is the investigation into the alleged embezzlement by Kohlhaas) does give clear indication that there are problems w/ LNC…

  I would be FAR happier about this mess if Redpath or other responsible LNC officers made it clear that there was an investigation (either finished or being performed) into the allegations raised, and then a DETAILED report made of the results, and appropriate action taken against those found to have been guilty of wrongdoing…

  6. I agree that mailbombing the LPNC or the NC elections officials is not appropriate, however given that Haugh is A) Accused of a CRIME involving elections law, which may make him ineligible to run for office, and B) Currently running for office in NC, it seems appropriate that these facts be drawn to the attention of the NC authorities - IMHO it would do less damage to the LP’s reputation if this is done A) quickly, and B) by the LP itself as opposed to some other gov’t agency like the Mass elections officials… If we are claiming to be the party of principle, and opposed to force and fraud, we ought to be walking that talk and policing our own…

  8. While there are aspects of the entire mess that are possibly in doubt, particularly some of the past history, the simple and independently verified facts that I mentioned at the start of this (admittedly lengthy) post suggest that the LNC needs to do far more to address the matter than the deafening silence that so far has been their only VISIBLE response…

  My personal opinion is that there may or may not be adequate evidence to sustain a criminal charge; but there is certainly enough to sustain the idea that Haugh should be promptly fired, for cause, and without future reccommendation.

  ART
  LPMA Operations Facilitator, speaking mostly for myself.

• 11 libertycrusader // Jul 5, 2008 at 9:27 pm

  “3.) Based on past experiences with Fincher, including a stalking incident, Haugh blurted out something he shouldn’t have said (e.g. “burn the signatures.”) Fincher essentially turned Haugh into the police state based on hyperbole, however sincere he may have been in that request. As an anarchist, I cannot condone using the police to resolve our internal conflicts.”

  You are NOT an anarchist, if you believe in condoning initiating force and fraud (as Sean has done); you are NOT a libertarian.

  Any stalking incident was perpetrated by Haugh, not by me. I never stalked anyone in my life.

  Angela does not know what she is talking about, plain and simple.

• 12 libertycrusader // Jul 5, 2008 at 9:40 pm

  Thank you, Art; that was EXTREMELY well said.

  For the record, I have been arrested in the past, but none for commission of crimes that would be crimes in a libertarian society. The ones that are recent (1990s or 2000s) involve being arrested for petitioning at a time and place where petitioning was legally upheld by courts, and one for wearing Libertarian clothing while trying to vote, yet Ron Paul, Mary Ruwart and George Phillies (3 2008 pres. candidates) contributed to my legal defense in that case.

• 13 G.E. // Jul 5, 2008 at 9:42 pm

  In response to Angela: Although you may categorize them differently, my understanding is that Paulie and Chris Bennett themselves would gladly lump themselves in with Gary and Andy. Am I wrong? Someone please say so.

• 14 G.E. // Jul 5, 2008 at 9:45 pm

  P.S. I’ve gotten word that Andy is working on a response to this. Given his prolificacy with the pen (or keyboard) and vituperatude over Angela’s allegations, I’m preparing for a response the length of which would make Tolstoy blush.

• 15 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 9:47 pm

  3. There have been repeated claims that LNC staff are prohibited from commenting on public blogs. While I can understand such a rule, the fact remains that Haugh (or someone undisputedly claiming to be him) HAS posted on blogs in the past, as has been pointed out on LFV, with dates…
  

  Angela said the policy is as of June.

  Sean’s comments on LFV, TPW, etc., predate that.

• 16 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 9:49 pm

  Angela alleges that Fincher has expressed unhappiness with his payment from LPMA.
  

  Gary has probably pointed out that the other parties were paying him more in Mass., and that the LP was paying a petition coordinator whose crew averages lower validity than he gets at a higher rate.

• 17 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 9:51 pm

  The rest of ART’s post seems to be correct.

• 18 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 9:59 pm

  In response to Angela: Although you may categorize them differently, my understanding is that Paulie and Chris Bennett themselves would gladly lump themselves in with Gary and Andy. Am I wrong? Someone please say so.
  

  I’ve worked extensively with Andy and Gary on petition drives all over the country.

  I’ve also been Gary’s coordinator on some petition drives and have also handed his petitions into a state office and received his official validity reports.

  I have never seen any problem with their work.

  Their numbers and validity have generally been very good. They are also libertarian activists — unlike many petitioners who will work on anything that pays (admittedly, I have at times fallen in that category) and some of whom will flat out lie about what they are having people sign, and will not ask people if they are registered voters whenever they get a sense their validity is not being checked promptly and rigorously.

  I’ve ridden with Chris and his family to several LP state conventions in the midwest when he was running for the VP nomination.

  I’ve been friends with Angela over email, phone, and occasionally in person.

  I’m sorry to see them go at each other.

• 19 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 10:01 pm

  Angela has told me that this has taken up way too much of her time. She is working on a major fundraising push at antiwar.com and does not have any more time to devote to this discussion.

• 20 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 10:02 pm

  P.S. I’ve gotten word that Andy is working on a response to this. Given his prolificacy with the pen (or keyboard) and vituperatude over Angela’s allegations, I’m preparing for a response the length of which would make Tolstoy blush.

