This week, Libertarian Party of California Chair Adrian Malagon sent out an email to the entire membership highlighting the Special Investigatory Committee’s report on former LNC Chair Angela McArdle. The report itself is legitimate and raises serious concerns about governance and ethics. That said, how—and why—it was shared raises a few eyebrows.
Through the grapevine, I’ve heard that Adrian and Angela haven’t seen eye-to-eye since last year’s California convention. There’s talk that Adrian is no longer part of the national Mises Caucus, and that the California chapter has distanced itself as well. I’m also told he now tends to align with the anti-MC faction of the national committee and supported Steven Nekhaila over Michael Heise for Chair.
I’m not claiming to know every detail of these internal dynamics. I try not to mistake rumors for facts. But what seems clear is that this email wasn’t just about transparency—it was also about politics.
And let’s be real: for a lot of Libertarians watching from the sidelines, this looks like pure drama. Dirty laundry flapping in the wind. And yes, some folks are enjoying it with a big bucket of popcorn.
Meanwhile, California is on fire—and not metaphorically.
A military mobilization in Los Angeles is expected to cost taxpayers $134 million, sparked by public outrage over immigration raids and detentions. This is the kind of real, urgent issue where the Libertarian Party should be leading: defending peaceful people, opposing government overreach, and demanding fiscal sanity.
That’s where our focus should be—not on who said what to whom in last year’s internal caucus chess game.
As a candidate for State Chair, I’m not interested in stoking division or reliving old grudges. I want to build. I want to unite. I want a Libertarian Party that speaks up for Californians facing real problems—not one that drags itself into soap opera reruns.
Let’s save the popcorn for movie night. It’s time to get back to work.
So Pat, what should the LPC being doing right now about what is going on LA? Seems like we ought to have a press release about it at least.
The LPCA “program” (our mini-platform) has a “Defend the Guard” plank. Although this is geared toward opposing the federal government using guard forces for foreign intervention, it could be seen as relevant to this situation. https://ca.lp.org/about/program/
We (libertarians) can always focus on the non-drama work of electing state and federal representatives to the legislatures, locally. And influencing and lobbying those in office we (voters) already have. When I was in Los Angeles for the “civil unrest,” it became clear that it wasn’t as big and dramatic as the news made it look.
Ignoring the news reports and focusing on legislatures is probably better. States have been trying to take back their authority from the federal government, and that’s a step in the right direction by some states. Ours could use some libertarians in the State Assembly.
The US House could use some more libertarians from California, to help take back our right to have the House members represent us instead of letting the Executive get away with mandating every thing (we know how bad that can be).
And, City Council or County Supervisor can be critical, too. Forming task forces to work in these need not wait for permission.
I think what is needed with the immigration dilemma is a substantive Root Cause Analysis of the problem-in order to resolve the periodic recurring issue of chaos and defiance of the laws. The patterns for the last 60 years of my experience are recurring and seem to involve the same cast of character roles, just different generations and players—I suspect the sponsors have not changed. It is a gross weakness in our system and needs to be identified and resolved.