2019 Candidate Statements

Drew Layda

No statement provided

Wes Wagner

As a candidate for LPO Director I am a long-term incumbent, having served since the party restructured in 2011. I know what it is like to be a candidate, gathering signatures while running for governor in 2010 and attending speaking events and press meetings; and I have previously sat in the position of chair, which Kyle Markley has done admirably this past term.

My life has been busy and I have not been able to devote as much time as I previously have. For that I apologize. On the upside, many of our new directors, who are now just standing for re-election, have been picking up more responsibility and running with it.

While I am willing to serve again, I would ask, that in addition to voting to return our board members for another term, please become more involved if you can and join committees, run as a candidate and help the party grow.

We need help with volunteer coordination and fundraising most of all. It can't all be done by just the board and we rely on all the help we can get.

Carolyn Wade

I’ve always been a libertarian, but only known how to label myself for the last 46 years, since I first babysat for a libertarian doctor and his wife. He’s now strayed from us and become a Constitutionalist, but I’ve never wavered.

What I haven’t done until recently, however, is be active in party politics. As the division in our country has been nastier and more evident in the last couple of years, though, I have felt called to leave the comfort of just voting libertarian and donating to libertarian causes and candidates to work more actively.

As an Oregonian, that is in itself difficult. It’s like being a child, asking to be adopted by already-divorced parents. All I want to do is work for liberty, but first I must be able to have both parents sign the adoption papers!

I attended the national convention in July as a delegate, really proud to be part of the first unified Oregon delegation in years. I had high hopes that our ability to work together at the convention meant that we’d be able to make progress back in Oregon toward actual reunification, but that hasn’t happened.

The level of vitriol in the Facebook group has been more discouraging than I can say.

The Court of Appeals issued its ruling in December, closing that chapter of our history. Let’s move forward now, exploring how all libertarians in the state can spend their time and energy working toward liberty and electing our candidates instead of infighting.

Timothy Perkins

Thank you for voting for your Libertarian Party of Oregon state directors!

As a lifelong Oregonian and devout liberty-lover, it was exciting to be elected by you in 2017 to the LPO Board of Directors. As Vice Chair I have sought to be involved in every facet of LPO activities, from being on most of our sub-committees to being a delegate to the 2018 Libertarian Party National Convention.

I’m proud to have spearheaded some important projects, such as rebuilding our website, creating a policy on affiliated organizations (county parties coming 2019!), and the recruiting effort (ongoing) for our 2019 state convention.

Despite good progress, it’s not all puppies and rainbows: our volunteer structure and candidate support are practically non-existent, our social media presence and outreach is minimal, and the sub-committees have had a very difficult time accomplishing their tasks between board meetings. Additionally, only a small fraction of a percentage of our party is engaged with political campaigns, local groups, or outreach.

I have several plans to address this: Most centrally, our volunteer structure needs changing. Right now, a few volunteers are funneled into committees that aren’t meeting and accomplishing their goals. The board needs to do as the bylaws suggest: appoint non-voting directors, not committees. These directors need to have regular accountability from the LPO Chair and, in turn, give accountability to the volunteers they supervise. Only once we have accountability structures to direct volunteers into can they be effective in growing and serving the party.

Next, we need to form county parties to drive engagement. Regardless of whether I’m re-elected to the LPO Board, I’m spending 2019 helping Libertarians all over Oregon to form and build county parties to be the groundwork for a successful 2020 election cycle.

I humbly ask for your vote. Additionally, I want to especially endorse a few of my fellow candidates who will drive LPO success: Kyle Markley, Drew Layda, Michelle Binker, and Carolyn Wade.

Sincerely,
Timothy Perkins

Don Crawford

I have been a Libertarian since the 90s because this is the only party that shares my political principles of more freedom, less government, more free-market solutions, and more private charity. I have been a Libertarian party candidate for office a couple of times. Career-wise I’ve been a teacher, college professor, charter school administrator, and now run my own educational publishing business. I occasionally blog at www.drdawnofliberty.com You can see how I think by reading some of those.

As a board member I think my responsibility would be to ensure the Libertarian Party of Oregon is on sound financial footing. We should be organized and be able to successfully meet deadlines for elections and conventions. I would like to see an end to the internecine feuds in our state’s Libertarian party. We should find a way to grow our party. We need to find better ways to know what our party members would like to see. We need to find more ways to get the Libertarian party in the news. I think that supporting local charities or private philanthropic ventures might be a good way to do that. It is certainly worthwhile to continue to have Libertarian candidates on the ballot. I would be interested in finding ways to attract volunteers by ensuring their efforts are meaningful and fulfilling. On my wish list: have the Libertarian party support a ballot initiative to give 100% state tax credit for charitable contributions. If you have a question, write to me at donc1950@gmail.com

Nick Chen

You know who I am. You know I am willing to put in the work. If you would like to read more about me www.nickchen.org it still operative. Instead of wasting time on philosophy I will simply list my top goals and priorities. If they align then vote for me.

