2008 Libertarian National Convention

United States political event January 2025 November 2019 2008 Libertarian 2008 Libertarian Party Convention.svg 150px Bob Barr Denver Convention 135 (cropped).jpg 250 Nominees Barr and Root May 22–26, 2008 Sheraton Hotel Denver, Colorado Bill Redpath Dr. Mary Ruwart Bob Barr of Georgia Wayne Allyn Root of Nevada Mary Ruwart of TexasMike Gravel of AlaskaSteve Kubby of California, activist George Phillies of Massachusetts 2006 2010 USA 400 right Sites of the 2008 national presidential nominating conventions USA blue-gold pog.svg 14 39.739167 -104.984722 bottom #FFFFFF Denver USA red pog.svg 44.9441 -93.0852 top #FFFFFF Saint Paul USA purple pog.svg 39.1 -94.58 bottom #FFFFFF Kansas City USA green pog.svg 41.836944 -87.684444 bottom #FFFFFF Chicago The 2008 Libertarian National Convention was held from May 22 to May 26, 2008, at the Sheraton Hotel (formerly the Adam's Mark Hotel)Richard L. Johnson http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2008_1st/Feb08_WhitehallSheraton.html Starwood to Re-brand and Renovate Former Adams Mark Hotels as Sheraton Dallas Hotel and Sheraton Denver Hotel / February 2008 Hotel-online.com 2012-06-27 in Denver, Colorado. The delegates at the convention, on behalf of the U.S. Libertarian Party, nominated Bob Barr for president and Wayne Allyn Root for vice president in the 2008 presidential election. The convention was televised nationally on C-SPAN.http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/cspan.csp?command=dprogram&record=202093789 Database Error 2008-05-26 https://web.archive.org/web/20080604132444/http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/cspan.csp?command=dprogram 2008-06-04 dead Libertarians hold a national convention every two years to vote on party bylaws, platform and resolutions and elect national party officers and a judicial committee. Every four years it nominates presidential and vice presidential candidates.http://www.lp.org/organization/bylaws.shtml Libertarian Party Bylaws Lp.org 2012-06-27 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080605025750/http://www.lp.org/organization/bylaws.shtml 2008-06-05 The theme of this convention was A Better Choice for America.LibertyWillWin.com (cited 12 February 2016). Two non-binding primaries preceded the convention. Platform thumb|right|Sheraton Hotel, where convention was held In 2006 the self-styled Libertarian Party "reformers" at the National Convention in Portland, Oregon took out 46 platform planks detailing party positions, leaving just fifteen. In 2008 more "radical" libertarians attempted to restore that platform. They did not succeed, but they narrowly prevented the reformers from softening the language of the non-aggression principle in the party's “Statement of Principles”.David Weigel, Who Isn't Trying to Take Over the Libertarian Party? Scenes from the LP's most newsworthy convention in years, Reason Magazine, May 23, 2008; Matt Simon, Libertarians Nominate Ex-Republican Barr, Huffington Post, May 26, 2008. The revised platform did replace the plank on secession,http://www.lpedia.org/index.php?title=2004_Libertarian_Party_Platform&redirect=no 2004 Libertarian Party Platform Lpedia.org 2012-05-06 2012-06-27 deleted in 2006, with a definition of self-determination drawn from the Declaration of Independence: "Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of individual liberty, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to agree to such new governance as to them shall seem most likely to protect their liberty."National Platform of the Libertarian Party https://web.archive.org/web/20080528182629/http://www.lp.org/issues/platform_all.shtml May 28, 2008 , Adopted in Convention, May 2008, Denver, Colorado. Presidential candidates Third-party and independent candidates for the 2008 United States presidential election#Libertarian Party Libertarian Party presidential candidates, 2008Candidate Home stateProfessionCampaign100pxBob BarrGeorgiaMember of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 7th district(1995–2003)150px(Campaign • Positions • Website)100pxMike Gravel AlaskaU.S. Senator from Alaska(1969–1981)(Campaign • Positions • Website)100pxDaniel Imperato FloridaBusinessman100pxMike Jingozian OregonSoftware developer100pxSteve Kubby CaliforniaLibertarian activist(Campaign)100pxRobert Milnes New JerseyActivist100pxGeorge Phillies MassachusettsProfessor of Physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute100pxWayne Allyn Root NevadaBusinessman, media personality, author, TV producer(Campaign)100pxMary Ruwart TexasRetired biomedical researcher; Libertarian speaker, writer, and activist(Campaign)100pxChristine Smith ColoradoHumanitarian activist, and writer Voting for presidential nomination First ballot After the first round, six of the eight candidates running moved on to the second round of voting. Mike Jingozian and Christine Smith were both eliminated due to their small percentage of votes. Jingozian endorsed former Senator Mike Gravel, and Smith presented a speech attacking Bob Barr after the results were announced. + 2008 Libertarian Party National Convention total vote count: Round 1 Candidate Total votes cast Percent of votes cast Bob Barr 153 24.3% Mary Ruwart 152 24.1% Wayne Allyn Root 123 19.5% Mike Gravel 71 11.3% George Phillies 49 