Camaraderie, Conversation, and Contention

Libertarian Party of California: Convention 2023

by Zack Kincaid

Photo by Calvin Lu

Another convention has come and gone, and though I sit here typing a little more than twenty-four hours since its conclusion, I can't help but echo the sentiment of one of my fellow Libertarians: "it feels like the convention was several months or lifetimes ago." In my experience over the last few cycles however, while we gather it's as though no time has passed. Our friends and colleagues from email, Zoom, and social media are all eager to embrace or shake hands and share their journeys and stories, celebrate each other's victories, and learn from each other's mistakes.

It wouldn't be a Libertarian convention without controversy, almost always in the form of some awkward and obsessive adherence to parliamentary procedure (there's a reason it's called the cult of RONR), and Sacramento did not disappoint. The venue was found to be unsuitable and under construction and, though a replacement was procured, the change came less than one hundred and twenty days prior, so it was decided that calling the meeting to order in the original location and adjourning to the new venue would satisfy our bylaw requirements. In what can only be described as a miracle, in a room packed full of argumentative individuals engaged in a standoff, the Libertarians of California were able to act normal and allow the process to take less than one minute.

We managed to finish the day off by amending, dividing, debating, and adopting almost all of the Bylaws proposals, leaving only one up for consideration on Sunday morning. Lengthy discussions of commas, semicolons, seasoning requirements, and whether Santa Cruz should be recognized as a Northern or Central County were on the table, while the controversial Mimosa Bar kept our hands full with refreshments.

Mimi Robson, Adrian F Malagon, Photo by Calvin Lu

Speaking of controversy, officer elections followed the final Bylaws proposal on Sunday morning, starting with the Chair race, which brought forth another awkward obsession amongst Libertarians:, the fabled NOTA (None Of The Above) vote. Sacramento County Chair James Just gave a much needed and heartfelt speech calling for the body, past leadership, and future leadership to take ownership over the current rift in the party, but whether it reached its most important audience will only become apparent as the year progresses. In the end, LPCA Vice Chair and Contra Costa County Chair Adrian F Malagon became the first Hispanic, native Spanish speaking Chair of the Libertarian Party of California, with 69 votes.

The rest of the positions went without much dispute, several elections finding ultra rare results of contrarian unanimity, but one in particular stood out because of the overwhelming support: Secretary Chris Edgar was reelected to thunderous applause. Alongside Mr. Malagon and Mr. Edgar, the newly elected Executive Committee members were Gary Alvstad as Vice Chair, Jason Regehr as Treasurer, Elizabeth Stump as Northern Area Coordinator, Matthew Butts as Central Area Coordinator, Garrison Ham as Southern Area Coordinator, Victoria Lapacek, Graham Brown, Tom Nichols, Craig Strachan, Trendalyn Hallesy, and Alberto Alvarez all for At-Large, and David Gorshe and Max Jiminez for Alternate.

Post Convention ExCom Meeting, Sunday evening, February 19, 2023. Photo by Kat McElroy

Former Vice Presidential candidate Spike Cohen, founder of Black Guns Matter Maj Toure, comedian and author Lou Perez, Tuttle Twins creator Connor Boyak, and The Seasteading Institute President Joe Quirk all came in as speakers during the event, and announced Presidential candidates Lars Mapstead and Georgia Senate race disruptor Chase Oliver engaged in an off-program debate. New York Gubernatorial candidate Larry Sharpe served as auctioneer following the Gala Saturday night, where Maj Toure's table absolutely cleaned house. All of the speakers were available throughout the convention, presenting unique one-on-one or small group talks and Q & A opportunities, sometimes with several of them chiming in. The new ExCom were all also down in the lobby following their first official meeting on Sunday, celebrating and engaging with everyone, including the record 12 new Lifetime Members.

Larry Sharpe, Photo by Calvin Lu

Kelly Carden, Photo by Calvin Lu

Maj Toure, Photo by Calvin Lu

Lou Perez, Photo by Calvin Lu

Spike and Tasha Cohen, Photo by Calvin Lu

The 9 of the 12 new Lifetime Members, Photo by Calvin Lu

My personal takeaways are so much more difficult to transcribe, even the fact that I could participate on the level I did seems surreal and our growth in the organization since joining is nothing short of inspiring. As tradition holds, my friend Kelly Carden was the first person I saw upon arrival; I had the privilege of writing for his Kern County Supervisor campaign and he ended up getting appointed to his local municipal council. Matthew Butts, the man who DM'd me until I finally started participating (he tricked me into attending a meeting) in late '20 and officially as a member in early '21, has now taken a job recruiting members on a national level. My friend Tom Nichols ran for State Assembly this year, Michael Lema ran for Hayward City Council, Loren Dean is now Chair of Riverside County, Craig Strachan is Chair of Ventura, Garrison Ham is Chair of San Diego, and Shane Kiss is Chair of San Bernardino. How did we get here? I also had a wonderful time with former Chair Mimi Robison, former Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Hewitt, his former Chief of Staff Boomer Shannon, and even convinced my wife to attend the reception on Friday night.

