Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge John Woodcock ruled against the Libertarian Party of Maine in the party’s challenge to a “law requiring that signature petitions seeking to place its candidates’ names on ballots be submitted to municipal clerks one week before they are due in the Secretary of State’s Office,” the Bangor Daily News reports. In his opinion, Woodcock wrote, “The seven-day window allotted by Maine is a reasonable amount of time to complete this important regulatory objective.”
Last year, the Maine LP sued Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap over ballot access for the Bob Barr-Wayne Root ticket. The lawsuit “claimed that Dunlap improperly told municipal clerks not to certify signatures on petitions received after Aug. 8, 2008.” While the party “did not press the issue in federal court before last year’s presidential election, its attorneys persuaded Woodcock to consider arguments in the case because there was significant public interest in the issue and because the question could arise in later elections.”
One more addendum: Can the LP fire Gary Sinawski? I had evidence that CT had fictious voters on the rolls, which is why my wife’s signature got tossed. I’m talking about imaginary voters who actually got called for JURY DUTY. Same birthday, same last name, but my wife had a voter card on file and he didn’t. He was also registered as a Republican.
If you can’t pick up a phone or take a deposition for that, especially given the nature of our case in CT, you suck as a lawyer and need to find other work. No hard feelings against Gary, and I’m not going to slander him, but that is a serious mistake.
If I’m reading the comments here correctly, a little love might help next time.
We lost the Maine case for a reason. We hired inept counsel who failed to control the court with caselaw. The cases cited will tell you that. No matter how unfair the outcome is, we have to get smart about this.
And instead of filing civil suits, we should start filing grand jury complaints. It’s a novel idea to put the liberty of people commiting a crime at question instead of tax dollars, the latter being why this stuff keeps happening.
“Why were we late getting to Maine? Cause of Connecticut. The States’ ballot drive was a complete Clusterfuck. The CT LP save two guys, were completely opposed to the ballot drive cause Bob Barr was in their estimation a “Rightwing Libertarian.”” Aside from valid reasons not to support Barr and Dondero’s created a strawman that just caused me to lose a whole lot of respect for him.
I was here as a candidate for the whole campaign. So let me explain what actually happened.
Barr did it to himself. That’s a fact.
Although I did help, Barr created a shit ton of work on my end when he blasted Ron Paul. What’s more is that he failed to act when I personally caught the Secretary of State in Texas violating 37.10 penal code dead bang, which was falsifying a document to put Obama and McCain on the ballot. Barr did shit about it, his lawyers whining to me on the phone about how damn impossible it was to fight in court.
A lot of us also took issue because Barr’s PAC actually donated against our candidate, Phil Maymin, in 2006 – even when he was involved with the LNC. If that doesn’t piss your state LP off, I gaurantee that nothing will. And if that’s the case, I’d recommend disbanding your state LP for complete lack of purpose.
And concerning the Nader people, the fact we carried the petition was phenomenally more difficult, exponentially you could say, because it really confused and offended a lot of voters. If you saw what I did when an officer threatened to arrest the both of us for petitioning on a public street, you’d really understand how little of a problem we all had working together.
“Phillies and other Lefty Libtards up in New England had put the word out “not to help the Barr Campaign,” and the “evil” Sean Haugh. ” That may be. But I can tell you we were so pissed off at Barr as a whole it was hard to tell above the noise.
The blame rests on us. We nominated a bad candidate. And if we can’t admit this, we can’t move on and have successful ballot drives.
Why criticize the Democans and the Republicrats when we alternative types can merely mimic them! Ethics, ethics, ethics!
Don Lake, I hate Dems and GOP!
“Eric Dondero // Sep 20, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Jessica, I got the full story from Roger Pope about Gary and the dog. Pretty damned disgusting.
I’ve never had the displeasure of meeting this Gary guy, and I hope to never have it.
He’s complete scum of the earth.”
The story about the dog is completely false. The time line of when the dog supposedly died kept changing and no evidence ever surfaced that implicated Gary. I happen to know where Gary was during this time period and I can tell you for a fact that he was not anywhere near where Roger lives.
I’d say death threats and unauthorized publishing of personal information are outside the bounds of our free speech policy.
Deleted it?!
What happened to the free speech policy here?
Oops, sorry, I didn’t see that it had been commented on. I deleted it.
