Good press ...

The Niagara LP has benefitted these past few days from some remarkably good press.

Of course, as the line goes, there's no such thing as bad press.

Soon after hearing from Jeff Russell - former US Senate candidate and New York State Libertarian Party committeeman - that the state committee has appointed me as temporary chairman of the Niagara County party, I drew up a press release and sent it on to some of my friends in the local media - WLVL news, the Buffalo News, and the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal.

Immediately, I started to see the fruits of my labor when WLVL News Director Doug Young ran a story about the new fledgling party (link to audio) on Thursday. I followed it up with an entire hour about what the Libertarian Party is and why we need it in Niagara county (link to audio). I got some questions and commentary from some friends of the show asking what this meant and why I was doing it.

The following day, The Buffalo News ran a decent-sized brief about the LP (story link), which precipitated a bit of a spike in our web traffic. I began to get some emails from people asking for more information about us and what we planned to do. Happy to oblige.

Sunday, a story appeared on the front page of the Union-Sun & Journal with a headline "People's Choice?" which I thought was quite fitting. The same story ran on the front page of the Niagara Gazette Monday, headlined: "A Political Party for the Cynical?" (story link)(image link)

And this morning, GNN columnist and fellow Libertarian (and one of the Niagara Chapter's fellow founders) had a column published extolling the virtues of the party and why YOU should join. (column link).

All good.

But you know there are nay-sayers.

Friday, after the Buffalo News story ran, another Niagara County-based blog was kind enough to republish the news story (blog link). Commentary included a question of whether I could still do my job as talk show host while serving as temporary chair of the Niagara LP. It's a legitimate question. The answer is that I most certainly can. My predecessor, in fact, was acting chairman of the county GOP while hosting the same show I host.

One of the posters to the site wasn't so relevant, using it as an opportunity to bash me, saying: "Leff was tossed out by the Dems, I'm sure it's just a matter of time he alienates this group as well. Of course, I'm sure that this will now be the focus of his show, with him shoving Libertarianism down his listeners throats. Just another reason for me not to listen." For the record, I've been tossed out of a lot of places in my life. The Democratic Party was never one of them. Also, I've extolled the virtues of Libertarianism for some time and will continue to do so. I don't, however, plan to turn my talk show into a daily infomercial for the LP.

This morning, the same blog posted a critique of the US&J story, saying that it had unattributed opinion listed as fact in the body of the story. (blog link) Trivial, maybe, but true and legitimate nonetheless. But once again, the posters to the site took it as a cue to turn it into a virtual pinata, somehow claiming that WLVL, the US&J and LCTV are all on a liberal-driven agenda.

At least they're writing about us.

Then this afternoon, a poster on the Union-Sun website asks if any of the LP organizers looked into the Working Families Party. (link) That's like asking if the Green's considered joining the Right-to-Life Party.

But, again, at least they're writing about us.

The good news is that all of this press has gotten us several inquiries into joining the Libertarian cause and will - hopefully - help us to build "the party of prinicple" in this land so-lacking it.

Tomorrow I'll talk about party confusion.