Harry Browne Campaign
Joseph Mueller
I regret to inform you that as of Friday, April 21, the Harry Browne for
President campaign has suspended most of its operations. We are cutting
expenses in the hope that we can catch up on our bills, but if the present
is any guide to the future, it is possible the campaign is over.
Our fund-raising has been declining since Jacob Hornberger began his latest
series of attacks against Harry Browne and the LP leadership. We have been
falling further and further behind on our bills, and it has reached the
point where we cannot continue.
Any national campaign must live from fund-raising letter to fund-raising
letter. It must keep using every dollar available to push its public
outreach.
Unlike a business, we can't legally borrow money. In addition, we have no
assets other than our office equipment and our contributor list - and we
have only about 8,000 contributors. Moreover, to mail a fund-raising appeal
to the LP membership, we must pay for the list in advance and schedule our
mailing so it won't conflict with the LP's own fund-raising efforts. Despite
the fact that Mr. Browne has raised tens of thousands of dollars to help
recruit new LP members, he has no more access to these names than any other
Libertarian; in fact, unlike outside organizations, he has to pay in advance
for the names.
In short, our campaign's only assets are our reputation and the good will of
our supporters.
Unfortunately, our reputation within the LP has been damaged to the point
where the good will of a significant segment of the rank and file now seems
lacking, causing our latest fund-raising effort to fall short and put us in
a very deep hole. Specifically, our motivations for wanting to challenge the
FEC laws have been called into doubt, causing the direct-mail appeal based
on that challenge to fail.
Obviously, not everyone could have been expected to agree with the FEC
strategy we were considering. But instead of simply offering arguments
against the value of the strategy, Mr. Hornberger and his allies have seized
on the possibility that we have considered challenging the FEC laws only to
hide financial improprieties. And many people either have believed Mr.
Hornberger's assertions or have had sufficient doubts about us to stop
contributing to our campaign.
Needless to say, the FEC challenge is no longer a possibility, and we will
file our FEC reports next week. Mr. Hornberger and his associates have
forced us to bow to the will of the state. Ironically, filing reports with
the government may turn out to be the final act of this campaign.
In addition to his email attacks and his prodding the FEC about our
potential challenge, Mr. Hornberger has mailed hit pieces to several of our
major donors. The name and address of at least one of these donors could
have been known to Mr. Hornberger only through one source - our 1996 FEC
reports. No wonder Mr. Hornberger is so adamant that we disclose contributor
information to the government. But I don't see how this helps the
Libertarian Party or the libertarian movement.
The FEC Challenge
We believed that the FEC challenge had the potential to achieve two valuable
goals.
It had the ability to generate publicity about the campaign that was related
to our issues, whereas some other media event might have detracted from our
basic message. Although we haven't been trying to publicize the challenge,
preferring to wait until we were sure we were going to proceed with it, the
word has gotten around. Several journalists have indicated that they wanted
to write about it if we went ahead. And Harry has been asked about it on
several radio shows. His reply to the question "Why would you do this?"
takes him easily to our issues:
"Because it's the only way we have of letting people know there's a party -
the Libertarians - who want to free you from the income tax, unlock the door
and let you out of Social Security, and end the insane War on Drugs. The
campaign contribution limits keep us from raising the kind of money
necessary to get that message to you and the American people."
If we could win the case (which would probably take at least a couple of
years), it would open up enormous possibilities for the LP. We would be able
to attract larger sums of money for advertising that could take our message
to the American people. Because our message is positive and the messages of
the old parties negative, it doesn't matter how much additional money they
get to raise and spend; the important issue is how much more we can raise
and spend to let people know there's an alternative. And the very fact that
we would become free from the current limits would encourage many people to
support us - people who now don't think we can ever change anything.
Based on the reaction to our March 12 email message about the FEC challenge,
it appeared that a large percentage of Libertarians would enthusiastically
support the challenge. But Mr. Hornberger's attacks changed all that, and
perhaps scuttled the entire campaign as well. (Note: we have paid $15,000 of
the $25,000 required for the legal research. We intend to complete the
research and publish a summary of the results, in the hope that some future
campaign will be able to use the information.)
As I said, we will file the FEC reports next week. But, as we have promised,
we are providing in this message a more detailed accounting of how we have
spent your money.
Perhaps more important, this message will tell you what the money has
achieved.