7.8% Steve Kubby 41 6.5% Mike Jingozian 23 3.7% Christine Smith 6 1.0% Ron Paul (write-in) 6 1.0% Penn Jillette (write-in) 3 0.5% NOTA 2 0.3% Daniel Imperato (write-in) 1 0.2% Stephen Colbert (write-in) 1 0.2%Color key: 1st place 2nd place 3rd place 4th place 5th place 6th place 7th place Second ballot After the second round, five of the six candidates running moved on to the third ballot. Steve Kubby, after receiving only 5% of the total vote, dropped out of the race and endorsed Dr. Mary Ruwart. + 2008 Libertarian Party National Convention total vote count: Round 2 Candidate Total votes cast Percent of votes cast Bob Barr 188 29.8% Mary Ruwart 162 25.7% Wayne Allyn Root 138 21.9% Mike Gravel 73 11.6% George Phillies 36 5.7% Steve Kubby 32 5.1% NOTA 1 0.2% Stephen Colbert (write-in) 1 0.2%Color key: 1st place 2nd place 3rd place 4th place 5th place 6th place (tied) Third ballot After the third round of voting, four of the five remaining candidates moved on to the fourth ballot. Dr. George Phillies was eliminated after receiving approximately 5% of the vote. + 2008 Libertarian Party National Convention total vote count: Round 3 Candidate Total votes cast Percent of votes cast Bob Barr 186 29.6% Mary Ruwart 186 29.6% Wayne Allyn Root 146 23.3% Mike Gravel 78 12.4% George Phillies 31 4.9% Ron Paul (write-in) 1 0.2%Color key: 1st place (tied) 2nd place 3rd place 4th place Fourth ballot After the fourth vote, three of the four candidates went on to the fifth round of voting. Fmr. Sen. Mike Gravel was eliminated after not getting a sufficient number of votes, and subsequently announced that his political career was over. + 2008 Libertarian Party National Convention total vote count: Round 4 Candidate Total votes cast Percent of votes cast Bob Barr 202 32.0% Mary Ruwart 202 32.0% Wayne Allyn Root 149 23.6% Mike Gravel 76 12.0% NOTA 3 0.5%Color key: 1st place (tied) 2nd place 3rd place Fifth ballot After the fifth ballot, the final two of three candidates continued on to the sixth ballot. Wayne Allyn Root was therefore eliminated, and after the vote, he made a speech endorsing Barr and stating that he would like to be Barr's candidate for vice-president. Barr and Root then stated that they would run together. + 2008 Libertarian Party National Convention total vote count: Round 5 Candidate Total votes cast Percent of votes cast Mary Ruwart 229 36.8% Bob Barr 223 35.8% Wayne Allyn Root 165 26.5% NOTA 6 1.0%Color key: 1st place 2nd place 3rd place Sixth ballot With only Barr and Ruwart remaining on the ballot, Barr received 324 votes to Ruwart's 276 and 26 NOTA. Barr thus won the nomination with 51.8% of the final vote.http://www.lp.org/media/printer_588.shtml Press Releases: Presidential and VP Vote Totals – Updated Live! LP.org 2008-05-25 2008-05-25 https://web.archive.org/web/20080528033121/http://www.lp.org/media/printer_588.shtml 2008-05-28 dead Ruwart made a concession speech following the announcement of the results with her campaign staff on the stage. + 2008 Libertarian Party National Convention total vote count: Round 6 Candidate Total votes cast Percent of votes cast Bob Barr 324 51.8% Mary Ruwart 276 44.1% NOTA 26 4.2%Color key: 1st place 2nd place Voting for vice presidential nomination A separate vote was held for the vice presidential nomination. Presidential nominee Barr endorsed Root, while presidential runner-up Ruwart endorsed Kubby. First ballot After the first ballot, three of the six active candidates running moved on to the second ballot. + 2008 Libertarian Party National Convention total vote count: Round 1 Candidate Total votes cast Percent of votes cast Wayne Allyn Root 269 47.7% Steve Kubby 209 37.1% Daniel Williams 40 7.1% Jim Burns 27 4.8% Gail Lightfoot 14 2.5% NOTA 2 0.4% Mike Ferguson (write-in) 1 0.2% Mary Ruwart (write-in) 1 0.2% Leonard Schwartz 1 0.2%Color key: 1st place 2nd place 3rd place 4th place Second ballot After the second ballot, Wayne Allyn Root was nominated as the vice presidential candidate, prevailing by a difference of 30 votes over Steve Kubby, and 279 votes over Daniel Williams. + 2008 Libertarian Party National Convention total vote count: Round 2 Candidate Total votes cast Percent of votes cast Wayne Allyn Root 289 51.0% Steve Kubby 259 45.7% Daniel Williams 10 1.8% NOTA 6 1.1% Unknown Richard (write-in) 1 0.2% Mike Ferguson (write-in) 1 0.2% Mary Ruwart (write-in) 1 0.2%Color key: 1st place 2nd place 3rd place (tied) See also 2008 United States third-party presidential candidates Libertarian Party of Colorado Other 2008 American political conventions Green Party Democratic Party Republican Party References External links Bob Barr wins the Libertarian Party presidential nomination https://web.archive.org/web/20080730184030/http://www.lpconvention.org/ July 30, 2008 Official convention website LP News (January 2007) https://web.archive.org/web/20080520030733/http://www.denverlpcon.com/ Maay 20, 2008 Official convention guide "Freedom Freaks" published by The New Republic Category:Libertarian Party (United States) National Conventions Category:2008 United States presidential nominating conventions Libertarian National Convention Category:2000s in Denver Category:Conventions in Colorado Category:United States presidential nominating conventions in Colorado Category:May 2008 in the United States Category:Conventions in Denver