I am pleased to introduce myself as the new chair of the Santa Clara County Libertarian Party. I am honored to have been voted in by the attending delegates at our annual convention on January 27th. Last year, I served as the secretary in preparation for this year. I am an active At-Large member of the California Libertarian Parties Executive Committee and the state’s Communication Director. I am also bringing over ten years of experience as a community manager and events coordinator. I hope to combine these efforts and knowledge for the benefit of the Santa Clara County Libertarian Party as we start this election year!
This years committee is fortunate to have a number of new and newly positioned people. We are welcoming back Mark Hinkle as Vice Chair and Robert Imhoff as Treasurer. We are also very excited to welcome Kimberly Davis as our new Secretary. Kimberly is a life long Libertarian who helped host an excellent movie night and dinner last year. I’m confident that these three will bring a level of professionalism and involvement that will help usher us into this new era where the Libertarian party becomes a major contender in the local political arena.
Along with our Executive Committee we have returning: Chris Le as membership chair, John Inks as Campaign Chair, John Ward as Publicity Chair, and Kennita Watson as Fundraising Chair. We are welcoming Kenneth Truong as Activities Chair and Samuel Le as Newsletter Chair. Kenneth and Samuel have been active participants over the last year and will be a welcomed addition. Long time members Bill White, Elizabeth Brierley, and Joe Dehn now comprise our Judicial Committee. And we have nominated Kimberly Davis as our representative to the state Platform Committee with Erik Buchanan as alternate.
Now for the work of this year: I have lots of big plans for the coming year and you will start to see these efforts immediately as myself and the new committee roll up our sleeves and get to work. Among the many tasks I will be prepossessing, my primary focuses will be:
- Refresh our online presence with clean and easy to access information
- Enliven our newsletters and efforts to disseminate news and actions to you
- Increase local marketing of our organization and candidates
- Re-engage our community presence with political and philanthropic efforts
- And most importantly expand our candidate support and ballot presence
The Santa Clara County Libertarian Party is currently the 3rd largest Libertarian affiliate county in California. We had over 25,000 in Santa Clara County vote for Gary Johnson last year. But the proportion of registered Libertarians in the county greatly outweigh the number of members we have. Closing this gap is going to be one of my top priorities. With increased membership we will not only be able to expand our presence but also our ability to support our candidates financially and with volunteer hours.
Did you know that we have FIVE candidates who will be on the ballot in Santa Clara County this June? Kennita Watson is running in Congressional District 17, Bob Goodwyn is running in Assembly District 24, and Robert Imhoff is running in Assembly District 25. Each of these members pose a strong race and have already begun receiving funding. In addition we have both Chris Le and myself, Jennifer Imhoff, running for City Council in San Jose. Chris will be campaigning for District 7 and I will be in District 5. While these last two are non partisan positions they both offer San Jose an opportunity to have liberty represented in the 10th largest city in America.
I have my first action item for YOU. As a supporter of liberty and freedom I ask that you make the simplest of efforts and visit our candidates pages. By simply visiting a website you are helping them increase their visibility. By liking our candidates Facebook/Twitter you contribute to their online presence and will also avail yourself to upcoming updates from their campaigns. So I am asking each of you to Like and Share to help spread the word that the Libertarians are an active presence in Santa Clara County.
And if you can, there are two buttons each candidate offers, Donate and Volunteer. You can do one! If you can do both, even better! A $5 donation, making 10 phone calls, or offering website or marketing assistance goes a long way when we each contribute.
- Kennita Watson -https://www.gofundme.com/kennita-watson-for-congress-2018
- Bob Goodwyn - (coming soon)
- Robert Imhoff - http://www.robertimhoff.com/
- Chris Le - https://www.chrisleforsanjose.com/
- Jennifer Imhoff - www.passionsj.org
On a final note I would like to personally thank our outgoing chair, Joe Dehn, for his extensive efforts over the last few years here locally. Joe had established an excellent framework for operating at the county level and set a high standard for attention to detail and service to the local Libertarian community and I greatly appreciate his past and continued contributions and support!!
I look forward to leading the Santa Clara County forward in 2018.
With Liberty,
Jennifer Imhoff
Chair, LP SCC
[email protected]