This message also will provide an introductory course in the trials and
travails of running a national third-party campaign, as well as discuss the
plans we had for the future. You can think of this as our campaign report,
in case it turns out that we won't be writing one later.
In addition, all payments to vendors and employees are listed at the end of
this report. You can see how much every payee has received. There also is a
list of our current debts.
Please forgive the length of this report. But after due consideration, I
believe it would be incomplete if we omitted any part of it.
Running a National Campaign
If you are running for a local office, such as for city council or state
representative, you can do so without a lot of money, if necessary. You can
speak at various clubs and go door to door - personally meeting a
significant number, possibly even a majority, of the potential voters. This
is known as retail politics, and it is very appropriate for a local
campaign.
Running a statewide or national campaign is quite different, however.
Meeting voters personally may seem like a good idea, but you can't hope to
attract more than a few thousand votes - at the very most - that way. Even
giving speeches carries your message to an insignificant number of voters,
unless the press and TV cameras are paying attention to your speeches. When
you see a Republican or Democratic presidential candidate on TV giving a
speech, shaking hands outside a factory, or flipping pancakes in a coffee
shop, remember that he's doing it only because you and hundreds of thousands
of others are watching him on TV. If the cameras weren't rolling, he wouldn'
t be there.
A national campaign based on meeting voters in person and speaking
engagements alone is doomed to achieve no more than a few hundred thousand
votes. To seek millions of votes requires wholesale politics. That means
widespread advertising, especially television advertising, as well as
personal appearances on radio and TV, where you can be heard by tens of
thousands of potential voters at a time. A national campaign also requires
leveraged contacts - such as gaining the support of various groups who will
transmit your message to many people, recruiting thousands of volunteers to
help publicize your candidacy, enlisting Internet sites, and using any other
transmission belts you can locate.
Running a political campaign also is considerably different from running a
business. In many cases, a business can evolve over however long it takes to
succeed. A campaign has a finite ending point and everything you're going to
do has to be achieved by that date. A business can wait for the right moment
to spring its marketing projects. But a campaign must be continually active.
When it isn't persuading voters, it must be recruiting supporters to help
you persuade voters. It must continually raise money to pay its bills, and
it must continually spend the money it raises - trying to take advantage of
every opportunity there is.
A campaign that isn't financially stretched to the limit at all times isn't
aggressive enough to reach whatever goals it has set. In this report, I'll
explain what this means in our case.
Income & Outgo
The Harry Browne for President Committee was formed in December of 1996. It
has been in operation for a little over 3 years and 3 months. Through
February 29, we raised and spent $1,231,210.75.
The campaign has spent 57% of its income on campaign outreach, 17% on
overhead, and 26% on fund-raising. It is typical for fund-raising to cost a
campaign about 34%, so we have done very well in this area. In addition,
campaigns tend to raise most of their money in the final four months, so it'
s reasonable to expect that the overhead and fund-raising percentages would
drop and the outreach percentage would rise.
Also, it's important to realize that overhead is the first expense incurred.
As the campaign becomes more successful, overhead has to rise as well. But
it doesn't rise nearly as fast as fund-raising increases. So the more money
raised, the higher percentage of it goes into outreach. And with a much
larger Libertarian donor base, we expected to spend many times as much on
advertising this year as we did in 1996.
Breakdown of Spending
What follows now are the details of where your money has gone. Although some
of it is just numbers, there is a great deal of information here about what
we have done, why we have done it, and what it has achieved.
All the figures cover expenditures since the start of 1997.
Advertising
Our largest single expenditure has been $197,251.84 for advertising,
including the production costs for the video, one national airing, and 16
local airings in Atlanta, Denver, St. Petersburg, and Jacksonville.
We have tried to book national broadcasts, but all the national networks
have turned us down. We knew that most infomercial time is purchased months
in advance, making it difficult to buy time. And we expected the networks to
refuse to sell us time despite FCC regulations that require them to do so.
It's understandable that no network wants to give up a half hour of
high-revenue programming in order to run a low-revenue political ad, so the
networks find ways of getting around the regulations. (Of course, despite
our urgings, we recognize their right to turn us down.)
The networks argued that the FCC regulations governing political ads don't
apply to us because we don't nominate our candidates through primary
elections (and thus don't need the advertising). We countered that our state
conventions are the political equivalent of primaries and the FCC agreed
with us. But the networks claimed our state conventions don't grant delegate
status to any registered Libertarian voter who wishes to attend the
convention.