  He has reassured me it will be very brief and to the point.

• 21 Mike Theodore // Jul 5, 2008 at 11:12 pm

  I am just so lost?

  What the hell is going on?

• 22 paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 11:23 pm

  reading is fundamental.

  asking specific questions may help.

• 23 Mike Theodore // Jul 5, 2008 at 11:27 pm

  I’m just being vague. So far, they’ve left too many questions to be punctually answered. If not, they are not doing that well with it.
  Don’t stop on me, I’m just the village idiot chiming in. Every place needs one now and then.

• 24 G.E. // Jul 5, 2008 at 11:28 pm

  Mike Theo - I really don’t understand what you don’t understand. You’re the only one who seems to have any trouble following…

• 25 Mike Theodore // Jul 5, 2008 at 11:34 pm

  Ok. Let’s try and whirl my idiot brain into a mush of common sense.
  If Finch a credible source for reports of this nature to be taken seriously? There appears to be two different sides of his past.
  That being said, would Haugh’s grudge be sensible?

• 26 G.E. // Jul 5, 2008 at 11:43 pm

  Fincher has defended himself here, provided his full name and DOB and asked anyone to check out his criminal record (or lack thereof).

  No matter what, it does not justify Haugh ordering petitions to be burned; itself a crime.

  No matter what, it does not make sense for Haugh to use MY MONEY (and yours if you’re a dues paying member) to fly in a guy from Alaska to Rhode Island to do a petition drive when there are dozens (if not more) qualified petition gatherers in the New England area who could do the job just as well for less.

• 27 Mike Theodore // Jul 5, 2008 at 11:50 pm

  Excellent. So Fincher’s record aside, none of these actions are justified?
  Now the Keaton defense threw me off on if he actually meant burning.

• 28 Arthur Torrey // Jul 5, 2008 at 11:50 pm

  A note on signature validation in Mass….

  There are several levels of validation in Mass, and this may be relevant to the discussion…

  Each of our 351 cities and towns has it’s own Registrar of Voters, who maintains the list of voters for that town, with the actual voter signatures.

  A master list of all the voters by name, address, party, voting history, etc. but NO signatures is compiled by the Secretary of State’s office. This list is available (with restrictions) to candidates and parties, or single town lists of the same sort can be obtained from local registrars.

  This list is the tool that is used to “validate” signatures by petition collectors, but it is limited - I can look at a given signature, and try to read the address… If I can, then I can look at the voter list and see if I can find it… If yes, I can then look to see if there is a name registered at that address which appears to match the signature…

  If I fail anywhere along that line, then the signature is potentially invalid.

  However assuming that I have a sort of legible signature that matches “Joe Blow, 123 Big St., Thistown” I can only presume that it’s valid, as I don’t know how “Joe” signed his name when he registered.

  Given the realities of the numbers of signatures involved, only spot checking will be done to this level of detail. Mostly a sheet will be looked at primarily to see if the addresses are legible, then if the sigs are reasonably so.

  This is about all the petitioners can do. When I’ve mentioned validation rates in connection with Mr. Fincher and other petitioners, this is the level I’ve been referring to.

  Since there are no master lists with signatures, when petitioning it is necessary to keep a separate sheet for each city and town, which must be later submitted to the individual registrars for their validation.

  This is the validation that really counts, and is done by comparing the actual signatures which must be “Substantially as registered” to the petition sheets. Obviously this is somewhat up to the discretion of the individual registrars, but (to give the gov’t credit for doing right!) there is little reason to suspect bias from having much to do with validation results. The registrars indicate on the sheets which signatures they accept and which they don’t. This can be more or less than what was expected, but is usually pretty close.

  I’m not expecting any problems, but we will very likely be looking at the sheets we get back from the registrars and seeing if there are any significant differences in the approval rates on the different petitioners sheets…

  Once the registrars have validated the sheets, the petitioner is responsible for gathering them from all 351 cities and towns, and getting them to the Secretary of State’s office. The SOS then counts up all the valid signatures and announces whether or not you made it…

  One problem is that there is no requirement for the registrars to validate ANY sheets until after the petition window closes - thus there is no way to get an “official” read on how you are doing, and if you come up “short” there is no way to make up for the missing sigs.

  This means that to be sure you will make it onto the ballot you realistically need to get AT LEAST 150% of the requirement, preferably 175-200%

  Thus while on paper we “only” needed 10,000 sigs, we actually have to collect closer to 17,000.

  (In my own very local races, I need 10 sigs, but have never turned in less than 18…)

  ART

• 29 AngelaKeatonDoherty-2 // Jul 6, 2008 at 12:00 am

  Just reread my email. Joe Knight is from New Mexico.

  G.E.–Can’t seem to make any of my log in names or emails work on this site. Probably on my end but if there is anyway you can reset my log in for “AngelaKeaton,” that would be great.

• 30 Peter Orvetti // Jul 6, 2008 at 12:01 am

  I think everybody should be fired and the Watergate suite left to squatters who currently have to live under the Rock Creek Turnpike bridges.

• 31 Mike Theodore // Jul 6, 2008 at 12:04 am

  …and we will hide the key to the chairmans office somewhere around the country! Whoever finds it will lead our party to perpetual awesomeness!

