To The National Committee of the Libertarian Party and Others
Dear Sirs:
I am writing to you concerning a situation with the New York Libertarian
Party. I doubt that any of you are aware of what is going on in New York.
What is going on is the Queens Libertarian Party is the most active and the
most productive chapter with the most members of any chapter of the New
York Libertarian Party.
Yet, the State Committee of the New York Libertarian Party keeps trying to
expel the Queens Libertarian Party and the individual members of the Queens
Libertarian Party, even though none of the members of the State Committee
live in Queens or are members of the Queens Libertarian Party.
This has been going on for the last nine years since 2006. We had been
hoping that the problem would simply go away with time. This why you have
not heard about it. Instead the problem is getting worst. There is a state
convention coming up this weekend where again candidates for state office
favor the expulsion of the Queens Libertarian Party and some of its members.
With a Presidential Election Year coming up next year, it is important that
the Libertarian Party be unified and that these factional infights not be
allowed. Therefore, I am asking the National Committee to intervene and
declare that the State Committee does not have the authority to expel the
Queens County Committee and the State Committee must recognize the elected
officers of the Queens County Committee as their lawful and legally elected
representatives.
The Chairman of the Queens Libertarian Party is Tom Stevens. However, his
name does not appear on the ny.lp.org website as the representative of
Queens. Indeed, the names of none of the elected officers of the Queens
County Committee appear on the state Libertarian Party website.
For no reason that anybody can understand, the so-called leadership of the
New York Libertarian Party has been attacking the Queens Libertarian Party
and its members for the last nine years, since 2006.
The Queens Libertarian Party was founded by John Procida in the 1980s and
is the oldest Libertarian Party in New York State in continuous existence.
John Procida is the Chairman of John Procida Realty Co. and for many years
financed the party and kept it going.
Brooklyn never had a Libertarian Party because there is only one
Libertarian living in Brooklyn and according to the rules in order to form
a county chapter one must have five members willing to pay dues and commit
to attending meetings once a month. Brooklyn could never find the five
members.
Nevertheless, in December 2006 a group purported to form the
"Brooklyn-Queens Libertarian Party" and simultaneously to expel the Queens
Libertarian Party and cancel the charter of that party.
They fought about this for a year and finally the Brooklyn group gave up
trying to revoke the charter of the Queens Libertarian Party and moved
instead to expel the principal individuals who were elected among the
leadership of the Queens Libertarian Party.
The Chairman of the Queens Libertarian Party is Tom Stevens. You will not
see him listed on the New York State Libertarian Party website because,
according to them, he has been expelled since 2010.
I have consulted legal authorities on this matter and, according to them,
one cannot be expelled from a political party. There is no such thing as
being expelled from a political party. Even serial killers on death row
facing imminent execution can be members of political parties and cannot be
expelled.
The reason Tom Stevens became Chairman of the Queens Libertarian Party is
in 2010 the previous chairman John Procida, was ordered to be
"investigated" by the New York Libertarian Party State Committee. After
learning that the State Committee of the New York Libertarian Party had
ordered that he be investigated, John Procida quit the party in disgust and
needless to say he stopped providing the financing that had kept the Queens
Libertarian Party going.
At the same time as ordering that John Procida be investigated, the New
York State Committee expelled me and Tom Stevens. They never gave any
reason for expelling me and I have no idea what their reason was or if they
had any.
I do know the "reason" they expelled Tom Stevens, because I happened to be
listening to a telephone conference call between Blay Tarnoff and another
Libertarian Party member. They did not realize that I was on the line. I
will not repeat in public what Blay Tarnoff said but I will say that it is
the most salacious allegation imaginable.
The reason I am writing to you about this now is there will be a convention
of the New York State Libertarian Party this weekend and the word is out
that Blay Tarnoff and his group among others will try again to expel the
Queen Libertarian Party and some of its members. There are also plans to
expel a lot of members.
This affects the national party because the New York State Libertarian
Party has regularly come to the National Committee asking for funding to
hire paid petitioners to get signatures for ballot access. So, they are
asking you to give them money while at the same time they are expelling
their most dedicated volunteers. Every time they expel a volunteer who
would otherwise be out collecting signatures, that means that you will have
to provide more money to get our national candidates on the ballot.