Although we were at an impasse, we knew this problem would go away after the
nomination. Once we have the nomination, the networks have to sell us the
time. In addition, all our $1,000 donors would be able to contribute another
$1,000 each, giving us a significant and low-cost pile of money with which
to run the video nationally. And the LP would be free to spend money to run
the video without any legal limits under the coordinated-expenditure
provisions of the FEC law.
But we couldn't expect to broadcast the video nationally until August,
because a month of lead time, with the money in the bank, would be needed to
reserve the air time. We didn't want to wait that long to do national TV
advertising, so we decided to produce a series of short ads that could be
run nationally in June and July. We scheduled production of these ads for
late May.
If we can resurrect the campaign, we will produce the ads and run them from
June through Election Day.
Direct Mail
The second largest campaign expenditure was $192,340.90 for direct mail.
This money covered more than a half-million pieces of mail over the past
three years. These mailings generated most of the money we've raised.
Fact of life: If you don't ask for money, you won't receive any.
Hard reality: Asking for money costs money.
It would be nice if people would see Harry on TV, hear him on the radio,
watch the video, or read a piece of campaign literature, and then send money
without any prodding. But they don't. We have to ask for it.
Worse still, to get 1,000 people to give money, we have to ask 40,000
people. It's a grueling process that must be repeated month after month in
order to find enough donors to run a national campaign.
Is there a better way to raise money than direct mail? Sadly, no.
Fund-raising events cost much more per dollar raised than direct mail (more
on this below), and telephone fund-raising is even more expensive - as well
as being intrusive.
Fund-raising calls from the candidate are more welcome, and Harry makes such
calls. But he doesn't have a great deal time to make them. If you've read
his Campaign Journal, you know we keep him very busy doing outreach.
For Harry to make enough calls to replace direct-mail fund-raising, he'd
need to spend roughly 130 hours a week on the phone, leaving only 38 hours
for sleeping and eating. So it's direct mail or nothing.
A campaign has to start virtually from scratch. We were fortunate to have
5,000 donors from 1996 as a first group to approach, but that's not a big
head start. While doing outreach, we have had to spend money on start-up
costs - hiring people, buying equipment, producing literature, arranging the
many invisible details necessary just to be efficient. No business does all
of these things on the day it opens its doors; they must be done many months
prior, and so it was in our case.
In addition, just asking Libertarians for help requires paying about $5,000
in rental fees everytime we use the LP mailing list.
In other words, running a presidential campaign is the quintessential
bootstrapping operation.
But it's more demanding still. We can't know in advance how people will
respond to our appeals. So every direct-mail letter we mail is a leap of
faith - a leap that could land us in clover or send us down the abyss.
A simple fact is that most people won't contribute for projects with staid,
low-key goals. They respond mainly to spectacular, exciting projects. That
means we are constantly forced to develop proposals that will stretch our
campaign to the limits of what we can actually do, and sometimes beyond.
For instance, it's relatively easy to assemble teams of volunteers to
distribute literature door to door, but that isn't very spectacular - and
even if people want to see it done, few of them would donate much money to
finance the literature, pay for the staff to teach and coordinate the
volunteers, and cover other expenses relating to the project.
Libertarians also demand that the campaign answer its email, return phone
calls promptly, keep records, and book interviews, but few people are
inspired to contribute for those expenses.
So you have to come up with projects that are both valuable and
spectacular - projects that can attract enough donations not only to pay for
themselves, but also to pay for all the non-spectacular things a campaign
must do. That's just the way it is.
But the problem doesn't end there. Not only do you have to develop projects
that will stretch your capabilities, you also have to succeed with most of
those projects or contributor confidence will be damaged and you'll go out
of business. You can afford an occasional failure, but not many. You have to
demonstrate constant progress and even acceleration in order to keep the
support flowing.
And if you run into problems executing an important project, your entire
fund-raising and production cycle can be derailed and lead to still more
problems. This is what we faced in trying to buy national broadcast time for
the video. We didn't want to ask for more funds until we had achieved this
goal, but we encountered obstacle after obstacle from networks, and all the
while the clock was ticking. Money was going out the door for overhead and
other kinds of outreach, while no new money was coming in to replace it.