• 32 TheOriginalAndy // Jul 6, 2008 at 1:48 am

  “My days as an apologist for the LPHQ and the LNC are behind me so please give me due consideration.”

  Your days as an apologist for Sean Haugh are obviously not behind you.

  “1.) Fincher has a criminal history with regard to violence against woman. The statement shall stand alone.”

  THIS IS A TOTLAL LIE! Gary does NOT have a history of violence against women.

  This LIE stems from a story told by an ex-friend of Gary’s named Roger. Back in 2004 Roger, Gary, and a woman by the name of Crystal did some petitioning together. Crystal had a volitiale personality and one day in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant in New England Crystal and Gary got into an arguement and the manager asked them to leave. This story later got twisted into being a violent altercation but this is not true. For evidence that this is not true, consider that no arrests were made and consider that Roger, Gary, and Crystal continued to work and travel together!

  If this was true, why would Roger and Crystal have continued to have worked and travelled with Gary? If this was true, why wasn’t Gary arrested?

  “2.) As a former staffer for the LPC, it is essential that the staff be allowed to choose its own vendors. If Redpath is unsatisfied with Haugh’s work, Haugh can be fired. If Haugh blackballs too many petitioners, he will find his choices limited and change his policy.”

  Gary, Mark, and I are not just Libertarian Party vendors, we are long time Libertarian Party members.

  The Libertarian Party budget is NOT Sean Haugh’s budget, it is the MEMBERS’ buget which is made up of their DONATIONS (including donations from myself). The Libertarian Party is not a dictatorship and Sean Haugh is not our dictator.

  Also, Haugh’s decisions are completely arbitrary (see his blackballing of Mark because he accused Mark of sneaking Gary into Massachusets, nevermind the fact that he had no evidence and that it was not true and that it there was no reason to blackball Gary in the first place) and are based on his unstable, vindictive personality.

  The fact that Haugh would order 2,000 petition signatures to be burned “(quite literally)” should give everyone a view into just how warped this guy really is.

  “3.) Based on past experiences with Fincher, including a stalking incident, Haugh blurted out something he shouldn’t have said (e.g. ‘burn the signatures.’) Fincher essentially turned Haugh into the police state based on hyperbole, however sincere he may have been in that request. As an anarchist, I cannot condone using the police to resolve our internal conflicts.”

  There was no stalking incident. This is another LIE!

  Haugh’s calling to burn the signatures can’t be written off as mere hyperbole because in the email Haugh typed “(quite literally)” and because Haugh backed this up by CALLING Carol McMahon up on the phone and ORDERING her to burn the signatures.

  Angela’s anarchist arguement against calling the police is completely bogus. We should all know damn well that if the sitaution were reversed that Haugh would call the police. What else is Gary supposed to do, enact vigilante justice? Is he supposed to go to the anarcho-capitalist courts that do not exsist?

  Does Angela Keaton drive on roads? If she does, wouldn’t this make her a hypocrite because she is driving on government roads and as an anarchist she doesn’t believe in government roads?

  Did Angela Keaton fly to the National Convention in Denver out of airports that recieve tax payer funding, and are they regulated by the FAA? If so, how can she have done this as an anarchist?

  “3.) In June, Kraus forbade LPHQ staff to comment on public blogs. Fincher is given several fora in which to make his case. Haugh is not allowed to respond. This makes a fair judgment of the situation impossible unless one has done as I have attempted, however clumsily, to make phone calls to the witnesses.”

  Yet according to Elfninosmom at Last Free Voice, Sean Haugh was still posting on Last Free Voice in June.

  Also, Gary sent an email to Sean Haugh and Sean Haugh never responded. Gee, I wonder why…

  Why didn’t Robert Kraus issue an order to not burn petition signatures, especially given that Sean Haugh had copied him on that email?

  “4.) In July of 2007, I witnessed as Fincher and Jacob tried to manipulate facts to extort personal money (not LNC money) from Starr, Redpath, Sullentrup and several other donors in Pittsburgh. I cannot trust Fincher to relay facts correctly. Fincher has already made comments which suggest he is not satisfied with his LPMA pay. Professor Phillies has made it very clear that Fincher has been paid in full.”

  Angela Keaton’s account of that LNC meeting is a complete DISTROTION OF REALITY.

  What really happened is that Gary, Mark, Paul, and I worked on a Libertarian Party ballot access drive in Nebraska from October-November of 2006. Scott Kohlhaas was the fundraiser for this petition drive. Scott had told us that we’d get paid while we were in Nebraska. We turned in signatures while we were there but we recieved ZERO pay while we were working and when we did our final turn in it turned out that there was only about $1,900 to pay us, and Gary and I only recieved $313 each of that.

  Mark and Paul were really desperate for cash and could not afford to have a further delay in pay, so I took it upon myself to actually PAY THEM OUT OF MY OWN POCKET, with the understanding that I’d be reimbursed for it shortly by Scott Kohlhaas. SO I PAID PAUL AND MARK AROUND $6,000 OUT OF MY OWN POCKET! I was owed like $4,000 myself, so I left Nebraska being owed a staggering $10,000!

  Gary left Nebraska being owed around $4,000.

  We were told that we’d get a check for the rest of the money would be mailed to us in a week. It never arrived. So I started calling Scott Kohlhaas about it and when I finally got through to him he said that it would come at the end of December, and that it would be like a “big Christmas present”. The end of December came and we still didn’t get it.

