Funding Liberty! Table of Contents
Funding Liberty!
Chapter 16
August 2000-The Fundraising Crescendo
August was the Campaign's best single month, with close to $260,000 raised and almost $230,000 spent. Despite record one-month fundraising (and, in the end, strong cash-on-hand at the end of August), the Browne campaign continued to experience critical financial difficulties. In his article for Liberty magazine, Sturzenacker reports that on August 29 Willis emailed the campaign's 'key volunteers', reporting that no TV ads had been purchased in several weeks "because we ran out of money". The campaign had regularly heralded ad purchases in LibertyWire. True to Willis's word that available cash was short, no ad purchases are noted in FEC reports for the several weeks before August 29.
One of the Campaign's difficulties was that the number of donors was much fewer than the number of party members. Browne had set an objective of 200,000 Party members on the grounds that 200,000 donors would be enough to make a sizable national impact. This assumed that the number of donors matched the number of members. In 2000, there were 33,000 members, but nothing like 33,000 donors. In mid-September Willis said in LibertyWire that 'there are nearly 30,000 LP contributors who have not yet given to the campaign'. By inference, barely 3000 Party members, 10% of Party membership, had donated to the Presidential campaign. Some were quite generous; 300 donors, equivalent to 1% of Party membership, gave Browne the legal maximum $1000.
The television campaign crept ahead. More National Party advertising for the Browne campaign, another $20,000, came on August 3. On the same date, LibertyWire reported 'We have spent another $40,000 of time on MSNBC and CNBC.' The Browne campaign did spend $11,750 on August 10, and another $10,000 on August 30, which it heralded in LibertyWire as 'we are now up to $131,750 in ad buys. Counting National Party spending, actual ad purchases to date were over $150,000, but 2/3 of that spending was by the National Party.
Reports of ad purchases sometimes created confusion with Party members. Advertising space is sold by priority. You pay a lower rate if you allow your ads to be bumped by higher-priority ads. Your lower priority ad will be shown, eventually, just not at the originally scheduled time. The author has seen eyewitness reports of political ads bought this way—for which party's candidate is not the issue—appearing one after the next the day after the election. To make scarce money go further, Browne 2000 largely bought low priority ads, which in some locales were bumped by higher priority ads. Low-priority Browne ads were shown at times later than originally announced. Had the ads been broadcast or not, wondered many members?
Television ad production also continued. Much more money was spent producing the ads than broadcasting them, the reverse of the situation in normal political campaigns. Normally spending for ad delivery outweighs ad production by a ratio such as 10-1. In the Browne campaign, production got higher priority. California Libertarians drew a contrast between Browne's methods and the advertising campaign of David Nolan, which by report produced superb television ads and spent most of its money transmitting those ads to the public.
The National Party's financial situation did not improve in August. For the month, the Party raised $327,000. It also spent $458,000, leaving it with $10,000 cash on hand. Net of cash on hand, the Party was further in the red at the end of August than it was at the end of July. It was also in debt to the Browne Campaign's long-time associates and their firms, including $2,300 owed Michael Cloud for travel and $3,000 owed Web Commanders for Internet services.
Ballot access difficulties increased the burden on the National Party. In his January 20, 2001 LibertyWire, Willis reports that Pennsylvania cost an unexpected $68,000, Oklahoma cost an extra $20,000, and difficulties in Arizona cost $82,000. The December 2000 LNC Political Director's report confirms these numbers and notes that total spending for Oklahoma was more than $130,000. Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and Arizona cost an extra $170,000 that the National Party had to spend on ballot access rather than on advertising for Libertarian candidates. In the end, Harry Browne was not on the Arizona Ballot at all. Following its expulsion from the National Party by the Libertarian National Committee, the Arizona Libertarian Party ran L. Neil Smith and Vin Suyprinowicz for President and Vice President. The Arizona situation is so complex that it merits its own chapter.
The Party invested in Federal campaigns. The National Committee paid Browne's $1000 filing fee in Kentucky, and paid $2200 for filing fees of our Louisiana candidates. Filing fees are sums of money that must be paid to state or local governments to put a candidate on the ballot. Louisiana is one of several states in which candidates must in part purchase ballot access via substantial cash payments to the State Government. The FEC refers to filing fees as 'Ballot Access" costs, with exemptions from certain spending limits; FEC Ballot Access expenses do not include spending for, e.g., petitioners, that put the candidate on the ballot but which were not mandated by law as an expenditure.
For August 2000 only nine associates were paid, namely
Jim Babka $ 81
Robert DeVoil $ 2,931
Robert Flohr $ 783
Ryan Goldfinger $ 980
Debra Greeson $ 2,244
Stuart Reges (phone, supplies, salary) $ 2,350
Steve Willis (phone, office, payroll) $ 5,946
Perry Willis (campaign management) $10,250
Stephanie Yanik (administrative services) $ 2,000
TOTAL $27,565
In addition, firms connected with long-time Browne associates received for their labors:
New Media $ 4,000
Optopia $23,154
Web Commanders $10,000
TOTAL $37,154
Compensation to other parties included
Polaris Productions $31,000
The Firm Multimedia $21,750
Hotel $19,780
Copy Right(videotapes) $19,000
Newman Comm (publicity) $11,668
Liam Works $10,000
Accumail (mailing) $ 8,493
Sea Breeze (travel) $ 6,752
Call Center (answering) $ 5,867
Action Marketing (phone calls) $ 4,000
As a share of total spending, payments to associates were about 12%, while payments to their firms took the total to 28% of spending. Advertising through The Firm Multimedia amounted to another 8% of funds raised.
The Hotel expense refers mostly to catering and refreshments, often matching fund-raising events (business attire requested) that the Browne campaign ran. Fundraising is a necessity for a political campaign. Events of this sort may reach libertarians who had not yet joined the Libertarian Party, but such events are not campaigning to reach the general public. Hotel charges may also have included putting up the candidate for the night. Locations to which these charges were paid in August include 2 Embassy Suites, 2 Hiltons, a Holiday Inn, 2 Marriotts, and two Radisson Hotels. Charges at a single hotel ranges from $470 up to $3186.
Telecommunications included payments to Bell Atlantic, Linx Communications, Novus Networks, Sprint, and Verizon. The candidate himself received $1271 for his travel and other expenses, and $10,000 to repay some of his loans to his campaign.