We were faced with a real dilemma. We knew we'd have no trouble buying time
after the nomination, but we had to be working now to build name recognition
for Harry and for the Libertarian label; we couldn't wait until July to
start attracting attention. So we needed an alternative advertising plan to
bridge the gap. The solution was to produce short TV ads that we could air
without limitations. But that would take time, and we wanted to be sure we
could pull it off before proposing the idea to potential donors.
Meanwhile, time was running out for another project we wanted to do - the
FEC challenge. We covered the TV front by buying time for the 30-minute
video city by city. In the meantime, while we prepared to produce our short
TV ads, we could test the FEC idea in a LibertyWire message. If we received
a positive response, we could do a direct-mail appeal for that project, and
complete the legal research and do the pre-production work for the TV ads at
the same time.
This would have allowed us to do a follow-up appeal announcing a string of
local broadcasts of the video, the results of our legal research, and our
already in-progress TV ad production. My experience told me this could be a
grand slam.
And things got off to a good start. The initial response to our FEC proposal
was very enthusiastic, as expected. Based on this, I committed to a
direct-mail appeal for the FEC project. But the ink was barely dry on this
appeal, and it hadn't even been mailed, when Jacob Hornberger struck -
making a long string of unsubstantiated charges and accusing us of having
unscrupulous motives for the FEC challenge.
According to Hornberger, Harry and I were placing ourselves at risk of
federal prosecution and huge fines in order to hide financial misconduct
from you. That doesn't make much sense, but if you repeat a lie often (and
he has been accusing us of corruption for two years), enough people will
assume there must be at least a grain of truth involved, and many will stop
writing checks until the dust settles.
At this point our healthy cash flow dried up, and I was faced with having to
scrap 50,000 letters at great expense. This uncomfortable situation led
Harry to send a LibertyWire message in response to Mr. Hornberger's
attacks - the only time we've responded to any of the many attacks made
against us over the past few years. Given that a campaign like ours must
always be stretched to the limit of its resources, we certainly didn't want
to divert time or money dispelling rumors and answering unfounded
allegations. And we didn't want to contribute to any acrimony that would
divide the party. But we had to respond to the allegations.
Harry's message turned the tide and the cash began to flow again. But Mr.
Hornberger wasn't finished. He continued to accuse us of hiding our finances
behind the FEC challenge, and he was joined in his attacks by the small
group of people in the LP who constitute the Anybody-but-Browne faction.
They kept up a steady drumbeat of allegations and rumors on various email
lists and by word of mouth. These rumors are like a virus spreading through
the LP and demoralizing it in this presidential campaign year.
Jacob Hornberger's foundation has for many years published excellent
libertarian materials. And Mr. Hornberger has the ability to bring a crowd
of Libertarians to their feet when he speaks. His reputation allowed him to
be taken seriously at first, while someone else saying these things might be
treated as just a crank. However, he has made the mistake of making too many
allegations. A lot of people have first-hand knowledge that some of the
allegations are untrue, leading them to doubt Mr. Hornberger's charges in
the areas about which they have no personal knowledge.
In addition, the bad taste of doing this in the middle of a presidential
campaign caused an enormous backlash. We have received copies of dozens of
unsolicited letters from people telling Mr. Hornberger they will no longer
support his foundation and asking to be removed from his mailing list. Faced
with the loss of the reputation he once enjoyed, his attacks have become
more frequent and more shrill in a desperate attempt to be taken seriously.
We are very grateful for the enormous number of comments we have received
that pledge renewed moral support for Harry's work. Unfortunately, we haven'
t received comparable financial support.
We thought the FEC challenge would provide bridge financing to allow us to
execute our Plan B for advertising. But the failure of the FEC appeal has
put the entire campaign in severe jeopardy. Many staff members have gone
without pay in order to keep the campaign alive, and friendly vendors have
gone unpaid while we waited for the storm to pass.
But the storm isn't passing. On Friday morning, April 21, when I reviewed
the income for the previous three days, it was obvious that our cash flow
had flat-lined. We were more than $80,000 in debt, and didn't have even
enough money to mail out another appeal to try to get out of the hole.
Tours
Campaign tours have taken the third highest amount of money - $180,088.69.
This money was used to put Harry on the road (usually with Michael Cloud and
Pamela Browne).