  Then Scott Kohlhaas said that we’d get the rest of the money by the end of January. That came and we still didn’t get the rest of the money.

  Now we did get some small payments between around early February and late March or early April of 2007. During this time period I recieved around $4,000 and Gary recieved around $1,000.

  In early February, Gary was travelling through New York and his older model vehicle broke down. He took it to a garage and the mechanics told him that the repair bill was going to far exceed the value of the car, not to mention the fact that it was going to take several days to get it fixed (parts had to be ordered). Gary was on a work related trip to Arizona. So he called up to find out how much longer it was going to take to get the money for the work he had done in Nebraka and we was told that he’d get the full amount within 4 days. So based on this information, Gary decided to send his car to a junkyard with the plan of purchasing a new(er) vehichle once the $4,000 that he was owed from his work in Nebraska arrived.

  Gary ended up getting on a train and continued on his trip with the hopes of having the money and then purchasing another vehicle while he was in Arizona. Unfortunately, the money did not arrive as promised and Gary end up being stuck in Arizona wondering where the money was as he was counting on it to purchase another vehicle.

  Gary is a diabetic and diabetics are prones to getting sores on their feet which can become infected, and if the infections get bad enough, they can actually lead to amputations. As bad luck would have it, Gary started to develop a sore on his foot not long after this.

  Due to not recieving the $4,000, Gary had to rent cars in order to work, and he recieved no reimbursement for his rental car expenses. His foot sore got worse and became infected. The problem with the foot sore limited his ability to work as well as he would have otherwise. (Note that the foot sore was caused by having to walk more since he was without a car of his own.)

  Getting back to the pay situation, I attended a diner in late December with some members of the Libertarian Party of Maryland and some fellow petitioners and Bill Redpath came up from Virginia for this diner. During the diner I told Bill Redpath that Gary and I had not been paid most of the money that we were owed from the Nebraska petition drive and that Scott Kohlhaas was claiming that we’d get it at the end of December. Bill said to call him if we didn’t recieve it and that he’d talk to Scott Kohlhaas. When we didn’t get it at the end of December I called up Bill.

  As I said above, we were then told that we’d get it by the end of January and we didn’t it.

  We had a conference call with Scott Kohlhaas, Bill Redpath, and some members of the Nebraska LP in February and then we were told that we’d get all of the money by the end of February. It still didn’t come.

  Then March came and we were told that we’d recieve the money by the end of March and we even had another conference call on March 10th. The end of March came and we still didn’t recieve all of the money.

  The March 10th conference call is also signifigant due to the fact that it was the last time that I spoke to Scott Kohlhaas for over a year. Why? BECAUSE SCOTT KOHLHAAS STOPPED RETURNING MY PHONE CALLS!

  I called Scott a bunch of time in March after the conference call, and I called him a bunch more times in April, but by around late April or early May it became apparent that he was purposely ducking me so I didn’t bother to call him anymore after that.

  For some strange reason, Scott called me one time in April of 2008 (over a year after he had stopped returning my calls) but by that time I didn’t really want to speak to him after what he had done so I didn’t take the call.

  When I confronted Scott Kohlhaas at the National Convention in Denver the first thing that I said was something like, “Hey, it’s Scott Kohlhaas, the guy who ripped us off on the Nebraka pay. Why did you stop returning my phone calls after that March 10th conference call, Scott?” Scott’s response was to say, “I called you a bunch of times.” This was a PURE LIE and I called him out on it. I asked him if he’d like for us to check the phone records to see how many times he called me and he refused to anwser me about this.

  There was an LNC meeting in Florida that Paul attended. Bill Redpath told me that he was going to present the Nebraska LP ballot access drive pay situation to the LNC and try to get a resolution passed to pay us. Apparently, this vote was taken in secret and a majority of the LNC members voted to not pay us.

  So the money stopped arriving around early April. Gary and I were getting really irritated so around late June and early July we started talking to a lawyer.

  In early July Bill Redpath told us that he had a coference call with Scott Kohlhaas and some members of the Nebraska LP and they had resolved to pay us, however, this “agreement” did not include the bulk of the expense reimbursements for which we had been promised. This was unacceptable so I told Bill that unless we recieved all of the pay including the motel & travel reimbursements that we were PROMISED that we were definitely filing a law suit. Bill agreed that it was not right to cut us out of the expense reimbursements that we were promised - especially after waiting so long to get paid - so he said that he’d work on that.

  Gary, Paul, and I happened to be in Ohio in July of 2007, and we found out that there was going to be an LNC meeting in Pittsburg, so we decided to attend the meeting to confront the LNC about us not getting paid.

  We showed up at the hotel where the meeting was at at night and when we arrived there several of the people attending the meeting were hanging around outside the hotel, in the lobby, and in the hotel bar.

  Incidentily, it was in the hotel bar that evening where I met Angela Keaton for the first time and she seemed friendly as my brief conversation with her was cordial. My only other interactions with Angela Keaton were a brief phone conversation in early July of 2007 - Paul was talking to her and he put me on the phone with her for a few minutes to talk about Libertarian radicals - and my other interaction with her was (very) briefly at the National Convention in Denver. Both of these interactions were cordial as well.

