Over 60 libertarians from across Iowa converged in Des Moines for the 2022 State Convention, with 54 official delegates from 23 counties meeting to make needed improvements to governing documents and to elect a new State Central Committee for the 22-24 term.
The Friday Night Social included inspirational speeches from Doug Loots, Jeni Kadel, Joshua Smith, Joseph Ecklund, Toya Johnson, and Thomas Laehn, followed by a fundraiser that raised over $1,000. These speakers were the perfect lead-up to our speakers on Saturday, including Keith Laube, Cara Schulz, and key-note speaker Rick Stewart. We would also like to thank our sponsors and vendors, which included Informed Choice Iowa, Better Ballot Iowa, The Turbine Guy, Redacted Caucus, Radical Caucus, and Mises Caucus.
Saturday kicked off with a message of unity from Spike Cohen and a welcome from LPIA Chair, Ed Wright, followed by treasurer and legal reports. The treasurer report included an overall assessment of the financial events of the last year, as well as the new procedures that have been put in place to support audits and transparency. The legal briefing included the ongoing legal cases involving the party, including the charges against the former state chair and against the state over ballot access. With these reports complete the delegation was ready to move to the business of amending our governing documents.
As our Constitution is our most senior governing document, it requires 90% approval for any changes. We were pleased to have made multiple updates that addressed clarity and overall housekeeping.
Next, we amended multiple areas in the By-Laws to address the challenges of the past year. This included making changes to handle vacancies in the SCC in a timely matter, ensuring our Audit Committee is a standing body with responsibilities throughout the year, and updating the duties of the treasurer to ensure all source documents are transparently shared with the SCC and Audit committee. Finally, we updated our method of voting for National Delegates to streamline the process.
Our Platform requires the same 90% approval to add or amend any planks, so this is also an area that requires deep deliberation. The delegation decided to amend our three planks to simplify the language and remove specific references to policies. Now our platform only speaks to our core principles, allowing our candidates to focus on the policy implications of those principles as they see fit.
Finally, we are thrilled to announce the newly elected SCC and other leadership positions for 2022:
State Central Committee
- Chair: Julia Ofenbakh
- Co-Chair: Benjamin Held
- Secretary: Clyde Harold Gibson III
- Treasurer: Nathan Kleffman
- At-Large: David Green
- At-Large: Jacob Stevens
- District 1 Representative: Devon Wiese, Andrew Onsgard (Alt)
- District 2 Representative: Heath Long, Austen Rodgers (Alt)
- District 3 Representative: Adam (AJ) Fisher, Paul Vincent (Alt)
- District 4 Representative: Rick Achtziger, Joshua Herbert (Alt)
Judicial Committee
- Joseph Howe
- Ed Wright
- Joshua Smith
- Toya Johnson
- John Ewing
- David Davis
- Rick Stewart
National Delegates & Alternates
- Rick Stewart
- Nathan Kleffman
- Heath Long
- Jacob Stevens
- Joshua Smith
- Jesse West
- Jake Golhmann
- Rick Achtziger
- Deven Wiese
- Chris Hines
- Julia Ofenbakh (Alt)
- Ed Wright (Alt)
- Arianna Cutler (Alt)
- Davis Davis (Alt)
- Paul Vincent (Alt)
- Jimmy Morrison (Alt)
- Dana Riecken (Alt)
- Andrew Onsgard (Alt)
- Benjamin Held (Alt)