The amount includes air travel, shuttles, taxies, hotel accommodations,
meeting rooms, audio-visual equipment and list rentals for invitation
mailings, as well as associated printing, stuffing, and postage costs.
It also includes salary for the campaign scheduler, who must labor mightily
to juggle Harry's schedule, book his flights and hotel rooms, and assure
that we don't end up scheduling him to do two things at the same time.
As a result of these expenditures, since 1997 Harry has spent 217 days on
the road, visiting 30 states on behalf of the LP or the presidential
campaign. Since the official kick-off on February 14, he has spent 30 days
on the road.
It is ironic that this should be our third highest campaign expense. Critics
have claimed over and over that Harry just sits at home doing radio
interviews - even though anyone can read his Campaign Journal and discover
how much time he spends on the road.
However, I believe this is the one area where we may have misspent money. We
tried to make these tours a paying proposition as part of our efforts to
build a large war chest with which to start the campaign. We hoped to
generate an average audience of 100 people per event, which should have
netted enough money from the tours to fill the campaign war chest.
But no matter how many the invitations or follow-up phone calls, we just
couldn't seem to get the average above 50 people. This meant the money we
raised from these events was way too expensive. We don't want to spend our
contributor's money simply to raise more money, so we terminated these
events for the time being. We assumed that this summer, with the combination
of the video on the air in a target city and our now-extensive volunteer
organization personally inviting people, we could boost turnouts
significantly. Now we may not get a chance to find out.
Administration
The next highest expenditure area is administration at $103,591.04. This
category covers my salary and expense reimbursements over the past two
years, as well as that for my predecessor, Jack Dean, in 1997. Staff
health-insurance costs also are included here.
Am I worth what I'm paid? You'll have to decide for yourself. But I will
tell you that I . . .
Work 7 days a week
Field an average of 200 email messages a day and a score of phone calls
Work with Harry on our fund-raising letters
Produce most of the campaign literature
Manage a staff of 11 people plus numerous vendors
Juggle cash flow and keep creditors at bay
Make a huge number of critical judgements on very short notice
Use my credit cards to get the campaign from here to there (which has
destroyed my credit in the process)
Forgo my pay and expense reimbursements for weeks at a time when cash is
short
That's the way campaigns are. And that's what campaign managers do. So don't
cry for me; I knew what I was getting into. I mention the drawbacks only to
assure you that running a presidential campaign isn't some kind of
get-rich-quick scheme.
Media Relations
The next highest spending category is media relations at $85,495.29. This
covers two staff members and the cost of a P.R. firm. While all the spending
categories are necessary to the campaign, this one and advertising are the
two that produce the most visible results.
Just since February 14 (the official announcement day), Harry has had . . .
110 radio interviews, of which 34 were on national networks or syndication,
and another 61 were on stations in major metropolitan areas.
9 national TV appearances.
39 press interviews, of which 7 were with national publications and 21 were
with major metropolitan dailies, resulting in over a hundred articles
published.
Our advertising agency has been calculating audience sizes (based on
Arbitron ratings) for all these broadcast appearances, and calculating what
an equivalent amount of time would have cost us in paid advertising. We were
going to post this information on our web site. There's no question that the
value of all this media was many times what we spent to acquire it. Harry's
radio and TV appearances alone have been seen and heard by millions of
people already.
We've already had him on major shows this year that he wasn't able to get on
during the entire 1996 campaign (such as an entire hour as the single guest
on C-SPAN's Washington Journal).
Data Processing
The next highest expenditure area is data processing at $72,524.52. It takes
a staff of three people to sort our mail, maintain our database, deposit our
contributions, send out thank you letters and premiums, and generate lists.
This amount, as with all the other numbers cited in this report, covers
three years of work.
Volunteer Program
The Volunteer Program is next at $68,453.12. This covers three staff people
and related expenses. So far this program has recruited 4,358 people who
have volunteered 17,084 hours per month - the equivalent of nearly 100
full-time employees. No LP presidential campaign has ever had such an
organization.
The volunteers include . . .
3,710 people who have agreed to write letters to the media
3,202 people who have agreed to make calls to survey potential voters
3,220 people who have agreed to distribute literature door-to-door
3,250 people who have agreed to run Harry Browne booths at flea markets
3,201 people who have agreed to speak on Harry's behalf
3,734 people who have agreed to tell their friends about us via email
3,376 people who have agreed to tell their friends about us via snail mail
3,418 people who have agreed to campaign for us among members of their
profession
3,351 business owners who have agreed to display our literature
I don't know whether you're impressed by these numbers, but I am. They are
four times what I had expected them to be when we decided to set up a
professionally organized volunteer program. And, unfortunately, this success
has led to some problems.
