Funding Liberty! Table of Contents
Funding Liberty!
Chapter 12
Browne Affects to Declare
January/February 2000
If politicians were held accountable for campaign promises, by January 2000 the Browne campaign's staff would have faced interesting times. In the last three years Browne and his Campaign had promised 'I will write another book soon', 'the campaign fund already has $703,000', 'we need to have a large pile of money _already_ in the bank' (by January 2000), 'We'll (run) ...when we've booked and paid for commercials in advance...', and 'I might run again, but only if (we have enough members)...the size of the party dwarfs all other considerations'. There was to be a December media tour, to show to the press the TV ads for the January campaign declaration. Beyond the groundwork, Browne's April, 1997 letter set forth his tasks, including "build my name recognition", "...appear.. on radio talk shows, in front of large crowds, and on TV", "shore up relationships with media people", and "become a household name over the next three years".
On the above list, give the campaign full credit for: 'We need to have a large pile of money'. True. On January 1, 2000 they definitely still needed a large pile of money.
The Campaign failed to deliver on its other assertions. In late December 1999, the national media tour was, without fanfare, cancelled. The Campaign announced over the Christmas Holidays that Browne had postponed declaring his candidacy until mid-February. At the start of 2000 there was almost no money in the bank, so only a few ads could be run. The book, to recruit new Libertarians? It was incomplete. Indeed, it was not generally available until June 2000. Browne was not in any sense 'a household name' with significant 'name recognition'. Finally, Project Archimedes had failed: The Party was nowhere near the "200,000 members" that Browne had identified as the most important variable in determining whether he would run.
Confronted with these difficulties, the Browne campaign staff followed a maxim of Sun Tzu: "In death ground, fight!". Despite the near-total collapse of its announced campaign plans, the Campaign continued to pursue the Libertarian Presidential nomination. There were a variety of positive factors. The Campaign had significant financial resources, if less than the Campaign had hoped. Many Libertarians were firmly committed to supporting Browne's campaign. Browne's campaign was perceived to have enormous momentum, largely because many Libertarians were subject to the misapprehension that the Browne campaign had a large warchest, vast numbers of volunteers, and a deployed campaign plan with usable advertisements ready to go.
Last and most important, at the start of the year Browne was substantially unopposed. 'You can't beat someone with no one!' is a fundamental political axiom, as true for Libertarians as for anyone else. Browne faced David Hollist, a one-issue candidate whose 'contract insurance' proposals appeared to many to be remote from Libertarian ideas, California gay activist Larry Hines, Californian Kip Lee, and the non-candidacy of Libertarian SF author L. Neil Smith. Hines capped his appearance at the New Hampshire State Convention by telling activists that he expected them to tell him which issues to run on. To my eyes, his remark was not well-received. Hines left the Party prior to the 2000 convention. Smith had told his supporters that he would run if he received a million-signature petition asking him to run or if the National Convention on its own volition asked him to run. When Smith's supporters were told by their erstwhile candidate that he would only run if they accomplished obvious impossibilities, the supporters set out to accomplish them, rather than recognizing that Smith had politely told them that he would not run. Browne would eventually face significant opposition from Donald Gorman, Barry Hess, and Bumper Hornberger, but those candidates only announced later.
In the end, Sun Tzu's advice turned out to be in the best interests of the Campaign, though not necessarily in the best interests of the Party. The Browne Campaign ran its candidate. Browne fought for delegates all the way to the 2000 Libertarian National Convention, held in Anaheim, CA over the Independence Day weekend. Browne won the nomination.
What happened on the road to Anaheim?
For the first half of 2000, Campaign spending roughly matched campaign fundraising, as seen in the following table.
|
MONTH
|
INCOME
|
SPENDING
|
Cash on Hand, End of Month |
Total Debt End of Month |
|
January |
$ 80,202 |
$110,154 |
$14,717 |
0 |
|
February |
$118,503(f) |
$115,894(fs) |
$17,326 |
$2,000 |
|
March |
$ 78,387(r) |
$ 89,411(rs) |
$6,301 |
$4,500 |
|
April |
$107,358 |
$ 68,164(as) |
$45,674 |
$1,000 |
|
May |
$ 94,390(m) |
$116,182(ms) |
$23,882 |
$8,500 |
|
June |
$130,425(j) |
$111,784(js) |
$43,022 |
|
(f) Includes $5000 loan from the candidate.
(fs) Includes $3000 repayment to the candidate.
(r) Includes $3500 loan from the candidate.
(rs) Includes $1000 repayment to the candidate.
(as) Includes $3500 repayment to the candidate.
(m) Includes $10,000 loan from the candidate.
(ms) Includes $2500 repayment to the candidate.
(j) Includes $27,500 loan from the candidate.
(js) Includes $5000 repayment to the candidate.
Monthly campaign income ranged from $78,387 to $130,425, including candidate loans that were later repaid. Monthly campaign spending ranged from $68,164 to $116,182. Income from sources other than the candidate peaked at $113,500 in February, and declined thereafter. The campaign ended January with a shade under $15,000 in the bank. At the end of June, that total had fallen to $12,000. Campaign spending followed the same track. While income and spending both fluctuated from month to month, spending over a two-month period exclusive of loan repayments was highest in January-February ($223,000). Despite the ramp-up as the National Convention approached, spending in May-June exclusive of loan repayments was lower ($221,500) than in the first two months of the year.
