RON CRICKENBERGER DEAD AT 48

As Libertarian Party National Political Director Made Drug Policy Key Issue

The US drug reform movement lost a leading light this week. Ron
Crickenberger, who as the Libertarian Party's national political
director from 1997 until a few months ago made ending drug prohibition
a central plank in the party's platform, died of metastic melanoma
(skin cancer) at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC, on
Tuesday less than two months after being diagnosed with the disease.
He was 48.

With Crickenberger at the helm, the number of Libertarians holding
elected office more than tripled, from 180 to about 600, and the party
set new records for candidates on the ballot in both 2002 and 2002.
Crickenberger himself was one of that number in 2000, when he
campaigned for Congress in his home district in Northern Virginia.

"Ron was definitely an inspiration to everyone," said Troy Dayton, a
drug reform activist who had worked with Crickenberger on Libertarian
fundraising operations. "He worked so hard on issues of freedom, and
he had a great sense of how all those issues intertwined. He was the
one person most responsible for making drug policy the central issue
for the Libertarians, and he worked tirelessly to ensure that the
party worked closely with the various drug reform groups," Dayton told
DRCNet.

"He was the lead person in the party to make drug reform and drug
policy such a big issue for the party," concurred new DanceSafe
(http://www.dancesafe.org) executive director Marc Brandl, who worked
under Crickenberger as party national campus coordinator. "We had a
drug war task force spurred by Ron, and he led the successful campaign
to defeat Bob Barr," he told DRCNet, referring to the 2002 Republican
primary election campaign where the hard-line drug warrior was
rejected. In that campaign, Crickenberger teamed with medical
marijuana patient Cheryl Miller -- who passed away herself in June --
to create television ads featuring a bed-ridden Miller asking, "Why do
you want to put me in jail, Bob?"

"Ron was almost single-handedly responsible for making that happen,"
said Brandl. "He wanted to do a lot more with the strategy of
un-electing legislators who threaten our freedoms. But now he's gone,
and I'm sort of in shock, and I feel sort of down in the dumps. I saw
him at DPA in November, but I never really had a chance to talk with
him then."

In addition to fulfilling his duties as Libertarian Party national
political director, Crickenberger had been a fixture at
anti-prohibitionist events and demonstrations, both in Washington,
where the party offices are, and at events around the country. DRCNet
was a beneficiary of such efforts on Crickenberger's part, according
to DRCNet executive director David Borden. "Ron traveled all the way
to New York for a two minute speaking slot at our Perry Fund kickoff;
and he made it out early on a cold winter morning to speak at my jury
civil disobedience rally, even though we knew it would be small and
mostly for practice."

Crickenberger also showed up at the Justice Department in June 2002,
when, with a handful of other Washington-based activists, he had
himself arrested for blocking the doors to the Justice Department to
protest federal raids on medical marijuana patients in California.
"We're here to focus public attention on this issue," he said at the
time. "Marijuana is one of the most benign therapeutic substances and
it makes no sense for the federal government to be prosecuting
patients who use it."

"Every protest I've been to in DC, Ron was there," said Dayton. "Not
only did he run the national Libertarian movement, but he did what
every activist in the country needs to do -- calling legislators,
showing up at protests, putting signs on your car, all that kind of
thing."

He had a sense of humor under pressure, too. "When we were arrested at
the Justice Department and they put us in the holding tank, it was
pretty tense," said Brandl. "But then Ron broke into 'Folsom Prison
Blues' and got everybody laughing."

Crickenberger also had a personal life, which he shared with his
partner of 12 years, Noelle Stettner, at their home in suburban Falls
Church, Virginia. "Ron was positive to the last, even though these
last two months were torture," she said. "Where other people might
have given up, he was fighting to live. He wasn't ready to go yet,"
she told DRCNet. Crickenberger has two adult children, she told
DRCNet, and a week-old granddaughter. "He got to see her before he
left us," Stettner said.

Stettner also related how she and Crickenberger met. "It was through
sci-fi," she said with a hint of a smile in her voice. "We were both
geeks."

The Libertarian Party announced Crickenberger's death on its web site
Tuesday. "The quest for liberty -- everyone's liberty -- was Ron's
passion," said Steve Dasbach, who worked with Crickenberger as the
party's executive director from 1998 to 2002. "His enthusiasm was
contagious, infecting thousands of Libertarians with the desire to run
for office, volunteer for campaigns, and willingly contribute their
hard-earned money to the cause of freedom."

Crickenberger had worked his way up the party ladder after first
becoming interested in libertarian issues as a small-businessman in
Georgia, the state where he grew up. "It was taxes and regulation, not
drugs, that got Ron started," said Dayton. Crickenberger managed a
winning Libertarian Party city commission campaign in Georgia in 1995,
served as state party chair after that, and was a member of the
party's national committee before joining its Washington staff.

But Crickenberger was ousted from his position with the party last
fall in what one observer delicately called "differences over vision
and finances." Stettner had blunter words. "It was a bunch of
infighting, and they made a bad decision, and I think it contributed
to his death," she said. "Doing that job was his calling, and when a
man is fired from a job he believes in like that, it affects him. He
was outwardly positive, he was always outwardly positive, even about
his illness, but he was forced out, and I think he was depressed about
that."

Crickenberger's emphasis on the drug issue grated on some in the
party, Stettner said, but he thought it was too important to ignore.
"Ron thought it was stupid to run away from that issue because it
upset a few people in the party," she said. "He felt like public
opinion was already on our side and we could win. It could be our
wedge issue. If we didn't get out front on that issue, someone else
would. This could be part of the reason he was no longer with the
Libertarian Party," she said.

But Ron Crickenberger was still plotting new battles when he died. He
and Stettner were preparing to return to Georgia, where he had taken a
position with Georgia Advocates for Self Government, a group that
pushes for an expanded awareness of the libertarian philosophy. In
line with this last twist in Crickenberger's vibrant and all-too-brief
political career, his family is requesting that donations in his name
be sent to: Advocates for Self-Government, The Liberty Building, 213
South Erwin Street, Cartersville, GA 30120, or http://www.theadvocates.org
online.

The New York LP has set up a page for people to leave their thoughts
about Ron as well as some pictures of him, including his CD arrest for
medical marijuana at the Department of Justice in 2002 at
http://ny.lp.org/cgi-bin/condolences.cgi?Ron and more pictures at
http://ny.lp.org/images/ron.htm online.