Because I had expected we would have only about 1,000 volunteers, I
committed us to providing some free assistance to our volunteers in the form
of auto stickers, yard signs, and a small amount of literature. Providing
the same materials to 4,358 people was another matter. Doing so would have
depleted our inventory of almost everything and would have cost four times
what I had budgeted. We have been struggling to solve this problem since the
campaign began officially, two months ago.
Trying to solve the problems of unexpected success can be as difficult as
dealing with failures.
Many people like to talk about grassroots efforts, but we have actually
succeeded in organizing a real grassroots campaign.
Campaign Materials
Our next highest expenditure area has been campaign materials at $60,688.90.
So far the campaign has distributed 13,657 videocassettes, 11,179 copies of
our 32-page tabloid publication, 247 yard signs, 126 rally signs, 9,386 auto
stickers, and 6,844 campaign buttons.
We have also sent out 3,443 info packs. Each one includes a videocassette,
the tabloid publication, an auto sticker, campaign button, cover letter,
contribution form, and volunteer form.
Internet Campaigning
Our next highest expenditure area is Internet campaigning at $51,242.46.
This figure covers all the web hosting, programming, design work,
maintenance, update costs, and audio and video conversion costs for the past
three years.
The results from this area are as follows . . .
MONTH:
JAN
FEB
MARCH
Hits for Home Page
23270
54517
49760
Successful Hits for Entire Site
503223
754482
597630
Page Views (Impressions)
101652
272201
243604
User Sessions
41445
99231
165912
Average Hits Per Day
16233
26016
19278
Average Page Views Per Day
3279
9388
7858
Average User Sessions Per Day
1336
3421
5352
Average User Session Length
06:31
09:25
09:34
USERS:
Unique Users
15077
47067
92153
Users Who Visited Once
12571
40168
80525
Users Who Visited More Than Once
2506
6899
11628
Note that the number of unique users tripled in February (when the campaign
officially began) and doubled again in March. The website also has brought
in more than $60,000 in contributions, showing a net profit in addition to
inducing people to vote for us and help us. In fact, we have been expecting
the website to show larger and larger profits for the rest of the campaign.
Other spending areas
We also have spent (again, over a three year period):
Accounting services: $39,111.25.
Rent: $37,495.29. (this includes three months rent and a large deposit that
was required of us because we are a political campaign)
Stephanie Yanik and I work out of our townhouse. The campaign doesn't
reimburse us for our office space. The rest of the staff works in a nearby
townhouse. Two staffers also live there, pay rent to the campaign, and put
up with people tramping through their home day and night.
Graphic design: $25,382.54 (this includes all of our campaign material
including a 32 page tabloid, graphics for the video, and layout for all of
our fundraising letter).
Phones: $21,599.06.
Legal compliance: $19,111.25 (including costs related to our custom-designed
FEC reporting software and our FEC compliance expert).
Bank services: $18,651.01 (mostly credit-card processing fees).
Refunds of donations that were over the legal limit: $12,380.52.
Relocation of employees to Washington area: $6,115.05.
Staff Budget
The campaign employs 13 people at a cost of $34,309.34 a month, including
health-insurance benefits. This is an average salary of $2,639.18 per month.
(Could you live on that?)
With average work-weeks of 60 hours, the hourly rate for the staff is about
$9.77.
Clearly, no one is getting rich in this endeavor.
Our Debt
Our current debt is $83,343.64. This normally wouldn't be disastrous. But we
have no cash flow to fund additional fund-raising and allow for continued
operations.
Of the total debt . . .
$36,551.00 is owed to the staff, with a good deal of it owed to me.
$13,641.56 is owed to our direct-mail vendors.
$10,000 is owed to the lawyers doing our FEC challenge research.
$7,634.79 is owed to our advertising agency.
$6,999.99 is owed to our PR firm.
$6,310.20 is owed to our Internet vendor.
$2,205.50 is owed to miscellaneous vendors.
If we can come up with all or part of this money, we can resume operations.
