LPO 2025 Leadership Candidates

Statements have not been checked for accuracy or typographical errors.

Candidates for Board of Directors

Peter VandenBerg

In 2020 and 2021, our freedoms were trampled in the name of “public health.” Small businesses were shuttered, churches were silenced, children were masked and isolated, and the government told us who we could see, where we could go, and what we had to inject into our bodies. This was COVID tyranny—plain and simple.

While the left pushed these authoritarian policies with glee, what was truly shameful was the cowardice from many so-called conservatives. Republican leaders folded under pressure, backed mandates, and failed to stand up when it mattered most. They talked about liberty on camera but caved behind closed doors. Some were great leaders on these issues, but their leadership was weak and ineffective.

We will not forget. We will not let it happen again. We need the LPO to be outspoken on rejecting Salem’s attempts to control our lives.

Michelle Binker

Richard P. Burke

Greetings to you! 🙂

I have been a registered Libertarian continuously for 35 years. I’ve served the LPO in many capacities at the local, state, and national levels, including a term as state chair. I’ve been elected to public office seven times in contested races. I was our party’s nominee for governor in 1998 where the campaign established eighteen county parties. I am the only LP candidate for governor who came in third with more than three candidates on the ballot.

I’m now serving in my second term as an appointed commissioner on the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. I am the first Libertarian to serve on this body and the first to serve as Chair of any statewide agency. I have worked in both houses of Oregon’s legislature as a legislative aide, where I shepherded several election reform bills for the LPO into law. I worked on the 2008 and 2012 Libertarian presidential campaigns and managed some of our most successful races for statewide partisan office including the 2002 gubernatorial race of Tom Cox, the only Libertarian to approach 5% of the vote for that office, and Mitch Shults who was endorsed in 2000 by the Salem Statesman-Journal for State Treasurer.

I was the LPO’s Executive Director in the LPO’s 2000 sq. ft. downtown Beaverton office. During this time we regularly elected Libertarians to local offices, had our first partisan public office holder, received unprecedented media coverage, fielded politically relevant statewide candidates, had a consistent presence in the legislature, were a factor in major ballot measure campaigns, had a working relationship with the World Affairs Council, and had a paid internship program. I do not take credit for all of this, but I functioned within an internal culture based on political accomplishment.

Let’s return the Libertarian Party of Oregon to political relevance. Since 2011, through the fault of nobody currently active in the LPO, our party was shattered and restructured outside the required venue of a state convention. We have been mired in self-imposed bureaucracy and political irrelevancy ever since this time. With your help, I want to restore proper governance to the LPO so we may have an organization that facilitates, rather than inhibits, political accomplishment.

With the major parties as they are, the Libertarian party should by now be a significant and relevant fixture on the landscape of Oregon politics. Sadly, we have become an entity paralyzes itself in bureaucracy, self-imposed limitations, and other structural pitfalls which have wasted the talents of our good leaders, volunteers and members like you. Join with me in bringing success back to the LPO. Please support my election to the board. Thank you.

Yours in Liberty,

Richard P. Burke
rpbcomm@gmail.com

Thomas Busse

Joseph Christman

For those who don’t know me, I’m a cradle Libertarian. I’ve been registered Libertarian for my entire life, and I’ve never been registered as anything else.

I ran for Congress last year in District 1 and got the most votes of any Libertarian candidate on the ballot in the state of Oregon. I have also served on both the Executive Board and the Public Policy Board. Having served in a variety of positions, I’ve gained a unique perspective of the strengths and weaknesses of the party.

I first came upon Rothbard in high school, and I am familiar with all the other big names like Hoppe, Milton Friedman, and Mises.

My goals for the next cycle are:
1) To begin the primary season as early as possible. Our candidates deserve as much time as possible to advertise themselves, raise funds, and collect petitions as needed.

2) To promote the regrowth of county affiliates. The fall of the county affiliates is one of the saddest consequences of the party’s history. This should be reversed.

3) Clean up the bylaws and bureaucracy. The current set of bylaws was built with good intentions, but it clearly has hamstrung the party’s effectiveness. But, I do believe that the only way out of the issues with the bylaws is through a proper amendment process. I think the history of the party shows that trying to find more “clever” ways out doesn’t end well.

Together, we will build a stronger and more effective party that can leverage our position to bring more freedom to Oregon. Towards that end, I want to promote Defend the Guard, defend our First and Second Amendment rights, and defend our wallets against further tax increases.

Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem!

I’m Benjamin Feintech, a small business owner and libertarian, running for the Libertarian Party of Oregon board. My entrepreneurial experience fuels my commitment to free markets, individual liberty, and minimal government interference. As a staunch anti-war advocate, I oppose militarism and promote peace through diplomacy and non-intervention. My libertarian values—personal responsibility, property rights, and voluntary cooperation—guide my vision for a freer Oregon. I aim to strengthen the party by amplifying our message, engaging communities, and defending liberty against overreach. With dedication and principle, I’ll work to advance our mission and empower Oregonians on the board.

Sonja Feintech

I am running for the Libertarian Party of Oregon board, bringing dedication to liberty and grassroots activism. I’ve actively supported the party through organizing events, promoting volunteer opportunities, and advocating for individual freedom. My work focuses on empowering communities, fostering open dialogue, and advancing libertarian principles like personal responsibility and limited government. With a commitment to transparency and collaboration, I’ve engaged with members to strengthen our outreach and impact. My activism, rooted in challenging overreach and defending rights, drives me to serve on the board, ensuring the party remains a bold voice for liberty in Oregon.

Rob Rhoads

For the past couple of years I served on the LPO’s Public Policy Board helping to shape the party’s policy positions and public statements. I would like to continue volunteering in party leadership positions to help the party thrive again. For too long the party has been held back due to arguments and lack of clarity around the party bylaws, lack of funds, and lack of quorum. It is time to fix these issues and move the party forward again.

I believe these are the most important items that the Executive Board needs to focus on right now:

1. Grow party membership and member volunteers
2. Party Fundraising
3. Drafting new functional bylaws and having members ratifying them by a vote

Members and volunteers are who get things done. Party needs money to send ballots to our fellow LPO members to vote on our bylaws, and we need new bylaws to actually be a functioning party again.

Please support me in helping to rebuild and grow the LPO.

Thanks,
Rob Rhoads

Matt Rowe

Fellow LPO Member,

I have had the honor of serving our party for the past several years in a number of capacities. First as a Committee volunteer, then on the Public Policy Board, and for nearly the last year and a half as a member of the LPO Board of Directors, eventually assuming the position of Chairman in May of 2024.

In those roles, I have done my best to advance the causes of Peace and Liberty, by vigorously supporting policies and candidates who would do likewise, while also respectfully acknowledging the fact that we are an ideologically diverse party and that not everyone will share my views.

While I’m proud of the work we as a team have done in our State Affiliate over the past several years, such as supporting worthy causes like the Rage Against the War Machine rally and Defend the Guard, as well as fielding great candidates like Sonja Feintech and successfully fighting off the GOP’s underhanded and dishonest efforts to have our nominees stripped from the ballot, significant work remains to be done.

If elected to the Board, I will focus my efforts the next two years on continuing to protect our ballot access from GOP chicanery, rebuilding our Party’s fundraising, candidate recruitment, and campaign apparatuses for the 2026 election cycle, and working to increase the participation of our rank-and-file membership in Party affairs.

For those who may have any questions, comments, or suggestions about my candidacy for the Board of Directors or LPO business in-general, please feel free to contact me anytime by phone, text, or signal at 541-252-3488 or by E-Mail at chair@lporegon.org.

I would be honored to have your support!

Candidates for Public Policy Board

Timothy Perkins

The Public Policy Board was originally envisioned as a way to separate the administrative work of the party from the ideological factionalism that undermined effectiveness in achieving our goals. Instead, it has diverted a needlessly large volunteer pool from the activism and campaigning that could drive an effective party.

If one trusts the elected board of directors to be sufficiently ideologically aligned with Libertarian ideals that they won’t intentionally undermine them in fulfillment of their administrative duties, then they similarly ought to be trusted to align with those ideals in representing them to the public. Until a bylaws amendment can be passed to transfer the duties of the PPB to the board of directors, my intention is to speedily approve whatever they seek to publish unless it is egregiously offensive to Libertarian sensibilities.

My relevant beliefs: the state is simply the biggest gang in its territory, popular support for its perceived legitimacy sustained by false religious tenets, most especially that the power center (whether a king, a parliament, or a majority of voters) holds a unique moral position that permits it to violate persons and property in circumstances where an individual would not be justified in doing so. Taxation is theft.