By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice
In addition to the Colorado Libertarian Party deciding not to pursue placing the national party’s presidential ticket on the ballot in Colorado, it will seek to have the national party decertify the ticket, an email to party membership presumedly from Chairwoman Hannah Goodman reads.
The email was received from the Colorado Libertarian Party with the state party’s heading.
“[The Colorado Libertarian Party] has always stood firmly for liberty, principled opposition to overreaching government, and the promotion of individual freedoms,” the email reads. “Our commitment to these values guides our decisions and actions.”
The state party’s board, at its last meeting, passed a resolution affirming dedication to those principles and deciding not to support placing the Chase Oliver/Mike ter Maat ticket on the Colorado general election ballot, the email reads. It is unclear if the board may support placing an alternate ticket on the ballot.
The board’s decision reflects the will of the party’s delegation to the national convention, the email reads, which voted “None of the Above (NOTA)” in the final round of voting.
“[It] reiterates our deep concern that the national ticket does not align with the values and strategies that the Colorado Libertarian Party holds dear,” the email reads.
Oliver was masked and distanced at Thanksgiving 2020, while Colorado Libertarian Party members were “illegally” holding Thanksgiving with family and friends, the email alleges. It also notes differing perspectives on “gender-affirming care” with Oliver, and Oliver’s silence on Russian collusion while “Colorado Libertarian Party members were years ahead of the public in identifying the intelligence agencies’ creation and the Clinton campaign’s funding of the Steele dossier.”
The email also is critical of ter Maat’s “feeble jokes” in the New York trial of President Donald Trump, while Colorado Libertarian Party members “were organizing locally to preserve the rule of law in the face of a nationally unprecedented assault on this fundamental societal underpinning.”
Oliver and ter Maat are praised in the email for their antiwar stances, but criticized for their understanding of the “regime”, calling them unfit to represent the values of the Colorado Libertarian Party.
“We call on the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) to decertify the Oliver/ter Maat ticket and align with the true principles of liberty that our party stands for,” the email concludes. “At a minimum, the LNC must allow states to pursue their own electoral strategies to maximize Libertarian outcomes.”