  On a side note, I ACTUALLY VOTED FOR Angela Keaton for the LNC at the National Convention, and Gary VOTED FOR HER AS WELL, and now that she has launched this unprovoked lie-filled smear campaign against us we REGRET having wasted our votes on her.

  So to wrap this story up, our case was presented to the LNC and Bill Redpath suggested a round-the-room fundraising effort to pay us and that’s what happened. Everyone in the room did not donate, however, enough did donate to pay us the principle of what we were owed.

  Now the reason that I said principle is because due to the long delay that we went through in getting this pay, Bill Redpath had told us before this that we should recieve “credit card style interest” of 18% for every month that the pay was late. Before Scott Kohlhaas had gone out of contact with us he had talked about giving us a .50 cent per signature bonus due to the pay being so late. So I got up to ask about the late fee, but there seemed to be no interst in this and that was it.

  During the public comments period which was held at the end of the LNC meeting I got up and said “Thanks” to the people present who made a donation towards getting us paid. If you go through the meeting minutes which should be posted on the LNC website you should see this.

  So how in the HELL could Angela twist this story into Gary and I extorting money out of the LNC? This is an EXTREMELY TWISTED interpetation of the events. It is not as though Gary and I stuck guns to anybody’s head, and it is also not as though we were not legitimately owed a debt for gathering Libertarian Party ballot access signatures in Nebraska.

  Also, keep in mind that during the time period that we were owed money that Scott Kohlhaas was on the LNC payroll. Go check the Libertarian Party FEC reports and you will see that Scott Kohlhaas was getting payments of $5,000 per month (and this does not include any money that Scott made off of deals with state parties or off of things going on in Alaska such as ballot initiatives).

  Another interesting thing to consider here is that the LNC hired some petitioner named Diane Gentry to finish the LP of Nebraska petition drive. If you check the LNC FEC reports from earlier this year (go to FEC.gov and there are links you can use to get to these reports) you’ll see that this person was paid money by the LNC to finish the Nebraska ballot access petitioning effort.

  When we were in Nebraska we did about 70-80% of the drive. We actually SAVED the party money by getting those signatures when we got them as if we hadn’t gathered these signatures in 2006 that would have meant that the Libertarian Party would have had to have started the Nebraska drive in from a point of having zero signatures in 2008. This would have cost the party more money and would have jeporadized ballot access drives in other states, and there is also a good chance the the LP would have failed to make the ballot this year in Nebraska if it had not been for us.

  There was recently an announcement posted on the LP National website about how the LP of Nebraska requalified for the ballot. Well, as Paul Harvey used to say, “And now you know the rest of the story.”

  “5.) We need to be selective in our grievances. Whether or not Fincher’s behavior is problem is not a radical or reform issue. I refuse to sacrifice credibility by allowing Fincher’s behavior to be protected by those of us who have been critical of this administration, ticket and former LPHQ staff.”

  Fincher’s behaviour is not being protected by anyone, and for that matter, there is nothing to protect about his behaviour.

  “6.) If we wish to indict via public opinion, note that highly respected radicals such as our former Vice Chair Lee Wrights and New Hampshire activist Joseph Knight have sided with Haugh based on specific and documented experiences. Further, the fact that Tom Knapp has repeatedly taken a point by point approach to Fincher’s arguments and found them lacking and that Susan Hogarth has implored Fincher not to further involve the LPNC in this matter should be strongly considered. Knapp and Hogarth are not ones to blindly side with Haugh or the LNC. Theirs are not considerations are ones I would ever dismiss out of hand.”

  LOL! Lee Wrights is as mentally unstable as Sean Haugh. Him siding with Sean Haugh should come as no suprise.

  As for Joe Knight, he has been lying about Gary for years. Also, Joe Knight is from New Mexico, not New Hampshire, so you don’t even have your facts straight. Joe continuelly gets told that Richard Winger investigated the situation and said that Gary’s voter registrations were indeed processed by the New Mexico Elections Office. He also has been told on multiple occassions that Ron Bjornstad of the New Mexico Libertarian Party ACTUALLY WENT OUT AND WATCHED GARY COVERTLY (SOMETHING WHICH JOE KNIGHT NEVER DID), AND THAT RON BJORNSTAD SAID THAT GARY DID NOTHING WRONG. Ron Bjornstad even worked with Gary a little bit. Now who are you going to believe, Ron Bjornstad, or Joe Knight who NEVER even saw Gary work? If you believe Joe Knight then you must be calling Ron Bjornstad a liar. You also must being calling Robert Lucero from the Bernalillo County Elections Office a liar since he said that Gary was actually too insistent about registering Libertarian if anything when he investigated Gary undercover (which REFUTES the “tricking” charges). On top of this, the State of New Mexico NEVER even pressed any charges against Gary because there was no evidence that he had committed a crime!

  The bottom line is that the state government didn’t like the fact that more people were registering as Libertarians and they did not want to see the LP become a major party, so they conducted a smear campaign in the media. Gary offered to go to the media in Alburquerque (where he worked) to give his side of the story and Joe Knight told him not to do this. Then Gary ended up leaving the state and Joe Knight used him as a scapegoat.