Mimi Robson, Jeff Hewitt, Wendy Hewitt, Photo by Calvin Lu

I wanted to be a part of the Takeover, and after Reno and Sacramento, this leg of the journey is complete. I'm proud of my involvement and the accomplishments of my peers, and though I joked that the Takeover was really the friends we made along the way, the truth is that our success will be defined by our actions moving forward. So, what do we have? A political party focused on liberty and actively fighting the tyranny of the State, if we can keep it.

=======================

Tara Young, Planning Commissioner, City of Norco

As Libertarians active in a political organization, one of our main goals is to get more people in elected seats or in city appointed commissions. We have had some successes along the way, but we need to look at ways that we can increase our odds of getting into local positions so that we work smarter and not harder.

On January 14 of 2023, I was appointed by my city council to be the next planning commissioner for the City of Norco. This came as a huge shock to me, not because I doubted my strengths and talents, but because I was interviewing along with some incredibly experienced people who were well known in my community. I went in with the attitude that I would give it my best, and regardless of the outcome, I would continue to serve the community I live in with love. During my interview I felt calm and relaxed, and though all eyes in the room were on me, I felt like I was talking amongst friends.

So how does one go up against other extremely qualified candidates and still get the job? As we look at trying to get others in our liberty community to elected and appointed seats, I think there is a lot to look at in the time BEFORE a race is run or interviews are made. Many people just want to run races, which is a noble feat, but can be tiring and also cost money. We must consider the long game, and plant those seeds early.

First, the time to run any type of race is in the years before you actually run. How are you serving your community NOW, without any title or seat held? Actions always speak louder than words, and if you have a track record of service to your community without title or recognition, that would be one of the most powerful ways to communicate your desire to serve. This can be found in simple ways such as volunteering for events and organizations that are in your community that are catering to the most important local issues. Getting involved with the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Clubs, associations, farmers markets, volunteering for city sponsored events, etc. are all examples of things to start now. Not only will you be building relationships, but you will also be expressing your desire to serve and make your community a better place.

This next point I cannot stress enough. ATTEND YOUR CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS. Very few people understand the civic process nowadays, so it is always refreshing to see community members attending meetings regularly. Read the agendas before attending and if you see an item that is important to you, please use your 3 minute public comment to speak. The more you can do it with sincerity, the more that you can work towards building relationships with the current council members. In my case, every one of the council members knew me by name, from times that I had given public comment, through city events, or through my service to my community at the local farmer’s market. They knew my heart, how much I loved my city, what I stood for, and that I had a history of serving merely because I loved my community. This also would help to understand the challenges that your current council members face. In my case, I am thankful for my council members as I see what they do regularly for our community. In some cities, there may be council members that are in direct opposition to the values that we hold dear. Seeing how they vote on a regular basis will help a campaign that much more.

The last point that I want to emphasize is sincerity. If you genuinely love your city and want to make it a better place, it will be evident in all that you do and in all that you are. As I look across the landscape of elected and appointed libertarians, there are a couple things that I see that they all have in common. They genuinely love their community and have a heart to serve to make it a better, more free place. This type of passion is strong and contagious, and I believe as we have more people out there serving with this type of fire, we will be in a great position to be the force of change from the ground up.

Be Blessed and Free,

Tara Young

=========================

Get Ready to Run for Partisan Office in 2024!

by Joe Dehn

Did you join the Libertarian Party because you want to see libertarian principles clearly represented in the political arena?

Do you support "bold messaging" on issues like ending the welfare state, ending the war on drugs, moving education and health care from government control and funding to the free market, liberating our economy from the twin burdens of high taxation and government control of money, and stopping the endless cycle of foreign intervention and war?

If so, you should give very serious consideration to being a candidate for partisan office next year.

