Now It's Just Getting Stupid

One of the Libertarian National Committee's quadrennial priorities is getting the party's presidential campaign to sign a contract covering things like sharing of data (e.g. the LNC letting the campaign mail to its list of members; the campaign letting the LNC mail to its list of donors, etc.).

It's enough of a priority that at this year's national convention, a bylaws amendment was proposed that would have required candidates for the presidential nomination to sign such contracts to be eligible for the nomination. That amendment was rejected for the perfectly good reason that it would have empowered the LNC to game the nomination by offering contracts that some candidates could or would not sign.

So anyway, ever since the nomination, there's been a bunch of back and forth between the LNC and the Johnson campaign regarding a contract.

As of yesterday, the LNC's chair (who was given authority by the LNC to negotiate and execute the contract) had signed a contract.

What's in the contract? Apparently the only people who know are the chair, the LNC's lawyer, and the Johnson/Weld campaign's negotiators.

And apparently there's a clause in the contract requiring secrecy as to its terms -- forever. Even LNC members have to sign non-disclosure agreements just to see a contract that binds the committee and the party to whatever secret stuff is in it. Regular old party members and donors? Don't bother asking, you don't rate.

Thanks to Region 1 representative Caryn Ann Harlos for fighting like hell against this bullshit.

In other news, Johnson/Weld campaign promise: "No hypocrisy; full transparency."

Somehow, I'm just not feeling it.