  Ironically, Scott Kohlhaas did Libertarian Party voter registrations in Las Cruces around the same time period and there were also accusations of fraud in Las Cruces, but nobody - including Mr. Knight - ever attacked Scott Kohlhaas for this. (IN ALL FAIRNESS TO SCOTT KOHLHAAS, ANY ALLEGATIONS THAT HE ENGAGED IN VOTER REGISTRATION FRAUD IN NEW MEXICO ARE LIKELY FALSE AS WELL.)

  Mr. Knight should put these BS attacks on Gary to rest. Gary started petitioning in 1991. He is still petitioning in 2008. He worked on many campaigns before and since this incident in New Mexico and has not engaged in fraud or even been accused of engaging in fraud to my knowledge. I have worked with him on several occassions and I even hired him a few times when I got to be in more of a coordinator role, and he NEVER once did bad work.

  If there were any truth to these allegations against Gary from almost 9 years ago in New Mexico, wouldn’t Gary have similiar charges around the country? How is it that Gary just turned in a batch of 2,000 high quality signatures in Massachusetts? How is it that Gary gathered a good chunck of the signatures to get the Libertarian Party back on the ballot in North Dakota and Nebraska for this election cycle? How is it that Gary gathered a good chunck of signatures to get Carla’s End the Massachusetts State Income Tax on the ballot and to get another initiative on the ballot to Reduce Penalties on Marijuana Pocession? Why is it that Gary has petitioned in Massachusetts 16 times? Why is it that Carla Howell invited Gary to petition in Massachusetts 6 times (and those are just the times that he accepted the invitations)? Why is it that Gary was invited to petition again in Massachusetts by George Phillies (whom Gary had petitioned for before as well)?

  I think that the evidence clearly indicates that Gary is a good petitioner (the same goes for myself for that matter).

  I’d be willing to bet that Gary and I could petition circles around Sean Haugh, Lee Wrights, and Joe Knight.

  As for Tom Knapp, the only comments that I’ve seen from him have been about procedure.

  I know that Tom was calling for the removal of Shane Cory due to that ridiculous anti-Mary Ruwart “kiddie porn” press release smear, and since it has come out that Sean Haugh was involved in that press release, and has actually defended it, I would imagine that Tom would probably want Sean Haugh removed from office as well, but whether or not Tom Knapp favors removing Sean Haugh from office has NOTHING to do with Gary or myself.

  I know that Susan Hogarth has had problems with Sean Haugh (such as Sean endorsing her “FairTax” Republican opponent and mocking her in public as the Political Director), but as with Tom what Susan does has nothing to do with Gary and I.

  Whatever Tom and Susan do is up to them.

  “7.) The public record is being shaped in such a way that Fincher and Jacob are put in the same category as an outstanding family man like Chris Bennett or a dedicated much beloved activist like Paulie Cannolli. I won’t have any part of that.”

  LOL! Paul is a friend of mine who I have worked with extensively and who I have help out on multiple occassions. He knows that these accusations are BS.

  I’ve spoked to Chris Bennett on the phone a few times and I’ve seen him on the blogs but I’ve never met him in person. Chris seems like a great guy to me and I think that he knows that Gary and I are in the right and that Haugh should go, along with some other people at LP National.

• 33 TheOriginalAndy // Jul 6, 2008 at 1:51 am

  “He has reassured me it will be very brief and to the point.”

  I ended up including my responses to all of the misinformation that Angela Keaton posted in one post.

  Sorry if some people think that the post is too long but I wanted to refute each bogus claim posted by Keaton. The post actually could have been longer as I was holding back.:)

• 34 TheOriginalAndy // Jul 6, 2008 at 1:57 am

  “Later, we learned (second hand) that he worked Nader in 04 himself.”

  Scott also called Paul and I around December of 2005 or Janaury of 2006 to try to get us to come to Alaska (he offered to fly us in, put us up in a motels, and rent us a car) to gather signatures for some ballot initiatives on which he was a petition coordinator. There were 5 of them and 2 or 3 of them were anti-Libertarian issues. We turned it down because it was winter and we were in Florida and the weather was nice while it was freaking cold in Alaska.

  Scott has got no room to play the “holier-than-thou” purist act.

• 35 TheOriginalAndy // Jul 6, 2008 at 2:09 am

  “circulators at an LNC meeting by paying the circulators out of their own pockets.”

  “It is true that LNC members paid them out of their own pockets, and did not have to do that. ”

  Something needs to be clarified about these statements about “LNC members paid us out of their own pockets.”

  While their donations were certainly appreciated, it should be pointed out that these are all people who are on the Libertarian Party donor list anyway, as am I, as is Gary, as is Mark, as is Paul, as is probably everyone else on this thread.

  Anyone who has ever donated money to the Libertarian Party is on the Libertarian Party donor list.

  So, if Scott Kohlhaas had done his job as a fundraiser, and if he had not renegged on his agreement with the LP of Nebraska, all of those people on the LNC who donated to pay us at that LNC meeting in Pittsburg are all people from whom Scott Kohlhaas could have solicited donations from anyway.

  It is not like this was some kind of charity as they were planning to do a ballot access drive in Nebraska anyway and they were paying us for work that we did, and as I said in a post above, our efforts in Nebraska in the fall of 2006 actually saved the party money and got them ahead of where they would be now. The Libertarian Party of Nebraska recently regained ballot status mostly due to our efforts.