Therefore, I am asking the National Committee to declare that the New York
State Libertarian Party and for that matter any other Libertarian Party
cannot and does not have the authority to expel any person from the
Libertarian Party, be it state, local or national. In short that the right
to expel or otherwise black list party members does not exist.
Furthermore, I am asking that the National Committee declare that the
Expulsion of the Queens County Libertarian Party either in the past or in
the future is null and void. If they do not like the workings of the Queens
Libertarian Party the solution is to join it, take it over and if they have
the votes run it better.
I must explain that the two persons behind most of these efforts to expel
the Queens Libertarian Party and some of its members are Blay Tarnoff and
Gary Donoyan. Neither of them live in Queens or Brooklyn. They live in
Nassau County on Long Island. It is apparent that Blay Tarnoff has an
intense dislike for Tom Stevens, and that is motivating his persistent
efforts to expel both Mr. Stevens and the Queens Libertarian Party of which
Tom Stevens is Chairman.
I want to mention the role that M Carling played in all of this. M Carling
seems to go around from state to state and meeting to meeting. He somehow
came on the line at a NY State Committee conference call and spoke about
the need "to get rid of" Tom Stevens and Sam Sloan. I do not know how he
got on the line and had the right to speak. I know that he is involved with
several other Libertarian Parties including the Oregon Libertarian Party
that has had a bad break up similar to that going on in the New York
Libertarian Party.
M Carling makes fantastic claims about himself such as that he resides in
Latvia or Lithuania and he teaches Law in India. I have established that he
is not registered to vote in New York State. Somehow he always winds up in
a position of apparent authority.
I believe that the National Committee should require that M Carling reveal
what his real name is and require that he provide photo ID such as a
drivers license or a passport. Otherwise he should not be allowed to attend
or participate in Libertarian Party meetings. We should not allow someone
to participate in our meetings if we do not know who he really is.
As many of you are aware, for many years I have been attending the National
Conventions of the Libertarian Party. I was present at the national
convention in Columbus Ohio. However, I was banned from the meeting hall by
the head of the New York Delegation on the pretext that I had been expelled
from the Libertarian Party. Therefore I sat in the balcony.
Up to the point I was expelled, I was the Queens representative to the New
York State Libertarian Party. I was also the secretary of the Queens
Libertarian Party and, as I also have a California residence, I was
Secretary of the San Francisco Libertarian Party.
During a recess of the National Convention in Columbus Ohio, I approached
the new Chairman of the California Libertarian Party to pay my dues as my
membership had lapsed. While I was talking, M Carling came up, button holed
the chairman and said that he wanted to talk to him about something in
private, and led him away.
Obviously, M Carling was going to say something negative about me. I have
no idea what it was. It is apparent that there is a whispering campaign
going on about me for many years. However, nobody yet has told me what they
are whispering about me and I honestly have no idea. I would really like to
know what they are saying about me so I can address and refute it, but
nobody will tell me.
Tom Stevens had attended every national convention of the Libertarian Party
for many years but he has stopped coming because he does not want to face a
physical confrontation with those who are so vehemently against him. So, he
just organizes events for the Queens Libertarian Party and ignores what
they do around the state hoping that they will ignore him. This is the
reason that none of the general membership even know that Tom Stevens and
myself have been expelled for the last five years until this letter.
To give you an idea of the impact this has has, in the year 2014 I spent
more than $41,000 of my own personal money running for election. I could
have spent that money as a Libertarian Party candidate and thereby helped
other Libertarians. However, since 2002 a small group has worked to prevent
me from appearing on the ballot as a Libertarian. I do not know why they
keep doing this, as my record shows that I clearly am a Libertarian. In
2014 they made a great effort and successful effort to knock me off the
ballot. Meanwhile they used the money the national committee had provided
to put a non-Libertarian on the ballot after knocking me off the ballot.
