Alden Link Resigns MLP Membership In Protest To Its Treatment Of LPQC Members Sam Sloan & Dr. Tom Stevens

On November 23, 2010, Alden Link, the Libertarian Party's Candidate for Lt. Governor of New York State in 2010, resigned his membership in the Manhattan Libertarian Party in protest to the way it and the New York Libertarian Party has treated Libertarian Party of Queens County members Sam Sloan and Dr. Tom Stevens.

In an e-mail to Mark Axinn, New York Libertarian Party Chair and Manhattan Libertarian Party Secretary/Treasurer, Alden Link wrote the following:

I am saddened by the dispute between the LPQC and the MLP, with Tom Stevens and Sam Sloan in particular being victimized by the NYLP and MLP.

I feel my continued membership in the MLP is not in my best interests or that of the LPQC. Therefore, I hereby tender my resignation from the Manhattan Libertarian Party.

Should the two groups reconcile their differences with apologies to Tom and Sam, I would certainly reconsider this decision.

Dr. Tom Stevens, LPQC Political Director, responded as follows:

I appreciate Alden Link ending his association with the Manhattan Libertarian Party. The MLP's County Committee declared war on the Queens LP by asking its Political Director to resign his membership and by suspending the membership of Sam Sloan, a prominent LPQC member, who was unanimously elected by the MLP membership to be its State Representative. In addition to that, Mark Axinn, as NYLP Chair, spoke in favor of forming a Special Committee to investigate charges against John Procida, the former LPQC Chair, as a prelude to taking action to suspend Procida's State Party membership, as was just done to former LPQC State Representative Dr. Tom Stevens, and LPQC member Sam Sloan, who the LPQC endorsed as its candidate for governor.

Mark Axinn believes the insults and injuries to the LPQC can just be swept under the rug and that by taking no further aggressive actions against the Queens LP leadership, that all will simply be forgiven. This will not happen!

I can confidently say the Libertarian Party of Queens County seeks peaceful, friendly relations with the Manhattan Libertarian Party. All that is required to restore good relations is an apology to Sam Sloan and myself with an invitation extended to us to rejoin the Manhattan Libertarian Party. 

Mark Axinn and the County Committee of the Manhattan Libertarian Party created this situation and it is within their power to resolve it. However, without justice, there can and will be no peace!

Alden Link is a member of the Libertarian Party of Queens County and is Chair of the Hudson River Valley Libertarians (covering Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, Ulster, Columbia & Greene counties), a chapter of Empire State Libertarians.