  Also, they did not have to limit the fundraising to the handful of people sitting in that room. They have a big email list and regular mail list from whom they could have solicited donations. They made a choice to limit the fundraising to the handful of people who were sitting in that room.

• 36 G.E. // Jul 6, 2008 at 2:21 am

  He has reassured me it will be very brief and to the point.

  We should have made a wager. I would have taken the over on 1,000 words. It ended up by 3,919!

  Sorry if some people think that the post is too long

  No need to apologize, Andy.

• 37 TheOriginalAndy // Jul 6, 2008 at 2:24 am

  “paulie cannoli // Jul 5, 2008 at 10:01 pm

  Angela has told me that this has taken up way too much of her time. She is working on a major fundraising push at antiwar.com and does not have any more time to devote to this discussion.”

  Well thanks Angela, for taking time out of your busy schedule to post a bunch of LIES about myself and Gary. You obiouvsly must be too busy to do any actual fact checking, but hey, why let the truth get in the way of a good smear? You must be a fantastic person since you take time out of your busy schedule to smear people whom you barely known and talk about subjects where you have limited knowlege.

  And to think that Gary and I actually voted for you for LNC. Now this is what I call WASTED votes!

• 38 TheOriginalAndy // Jul 6, 2008 at 2:26 am

  G.E. // Jul 6, 2008 at 2:21 am

  “He has reassured me it will be very brief and to the point.

  We should have made a wager. I would have taken the over on 1,000 words. It ended up by 3,919!”

  I copied Angela Keaton’s smears into the comment space and started responding. By the time I spoke to Paul I was already in the middle of the longest response. So I finished that one and there didn’t seem like that much more to respond to so I just said, “What the heck!” and finished the response without breaking it up into different posts.

  If not for the fact that I was already typing the longest response when I spoke to Paul I probably would have broken up into different posts.

• 39 TheOriginalAndy // Jul 6, 2008 at 2:31 am

  “AngelaKeatonDoherty-2 // Jul 6, 2008 at 12:00 am

  Just reread my email. Joe Knight is from New Mexico.”

  So Angela didn’t even know that Joe Knight is from New Mexico. This is not suprising. It is obvious that Angela did not have her facts straight. People who don’t know what they are talking about should not engage in smears.

• 40 G.E. // Jul 6, 2008 at 2:31 am

  It really sucks when people you respect and admire are on opposite sides of a feud. Andy and I go way back — he and I butted heads all the time when I was developing as a libertarian, and I credit his Tolstoyian posts (which I always enjoy) for bringing me to libertarianism. He gave me a hard time for my statism, unlike some others, and also unlike others, he has never once given me flak for coming around to rather doctrinaire libertarianism (where I’ve been for over a year, and yet I still have people saying “two months ago you said this.”)

  Andy has an open feud with Lee Wrights, who was my boss on the Ruwart campaign, and from what I can tell, is a good and admirable person and did a great job working for Mary. And of course, I think the world of Angela Keaton, a true beacon of liberty even if she is (or at least appears to be from my vantage point) mistaken on this particular issue. I do not know Gary, but it seems that Angela’s assessment of him misses the mark.

  I posted Angela’s comments, with permission, to try to add balance in defense of Sean Haugh since Haugh cannot defend himself. Gary pointed out to me that this was more of a “smear” against him than a defense of Haugh, but the two are really one in the same. If Gary were the horrible person Angela makes him out to be (and I don’t believe he is, but I can’t say for 110% sure since I only met him in late May) then it would justify Haugh’s unwillingness to work with him. IT WOULD NOT, however, justify the ordering of petitions to be burned, and for that alone (if not among various other things), Sean Haugh should be fired. I lose respect for Bill Redpath every single day Haugh still has a job.

• 41 TheOriginalAndy // Jul 6, 2008 at 2:44 am

  “IT WOULD NOT, however, justify the ordering of petitions to be burned, and for that alone (if not among various other things), Sean Haugh should be fired. I lose respect for Bill Redpath every single day Haugh still has a job.”

  If Gary were the worst guy on the planet (which is FAR from reality), it still would not justify Sean Haugh ordering those petition signatures that were collected by Gary to be burned. The ONLY justification to burn them would be if they were all forged, but even then you would have to PROVE that they were all forged.

  Sean Haugh did not ask Carol McMahon to do a validity check on them and to only burn them if they were all forged, he just said to burn them without even knowing what the validity was.

  Also, it would really be up to the Massachusetts elections officials to determine if all of the signatures were forged.

  Destorying petition signatures is a CRIME anywhere in this country, and in Massachusetts it actually says that it is a crime right on the freakin’ petition!

  There is NO justification for Sean Haugh’s calling for these petition signatures to be burned. Sean or whoever else crawls out of the woodwork can try to smear Gary all they want but it still does not make Sean Haugh right.

  Sean showed ZERO regard for not only Mr. Fincher, but also the candidates on the petition, the Libertarian Party donors, and the voters of Massachusetts.

  Sean Haugh’s actions are CLEARLY grounds for termination. The fact that he is still on staff after pulling this stunt is something that should disturb every Libertarian in the country.

