Libertarians bring their convention to Orlando
The Republican National Convention in Jacksonville next month won’t be the first national party gathering in Florida this summer.
The Libertarian National Convention kicks off today in Orlando, bringing hundreds of delegates to the five-day event at the Rosen Centre on International Drive.
The convention will hold most of its larger sessions at the Orange County Convention Center across the street, becoming one of the first events to be partially held at the convention center since the pandemic began.
Libertarian national chair Nicholas Sarwark said the party is opposed to government-mandated mask orders such as the one imposed by Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.
But it has advised the estimated 500 to 600 delegates expected at the event to wear masks, get temperature-checked and socially distance themselves. It also will allow some delegates to attend virtually for the first time.
Special color-coded “risk bracelets” will let delegates know how comfortable other participants are with close contact: red to stay 6 feet away, yellow for closer conversations without physical contact; and green for no distancing at all.
“Public health guidance should provide as much information as possible to people so they can make good choices for themselves,” Sarwark said. “What we’re doing is [the] best practices based on the best data that we have and working with the hotel and the convention center to try and abide by whatever regulations or guidance their insurers are recommending.”
The convention had already been thrown into turmoil by the outbreak, with its scheduled meeting in Austin, Texas, in May forced to be canceled amid COVID-19 shutdowns. The party decided to hold a virtual convention in May to choose Jo Jorgensen, a lecturer at Clemson University in South Carolina, as its first woman nominee for president. Podcaster Spike Cohen will be her running mate.
But the delegates still needed to convene in person to conduct other necessary business.
The party turned to Orlando, where it had held its convention in 2016, and booked the Rosen Shingle Creek resort.
“We wanted to look at places that could host a convention and have sufficient space for social distancing,” Sarwark said.
Hotelier Harris Rosen hosted the party at the Rosen Centre during the last convention, “So we’d already had a good experience with him in his hotel. And he was committed to making it work.”
But then cases began to skyrocket in mid-June, and later in the month they were told the original location at Shingle Creek could not be used. Finally, a combination of the Rosen Centre and the convention center were booked.
Jim Turney, an Altamonte Springs city commissioner and convention organizing committee member, said the party is expecting much fewer than the 900 delegates who attended the 2016 convention.
“We made a last-minute switch from Memorial Day to this weekend and from Austin to Orlando, so a lot of people fell out over that,” Turney said. “And of course, some fell out because they don’t want to travel, either because of themselves or their families’ concerns for COVID.”
But the rise in coronavirus cases has also led many delegates to pass on attending. Mid-June began a string of record-breaking single days of new cases in the state, including more than 11,000 on Saturday, and
Orlando ranks among the cities with fastest-rising numbers nationwide.
Travel advisories such as the one put in place by New York and New Jersey would also require 14-day quarantines upon returning home, and a similar rule for travelers from the New York area to Florida issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April is still in effect.
The party is giving out 1,000 masks custom-made for the convention at a facility in Altamonte Springs, Turney said, as well as 2,000 non-branded masks.
As for the color-coded bracelets, Turney said the green bracelets would be for people “who for whatever reason think that, maybe because they know they’ve got the antibodies or something … that’s their way to signal, ‘Yeah, if you want to shake my hand, I’m good with it.‘”
The party will attempt to instill caution in a situation where even asymptomatic carriers can spread the disease.
“I believe all Libertarians believe in personal responsibility,” Turney said. “We believe that even when you don’t intend to cause harm to somebody, you just made a mistake or it was an accident or a coincidence or whatever, you’re still responsible.”