New Mexico Squeezed

A look at the hostile history behind LNC v. LPNM, and what the recent LNC meeting marathon reveals about who is really being pressured.

The Libertarian National Committee (LNC) is in active federal litigation against the breakaway organization that still calls itself the "Libertarian Party of New Mexico" (LPNM). The breakaway group, led by Chris Luchini, was disaffiliated from the LNC in 2022 and now operates as part of the Liberal Party USA network (of which Luchini is also a founding member).

For New Mexico Libertarians who have spent four years rebuilding a state party from the wreckage of a hostile takeover, the first half of June 2026 should have been a moment of vindication. Instead, the last two weeks of LNC and Executive Committee meetings have shown something far more troubling. The new national leadership, even while suing Luchini's organization for trademark infringement, appears to be negotiating in favor of their own affiliate's disappearance.

How We Got Here

The roots of this fight go back to 2022. A dispute over the validity of the New Mexico affiliate's bylaws and constitution led the LNC and the then-LPNM leadership to disaffiliate from one another, with the Central Committee under Luchini formally declaring its "independence" from the LNC on August 26, 2022. The LNC promptly recognized a new New Mexico affiliate.

Meanwhile, Luchini's group went on to co-found the Association of Liberty State Parties in December 2022 alongside splinter groups from Massachusetts and Virginia, an organization that rebranded in February 2024 as Liberal Party USA, chaired by Trisha Butler, running Laura Ebke and Butler as its first national ticket.

Because the New Mexico Secretary of State continued to incorrectly associate the "Libertarian" name with Luchini's Liberal Party group, the LNC's actual recognized affiliate was forced to give up that name in September 2023, rebranding as the Free New Mexico Party under Chair Derek Scott — even though it is the FNMP, not Luchini's organization, that the national party recognizes. That naming confusion has diluted and undermined the perceived legitimacy of FNMP ever since.

The LNC spent over $50,000 supporting the FNMP's ballot access efforts in the 2024 cycle. Luchini's LPNM, running as part of the "Liberal Party" ticket, fell short of the 5% threshold and lost New Mexico major-party status after 2024, a status it has spent 2026 trying to claw back.

By fall 2025, the LNC's patience with Luchini's continued use of the "Libertarian" name had run out. Region 1 Representative Andrew Chadderdon publicly pressed for action, criticizing what he called an "18-day refusal" by leadership to act on a September 7, 2025 approved directive to simply send a cease-and-desist letter. On October 5, 2025, the full LNC unanimously directed the Chair to prepare a trademark litigation proposal. The 2026 budget, adopted December 6, 2025, included a dedicated $20,000 "Legal – Proactive: New Mexico Trademark" line. The political delays would actually continue for months longer, despite the time-sensitive nature of elections and ballot access.

On March 16, 2026, the Executive Committee formally authorized a retainer with Fresh IP PLC ($20,000, $300/hour) to pursue trademark infringement claims, and a separate retainer with the Law Office of Gary Fielder to sue the New Mexico Secretary of State on behalf of the FNMP, seeking to force the state to let the actual LNC affiliate use the "Libertarian Party of New Mexico" name (meeting notice).

By early June, LNC v. Libertarian Party of New Mexico et al. was a live federal case. A hearing on the LNC's request for an emergency injunction is scheduled for Monday, June 15. If granted, it would keep Luchini's candidates off the 2026 New Mexico ballot.

A Meeting Marathon

In the span of roughly five days, the LNC and its Executive Committee met at least four times on matters touching New Mexico:

June 7 — A full LNC meeting and a follow-on Executive Committee session. Public comment was split: Andrew Chadderdon argued the LNC should continue defending its New Mexico affiliate; other members pushed back. The Executive Committee created a litigation committee to oversee four active matters at once including the McArdle litigation, the Harlos FEC complaint, and both New Mexico lawsuits — before going into executive session on the trademark suit (Third Party Watch).

June 9 — A second Executive Committee meeting devoted entirely to a motion that would have directed the Chair and counsel to "immediately halt all adversarial legal actions" against LPNM, enter "good-faith negotiations based on the present settlement offer," and pursue "the unification of the Libertarian Party of New Mexico and the Free New Mexico Party." The motion failed 4-4.

June 11 — A third emergency Executive Committee meeting, called because LPNM had sent a slightly revised settlement offer. It, too, had been rejected 4-4.

