I am not running a recruitment drive, but I hope that Libertarians and sympathizers will respond, especially in California.)

See
Judge Releases Kubbys On Own Recognizance.
Libertarian Party Organizations Now Committed To The Marijuana Issue.
Large Number Of Plants Will Force Dealing With Difficult Questions -- Analysis By Richard Cowan
and links

From the Libertarian Party Of Placer County:
January 26, 1999

This is a red alert!

Now is our chance to end the persecution of medicinal marijuana patients

We have two weeks from 1/25/99 to raise $15,000 or the Libertarian Party will drop the ball.

Read on.

We have a realistic chance to go on the offensive and recall the sheriff, district attorney and the judges involved in attempting to prosecute clearly legal recipients of medicinal marijuana under Prop. 215

The national Libertarian Party is ready to focus on Placer County where the grossest negligence against Prop. 215 has been seen. Within the last six months 8 people using medicinal marijuana with their doctors recommendation or approval have been raided, harassed, imprisoned, and persecuted by the Placer County Sheriff.

This plan has a double edge sword. If we succeed the elected officials will be ousted and the next officials will think twice before ignoring the voters. If we fail we still succeed because they will fear being placed under the hammer again. Either way it will be a win. Then all of the other elected officials across the state will heed our warning. The voters must be heard and listened to!

Again we need to raise $15,000. Please send your donations to the cause to:

The Libertarian Party of Placer County
P.O. Box 42
Roseville, CA 95678-00042

Fellow Libertarians,

If there was ever a political challenge and reason for the the Libertarian Party to exist, the time is now. The power of the state to make a direct attack on peaceful, lawful Libertarians such as Steve Kubby and Michael Baldwin, (and individual liberty of all Americans), no longer revolves around war on foreign shores, but war on all people world-wide—the War on Drugs.

Now, Califronia State Law, Prop 215, has been ignored, and the gov’t has done injustice to sick and dying people because they have chosen to use a legal useful herb that they believe will improve the quality of their lives.

To stand by and watch from the side-lines and do nothing on their behalf, is to reject everything we have struggled for since our beginning as the only principled political organization in the nation.

The moment of truth has arrived here in Placer County. It could have been anywhere in California, but with the arrest of Kubby, a Placer County resident, it is here.

I would have preferred it elsewhere and assisted from afar. The County Sheriff is a good man I call friend, and to hassle him is not something I want to see. We can be timid and not get involved (as I am strongly inclined to do), or we can make Placer County a test-case on the issue that will reverbrate nation-wide. To a very high degree, the choice is yours.

As Priscilla Falconi, Chair of the Placer County LP says, "this is not amateur hour. We need help!" That means campaign professionals and qualified media people. We must not begin, if we are not prepared to accept the task and carry it full length. Aaron Starr says it will take 20,000 recall signitures and $20,000 to $30,000. It may take more.

You can be absolutely certain we will not attempt this project alone or in a half-baked manner. With the help of Libertarians in California and all over the nation, the load can be light and our chance for success good.

Now is the time to put our state & national networks to work, and to put our money where our mouth is—or let this singular opportunity pass.

You may send your checks to:

The Libertarian Party of Placer County
P.O. Box 42
Roseville, CA 95678-00042

Finally, to be effective, we must start the recall campaign as-soon-as-possible. That means we will need campaign resources within two weeks. We will not deposit any checks until we have at least $15,000 in hand. If we cannot make this realistic and doable goal, the checks will all be returned.

I want to thank Eric Fine who has pledged $200. He said he would send it as soon as the account is identified. With this note, I expect he will immediately follow through.

Money raised for this effort is designed to fund a political recall campaign effort, not to help Steve Kubby or Dr. Baldwin with their legal expenses. They have defense accounts, and assistence should also go to them.

Finally, the question was asked on the vote totals for Prop. 215 in the county. The YES vote was 44,484 or 47%. The NO vote was 48,466 for 52.1%.

There should be enough signitures to get a recall on the ballot

For liberty,

READ THIS ONLY IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT HELPING STEVE KUBBY

Doing a recall effort against the Placer County D.A. would put us on the offensive, instead of the defensive. It changes the battle over Steve Kubby’s arrest from one of facts (as interpreted by the D.A.) into one of politics.

If the people in Placer County passed proposition 215, it puts us in an even better position politically speaking. Let’s make the Placer County D.A. sweat a little!!!!

(Can someone please get me the prop 215 vote totals for Placer County?)

We should do the following if we are serious about doing a recall effort against the Placer County D.A.

1) Confirm that the law allows a recall procedure for this elected official.

It’s possible that the law may require that we wait at least six months after an official gets (re)elected before we can file a recall petition. Can somebody please confirm the law for me as well as when the D.A. got elected, June or November?

2) We’ll probably need paid signature gatherers to collect the necessary signatures on the petition. These signature gatherers will need to be registered voters in Placer County (theoretically a recent court ruling declared that the signature gatherers need not be registered voters and need not be disclosed as to their identities, but I wouldn’t want to go this route). I suspect that we’ll need about 20,000 signatures to equal 15% of the 136,000 registered voters. We’re probably required to get 10% valid based on the number of registered voters. I won’t be surprised if we wind up spending around $20,000 - $30,000 to accomplish this. Since Steve Kubby is currently out of jail, I suggest that he would be the ideal person to make one-on-one fundraising calls to gather the money to spearhead the recall effort.

