Stephen P. "Steve" Gordon (b. July 31, 1962) is a libertarian political consultant [1] with the firm Forward Focus Media and a political activist. He currently writes at The Next Right[2] and The Liberty Papers[3] and serves as the Media Director for the Alabama chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus.[4]
Gordon accepted the position of Communications Director for the Libertarian Party in June, 2006 and served as the party's Political Director until June 2007.[5] After resigning his position with the national party, he was named Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Alabama at the LPA's 24 June 2007 convention.
In addition to his former positions with the national Libertarian Party, Gordon was co-editor of the libertarian news blog Hammer of Truth,[6] owned and edited the website Third Party Watch,[7] he taught campaign management at the Libertarian Leadership School,[8] and is a member of the American Association of Political Consultants.[9]
He was the campaign Communications Director during Michael Badnarik’s run for President of the United States during the 2004 elections. Gordon also managed Hollywood producer Aaron Russo's campaign for the Libertarian nomination in 2004.[10] He served as Ron Paul's [11] Alabama Media Coordinator and Bob Barr's e-Campaign manager during the 2008 presidential elections.[12]
Gordon did not run for re-election for any of his Libertarian Party positions in 2008 and is currently working with the Republican Liberty Caucus.[13]
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Gordon’s first notable position with a political campaign was managing south Arlington County, Virginia during the Oliver North for Senate campaign. Following the Republican Revolution in 1994, Gordon became increasingly disenchanted with the Republican Party. His gradual transformation to the Libertarian Party was completed by 1999, when he was a local organizer in Macon, Georgia for Harry Browne’s presidential campaign.
Gordon moved back to his native Alabama in 2002 where he became involved in state level Libertarian Party activities. His first project was manage Libertarian Party efforts to defeat Amendment One, the tax increase plan proposed by Republican Governor Bob Riley. He was credited by talk radio host Russ Fine as a "the leader in Internet activism" for his efforts in directing an online campaign against the tax plan, as well as for his article titled "Open Letter to the Governor of Alabama[14]", which spread across the Internet during the political debate on the issue. Under Gordon’s direction, the Libertarian Party of Alabama hosted a meeting in Birmingham, Alabama between many of the key people and organizations opposing the ballot measure. Key personalities from the Tennessee Tax Revolt shared their experiences from recent tax battles in the neighboring state. In attendance were representatives from the Eagle Forum, talk radio programs, Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Libertarian Party and local businessman Stan Pate. The primary result of this meeting was a coordinated coalition activity geared toward defeating the ballot measure. While the Alabama Republican Party eventually offered a weak disapproval of Riley’s tax plan, the Libertarian Party of Alabama was the only political party to offer active resistance to the proposed tax hike. The measure was rejected by voters on September 9, 2003, with 68 percent opposed to it.
From 2003 to 2005, Gordon was involved with various state level political activities. Gordon served as Vice Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Alabama from 2004 until his resignation in 2006. During the 2005 elections, Gordon consulted with Libertarian, Democratic and Republican city council campaigns in Birmingham, Alabama. After his 2007 resignation from his national LP staff position, he accepted the position of Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Alabama.[15] Gordon served as Chair of the Libertarian State Leadership Alliance, the Libertarian Party's organization of state chairs, from 2008 to 2009.[16] In 2009, Gordon worked to help Kim Rafferty become elected to the Birmingham City Council.[17]
In early 2004, Aaron Russo asked Gordon to manage his campaign for president of the United States. While some considered Russo's earthy, emotionally powerful presentation a bit rough for polite circles, others considered him to pose a serious threat to incumbent President George W. Bush, pulling enough votes from otherwise likely Bush voters to affect the outcome in battleground states, in the same way that Ralph Nader was considered to be in relation to Democrat John Kerry. [18][19]
At the LP national convention in Atlanta, Georgia in May 2004, Russo narrowly won a plurality on the first two ballots, but not a majority. He was defeated on the third and final ballot by nominee Michael Badnarik by a vote of 423-344. George Washington University credited Gordon [20] with running a "professional campaign" as well as directing two television commercials and a well designed website.
