Funding Liberty! Table of Contents
Funding Liberty!
Chapter 18
Going Through the Motions
The September-October Campaign
Throughout September, polling data continued to be less than encouraging. The September 5 Portrait of America poll found Browne down to 1.0%. A Zogby poll taken two days later put Browne at 0.3%. There was absolutely no indication that Browne would reach the 5% of the vote of which he once talked. He remained in fifth place behind the Duopoly candidates, Bush and Gore, and the respected alternative candidates, Buchanan and Nader.
The Browne Campaign ran a dispersed operation with operations in several geographic locations. The Campaign's headquarters was near the District of Columbia. The candidate had residence in Tennessee. The primary financial reporting operation was in Tucson. This success could usefully be taken to heart by the National party. In recent years the National Party has based its efforts in the District of Columbia, either in a slum location whose safety was open to question (some would say 'whose lack of safety was not open to question') or the expensive Watergate building located in the immediate vicinity of sensitive government facilities likely to be subjected to foreign attack. The Browne campaign showed that political work can be dispersed to multiple sites across the USA.
Television advertising rose to 20% of the month's income. For once, less was spent on making the ads than on running them, but ad production continued to cost 10% of campaign disbursements. The campaign spent $43,248 to run TV commercials, with purchases on September 5, 18, 21, and 27. The FEC lawsuit resurfaced on September 16, this time with the campaign collecting pledges for a future lawsuit against FEC regulations. On September 18, the Campaign reported the $20,000 TV ad purchase it actually made on that date. On September 18, the Campaign also reported that the National Party had spent $113,000 for TV ad purchases 'as a result of fundraising done at the convention banquet'.
On September 18 LibertyWire included news from two state campaigns. The Texas report covered a wide variety of candidates. The Massachusetts report discussed only Libertarian Senatorial candidate Carla Howell (who happened to be Browne Campaign organizer Michael Cloud's constant companion). The Party had dozens of U.S. Senate candidates. Why Howell? We come to this matter in the closing chapters.
On September 21, the Campaign made its outreach effort to other Libertarian campaigns, offering copies of one Browne ad—the 'battered voter'—to other Libertarian campaigns on Beta format (broadcast quality) video tape.
In September the Browne campaign did make a few efforts to mobilize its supposed volunteer base. The September 20 LibertyWire bonus issue, while mostly a response to critics who said that Browne ought to try earning news coverage, also included a list of things that volunteers could do for the Browne campaign. On September 26, the Browne Campaign invited LibertyWire subscribers to join Harry Browne's Minutemen, a special-purpose organization tasked with lobbying the media to cover Browne's campaign. Evidence of the scale of these efforts is difficult to determine.
What were the financial details?
The Campaign began September with $50,078 cash on hand, took in almost $161,000, and spent nearly $189,000. Actual disbursements for thirteen campaign associates, some new, included
Ray Acosta $ 2,500
Jim Babka $ 4,799
Sue Babka $ 85
Robert Brunner $ 2,500
Laura Carno $ 5,000
Robert DeVoil $ 4,566
Robert Flohr $ 1,562
Ryan Goldfinger $ 941
Debra Greeson $ 2,150
Anthony Hogan $ 300
Jennifer Willis $ 2,000
Steve Willis $ 6,190
Perry Willis $ 5,000
TOTAL $35,093
Payments to firms of long-time associates included
New Media $ 4000
Optopia $ 5654
Web Commanders $ 2160
TOTAL $11,815
Other vendors included
The Firm Multimedia $33,248 (run TV ads)
Hotels $32,093 (catering and refreshments, rooms)
Polaris Productions $19,000 (ad production)
Seabreeze Travel $ 9,569 (travel)
Accumail $ 8,491 (mailing)
Liam Works $ 5,000 (publications)
Newman Communications $ 4,667 (publicity)
Cardservice $ 2,852 (credit card service)
Disbursements to the campaign's associates came to 17% of income. Their firms received another 6%. The candidate received $7,500 in repayment of his loans to the campaign, but nothing for expenses.
October 1-18
The final pre-election FEC report covered the period October 1-18, 2000. On October 18, the Campaign announced spending $27,369 to buy prime time on the Science Fiction Channel. This announcement is supported by the FEC report for this period, which ended on October 18. The purchased time was for the Browne Campaign's 'new drug ad'; the ads began running on October 23. In the same LibertyWire announcement, Browne's campaign also promised 'We are doing everything we can to maximize outreach in these final weeks.' We'll see below what the campaign meant by 'everything', 'maximize', and 'outreach'.
During this period, Browne 2000 also paid $35,000 to Polaris Productions for its services. The Campaign had returned to its usual practice of paying more to produce television ads than to air them.
In early and mid-October the Browne Campaign received slightly more than $167,000 in donations and spent roughly $163,000, leaving it with almost $26,000 cash on hand as the critical final weeks of the campaign began. Fourteen people were given money, some to a very limited extent, by the campaign. They received
Jim Babka $4,643
Sue Babka $ 248
Robert Brunner $2,500
Laura Carno $3,088
Robert DeVoil $5,064
Robert Flohr $1,451
Debra Greeson $1,207
Penny Nicolai $ 690
Stuart Reges $2,000
Jennifer Willis $2,557
Steve Willis $3,486
Stephanie Yanik $3,000
TOTAL $31,300
In the first three weeks of October the campaign's associates received 19% of campaign spending for the period. Their firms received disbursements amounting to another 6% of campaign funding. These amounts do not include $2000 paid to Richard Dingman of Vienna, VA for legal services. No payments to Campaign Chair Perry Willis are recorded.
Firms of associates received
New Media $4,000
Optopia $5,695
TOTAL $9,695
There were also external vendors, the largest being
Polaris Productions $35,000
The Firm Multimedia $27,469
Hotels $16,787
Seabreeze Travel $ 7,693
Copy Right $ 7,500 (video tapes)
Call Center $ 6,262
Card Service $ 4,919
Accumail $ 1,112
The Campaign continued to spend large sums ($7500 this month) to duplicate video tapes. A hotel charge includes $4900 for the Fox Theater of Atlanta. The regular monthly rent for the headquarters was $1800. Utilities not listed separately led off with $1337 for telephone.