I recommend that we hire a nearby petition management firm. I have already taken the liberty of contacting National Voter Outreach of Carson City, NV (702) 883-7447 rick@directdemocracy.com. This operation is run by Rick Arnold, yes that Rick Arnold, a Libertarian who has gathered signatures for Libertarian ballot drives. He’ll give me a more firm price on the cost of gathering signatures by this Thursday.

If for some reason Rick Arnold can’t do the petition effort there is a petition management firm in Placer County: National Petition Management of Roseville, CA (916) 774-0634 Lee Albright, contact.

3) We’ll need a good, local PR firm who can spin this our way.

Remember, if we make this arrest appear to be based on politics, which in fact it is, we’ll be in a better position to win the hearts and minds of Placer County. It’s far better that we try this case in the media than in the courts. This case could also reverberate through the state. Does anyone know a good PR firm in Placer County?

Personal note to Steve Kubby: Keeping a positive attitude is critical right now. You may not think this way today, but if we succeed, you’re going to look fondly back on this period. You will generate more media due to this than your whole gubernatorial campaign. You’re might even wish that you had been arrested a year earlier.

Steve Kubby, I suspect you’ve probably got friends and allies who wouldn’t give you money for a gubernatorial race because they thought you had zero chance of winning. These same people would give you money for better than even odds of keeping you out of jail and helping the decriminalization movement!!! It’s time to dial for dollars.

Folks, it’s time to do battle.

Dear Libertarian Leader,

With Steve Kubby’s arrest, we now have two Libertarians under prosecution by the state here in Placer County. Dr. Micheal Baldwin, a Placer County dentist, is also being prosecuted for his medical use of marijauna. It is my understnding that both he and Kubby’s health problems legally justify the use of the herb, and both have physician-written medical perscriptions for its use under the law.

These two cases present us an incredibly important opportunity to strike a mighty blow for individual liberty. Actually, we must not fail to act with all our ability because of the high public profile presented by Kubby’s arrest.

We know, that the drug laws are a major tool of the state to take our liberty from us. Its utility to the state is second only to real thing -- war.

Placer County, a fairly large, long and narrow area, is located immediately East of Sacramento County, and extends over the Sierra Mountains to the Nevada State Line—generally following the route of Interstate-80.

Most of the area uphill from Auburn, the county seat, is quite thinly settled with much of it in state and federal forest lands. Most of the population is in Western Placer County near the small to medium sized towns of Roseville, Rocklin, Loomis, Auburn and Colfax.

The population has a significant population of philosophical libertarians.

It is also the home of many California State Legislators. A number of years ago, Placer County elected a LP supervisor (at about the same time Tom Tryon was elected Supervisor in Calaveras County).

As you know, search warrents are issued by local judges. They all stand for election. The same is true for the county prosecutor and the county sheriff.

Moreover, county supervisors have a lot to say about what happens in the county.

"Now is the time to come to the aid of the country!" How many times have we used that trite statement in testing our typing skills? Is it not time to make it real!?

Consider an audacious proposal for our party: let us get agressively and powerfully political on this issue. Let us employ a full-time professionally directed media campaign against those who are obligated to follow the law, but choose to harrass sick people’s California rights. Let’s invite our brother and sister Libertarians from all over the nation to help us do political combat in here in Placer County.

It will take skilled political action, incredible determination and devoted committment. But if we fail to engage in this battle in defense of our brothers (and their wives) and our individual liberty, we the members of the Libertarian Party of California (and the National LP as well), might just as well fold our political tents, retreat from the political arena, and go back to our peaceful, state-managed, socialist lives.

I would propose we gather together for a specially convened action planning meeting at the LP Convention in San Jose, and prepare a battle plan with strategy and tactics to bring success. We can prevail if we decide to do so.

I hope you agree and will support the idea by contacting CLP State Chair, Mark Hinkle at <chair@ca.lp.org>, and ask him to assign a time and place on Saturday or Sunday for that purpose.

Relentlessly in Liberty,

I highly suggest using the recall provision to remove the D.A. and judge from office if need be.

Libertarians in Placer County should IMMEDIATELY call their Registrar of Voters office and get the low down on recall procedures. The time to plan is now...just in case.

Libertarians need to STRIKE BACK with all our might against those who Choose to harass and threaten peaceful citizens, especially those who are sick or dying.

Moral outrage must be acted upon. When is enough enough? As Libertarians, we have to draw a line in the sand and say "don’t you even dare!"

I’ll do whatever I can from Southern California. I’m asking each and every Libertarian to also do what they can.

I just met with Dr. Baldwin, who is a member of the Placer County LP, who knows more about the dynamics of his own and Kubby’s situation than I do.

Baldwin wants to move forward, even if a recall fails. Even with a loss, based on information he has on the national dynamics of the subject, he thinks it would have a very positive effect.

As a matter of fact, he says he will raise significant money for the LP to move on this even if the party did not support the effort economically.