Following Russo's loss at the Libertarian Party Convention, Gordon eventually became the Communications Director for the Badnarik campaign, for which he utilized the Internet to raise about one third of the approximately million dollars raised during the campaign.
Badnarik and Green Party candidate David Cobb were arrested in St. Louis, Missouri, on October 8, 2004, for an act of civil disobedience. Badnarik and Cobb were protesting their exclusion from the presidential debates of the 2004 presidential election campaign. They were arrested after crossing a police barricade in an attempt to serve an "Order to Show Cause" to the Commission on Presidential Debates. Gordon's blog coverage [21] of the event at Badnarik's website was the primary news source of the arrest.
By the end of the election cycle, Badnarik's presidential campaign had obtained ballot access in 48 states plus the District of Columbia (the Libertarian Party failed to obtain ballot access in Oklahoma and New Hampshire, although Badnarik received write-in votes in New Hampshire), and placed nationwide political advertisements on CNN and Fox News in addition to local advertising buys in the swing states of Wisconsin, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona.
No national polls including Badnarik had put him above 1.5%, though one poll put him at 5% in New Mexico and another at 3% at Nevada.[22] A Rasmussen Group poll on 26 October 2004 put Badnarik at 3% in Arizona.[23] Gordon coordinated most of the polling operations for this campaign.
Badnarik polled just under 400,000 popular votes nationwide, in the 2 November 2004 election, taking 0.34% of the popular vote and placing fourth, just behind Ralph Nader.
Gordon was involved in Ron Paul's 2008 Republican primary presidential race at a state level, serving as the Alabama Media Coordinator for the campaign.[24] While Paul won decisive straw poll victories in Tuscaloosa[25] and Jefferson County.,[26] he ultimately lost Alabama's Super Tuesday, 2008 election to Mike Huckabee.[27]
Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr introduced Ron Paul at the 2008 Conservative Political Action Conference. Later during the conference, Paul sent out an e-mail indicating his intent to draw down his presidential race.[28][29] Gordon was photographed with Barr at CPAC [30] and later credited by Washington Times Assistant National Editor Robert Stacy McCain with starting a draft movement for Barr,[31] which was later covered by the Washington Times.[32]
The 2008 Libertarian National Convention was conducted in Denver, Colorado over Memorial Day weekend. Gordon managed convention floor operations for Barr's campaign, which maintained that he was the underdog in the race due to his late entry and internal Libertarian politics. While Barr eventually won the nomination after six rounds of voting and was generally credited with running a clean campaign, Gordon was criticized for selling Third Party Watch, considered "the premier 'third party news site' on the Internet" to conservative icon Richard Viguerie immediately before the convention.[33][34][35][36][37][38]
On April 12, 2009 both Roger Hedgecock and Gordon were credited with leaking a controversial Department of Homeland Security document which many people considered a direct attack on the conservative movement.[39][40][41]
Gordon was among the first Alabamians quoted when Congressman Parker Griffith of Alabama's 5th congressional district swapped political parties, becoming a Republican.
"Welcome to the party, Parker," [42] wrote Gordon at the Alabama Republican Liberty Caucus website. "Here’s an electronic copy of the Constitution. Read it well, as you will have to continue to dodge us if you continue to disregard it."[43][44]
Gordon has been involved with and written extensively about the Tea Party protests of 2009.[45] His primary speaking points have been for the Tea Party movement to stick with fiscal topics,[46] that many Republicans share the blame with Democrats for the current fiscal environment,[47] that certain conservative organizations are trying to astroturf the movement [48] and how candidates can pick up support from Tea Party supporters.[49] He's been covered by multiple nationally significant publications and television programs on the topic. [50] [51]