For anyone who wants to know what LastCon is talking about, it had previously been posted at
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/02/communist-party-usa-an-extraordinary-black-history-month/#comment-38988
and
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/02/communist-party-usa-an-extraordinary-black-history-month/#comment-39017
My response is at
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/02/communist-party-usa-an-extraordinary-black-history-month/#comment-39148
At 34, um what? There have been lots of insane posts here, but I think that one is the strangest. Started out kind of funny, but then descended into complete slander.
Any story from Pope or “Jessica” should be taken with a large helping of salt.
Jessica, I got the full story from Roger Pope about Gary and the dog. Pretty damned disgusting.
I’ve never had the displeasure of meeting this Gary guy, and I hope to never have it.
He’s complete scum of the earth.
But you are all liiberal commies anyway, including Dondero, so what does it matter? I think this shows why we need to abolish elections entirely and return to absolute monarchy.
Yes, that would be a good idea if IPR and BAN merged. On the other hand, the trolling on both sites would increase exponentially.
And Paulie is right; Jessica Irons made pretty much the exact same post a few months back, repeatedly, and it was addressed.
The Jessica Irons nonsense has been addressed here before, so I won’t go into it again.
Richard, I’m sure I’ve told you before, but I can get you an IPR log-in anytime you want, so if there is ever a story at BAN you want our readers to see and we haven’t gotten around to cross posting it, you can easily do so yourself.
Also, the offer to merge into “Ballot Access News and Independent Political Report” is always open as well.
I see the loser crew is back.
Gary – the woman beating slob who forged voter registrations in New Mexico
Paul – the convicted felon, rapist, child molester and crackhead who forged signatures in Oregon
Andy – the original inspiration for the character in the 40 year old virgin. He hasn’t been caught forging yet, but since he hangs around with Gary and Paul there is a pretty high probability that he is a forger just like his loser friends. He always acts crazy and has to be removed by police because he petitions at grocery stores without permission and yells at people.
Andy is currently stalking a young woman in Tennessee. He recently had to be fired from the voter registration drive in Arizona for deranged behavior and low quality work.
All three have been fired in North Carolina and then again nationally by Sean Haugh, who is by far the best political director the Libertarian Party has ever had.
Paul is now on the executive committee of the Alabama LP even though he is actually a homeless bum who hitchhikes all over the country and posts lies and slanders here against Sean Haugh, Christina Tobin, Angela Keaton, Richard Winger, Michelle Shinghal, Scott Kohlhaas and ElfNinosMom – all due to petty jealousy against his betters. Incidentally he is also a plagiarist.
Roger Pope and Joe Knight have the straight scoop on these guys. They should be blackballed from petition drives, kicked off this website like they were at Last Free Voice, and ostracized at party meetings.
All petition contracts should go to Free and Equal and competent petitioners like Eric Dondero, David Jackson, Ronn Cook, Edee and Russ Baggett and Darryl Bonner.
The GAP boys are now turning on each other here over money. Don’t trust them, and don’t hire Mark Pickens who is just a front for them.
Article now also up at IPR
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/09/no-comments-%c2%bb-massachusetts-libertarians-win-presidential-substitution-case-in-us-district-court/
http://www.ballot-access.org/2009/09/18/massachusetts-libertarians-win-presidential-substitution-case-in-u-s-district-court/
Sean Haugh at BAN: “Thanks Eric (Dondero)! Your warm wishes are always appreciated my friend…”
However, I hope IndependentPoliticalReport will carry the story of the much more significant Libertarian Party court victory against Massachusetts, which came out September 18 (Friday).
Planning on it already.
I’d like to get some non-LP news up first as we have three LP posts in a row.
Congratulations to IndependentPoliticalReport for scooping Ballot Access News on this lawsuit news. I have linked here, especially for the comments, which will be useful to people interested in why the Libertarian Party had so much trouble petitioning in New England in 2008. However, I hope IndependentPoliticalReport will carry the story of the much more significant Libertarian Party court victory against Massachusetts, which came out September 18 (Friday).
I think if you all were more trustworthy business-like petitioners
We are.
instead of “fly-by-night” avoid paperwork filing, get lost for days on end, type petitioners,
Completely false. Paperwork was all 100% by the book through Mr. Pickens, and none of us “get lost for days on end.”
it was too negatives: questionable work as petitioners added to lousy reputations and questionable ethics.