Partisan vs. Non-Partisan Offices – The Basics

In this article, the term "partisan office" refers to an office where candidates run with a party label, such as "Democrat" or "Libertarian". It often comes as a surprise to people new to politics, especially those who grew up in other states, that there are very few offices in California where you can actually run "as a Libertarian", because in many other states many more positions are elected on a partisan basis. So we often hear mention in the national media of situations like a Republican challenging a Democrat for mayor of a city like New York.

But not here in California. The only offices in California where you can run "as a Libertarian" are Congress (Senate and House), the state legislature (Senate and Assembly), statewide offices like Governor, and the state Board of Equalization. That's it. You can't run for school board as a Libertarian. You can't run for mayor as a Libertarian. You can't even run for county supervisor as a Libertarian.

Every office in California at the county level and below – including city offices, school boards, and the directors of special districts like those concerned with water or parks – is "non-partisan". Even though most candidates for such offices are registered with a political party, California election law does not allow them to have that party affiliation listed on the ballot, or even mention it in their statement in the official voter guide.

What About Running for a "Winnable" Office?

Many Libertarians are interested in running for an office where they can win, in the sense of actually getting elected and then serving in that position, with the idea of making changes to government from within. That's fine, but the way offices are organized in this state you basically can't do that and "run as a Libertarian" at the same time.

Notice something very significant about the division between partisan and non-partisan offices. Every partisan office represents a huge number of people. The statewide offices of course represent the entire state. With only 52 districts, each of California's members in the US House represent about 750,000 people. Members of the State Senate (which many people might consider a "lower" office) actually represent more people – almost one million each. The "lowest" partisan office in California is State Assembly, but even there each legislator represents about a half million people.

So yes, if you have your heart set on actually getting elected, running for a seat in Congress or the state legislature is probably not your best choice. Setting aside some theoretically possible but as a practical matter very rare scenarios, you are very unlikely to be elected. If your view of effective libertarian activism is limited to what can be done by becoming part of government yourself, then you should be looking very seriously at running for a local non-partisan office.

And you should start working seriously on that now, if you have any idea of running in 2024, because in any but the smallest jurisdictions that kind of campaign takes a lot of preparation and resources. Although we call such positions "winnable", that's a very different thing from "easy to win". (Just ask the Libertarians who ran for such offices in 2022, put a significant amount of money and effort into their campaigns, and still in most cases didn't even finish in second place.)

Even though we use the same term "candidate" for activists who run for winnable offices and those who run for partisan offices, these are really two very different activities. They are almost as different as, say, speaking to a college class about libertarian philosophy is from marching around waving anti-war signs in front of the Pentagon. They are both perfectly good things to do, but we shouldn't confuse the two, just because they both involve having your name on a ballot.

They also should not be viewed as in competition, for activist time or any other significant resource. There are many LP members who are well-qualified to present libertarian ideas on the state or national level but who would be terrible at actually serving as a member of a school board or city council – and vice versa. Campaigning for these two kinds of offices also involves different skills and different financial resources. Many Libertarians who run for partisan office spend very little money – their own or anyone else's – because they are not trying to compete in that way with the candidates of the older parties. The campaigns also very often take place at different times of year, so even those activists who do have the interests and personality to effectively run for either kind of office have the option of doing both, and other Libertarians who want to help can help with both kinds of campaigns if they like.

Why run for partisan office if you can't win?

You can win when you run for a partisan office – it's just a different kind of winning, making progress in different ways in achieving goals that are part of our overall political mission.

If we want the media and the general public to ever take us seriously as an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans, and to begin to understand that we represent a coherent alternative approach to politics, we must have members running for office under our own label. That's the whole reason the LP was founded as a political party, rather than just another "anti-tax" or "anti-war" special interest group. It's the only way that we can use elections to "build the Libertarian brand".

Only candidates running for federal and state office can use their campaigns to help build our membership by addressing issues that most excite people who lean in our direction – issues like the income tax, war and peace, the welfare state, ending the war on drugs, freedom of the press including on the Internet, the government takeover of the health care industry, and the value of our money. These are the reasons that most current members joined, and our most effective tool for further recruiting. But candidates for local office can't make any of these a major issue in their campaigns – not if they are trying to get elected.

The votes received by our partisan candidates, even if they fall far short of first place, are also important for measuring our progress. The votes for non-partisan candidates can't help us measure growth in support for our political philosophy, because they mostly depend on other things, like how well voters think a candidate will be able to manage existing government programs, not whether they should exist at all. Only votes for “Libertarian” candidates can show us that the number of voters who really understand that “freedom is the answer” is growing.

