LPNY Vice Chair Jim Rosenbeck announced his candidacy for LPNY State Chair on Facebook on Tuesday. Rosenbeck has served as Vice Chair since 2015. His message is as follows:
Fellow Members of The Libertarian Party of New York,
It has been my honor and privilege to serve as your Vice Chair for the past three years. During that time, I have been one of Mark Glogowski’s chief supporters. He is a personal friend. He deserves our gratitude for growing the party during his tenure as Chair. His tireless work ethic is to be commended. His passion for the LPNY is admirable.
Today, I write you to announce my candidacy for Chair of the Libertarian Party of New York and to ask for your trust and support. Mark G. was the first person I called when I decided to become your candidate. As I expected, he received the news graciously.
As we approach our April convention, I will be sharing my perspective for the future of the LPNY. This vision builds on much of the good work that we have already begun. It also humbly recognizes that a Chair can only lead if he has the support of the membership. Members of a voluntary organization cannot be forced to do anything. As libertarians we inherently reject being told what we must do. All real leadership comes from our willingness to buy into the leader’s agenda. This is the paradox of leadership; the only true power a leader has is the power that members are willing to give to him.
My primary focus as your Chair will be to grow party enrollment. We will continue to encourage local chapters to endorse enrolled libertarians for public office. But as your Chair, I will not police the behavior of the few who don’t share that view. I don’t see how that is a good use of our time and energy. More importantly, three years of this unresolved debate is enough. In order to grow the party, we must stop fighting with one another, professionalize our image and build a leadership team that will enthusiastically work together.
To that end, we will raise expectations. We will identify those with the experience and desire to lead and empower them to do that. As Chapter Development Chair, I have worked with CDC members to set high standards and invest in leaders with skill sets to grow our party. We will no longer put people in situations where they can’t or won’t have an opportunity to be successful.
We will diffuse authority. Every divisional director position will be filled with capable and qualified libertarians. Our state committee will not hesitate to confirm our well vetted appointments. We will have a budget for each division because when we value something we must fund it. I will work together with Mike Dowden and our new Finance Division Director to overcome any obstacles to achieving this modest goal.
Finally. I will ask that we move to spend less money per election cycle on candidate petitioning and spend more of our resources on outreach and party growth. I hope to find consensus on this goal. We will fund what we value. We will ask our high profile candidates to do more of their own fund raising. Meanwhile, we will grow a party infrastructure that insures that the LPNY won’t need to be primarily occupied with fund raising for ballot access.
I promise these changes because I have spent the past three years building mutually respectful relationships with LPNY members all across our state.
This past week, I have been in contact with the majority of our elected officers and divisional directors. I have more yet to contact. Many have pledged their support for my campaign to be your Chair. All have indicated that they can and will work cooperatively with me. I also plan to reach out to the young and talented libertarians that we have failed to inspire…those who have become frustrated and left active involvement in our party. When approached and presented with a unified vision many of these disenfranchised libertarians will return to the party. I know this to be true because I am already making the calls and hearing enthusiasm.
We will work together. Our disagreements will be handled respectfully and more often outside of rather than inside of our state committee meetings. I will rely on our leadership team for input, advice and support. Where I lack expertise, I will rely on the expertise of others within the party.
This is my vision of how I can best serve you as LPNY Chair. I respectfully ask for your support and vote of confidence at our April convention and throughout the upcoming year. I welcome and appreciate your questions, comments and concerns.
Sincerely,
Jim Rosenbeck
LPNY Vice Chair 2015-2018
Chapter Development Chair 2015-2018
LNC Platform Committee Representative 2018
The LPNY state convention will be held April 20-22, 2018 in Albany. Click here to go to the convention page to view the schedule of events and registration form.