None of the above holds any water. All our work for the LP last year was fine, and there would have been a lot more of it if we had not been paid less than other people and screwed around in numerous ways. As it was, there was still plenty of work handed in.
That’s a double-whammy. And I can’t blame the LP for making the decision they did to not pay for y’all’s trips up to New England.
Pay attention. Some of us were already IN New England. The LP paid for me to go to Alabama from Massachusetts. Gary stayed in New England and worked for everyone *except* the LP. Some of our other guys were in Colorado, and it wouldn’t have taken any more gas for them to go to New England than it did to Alabama. Jake was in West Virginia, and could have (and was planning to) drive north, but instead he drove south.
I already explained this, what are you having trouble understanding? There wouldn’t have been any additional expenses in going to New England. Less expense in my case, I could have just stayed there.
Oh, and our so called problem petitioning? The Constitution Party gave us the whole contract in Alabama and we got them on the ballot with a lot fewer signatures than Barr and Nader, who split off part of our contract. So much for that.
Stay away from Eddie (Baggett). She’ll rip you off.
Thanks for the info. I was pretty wary of her already from everything I have heard. Gary seems to like her though.
“I love Obama, whoosh, whoosh, Give me more… don’t you just love Obama…”
Who would that be? Certainly not me.
Paulie, the reason they didn’t fly you all up from Alabama to New England was the expense.
Nobody asked for a flight. I was already in New England, and they paid for my greyhound bus ticket to Alabama. I don’t fly commercial anymore due to the TSA. Gary was already in New England. Andy, Jake and Mark were driving their own cars. The expense had nothing to do with it.
Because you’re a Lefty. The only people you know are Socialists, Liberals, Greens and a few Lefty Libertarians.
Incorrect. I know all kinds of people, including right libertarians, Constitutionalists, Ron Paul supporters…and none of the socialists and greens I know were out petitioning with us, so that’s besides the point. Of the petitioners I work with I’m probably the most “lefty” one.
Witmer, Jacobs, Fincher – none of them lefties.
Also, what would my ideology have to do with it? When I am out petitioning I ask people for signatures to allow our candidates a spot on the ballot. That is all. The pitch is the same whether that candidate is Barr, Nader, Baldwin, or all three.
So how would a Nader petitioner know my views are any different from Ronn Cook’s (assuming Ronn Cook cares about politics at all) if he saw me out there? He wouldn’t. I’d be the same as Ronn Cook to him.
Why do you think he was not sent?
Due to a long and not very diplomatic email in response to Shane Cory copied to LNC members, HQ staffers, etc.
In the space of 3 weeks, I think he collected a grand total of maybe 600 signatures tops.
Incorrect. He got close to 100 signatures per day, even when factoring in the days he did not work. And he could have done a lot better if not for numerous aspects of drive mismanagement.
You can ask WV chair Matt Harris (mdh), he posts here in the comments fairly frequently.Or see discussions at:
http://pauliecannoli.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/west-virginia-ballot-access/
http://pauliecannoli.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/lessons-learned/#comments
http://pauliecannoli.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/barr-pay-your-petitioners/
He would have done much better in CT had he gone there, as he already knew good locations from working there before. Same for Gary. As for me, I haven’t worked CT yet, but I would have figured it out. But I guess they felt I was more needed in Alabama, especially at the end when we were left with only Baldwin on our boards.
If you want to pursue this aspect of the discussion, please do so at
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/08/thread-for-discussion-on-petitioners/
Talk about a “does not follow” moment in the entire suit of spades here by Dondero.
The lawsuit was filed over the period of time and the verification technique needed on the signatures, and has absolutely nothing to do with how those signatures were gathered or verified in that time period. If the issue was the Naderites backing out of a deal with the LP petitioners in that period, then that’s a separate issue than the time period itself. Dondero is simply using the thread to bitch and moan about what he perceives to be a bad effort, and then turns around and blames people without any scintilla of evidence to link them to the situation.
Try again, Eric.
Paulie, the reason they didn’t fly you all up from Alabama to New England was the expense. Plus, the less-than-stellar reputations that you all had in the business.
I think if you all were more trustworthy business-like petitioners, instead of “fly-by-night” avoid paperwork filing, get lost for days on end, type petitioners, the LP might have been willing to make the expense.
