Latest News
- Details
- Written by: Paul Baratelli
- Category: Latest News
The New Jersey Libertarian Party (NJLP) is excited to share our Official 2025 Winter Newsletter with you! Inside, you’ll find a Message from the Chair, offering insights to inspire us as we push for freedom in the Garden State. We’re also updating our Bylaws to better serve our growing membership, so please review the proposed changes and get ready for a debate to create their final version.
Click here to read the newsletter!
Bylaws that are being presented at the convention are included in the Newsletter, but I am placing here also.
- Details
- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
Cato has released their 2024 Fiscal Policy Report on America's Governors. Our Governor, Phil Murphy, has been given a grade of D or 42 points. This is an improvement from the 2022 Report (F/29) and the 2020 Report (F/32).
Below is their report on New Jersey taken from the report (Creative Commons license). Read the full report here.
Phil Murphy, Democrat
Legislature: Democratic
Grade: D
Phil Murphy worked at Goldman Sachs for two decades. He also served as finance chair of the Democratic National Committee and as US ambassador to Germany. Unlike his predecessor in the governor’s office, Chris Christie, who rejected tax hikes, Murphy supports them and receives a low score on this report.
- Details
- Written by: Mark Kapengut
- Category: Latest News
Call for Candidates 2024. Let me preface with a call for candidates for 2024. Guys, we need 12 (or more – read on) congressional candidates in 2024 to cover the state. And one for the US Senate. If you’ve never run for office, raise your hand and give it a try. Being a paper candidate doesn’t take much beyond the paperwork and collecting signatures. It would be much better to have candidates stepping up from among ourselves, that through external recruitment. If there is even 10% chance that you may think about doing it, please reach out directly, or come to the General Meeting, and let’s talk.
And if you already have campaign experience as a candidates, why not give it a try and run for US Senate. Let’s have competitive internal primaries, with runners-up going after Congress. You may have heard that Menendez received some gifts (any fans of gold bullion around here!?). By doing so, he also gave a gift – to us, and to NJ voters. This is the best environment to run for US Senate in NJ as a Libertarian in a generation.
- Details
- Written by: Mark Kapengut
- Category: Latest News
Proposal 6. Define Active level of campaigning.
Amend BusRule 2. Purpose.
-
[Insert “Active”, and increase count, so it reads:] “The NJLP welcomes candidates of all 3 4 levels of commitment – Trademark, Active, Impact, and Challenge – defined as follows:”
- Details
- Written by: Christopher G. Russomanno
- Category: Latest News
I think it was way back between 2007 to 2012 when I became a libertarian. I’ll use the small “l” for now. Because I had not as yet joined the party but my thoughts and outlook were becoming libertarian.
My father was, and is, a die-hard conservative Republican. So, not knowing any better, I was as well. I think one could have considered me a “Neo-conservative” or a “Neo-Con.” I believed in “America” and everything I thought it stood for.
In the public school I went to (I like to think of them as government-run indoctrination centers) I had been taught about the Founding Fathers and the Revolutionary War and all the noble ideas that came with it. Most of the Presidents were lionized especially the ones that got us into wars. I was taught that World War Two was “the good war” and that we definitely, definitely, should have fought that one, for the good of everyone.
- Details
- Written by: Christopher G. Russomanno
- Category: Latest News
I love craft breweries because they are small businesses that are the backbone of our economy, they invest in the local community making it more prosperous and, most importantly —they make delicious beer.
Craft breweries are small businesses that are the backbone of the economy and they create more jobs than huge corporations ever will. The owners are plucky entrepreneurs who have a strong strain of self-reliance and a can-do attitude that is sorely needed in New Jersey. These small businesses are an economic benefit because they increase tourism and increase revenue for the state. However, regulations in New Jersey are making it difficult for craft breweries to operate and thrive because legislators are doing the bidding of big business. Big business is afraid that craft breweries will cut into their profit by drawing consumers away. These big businesses can afford to give large donations to political campaigns as well as send lobbyists to Trenton to influence politicians who then enact laws and regulations that favor those who donate over others. I have always been confused by this. New Jersey is a “blue state” with the Democrats, for the most part, having sway over politics. Supposedly the Dems are on the side of the little guy and the common man, but they then enact legislation to hurt small business owners. The notion that any of our politicians care about the little guy is just a tired old trope that they pull out to pander to their base when they need votes.
- Details
- Written by: Mark Kapengut
- Category: Latest News
We invited about a thousand of former NJLP members to the summer picnic. About 7% responded. A handful may be making their way to the event. Guys, welcome back!
Along the way, we polled them on their presidential preferences.
No candidate won a majority, but Justin Amash dominated with clear plurality, about 40%.
Among the rest of the candidates, Spike Cohen, Dave Smith and Trump tied for a second spot with 14% each.
- Details
- Written by: Gregg Mele
- Category: Latest News
I wanted to take this opportunity to update everyone on the progress of our gubernatorial campaign. I, along with my running mate for Lt. Governor, Eveline Brownstein, have been working hard to live up to the promise made at the convention to give all of you the fight of my life when you nominated us. It has already been a wild ride, and there is much more to come.