- Ending the split party

- Increasing funding for future party endeavors

- Increasing party membership

- Integrating our presence into the 21st Century

Thank you.

Katy Brumbelow

Please allow me to serve two years to help this party get back on its feet again. Libertarian ideas are common in our state and largely unrepresented at the state level. We can change this by engaging in our communities, paving the way for better candidate training, a more well-informed policy debate, and creating a name for many who confuse libertarians with librarians. It is vital that we have a solid, unified foundation to build a voice at the state level so individual liberties are not trampled. I live in Washington County, Oregon. I ran for ORHD 27 last year.

Michelle Binker

Friends,

Thank you for considering my candidacy for director. I’m a 23-year resident of Cave Junction, Oregon (Josephine County). Work brings me to Salem regularly and I’ve had opportunity to engage with our party leadership for several years.

I’ve served as an appointed director for the past year, and it was an honor to number among the Oregon delegation to the 2018 Libertarian National Convention. I seek a united Libertarian Party of Oregon that can deliver a compelling message of liberty to the electorate, attract new voters, recruit and train effective candidates and to ensure our ballot process runs with integrity and accuracy.

I am particularly interested to broaden the party’s outreach and media presence, and to promote and develop county affiliates. 

We are fortunate to have a strong slate of potential directors who are committed to rebuilding the Libertarian brand in this state. As a “life-long” registered Libertarian voter, I am encouraged. Whether returned to party leadership or not, I will continue to work within the LPO to build a robust, politically relevant party.

Yours in Liberty,
Michelle Binker

Gary Dye

Prior Official Libertarian Activity
Director – LPO, 2016-present
Candidate – Oregon US Rep., District 3 2018
Candidate – Oregon State Rep., District 48, 2016
Candidate – Texas US Rep., 2000
Candidate – Metro District 7, 1998
Vice-Chairman LPO – 1998

Current Governmental Activity
David Douglas School District Budget Committee

Objectives as LPO Director
I would like to continue with my work on the LPO Board of Directors, with the objective of bringing success to Libertarian candidates in elections. 

Very important toward this objective is to resolve the conflict between the LPO and the Misc. PAC splinter group. This rift should be over soon, and I will work to form a cooperative association between the two groups so that Libertarianism is promoted using the skills and talents of both groups. I will not support ostracizing.

I will also work to restore county libertarian organizations, as well as other libertarian organizations, as affiliates. We need more grassroots campaigns and effort. Smaller elections can be greatly affected by passionate libertarians willing to sacrifice much personal effort for our cause, and we need to tap and nurture this passion.

I have been a candidate in the last two general elections, and am trying to formulate tactics and strategies that might help candidates find more success in their elections, based on what I have learned in my campaigns. Since Libertarian candidates experience little volunteer, donor, or media support, it is critical that very smart campaigns need to be executed. We need to be shrewd and innovative, and I want to summon the full facilities of the LPO, and prepare those facilities, in this regard.

I am a strong believer in pure and extreme Libertarian ideology, but feel there can be many paths to achieve a Libertarian society. The LPO should be supportive of any effort to achieve Libertarianism, regardless of the path chosen.

Kyle Markley

Occupation: Engineer, Intel Corporation

Occupational Background: Computer microprocessor validation and debugging

Educational Background: BS Computer Science, Iowa State University

Prior Governmental Experience: LPO director 2013-present, Vice Chair 2015-2017; Chair 2017-present; Statements for Liberty PAC founder/director 2015-present; Member, Joint Interim Task Force on Campaign Finance Reform 2015-2017

I became a political activist in 2012, and have been the Libertarian candidate for the Oregon Legislature against both D and R candidates four times (2012: 5.8%, 2014: 8.9%, 2016: 8.5%, 2018: 7.7%). I founded the Statements for Liberty PAC, which helped many of our 2016 and 2018 Libertarian candidates to both draft and pay for effective Voters' Pamphlet statements for the general election.

In the last election, I ran on a platform of improving our internal processes and operations: recordkeeping, access to data, member communication (website, response to inquiries, and member outreach), fundraising, use of volunteers, event participation, partner organizations, and resources for candidates. We have made good progress in many of these areas, but regrettably not in all of them.

Highlights of the past term: We have a useful website again, and an archive of important documents. Every internal committee has a mailing list. We have the beginnings of a CRM system. We have a voter, candidate, and balloting database. We are friendly with the national LP again, and have joined Region 1. Our social media presence is stronger. County organizations are forming.

Lowlights of the past term: We did not raise enough money to ballot our entire membership for our 2018 primary, and data processing errors necessitated a second round of balloting, delaying our results. Although we have made encouraging progress at reconciling the party’s longstanding internal feud with the other faction claiming to be the LPO, it is still unresolved.

If re-elected, I will work to continue to improve the party’s operations, developing our people and our capabilities so that we can grow our impact. We can and must do better for our future.