I want to mention that their attacks on Tom Stevens have nothing to do with
the fact that he ran as a candidate for President of the United States as
an *Objectivist Party* candidate. I am aware that the national committee
takes issue with that but that issue is of no interest to the New York
State Committee.
As many of you are aware, I have been a member of the Libertarian Party for
a long time. I first joined the Libertarian Party in 1973. I was active in
the 1974 campaign for Jerome Tuccille for Governor of the State of New
York. At that time, the leaders in New York State were Gary Greenberg and
Loretta Weiss. I have never been a member of any other political party.
After years of living overseas and being inactive as far as the Libertarian
Party was concerned, I came back in 2002 and in January 2002 I got on the
ballot as a candidate for New York State Assembly in Brooklyn, with the
help of Jak Karako, who was Chairman of the Manhattan Libertarian Party at
the time. As soon as I got on the ballot, to my great shock and surprise, I
was hit with a plethora of personal attacks primarily by Bonnie Scott and
Jim Lesczynski. I had never heard of, met or spoken to either of these
people before and had no idea and still do not know why these people were
attacking me. I do not even know how they knew my name.
In a raucous meeting in Richard Cooper's office on Long Island in January
2002, they took a vote on whether to disavow my candidacy. The vote was 6
to 5 against me. From that day forward that group has been against me. I
have no idea what is the reason,
I must inform you that the Queens County Chairman Tom Stevens is persona
non grata with Mark Axinn and his group. This is the problem with many
branches of the Libertarian Party. They spend so much time fighting each
other they do not have time to fight the real enemies.
If you will look at officers of the New York Libertarian Party you will see
the word "vacant" next to the Queens name. That is the reason.
As you will see from an Internet Search, at the New York Libertarian Party
State Convention on April 17, 2010 I was defeated by a vote of 27 to 17 as
a candidate for Governor of New York State.
http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2010/04/redlich-wins-libertarian-nomination-for.html
What these articles do not explain is that Warren Redlich was not a member
of the Libertarian Party. He had not filed out a membership application. He
had not paid his dues. He had not signed the pledge. During his "campaign
for New York State Governor he stated that he was not a Libertarian. He is
not a Libertarian at all, not remotely.
The way he got the nomination for Libertarian Party Candidate was Mark
Axinn brought in a bunch of ringers from Manhattan and Chris Eades took
time off his job as "flipping burgers" to bring in ringers from Rochester
and had enough votes to defeat me when I had the backing of the long
established and regular members of the Libertarian Party. Warren Redlich
was allowed to enter the meeting room with his group of supporters none of
whom had joined the Libertarian Party and Mark Axinn gave them the right to
vote. The entire meeting was irregular. No minutes of that meeting have
ever been made. We still have no idea who those people were as we never
heard from any of them before or again.
Then, two months later, in June 2010, Blay Tarnoff broke into the middle of
a telephone conference call meeting of the New York State Committee of
which I was a member as the Queens County Representative and interrupted
the speaker to make a motion to expel Tom Stevens as a member of the
Libertarian Party. Blay Tarnoff had not checked in and nobody knew he was
on the line. Then a bunch of others who were not known to be in the meeting
including Gary Donoyan and M Carling suddenly appeared in the telephone
conference call and quickly voted to expel Tom Stevens. This was obviously
a carefully planned hijacking of the meeting.
During this meeting, prior to being interrupted by Blay Tarnoff, we were
discussing the circulation of petitions to get Libertarian Party candidates
on the ballot. One of the topics was to ask you the National Committee for
$50,000 to help with the petition drive. By "expelling" Tom Stevens. that
meant that the Stevens Group which is the most active group in the NY
Libertarian Party would not be participating in the petition drive, and
therefore they were more in need of money from the National Committee.
The following week at another telephone conference call was when they
expelled me and ordered the investigation of John Procida. The actual
motion was to expel John Procida too but Mark Axinn got them to modify the
motion to order an "investigation" of John Procida to try to find grounds
to expel him as nobody could think of a reason.
While a Libertarian Party Candidate for Governor, Warren Redlich personally
sued the Presiding Justice of the New York State Appellate Division Third
Department in Albany in an effort to stop multiple disbarment proceedings
that were going on against him. We were going to need the help of that
judge to get us on the ballot.