And only by offering candidates with “Libertarian” next to their names can we invite voters to join us by taking that critical first step of voting Libertarian. Without this, the slogan “Vote Libertarian” is meaningless!

What Partisan Offices Are Open in 2024?

In 2024 there will be a total of only 153 partisan offices up for election within California. That total is made up of 53 federal offices – one position in the US Senate and all 52 US House seats – and 100 state offices – every one of the 80 seats in the State Assembly and half of the 40 seats in the State Senate (because those positions are elected for 4-year terms). Plus of course we expect there to be a Libertarian ticket for President and Vice President, which are also federal offices, but not specific to California.

Every one of these positions represents an opportunity to present Libertarian ideas and solutions, on either state or federal issues (your choice, by picking the type of district), at a time when voters and the media are most receptive. The simple fact that you are on the ballot, even if you spend no money on any kind of advertising, will generate placement for your words in both traditional and online media, which in turn will lead to visits to your own and LP web sites where people can find out more.

Getting on the Ballot as a Libertarian

The process for getting on the ballot in California as a Libertarian is basically the same for all partisan offices (other than president/vice-president, where the state will place on the ballot whoever we nominate at our national convention).

First, make sure you are registered to vote as a Libertarian, and meet all the qualifications for the particular office. There are minimum age requirements for the federal offices (25 for US House) and for positions in the state legislature you must live in the district you are running to represent.

If you don't have any idea in which districts you live, you can find maps of all the relevant districts on the page at: https://libertarianpartisan.org/resources

For all of these offices there is both a filing fee and a requirement to collect at least some petition signatures, and as you might expect a bunch of forms to fill out. Details about these aspects of the process can be obtained from the Secretary of State and your county Registrar of Voters, but a summary is available at: https://libertarianpartisan.org/getting-on-the-ballot

Finally, a word about finances. If you expect to raise or spend any significant amount of money in your campaign, you will be required to file forms with a government agency both at the start of your campaign and thereafter, to report contributions and expenditures. The rules and agencies involved are different depending on whether you are running for a federal or state office.

Everyone who files to be a candidate for any of these offices is actually filing to have their name on the ballot in the primary, which isn't scheduled to take place until March 2024. But the period during which you can collect signatures begins in September of this year. So the sooner you decide to run and start getting organized, the better! (You can find a summary of all the significant dates on the same resources page mentioned above.)

These requirements may sound complicated if you've never done something like this before, but many Libertarians have done this before. If you want help, feel free to contact any of the activists listed at: https://libertarianpartisan.org/contacts

Please consider joining those of us who have already announced that we will be filing for a partisan office in 2024, so that your neighbors will have a chance to Vote Libertarian!

======================

Rage Against the War Machine Wrap-Up

By Rob Yates

Communications Director, Libertarian Party of North Carolina

This February, the Libertarian Party organized the "Rage Against the War Machine Rally" in Washington D.C. Hundreds of people gathered at the National Mall to protest the government's endless wars and military interventions overseas.

I attended the "Rage Against the War Machine Rally," and I am sharing my experience hoping to inspire increased activism against the war machine and the military industrial complex from coast-to-coast.

The rally opened on the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial, with Lincoln’s 19 foot marble statue the backdrop, and the Reflecting Pool the centerpiece for the audience facing the stage, as the Washington Monument towered in the distance. D.C. is a beautiful city, a shiny veneer covering the corruption it hides within, and the blustery wind of the late-winter weather formed a stark contrast with the energy of the audience who gathered for the speakers before marching to the White House.

The list of speakers was a venerable who’s who of activists from across the political spectrum, all fighting to end the incredible death, destruction, and suffering that is an inevitable consequence of military conflict between nations. Among the notables who took the podium were Jimmy Dore, Scott Horton, Dennis Kucinich, Cynthia McKinney, and Roger Waters (on video).

As speakers took to the stage, the crowd listened with rapt attention to insight around the root causes of war and violence, and the ways in which the United States has played a central role in perpetuating these conflicts. The speakers called for an end to the never-ending wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, and for the United States to redirect its resources towards addressing the urgent domestic issues that are currently facing our country.

An Army veteran spoke of his own experiences on the front lines and how they led him to question the legitimacy of the wars he was fighting. He argued that the U.S. government's policies in the Middle East have only created more instability and violence, and that a more peaceful and non-interventionist approach is needed.