• 42 TheOriginalAndy // Jul 6, 2008 at 3:19 am

  G.E. // Jul 5, 2008 at 9:45 pm

  “P.S. I’ve gotten word that Andy is working on a response to this. Given his prolificacy with the pen (or keyboard) and vituperatude over Angela’s allegations, I’m preparing for a response the length of which would make Tolstoy blush.”

  This deserves an LOL!:)

• 43 pdsa // Jul 6, 2008 at 3:23 am

  Maybe the LP membership should take a long deep introspective look inside of themselves, and ask what can be intimated about the rectitude of a political movement’s intent, with an anemic member base incapable of securing its own ballot access internally.

  A dependence upon mercenaries is generally an indication of systemic turpitude. It is understandable that initial penetration may require the use of externalities, but Massachusetts, and Rhode Island? Have the corruptions of empire become so insidious as to affect even persons tied by birthright to John, John Quincy, Abigail, and Samuel Adams, to the point that they have not the temerity to arise, act up, and speak out in defense of their own personal liberties? Have Rhode Island’s residents now become so alienated from their very foundations, that they no longer can comprehend what Roger Williams’ gift to all of America was?

  It is no wonder that the LP has become the refuge of fainéant Republicans, fleeing from their proper share of responsibility for the manifestation of evil that is the present-day GOP.

  While this America
  settles in the mould of its vulgarity,
  heavily thickening to empire.

  And protest,
  only a bubble in the molten mass,
  pops and sighs out,
  and the mass hardens,

  I sadly smiling remember
  that the flower fades to make fruit,
  the fruit rots to make earth. …

  Robinson Jeffers, “Shine, Perishing Republic”

• 44 TheOriginalAndy // Jul 6, 2008 at 3:24 am

  “If Gary were the horrible person Angela makes him out to be (and I don’t believe he is, but I can’t say for 110% sure since I only met him in late May)”

  The funny thing is that Angela Keaton interacted with Gary much less than you did.

• 45 Mike Guess // Jul 6, 2008 at 4:17 am

  What a mess! The LP is going down in flames.

• 46 paulie cannoli // Jul 6, 2008 at 8:01 am

  “1.) Fincher has a criminal history with regard to violence against woman. The statement shall stand alone.”

  THIS IS A TOTLAL LIE! Gary does NOT have a history of violence against women.

  This LIE stems from a story told by an ex-friend of Gary’s named Roger. Back in 2004 Roger, Gary, and a woman by the name of Crystal did some petitioning together. Crystal had a volitiale personality and one day in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant in New England Crystal and Gary got into an arguement and the manager asked them to leave. This story later got twisted into being a violent altercation but this is not true. For evidence that this is not true, consider that no arrests were made and consider that Roger, Gary, and Crystal continued to work and travel together!

  If this was true, why would Roger and Crystal have continued to have worked and travelled with Gary? If this was true, why wasn’t Gary arrested?

  I have no idea whether this was what Angela was referring to. However, let me add that Roger is far from being a reliable source.

• 47 paulie cannoli // Jul 6, 2008 at 8:29 am

  Yet according to Elfninosmom at Last Free Voice, Sean Haugh was still posting on Last Free Voice in June.

  Incorrect.

  The last comment from Sean at LFV was May 19.

  http://lastfreevoice.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/candidate-endorsement-susan-hogarth-for-lnc/

  The last comment by Sean At Turd Potty Watch is Feb 24, 7:16 pm, unless any have been removed.

  http://thirdpartywatch.com/2008/02/22/2250/

• 48 paulie cannoli // Jul 6, 2008 at 8:30 am

  Why didn’t Robert Kraus issue an order to not burn petition signatures, especially given that Sean Haugh had copied him on that email?

  Good question.

• 49 paulie cannoli // Jul 6, 2008 at 9:13 am

  Finished Andy Book #1 (comment 32), everything besides the dates when Sean posted at LFV is correct.

• 50 paulie cannoli // Jul 6, 2008 at 9:19 am

  33, 34 and 35 are correct as well.

• 51 paulie cannoli // Jul 6, 2008 at 9:21 am

  We should have made a wager. I would have taken the over on 1,000 words. It ended up by 3,919!

  You didn’t think he was done at that point, did you?

• 52 paulie cannoli // Jul 6, 2008 at 9:24 am

  It really sucks when people you respect and admire are on opposite sides of a feud.

  I feel the same way about this situation.

• 53 paulie cannoli // Jul 6, 2008 at 9:56 am

  If Gary were the horrible person Angela makes him out to be (and I don’t believe he is, but I can’t say for 110% sure since I only met him in late May) then it would justify Haugh’s unwillingness to work with him.

  Angela does not know Gary too much better than you do. She told me that she did not attempt to contact any of the people who Gary lists as his references

  http://lastfreevoice.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/gary-finchers-letter-to-lp-judicial-committee-re-sean-haugh/

  to get the positive side on Gary. I am not pushing her to do this, I know she is super-busy right now
  (in fact I will be helping her on a work project as a side job the next couple of days), but anyone who wants to know the whole story can check Gary’s many references for themselves.

• 54 paulie cannoli // Jul 6, 2008 at 10:07 am

  Correction, I will not be helping Angela on a side job.

  She just called me and told me to never talk to her again, and that she would make sure I, along with Andy and Gary, would never petition again.