Two emergency meetings in three days, on the eve of a federal injunction hearing, both ending in 4-4 deadlocks on whether to keep defending the FNMP's position. This holds an appearance of a faction trying to force a result through sheer repetition, hoping that exhaustion, absences, or a single flipped vote will eventually produce the outcome four members of the Executive Committee have already tried twice to get.

The "Settlement" Offer

This is the part every Libertarian who cares about affiliate autonomy needs to read carefully. The second LPNM settlement offer — which McMahon-aligned Executive Committee members reportedly helped shape — proposed the following (full text):

• LPNM (Luchini's faction) re-affiliates with the LNC on terms LPNM would help negotiate.
• FNMP members would be folded into LPNM's membership rolls, with dues credit.
• The LNC would disaffiliate the FNMP outright if it is not "wholly disbanded and/or merged into LPNM" with the terms of that absorption to be worked out over 90 days.
• The sitting Chair of the FNMP, Derek Scott, would become a co-chair of LPNM, the very organization the LNC is currently suing for trademark infringement, until LPNM's next convention.
• The individual defendants (Luchini included) would be dismissed with prejudice.
• The entire case, including every trademark claim, would be stayed and indefinitely renewable, while this "unification" played out.
• Each side would bear its own costs, even after the LNC has nearly exhausted a $20,000 retainer.

This is not a settlement of a trademark dispute, nor should it be considered as a valid offer. It is a reverse merger in which the LNC's own recognized affiliate is the asset being absorbed, and the disaffiliated, trademark-infringing organization is the entity that survives, re-affiliates, and inherits the FNMP's membership, credibility, and ballot-line aspirations. It is essentially admitting defeat and it would force the FNMP to get dissolved into the defendant. There is no legally recognized basis for the Liberal Party to misidentify itself as a competing political party, misleading and confusing voters.

The votes on this trajectory were split 4-4, with Doug Knebel, Evan McMahon, Jonathan McGee, and Steven Nekhaila voting to continue the lawsuit on the first motion, against Alex Flores, Amanda Griffiths, Richard Longstreth, and William "Bill" Redpath voting to pause it. For now, the lawsuit and the FNMP's status as the sole recognized affiliate survives. But "for now" is doing heavy lifting in that sentence.

The Alarm Bells Sounding: A Pattern Worth Naming

While the LNC's retained counsel is in federal court arguing that Luchini's LPNM has no right to the "Libertarian" name and shouldn't be on the ballot, a faction inside the LNC is reportedly counting votes to strip that name and recognition from the FNMP and hand it to Luchini's group instead.

Luchini believes the changes between LPNM's first and second settlement offers — funneled to LPNM "via a series of intermediaries" — were "originally dictated by LNC Chair Evan McMahon himself". This would mean the chair of the organization suing LPNM was simultaneously coaching LPNM on what settlement terms would end with the recognized affiliate disbanded and Chairman Derek Scott serving instead as Luchini's co-chair. It would be a wholly dysfunctional board from the onset.

The lines are blurring between factions. There is a clear pattern of emergency meetings called back-to-back, narrow deadlocked votes repeated within days, settlement terms that conveniently erase the distinction between the recognized affiliate and the disaffiliated infringer, and a consistent attempt to flip recognition entirely. Meanwhile, the practical cost falls on the rightfully recognized affiliate and on New Mexico's true Libertarians.

To Be Continued. And Continued.

Monday, June 15th's hearing on the LNC's motion for a preliminary injunction (the ruling for which is pending at the time of this writing) is the next real test. If the injunction is granted, LPNM candidates are permanently barred from the New Mexico ballot. It would be a genuine and hard-won vindication of the FNMP's status as the only legitimate LNC affiliate in the state. If it isn't, or if the case is stayed pending further "unification" talks, watch closely for whether the Executive Committee tries a third time, or a fourth, to push through a settlement that trades away the FNMP's name, membership, or leadership in exchange for ending a lawsuit the national party voted unanimously to bring less than nine months ago.

For Derek Scott and the legitimate leadership and membership of New Mexico, the message from this stretch of meetings is that the fight is no longer only with Chris Luchini and Liberal Party USA. It is also with elements of their own conflicted national leadership who appear very interested in making the New Mexico problem "disappear" by merging the legitimate affiliate out of existence.