But as it was, it was too negatives: questionable work as petitioners added to lousy reputations and questionable ethics.
That’s a double-whammy. And I can’t blame the LP for making the decision they did to not pay for y’all’s trips up to New England.
BTW, since we’re on the issue of paid petitioning, let me take a moment here to badmouth somebody who recently ripped me off.
Eddie Baggett and Heidi took me for about $300 to $400 over the Friendswood beer & wine drive from May.
Stay away from Eddie. She’ll rip you off.
Paulie, why am I the “only petitioner” you know who has had problems with the Nader people?
Because you’re a Lefty. The only people you know are Socialists, Liberals, Greens and a few Lefty Libertarians.
You don’t hang out in the same “right Libertarian” crowds as I do – the Paul Jacob/Scott Tillman/Leon Drolet/Charlie Chavez/Stavros/Travis Butcher folks.
Of course, Lefty Libertarians won’t have any problems with Lefties out on the petitioning trail. You all practically suck each other’s cocks.
“I love Obama, whoosh, whoosh, Give me more… don’t you just love Obama…”
Paulie? Jake going to CT? Why do you think he was not sent??
Could it have had a little something to do with him fucking up the West Virginia drive, staying in his paid for by the LP hotel room for days on end, not answering his door when people knocked and not answering his phone?
In the space of 3 weeks, I think he collected a grand total of maybe 600 signatures tops.
And the LP completely underwrote his whole trip.
And you wanted them to send someone like that all the way up to New England???
Really? I’m the “only petitioner who had problems with the Nader petitioners last year.”
Hey libertarian girl, I had only one incident with them. It was at a DMV in Manchester.
It’s Ron Cook they were after. They dogged Cook for days, weeks even up in Concord. Every single day I’d hear horror stories from Cook about how they would surround him at these Sports Stores, and at downtown events, and keep him from getting signatures.
Then they friggin’ followed him to Exeter for a Fair, and literally had 12 of the fuckers at once standing in front of him at the Entrance to the Fair. Finally, the cops came in and told all of the Naderites to leave, cause they were harrassing the one Libertarian petitioner. And they let Cook continue to get signatures all day long.
Ron Cook is about one of the best known petitioners in the country. He’s easily gotten a hold of.
Call him. Ask him about all this. I dare you.
No, I implore you.
He will keep you on the phone for hours on end cussing the Naderites.
And bear in mind, Cook is not a movement libertarian. He’s more mercenary. He’s in it for the money. So, he has little political stake in the matter.
P_ In fact you are the only petitioner I know that had any problem with Nader petitioners last year. Why is that?
me_Dondero having a problem with thse who disagree with him? surely you jest
By the way, Mark and Andy could have also been in Connecticut if the drives had been intelligently managed, they were in Pennsylvania but kept getting dicked around on pay and ended up going to Colorado for the state initiatives and the LP national convention, and then when they left from there we met up in Illinois for the Green Party national convention and then went down to work Alabama. All this time we all could have been in Connecticut if someone competent was in charge of telling people where to go. (further discussion of this point, if any, should be taken here).
Eric, that’s all completely besides the point.
I was staying at Carol McMahon’s house 1.5 miles from the Connecticut border when Mass. ended, and I was told not to go into Connecticut but to go to Alabama. That was way before you got there.
Gary was in the area too, working Mass., he ended up doing Rhode Island for everyone except the LP because Sean would not let him work on LP petitions. By the way he has experience in CT so he would have already known places to go.
Jake was actually about to go to CT when WV ended but he was told not to, so he went to Alabama also. Jake also had prior experience in Connecticut.
Keep in mind that we had plenty of time in Alabama and ended there early, and ended only working Constitution Party in Alabama at the end because the others were done (CP only hired our crew, LP and Nader also hired another crew besides us as well).
Now we all could have been up in CT and ME but they must have thought they had enough help up there.
As for Phillies, I can’t speak for CT but I was in MA and he was the one who made sure substitution happened when other people on the state committee were against it. I don’t believe he told anyone in Connecticut to keep his name on the forms or not cooperate with the Barr effort.
