The monthly meeting of the Greater Boston Libertarian Meetup was held today at the Watertown Public Library. As the first post-primary meeting, the agenda focused on digesting the results of the March 5 primary election in which a new MALP state committee was elected.
Election of a new state committee
The complete vote totals from the Secretary of the Commonwealth are still pending as of this writing, but enough of the individual cities and towns have published their tallies for us to report that the Massachusetts Libertarian Party has a new state committee:
• Cris Crawford, Sherborn, Norfolk, Worcester & Middlesex District
• Derek Newhall, Barnstable, Cape & Islands District
• Kevin Reed, Jamaica Plain, 2nd Suffolk District
• Peter Everett, Sherborn, Norfolk, Worcester & Middlesex District
• Walter Ziobro, Marlboro, Middlesex & Worcester District
The new MALP state committee will be reaching out to voters who took a Libertarian ballot once the list is available from the Secretary.
Nominating a Candidate for US President on the MALP Ballot Line
The Greater Boston Libertarian meetup today included 3 of the newly elected state committee members. One of the responsibilities of the new state committee is the selection of the candidate for President, and the associated 11 Electors, to represent us in the national election. There was discussion of several potential policies for choosing the candidate.
The presidential primary election is non-binding, but the MALP could choose to be bound by it, and select the winner of the MA Libertarian primary election. This is the most straightforward method but there are others that are reasonable.
The MALP could select the top vote getter from all the states that have Libertarian primaries. A Wikipedia page on all the Libertarian primary elections in 2024 can be found here. Thirteen states have a Libertarian primary (Arizona, Iowa, Alabama, Mississippi, Minnesota, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, North Carolina, California, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and New Mexico). So far, the overall leader is otolaryngologist Charles Ballay, M.D. with 11,980 votes, but the California election in which he was the only Libertarian on the ballot counts for 11,800 of them. In terms of number of states won, Chase Oliver has won the most states, and is projected to win Massachusetts. If we weight each state by electoral college votes, California has 54 and Chase Oliver's 4 states (IA, IN, AZ, OK) add up to 35, MA would bring it to 46, so it is still a close race.
The MALP is not an affiliate of the LNC, and is not bound by the nominee selected by the national convention in D.C. However, the state committee could choose to be bound by the national convention's selection if the reasons for breaking affiliation in June of 2022 were resolved.
The MALP has not yet been offered a bribe by the RFK Jr. campaign for our ballot line. It is estimated to cost close to $100,000 for an independent candidate to get on the ballot for President in Massachusetts, so a reasonable bid would start at about $50,000. If that call comes, we will be sure to record it and post it here.
Issues Affecting Massachusetts Residents
Finally, our meeting discussed issues affecting Massachusetts residents that could be rallying points for new members. Going around the table, we identified the following:
• So-called "green" subsidies, mandates, and building codes that are eating away at our energy infrastructure, raising costs, lowering reliability, and exacerbating the housing shortage.
• The "War on Cars" whereby new regulations and policies are policing for profit with traffic cameras and automated ticketing, hindering traffic flow with lane reductions, removing parking to make driving to the city more difficult, etc.
• Over-regulation at the bottom rung of economic opportunity. Cutting off benefits when people start to make their own money, and other disincentives to become independent of state aid. Occupational licensing and minimum wage laws that block people from working.
• Fighting to lower the state sales and income taxes, which make us less competitive relative to our neighbors, especially NH.
• Addressing the overall bloat in the size, scope, and cost of state government, and the bloated regulations that hold people back.
• One of our members, a refugee from Liberia, educated us on problems in the refugee community. The state agencies tasked with serving refugees are not staffed by people who understand what it is like to be a refugee. The "Right to Shelter" law is not sustainable.