We have been building our infrastructure, including our website (www.meleforgovernor.com), social media accounts (FB, Twitter, Instagram), and various video/commercial content. This included our strategy team, our legal research and biostatistics team, our communications team, and our production team. Everyone has contributed mightily to a very professional, eye-catching, and inspiring presentation of our message.
- Details
- Written by: Mike Guadagnino
- Category: Latest News
Marijuana legalization within in the state of New Jersey has small-town statist politicians enacting a loop hole that pushes and continues their prohibitionist agenda. Last year’s November election demonstrated that 67% of the Garden State’s residents supported legalization. It is now lawful for a person to carry up to an ounce of marijuana, recreational use may be consumed in a private residence as well as there are a few other permitted provisions within the latest bill. The legalization of this plant has made politicians with a personal interventionalist slant very unhappy.
Those anti-liberty elected officials are using local town ordinances to stifle the cultivation and distribution of this plant. The state has given the local municipalities the decision to vote for or against growing and selling cannabis. If the local body votes this option down, they will close a 5-year window preventing any grower or distributor from operating within the given township. Governing bodies do have the ability to review and re-vote during the 5-year period with the option of overturning any previous vote.
- Details
- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
2021 NJLP Convention Business Meeting
March 20, 2021
Via Zoom and at 109 Mercer Street, Hightstown NJ
Proposed Agenda
Note: We will be meeting using Zoom as well as in person. Link to join the meeting will be posted later. Delegate credentialing will be performed by creating an account at https://convention.njlp.org/register. Voting will be performed online at this site.
09:00 Conference Begins, Credentials and Final Tech Issues to be handle
09:30 Call to order & quorum check [Chair]
09:25 Agenda review & approval [Chair]
09:30 Secretary's Report [Secretary]
Approval of prior meeting minutes.
09:35 Treasurer's report [Treasurer]
Presentation of 2020 final budget and proposed 2021 budget (See report pdf here (150 KB) ).
- Details
- Written by: Michael Rufo
- Category: Latest News
Approaching the fear of a quantifiable threat while pursuing life, liberty and happiness.
COVID-19 is real and social distancing is the right idea, authoritarianism is not.
We, as a society, need to slow down, reflect and understand the harm we are creating which can, and will, be just as bad for society as a whole. This may ruffle feathers and hurt some feelings, but it hits at the core of the unintended consequence of government force. It is for this exact moment in time that I, and millions of liberty minded individuals across the country, are constantly relentless about even the smallest of human rights infringements.
- Details
- Written by: William F Sihr
- Category: Latest News
New to Homeschooling? Libertarians are Here to Help!
Given the difficulties associated with the Covid-19 Pandemic, New Jersey parents have been unexpectedly thrust into the role of homeschool teachers. While this is a daunting, if not terrifying prospect for many parents we at the New Jersey Libertarian Party want to provide you with information and tips for how to make it through the next few months. The Libertarian Party and all of its state affiliates have championed alternative school methods, like home schooling, since the founding of our movement. We’ve learned a few things along the way while supporting alternative schooling and are offering our assistance to our fellow New Jersians as our state navigates this shift to schooling from home.
What we have done is looked for some tips from those of us who have actually experienced Home Schooling firsthand. We also collected useful tips for you from folks who successfully homeschool, and dug up various online resources to aid you. We also contacted Liam Lieberman, an independent business owner, film instructor and FEE alumni. Liam grew up in a homeschool environment and was able to give some suggestions to parents who are now dealing with this transition. Hopefully these resources prove useful.
- Details
- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
On March 3rd, 1882 Charles Ponzi, the creator of our modern Social Security system was born. The Ponzi Scheme is now used to describe any scam that pays early investors returns from the investments of later investors. In 1935, the U.S. government took Ponzi's ideas and added into it the concept of force.
A primary trait of Ponzi schemes is that eventually the number of investors collecting money outnumber the number of investors paying into the system. The result is normally a collapse of the system or extremely negative returns on investment.
Due to a combination of factors that include large numbers of people reaching retirement age and drastically lower fertility rates the pyramid scheme is on the verge of collapse. In 1941 there were 41.9 covered workers per beneficiary. Today it is less than 3 workers per beneficiary and is expected to drop to below 2.1 by 2040.
This is not the first time that the Social Security scam has been in trouble. The Social Security scam has been held together so far by forced coercion and continuously increasing premiums. Original investors were forced to pay only 2% of their income, current investors pay 12.4% of their income.
- Details
- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
2020 NJLP Convention
March 21, 2020
Virtual Meeting
Proposed Agenda
Note: We will be meeting using Zoom. Go to https://zoom.us/j/481492424 to join the meeting. Delegate credentialing will be performed by creating an account at https://convention.njlp.org/register. Voting will be performed online at this site.
09:00 Conference Begins, Credentials and Final Tech Issues to be handle
09:20 Call to order & quorum check [Chair]
09:25 Agenda review & approval [Chair]
09:30 Secretary's Report [Secretary]
Approval of prior meeting minutes