Far worse than that, while the Libertarian Party candidate for governor,
Warren Redlich called both the 16-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin and the
16-year-old sister of Brittany Spears MILF. Both of these 16-year-old
children had just given birth meaning they were having sex at age 15. I
assume you know what MILF stands for. It does not do our party any good
that our Libertarian Candidate for governor publicly aspires to have sexual
intercourse with 16-year-old girls.
He subsequently moved out of New York State to avoid the disbarment
proceedings. Now he is down in Florida doing the same things. In a recent
news article there is a picture of Warren Redlich holding up a sign and
saying that if you are stopped for a traffic expense such as speeding or
drunk driving you should hold up a sign refusing to roll down your window
or to speak to the police officer. Do you think that would work? Remember
he is still an attorney giving legal advice.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/02/lawyers_advice_to_thwart_dui_c.html
Meanwhile Mark Axinn keeps writing about what a great job Redlich did as
our candidate for Governor.
Tom Stevens and I are the two most active and productive members of the
Libertarian Cause. Yet they kicked us both out. First they kicked Tom
Stevens out. Then the next week they kicked me out.
They never gave a reason for kicking us either of us out and indeed they
had none.
They did this at private online secret meetings that the general membership
does not know about and was never informed about.
Then they keep running non-Libertarians or even anti-Libertarians for
Governor and wonder why they never get 50,000 votes although all the other
parties do.
Lets us take a look at who they ran.
Mike McDermott was a good guy and ran a good campaign but it was not a
Libertarian Campaign. When he got in the debates he never raised
Libertarian issues. Result was he only got 16,000 votes, a record low.
In 2010 Warren Redlich made a point of not joining the Libertarian Party
and said he was not a Libertarian. He was also a personal scumbag. There
are lawsuits still going on about his candidacy even though it took place 5
years ago Index Number: 109005/2011
Case Name: REDLICH, WARREN vs. STONE, ROGER
No minutes have ever been produced showing how he got nominated, if indeed
he did.
In 2006 the Candidate was William Weld. He joined the Libertarian Party on
the day of the convention which was a violation of the rules but at least
he joined unlike Warren Redlich who never joined. Then he quit leaving us
holding the bag when he did not get the Republican nomination.
In 2002 the Candidate was Scott Jeffrey. At least he learned the
Libertarian Rap and pretended to be a Libertarian somewhat. It was not
until the TV debates that he showed himself to be a confused left winger
with his own ideas which were definitely not Libertarian Ideas.
At the 2002 State Convention in Rochester, Jak Karako, the same man who had
recruited me to run for State Assembly in Crown Heights Brooklyn, nominated
me Sam Sloan to be Libertarian Party Candidate for NY Governor. However,
Scott Jeffrey had an apparently well organized campaign and got the votes.
It was not until much later that we found out how far from being a
Libertarian that Scott Jeffrey was.
So, in ten years the so-called Libertarian Party has never run a
Libertarian Candidate. Yet we keep asking ourselves why we never get any
votes.
Fortunately from our point of view the Libertarian Party is not recognized
by New York State. So therefore, I or Tom Stevens or anybody else can run
Libertarian Candidates. The State Committee has no right or legal way to
stop us from running as Libertarians.
It is annoying that they keep asking the national party for $50,000 every
four years to finance our petition drives. The National Party does not know
what is going on in New York State and does not realize that NY State is
running non-Libertarians and anti-Libertarians. Perhaps you should sue to
get the money back that they fraudulently bilked them for.
In short I am asking the National Committee of the Libertarian Party to
revoke the expulsion of the Queens County Libertarian Party and also to
revoke the expulsions of me, Tom Stevens and anybody else they may chose to
expel on the grounds that the New York State Committee simply does not have
the legal authority to go around expelling people. I am also asking the
National Committee to require the NY State Committee to put on their
website the names of all of the officers of the Queens County Committee on
the State Website and to recognize their authority to represent the voters
of Queens at meetings of both the State Libertarian Party and the National
Libertarian Party.
Respectfully Submitted,
Sam Sloan