Finally, as for Tobin/Nader, I saw nothing but cooperation with the LP in Massachusetts and Alabama. In Illinois, we couldn’t do both, but I only ran into a Nader circulator once and we kept it friendly, and he complimented me on my petition technique, even though we were in direct competition at a post office. In fact you are the only petitioner I know that had any problem with Nader petitioners last year. Why is that?
Two references:
Ron Cook of Houston, TX
David Jackson of Oklahaoma City, OK
A third? The CT LP candidate who was going to be the candidate for Congress if we got ballot access. He was from New Haven. Young guy. Sorry, I forgot his name? But he was there all night and witnessed the whole thing.
It’s not nice to lie, Eric. You should stop doing that.
ADDENDUM:
While Phillies and the Lefty Libertarians share a great deal of the blame for the loss of CT ballot access for the Libertarian Party in 2008, a large chunk of the blame also rests on the shoulders of Christian Tobin and the Ralph Nader campaign.
Rule had struck a deal with them that we’d assist each other with signature gathering and most especially signature verification and notarizing.
Cook and I were extremely skeptical. We told Sean Haugh, that the “Naderites” had screwed us up in New Hampshire by stealing our locations, and blocking us from gathering signatures at DMVs, in downtown Concord and County Fairs. Haugh, pleasant guy that he is, argued that “Oh gee, Christina is trustworthy and is good people…”
Side note – While I like Sean, sometimes his judgement can be way off when it comes to people management. He seems to have a soft side for liberals and those on the leftside of the political spectrum. And predictably from what I witnessed from April all the way til September peititoning for the LP in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, New Hampshire, CT, and Rhode Island, every single time, these Lefties, mostly Ralph Nader people, and people connected with Christian Tobin, royally screwed him over.
Anyway, fast forward to turn-in night for the CT LP drive.
Andy Rule got there early at the downtown Hartford drug infested neighborhood where the home of the Ralph Nader people was. He as a Notary, notorized tons of Nader signatures, starting at 6 pm that night. There were 4 or 5 Nader Notaries there. And the deal was that they would notorize all the LP sigs.
Well, turns out they pulled a fast one. They put the word out to all the Nader gatherers to “come early.”
And they did.
Meanwhile, all the Libertarians were getting last minute signatures and didn’t arrive til 9, 10, 11 pm.
Well, check this out. Right at 9 pm, and I was there at that time having just arrived, every single Ralph Nader notary save 1 bailed. And the 1 that was left sort of eased off of the kitchen table into another room and then out the door after about 30 minutes or so, making up some sorry-ass excuse like “I’m gonna make a quick beer run… see you guys soon.”
Result:
Andy Rule was left notarizing virtually all the LP signatures all by himself to 6 am the next morning.
The Nader people royally fucked us.
Funny thing is nobody has ever reported on this. Just doesn’t fit the template of “Oh, golly gee, all the third partys should cooperate against those evil Demo-publicans.”
Blame George Phillies and the Left Libertarians opposed to Barr/Root.
I was one of the petitioners in New England, along with David Jackson of Oklahoma and Ron Cook of Houston.
The three of us got to Maine waaaay late, with only 4.5 days left to go, to get 3,000 signatures.
A virtually impossible task, when you consider that we also needed to drive the petitions around to ever single small town clerk in the entire state to hand deliver them. So, in essence we actually had 3 days to collect the sigs.
Why were we late getting to Maine?
Cause of Connecticut. The States’ ballot drive was a complete Clusterfuck. The CT LP save two guys, were completely opposed to the ballot drive cause Bob Barr was in their estimation a “Rightwing Libertarian.”
So, the only single CT LPer to assist was the Party Treasurer Andy Rule – Great guy btw. First class, and he totally busted his ass to get the job done, with little if any compensation.
Phillies and other Lefty Libtards up in New England had put the word out “not to help the Barr Campaign,” and the “evil” Sean Haugh.
Additionally, Phillies wanted his name to remain on the ballot as the lineholder in place of Barr’s name.
We tried our best in CT. We had shitloads of petitioners especially towards the end from all over the US. But in the end the massive disorganization caused bad signatures to be collected.
And Cook, Jackson and I left for Maine, before we could assist Rule with the verification process.
So, as a result, we not only missed Maine, but we screwed up CT, as well.
Two States lost in New England as a result of the Lefty Libertarians.
Thanks guys!
Well this sucks.
Bet the Judge was not a Lib!