A college student (and self-described Libertarian) criticized the government's use of taxpayer money to fund military interventions around the world. She argued that this money could be better spent on domestic priorities like healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

Of course, the speaker list, and the rally itself, was headlined by Liberty icon Ron Paul, who spoke passionately about the need to end the endless cycle of conflict and bring our troops home. Dr. Paul is a well-known vocal critic of U.S. foreign policy and has been a leading voice in the anti-war movement for decades.

In his speech, Dr. Paul emphasized the importance of liberty and individual rights. He argued that the government's obsession with global military domination is a violation of the principles of limited government and non-interventionism. "We cannot maintain a free society at home while constantly waging wars abroad," he declared to cheers from the crowd.

Dr. Paul also praised the efforts of fellow anti-war activist and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, another featured speaker. Gabbard, a Democrat who famously resigned from Congress in 2022 over the federal government’s captivity to special interests, including those who promulgate endless wars, has been a frequent ally of Libertarians on issues of foreign policy. In her own speech at the rally, she reiterated the need for a foreign policy of restraint and diplomacy, arguing that "our strength as a nation lies not in our military might, but in our moral authority."

One of the most striking aspects of the rally was the diversity of the attendees. People from all walks of life came together to voice their opposition to war and the military-industrial complex that fuels it. There were veterans of past conflicts, many of whom had been disillusioned by the realities of war and the toll it takes on soldiers and civilians alike. There were families who had lost loved ones in wars overseas, as well as young activists who had grown up in a world where war has been a constant presence throughout their lives.

Politics were cast aside for the day, with members of every party represented, united in the common humanity of wanting to end the suffering perpetuated on innocent populations by the infliction of military aggression.

Of course, the Libertarian principles of limited government, individual rights, and non-interventionism were on full display at the rally. Many of the speakers and attendees argued that the government's endless wars not only violate these principles, but also harm the very people they claim to be helping. Nothing violates core Libertarian principles more deeply and more completely than wars of aggression, and members of the party showed up to defend those most defenseless, the victims of the United States government’s infinite war campaign.

As Dr. Paul and others pointed out, the principles of liberty and non-interventionism are not just important for moral reasons, but also for practical ones. The endless wars and military interventions overseas not only cost trillions of dollars, but also result in the loss of countless innocent lives and destabilize entire regions of the world.

The Libertarian Party, along with allies like Tulsi Gabbard and other anti-war activists, are working to build a movement that puts an end to the war machine and promotes a more peaceful and prosperous world. As Dr. Paul put it in his speech, "the cause of liberty and peace is not an easy one, but it is a righteous one."

======================

Coordinated Efforts

By Joshua D. Glawson

“The philosophy commonly called individualism is a philosophy of social cooperation and the progressive intensification of the social nexus.” -Ludwig Von Mises

In 2024, we will have another election year, and Libertarians of California and the National Libertarian Party will put forth their selected candidates for local, state, and national elections. Year after year, election after election, we make incremental gains as the third largest political party in the United States. Yet, we tend to fall short compared to the two-headed beast of Democrats and Republicans.

Our shortfallings have not been because our ideas are not good. In fact, most of our core ideas are blatantly far superior to that of the current coercive political machine. Our ideas include individual liberty, freedom, peace, respect for life, true property rights, economic prosperity, choices, personal development, progress, charity and love, honesty, integrity, and more. Most people would benefit from the values and ideals of Libertarianism, and I believe the vast majority of Americans are at their core liberty-minded.

So, why are Libertarians not winning as much as we know we could with our better ideas and solutions?

It comes down to coordinated efforts. When we look at politics, history, and philosophy, those who win and make significant changes do so by coordinating their efforts across regions, platforms, and political aisles. They do so by having leaders who inspire others to accomplish great things in the face of difficulty and have a coordinated network of other leaders that attest to those victories and affirm their leadership. No matter if those goals were for good or evil, we can see that the winners tend to be those that have best demonstrated the ability to lead with coordinated efforts.

Ron Paul and Gary Johnson had great prior experience as a representative and as a governor, respectively, demonstrating their capacity to lead coordinated efforts and work with those across the political aisle. Jo Jorgensen has also been active in the Liberty Movement since the early 1990s, establishing a vast network of teams dedicated to liberty. However, the candidates that they ran against were even more experienced and tied to deeper networks on national levels, although cronyistic, that displayed their capacity to get their objectives accomplished.

If we want to start winning local and state elections, we must better coordinate local efforts and expand outward. We need to show people in our local communities the actual solutions we have, implement them with success, and use those efforts to work with state, regional, and national campaigns. This begins with being involved with local Libertarian chapter meetings and seriously working on projects together, not simply using these as social clubs or status outlets.

