A letter from exiting Chairman Dick Clark

Dear friend,

The 2006 election season is only months behind us, and already 2008 presidential hopefuls are being discussed in the national media. While there are a handful of municipal races this year and one special legislative election to fill a vacancy, the Libertarian Party's next opportunity to field partisan candidates will be in 2008. Besides the Presidential election, Alabamians will in that year again choose their U.S. Representatives and will also be voting in various judicial races. In each of these political races, the Libertarian Party of Alabama again has the opportunity to work for liberty and to educate voters about the negative effects of big government and about the benefits of individual freedom.

Because of highly restrictive state ballot access rules, this past election cycle saw only a few Alabama libertarians officially declare their candidacies for public office and only one--myself--on the ballot. Despite this dearth of candidates, the Libertarian Party of Alabama received an unprecedented level of local, state, and even national media attention. Through Loretta Nall's gubernatorial campaign the LPA's smaller government stance got national television coverage on MSNBC and other news networks. Loretta was also the topic of conversation for political commentators in a number of state daily newspapers.

My Alabama House of Representatives campaign garnered scores of articles in local newspapers including the Opelika-Auburn News, the Auburn Plainsman, and the Auburn Villager. I also participated in more than half a dozen live radio and television interviews, talking to listeners about why free-market solutions work better and more efficiently than government ones. In a headline-grabbing race, which turned out to be the most expensive state legislative race in Alabama history, virtually every story mentioned my candidacy and the Libertarian Party. I even participated in the only House District 79 debate, sitting next to my Republican and Democratic opponents and drawing the first spontaneous applause of the evening from a crowd of hundreds. My campaign even bought scores of radio spots for two different campaign advertisements that touted the benefits of smaller, more responsible government that acts as servant, rather than master, to the people. Although I wasn't elected, I was more than four times more effective with each campaign dollar than my Republican opponent and almost seven times as effective as my Democratic opponent if you compare dollar/vote ratios.

During this election season, something else happened: campus Libertarian clubs grew like never before, with the combined membership of the University of Alabama Libertarians and Auburn University Libertarians topping four hundred for the first time and new clubs being started at UAB, Troy University, and Samford University. Both Loretta Nall and I spoke to student groups at some of these schools, and the attendance was breathtaking. The groups in Auburn and Tuscaloosa also held a record number of outreach and speaker events, featuring not only current Libertarian Party candidates but also libertarian scholars like economist Mark Thornton and New York Times-best selling author and historian Thomas Woods whose talks attracted standing-room-only crowds. One of the most remarkable things about these clubs is that they are self-supporting, with the student leadership themselves shouldering the financial burden of providing free pizza and soft drinks to attract more folks. These student leaders are putting their money into spreading the message of liberty and--if membership rolls are any indication--it is working!

That is where you come in. Liberty has powerful enemies who stand to gain from gobs of competition-inhibiting regulation and other restrictions on the free market. The beautiful truth, though, is that more people stand to gain from individual freedom. With less than $1000, I was able to achieve ballot access in my District 79 state legislative race and hurdle that first obstacle to media recognition. With the recent growth in our activist base, we have a number of well-informed, seasoned Libertarians who could be ready to run for U.S. House or other seats in 2008 if they can get ballot access. Through my campaign and my involvement with the Auburn University Libertarians, I have worked with a number of student-activists who are soon graduating and who have indicated their interest in continuing their activism in a significant way in the future. These are folks who have first-hand experience with my campaign and others, and first-hand experience running a large, successful student organization.

Our new activists don't just include students, though. Like Bob Barr, a former Republican Congressional leader who recently became a Libertarian Party member, some past leaders of Alabama's other political parties have indicated that they too have reconsidered their political positions and want to lend their efforts to the only Party of Principle--the Libertarian Party. To allow our candidates and activists the opportunity to make a difference, though, we have to equip them. Hosting speaker events isn't expensive, but it does cost money. Refreshments for attendees have to be purchased and literature provided. To promote events, flyers have to be printed and posted, and outreach booth supplies have to be expended. Most importantly, ballot access must be won. For a dedicated candidate, having ballot access can mean the difference between getting frequent press coverage or getting the cold shoulder. If we start working on ballot access now, targeting our most active areas first, we can build up to a real media blitz in 2008 and we can start seeing real, meaningful changes in the way many of our fellow citizens view government.

In Liberty,

Dick Clark
2006 Chairman Libertarian Party of Alabama
2006 Libertarian Candidate, Alabama House of Representatives, District 79