Jim:

No, it wasn't my intent. My intent was to establish an ethical code of conduct that has been lacking on the Libertarian National Committee, and would be good for the Boston Tea Party national committee. While it's just a proposal and is far from perfect, these things should be taken into consideration at the next convention or at the next one after that.

My intent isn't to force Dr. Tom Stevens out of the race or to prohibit him from serving on the National Committee now that he's a candidate for the presidential nomination. The reason I originally brought up this bylaw amendment proposal was that the national LP headquarter staff has a similar provision that prohibits staff members from politically endorsing presidential and vice presidential (if I'm not mistaken) candidates on the LP ticket. This matter of ethics was brought up by Jacob Hornberger about 7 or 8 years ago at the time of the Harry Browne for President Campaign, which has led to some disastrous consequences for the LP. In fact, I agreed with Bumper when he originally proposed a similar code of conduct for the LNC at the time, and I think such a code of conduct would be good for the officers of the organization.

As for the LP bylaws, I don't think such a code exists for the National Committee; otherwise, it would have been news to the membership. But then again, anything's possible, as National Committee officers have passed rules and resolutions without the party base's knowledge, so it's possible that a similar code has been put into effect. However, like I said, it would have been news to the members and it would have been somewhat odd that it would have been passed secretly without even the membership's knowledge and/or consent.

If there is such a code, I'll have to dig into the LP bylaws to find it. Otherwise, I don't think it does exist.

But that's my opinion.

As for my proposal, the BTP membership is free to accept or reject it on the day of the convention. Until then, a good debate on the issue would be a fine idea to me.

Yours in Liberty,

Todd Andrew Barnett

Jim:

You made a very valid point that I didn't consider before. Perhaps this amendment to the original amendment would help out this process:

ARTICLE 9: NATIONAL COMMITTEE

i) National Committee members, under any circumstances, are strictly prohibited from politically endorsing and supporting, financially supporting, or speaking in favor of presidential and vice presidential candidates in a public, official capacity while serving their terms on the National Committee. Officers who wish to support such candidates shall either resign their seats from the National Committee or recuse themselves from an official public and political capacity while serving on the board. An exception can be applied to National Committee members who are running for the presidential and VP nominations on the BTP ticket. Such candidates who are Officers of the National Committee are allowed to remain on the board while running as candidates for the presidential and vice presidential seats, provided that they do so as candidates for those offices and not as Officers of the Party.
j) National Committee members who wish to support their fellow Officers running as said candidates may support them personally and financially but not as Officers of the National Committee. If a National Committee member is found to have publicly endorsed and/or financially and publicly endorsed said candidates in an official capacity, the member of the Committee may be asked to either resign from his seat or be removed by the board by a two-thirds majority vote.

I'm not trying to complicate things, but the National Committee shouldn't officially and financially support our candidates while they are serving on the Board. The reason for this idea is that members of the Libertarian National Committee (and perhaps other parties) have done so in the past while serving as officers of the party, thus creating the appearance of a conflict of interest. This would certainly prevent such a conflict (or at least it's supposed to in some sense).

However, I would think that it's possible that a conflict of interest would be created, with or without such a provision in the bylaws. While this isn't the cure-all or THE perfect solution, it would establish a code of ethical conduct for the board members to follow.

Yours in Liberty,

Todd Andrew Barnett