Find ways of solving issues at the local level, county level, state level, regional level, and national level, but start small. These small wins add up to exponentially larger wins. These incremental steps demonstrate our capacity to lead and bring confidence to the masses that our solutions can work and that we can get things done.

Consider the local, state, and regional issues that could use a Libertarian solution.

To solve a problem, use the following 5 steps:

●       Define the specific problem and its cause

●       Define the focused solution and goal

●       Develop an action plan

●       Execute the action plan

●       Continuously evaluate and improve

Be sure to utilize social media and other media outlets along the way to keep the public informed of those efforts and wins while consistently garnering more memberships to the local, state, and national party.

By getting others involved, and giving them a title and a duty, we empower a growing community of liberty-minded individuals to make an effort toward solving the problems at hand. It’s going to take more than drum beating and complaining, it takes serious work and action- human action. Do not let skepticism and fear of losing get in the way of making effort and taking actionable steps, these steps are crucial to building those networks and incremental wins in both the short and long run. I can assure you that the cronies, the statists, and those with evil intentions are not stopping their efforts, and things will not get any easier by waiting to take action.

The more action we as individuals take for coordinated efforts between now and 2024, and beyond, the greater opportunity we have for getting our ideas out, persuading others, and sharing with the world our real solutions to real problems- and we will get some wins along the way.

=========================

Recent County Organization Elections

Here are the county organizations that have had their Executive Committee elections since the January issue of The Beacon, with date of election listed.  If your county organization has an election coming up, please be sure to notify your county membership and the LPCA Secretary, Chris Edgar, secretary@ca.lp.org, at least 30 days in advance of the election, per state bylaws.  After your election, please be sure to inform your Regional Area Coordinator and State Secretary, Mr. Edgar, of the election results.

Riverside County: January 14, 2023

Chair: Loren Dean

Vice Chair: Matt Gunnell

Vice Chair: Tara Young

Treasurer: Joshua Clark

Secretary: Wendy Hewitt

L-to-R: Wendy Hewitt, Matt Gunnell, Loren Dean, Josh Clark. Tara Young not included.

San Bernadino County: January 14, 2023

Chair: Shane Kiss

Vice Chair: Jason Brown

Treasurer: Kirk Sullivan II

Secretary: Luis Avilez

At-Large: Michael Lua

L to R: Michael Lua(At-Large), Kirk Sullivan II(Treasurer), Jason Brown Sr.(Vice Chair), Shane Kiss(Chair), Luis Avilez(Secretary)

Santa Clara County: January 14, 2023

  Chair: Joe Dehn

  Vice Chair: Mark Hinkle

  Secretary: Katie Hingle

  Treasurer: Alan Kaiser

  Activities Chair: Bob Goodwyn

  Campaigns Chair: Brian Holtz

  Fundraising Chair: Mary Gingell

  Membership Chair: Sal Robles

  Newsletter Chair: Joe Dehn

  Publicity Chair: Elizabeth Brierly

(This set of officers also makes up our Executive Committee.)

The following were elected to serve as the county Judicial Committee:

  Jim Bertonis

  John Inks

  Bill White

San Francisco County: January 14, 2023

Chair: Starchild

Vice Chair: vacant

Secretary: Jay Anthony

Treasurer: Chris Mendes

Santa Cruz County: January 17, 2023

Chair: Mr. Paul Lazaga
Vice Chair: Ms. Kathleen Purcell
Secretary: Vacant
Treasurer: Mr. James Keeler

Tulare County: January 20, 2023

Chair: Paige Hawkins

Vice Chair/Treasurer: Julian Sprague

Secretary: Ahmed Bahar

L-R: Paige Hawkins, Julian Sprague

Ahmed Bahar

Ventura County: January 26, 2023

Chair: Craig Strachan

Vice-chair: Austin Jackson

Secretary: Emma Schwartz

Treasurer: Susan Aquino

Kern County: January 28, 2023

Chair: Rickey Bird.

Vice Chair: Anthony Strauss.

Secretary: Arik Haydn.

Treasurer: Anthony Strauss.

Member-At-Large: Teri Kahn.

Solano County: February 21, 2023

Chair: Robert Demadura

Vice Chair/Secretary: Kai Lawson

Treasurer: Kirsten Steen

 At-Large: Jason Quintero

L-to-R: Kai Lawson, Jason Quintero, Kirsten Steen, Robert Demadura