January 2000
For January, the Campaign paid almost $29,000 to staff, and almost $7400 to firms owned by long-time campaign associates. Another $65,000 went to outside firms in large payments. In addition to the large payments noted below, there were substantial expenses for orthodox campaign costs such as bank and credit charges, telephones, $1900 or so per month in rent, and other office support costs. In some cases, payments for several purposes were aggregated in the FEC reports, hiding finer divisions by purpose of the spending.
In January 2000 the campaign supported nine people
Jim Babka (salary) $4,467
Erich Covey (salary) $ 630
Robert DeVoil (printing, supplies, data entry) $3,001
Debra Greeson (salary) $1,445
Stuart Reges (phone, supplies, salary) $3,690
Jennifer Willis (salary) $2,000
Steve Willis (phone, office, payroll) $2,793
Perry Willis (campaign management) $7,167
Stephanie Yanik (administrative services) $4,000
TOTAL $29,193
and four firms long associated with the campaign:
J Harris Dean Consulting $ 823
New Media $3,831
Optopia $1,467
Web Commanders $1,269
TOTAL $7,399
Between them, associates of the campaign and their companies received 33.5% of all January expenditures. There were also major payments to outside groups, including
Polaris Productions (video productions) $21,000
Copy Right Video (videotape copies) $11,033
The Firm MultiMedia (media services) $ 1,000
Newman Communications (publicity) $ 5,000
Seabreeze Travel $ 1,976
AccuMail, Inc (mailing) $10,197
Walter Karl List Brokers $ 5,136
Sir Speedy Printing $ 4,446
Libertarian National Committee (list rental) $ 4,112
Merkle Mailing $ 1,000
TOTAL $64,919
The first set of outside groups are associated with video productions, distribution, advertising, and other publicity efforts. The second set of outside groups are potentially related to direct-mail types of activities. Additional sums totalling over $8000 went for banking and credit card services, telephones, real estate rental and property maintenance, office furniture, and computer maintenance.
February 2000
Spending followed much the same lines as January. Spending on the campaign's associates rose to $32,083, but spending on their firms fell to $5176. Other major expense lines came to $46,484, with total spending of $115,895. February saw the addition of another associate, Robert Brunner, with expenses for travel, supply, and salary. Spending for people associated with the campaign included
Jim Babka $4,693
Robert Brunner (travel, supplies, salary) $2,750
Erich Covey $ 630
Robert DeVoil $3,522
Debra Greeson $2,363
Stuart Reges $3,697
Jennifer Willis (salary) $2,000
Steve Willis (phone, office, payroll) $3,761
Perry Willis (campaign management) $4,167
Stephanie Yanik (administrative services) $4,500
TOTAL $32,083
and two firms long associated with the campaign:
New Media $3,500
Optopia $1,676
TOTAL $5,176
In addition, there were major expenditures for outside groups
CopyRight Video $16,018
Polaris Productions $11,500
Mount Vernon Printing $ 8,544
Walter Karl List Brokerage $ 4,206
Liam Works $ 4,000
Newman Communications $ 3,600
New Media $ 3,500
The Firm MultiMedia $ 3,200
AccuMail, Inc. $ 2,800
Seabreeze Travel $ 1,161
Laurel Graphx $ 1,125
TOTAL $59,653
and to the candidate for travel $1875. In the above, LiamWorks was Harry Browne's publisher. It produced and distributed books, bumper stickers, etc. not only for the campaign but also to the Libertarian National Committee. The Party National Committee used Browne's books as premiums for major donors as discussed above.
Spending on campaign associates and their firms had fallen to 31% of all disbursements. Spending on publicity and media was up to $10,300, not to mention $16,000 for making additional copies of Harry Browne's video.
On February 14, Harry Browne formally declared his candidacy. The final veil had been torn away. Whatever the campaign might have claimed previously about when Browne was required to file, after February 14 there could be absolutely no doubt that Harry Browne was a declared candidate for President of the United States. Now the clock was running. Thirty days after the declaration, it was certainly the case that the Browne Campaign was legally required to file financial disclosure statements with the Federal Election Commission.
The filing requirement should have created a significant quandary for the campaign staff. Their campaign rested in considerable part on an illusion of invincibility. Libertarians believed that the Browne Campaign had huge amounts of money and vast other resources. When FEC reports finally revealed that Browne's campaign was almost broke and that the Campaign Momentum Thermometer was a deception, the image would shatter. It is hard to see how the Browne campaign could have survived early exposure of the discrepancies between its statements and its fiscal reality. Given a few months to reach the delegates, Browne's opponents would capitalize on the situation to defeat him.
Browne's campaign tried one last use of his fabulous warchest. Libertarian National Committee Treasurer Mark Tuniewicz publicly announced that the telephone calls were being made. According to Tuniewicz, prominent Browne fundraiser Michael Cloud was reportedly telephoning State Chairs, pressuring State Chairs to agree that state conventions should only allow Presidential aspirants to speak if they had accumulated at least $250,000 in raised funds. These demands stopped when Tuniewicz made his announcement. Tuniewicz, of course, had no way of knowing that the Browne campaign was no different from its rivals in one respect: The Browne Campaign had far less than $250,000 cash on hand.
Cash on hand was the Campaign Staff's quandary. Their campaign warchest was quite empty. Any strong opposition to Harry Browne would make sure the Libertarian public learned the truth about the Campaign's finances. Truth could puncture the bubble atop which the Browne campaign was floating toward the nomination. How could they avoid the sharp bite of honesty?