If we raise the whole amount, I won't pay off the entire debt immediately.
Some of what we receive will allow us to resume outreach operations and
fund-raising, while waiting to pay off myself and a few of the vendors.
What's next?
If we can raise about $50,000 this week, we can be back in business. In the
meantime, we have cancelled all media and campaign expenses, as well as all
other discretionary expenditures.
Where can the $50,000 come from? Part of it may come over the phone. Harry
will be spending his days calling for contributions. But given the legal
contribution limits, he can't raise a sizable amount very quickly.
The rest must come in response to this message, because we don't now have
the money to mail to the LP list. Worse still, if we don't get the money to
do such a mailing in the next few days, we will have to cancel the May date
the LP has reserved for us, and then our chances of resurrecting the
campaign will be almost nil.
We can't know how you have reacted to the rumors you may have heard about
our campaign, or how they will affect your desire to continue supporting us.
But we do know that the Browne campaign is the only hope the party has for a
visible presidential campaign. No other candidate has the infrastructure and
organization in place to run an effective national campaign, and it is too
late to begin setting up a new one now. We started planning three years ago,
we began assembling our team nine months ago, and we are still putting
certain components of the campaign in place.
Let's be forthright about this: it's the Harry Browne campaign or nothing.
No other candidate has the experience on the national stage, the respect of
so many talk-show hosts and journalists, the sizable organization in place
to make the Libertarian Party visible nationally, or the ability and stature
to persuade large numbers of people to vote for us or join the party.
Don Gorman and Barry Hess are fine men who are running credible campaigns,
but they simply aren't in a position to run the kind of campaign Harry can.
Neither of them is doing much now to reach out to the public. Necessarily,
each of them has to stay focused almost exclusively on campaigning for the
nomination. By contrast, Harry has spent roughly 90% of his time campaigning
to the public, and only 10% campaigning for the nomination. He is in a
position to let his outreach activities serve as his audition for the
nomination.
Could someone else have run a better campaign than we have up to this point?
Possibly, but no one has, no one is, and no one is offering to. Many people
know for certain what we should be doing and what we should have done, but
they aren't doing it themselves.
If Harry Browne isn't the candidate this year, I don't see how the party can
garner more than a few hundred thousand votes - let alone break out over the
one million level. There's no guarantee that we can do it either, but we at
least have a shot at it.
And now the Harry Browne for President campaign is in your hands. Everything
you and I have invested in, worked for, and hoped for. Do we let it die? Or
do we rise from this setback?
If you want Harry Browne to be the Libertarian spokesman this year, if you
want us to continue the campaign, please act now and make the maximum
donation possible to get the campaign up to full speed. It will be
especially valuable if you put the donation on your credit card so that it
is available to us almost immediately. You can do that at our secure
website:
http://www.harrybrowne2000.org/misc/renew.htm
We truly appreciate all you've done to help us so far. Let's hope the effort
can still pay off.
Sincerely,
Perry Willis
Campaign Manager
Harry Browne for President
Appendix: Vendor and staff payments
Only one set of payments needs any explanation. Prior to the official start
of the campaign and our leasing of office space, all staff services were
subcontracted through my company, Optopia Productions. This was done, in
part, to make it easier for us to get health insurance. When staff members
began to work in office space paid directly by the campaign, their
employment was transferred to the campaign. Since then, very few payments
have been made to my company; even my salary has been paid directly to me.
This will be reflected in our FEC reports.
In addition, it is important to remember that these payments were made over
a period of three years. In order to save space, payments to any given
person or vendor are lumped together for the period from December 97 through
February 2000. The check registers for March and April 2000 are then
appended at the end.
Payments, Dec 97 - Feb 2000
$ Amount
Purpose
A&G Services
188.50
work at HQ
Abacus Insurance
2,717.00
advertising, liability insurance
Academy Door & Control Corp
107.16
work at HQ
Accent Press
900.69
direct mail
AccuMail, Inc
52,850.53
direct mail
Adam's Mark Hotel, Indianapolis
2,037.48
Tours
Adam's Mark St. Louis
579.51
Tours
Alexis Thompson & Associates
344.00
Tours
Alia Business Machines
70.00
Equipment
American Homes Realty, Inc
1,250.00
staff relocation
Aspen Meadows, The
541.00
Tours
AT&T
450.49
Phones
Atlantis Casino Resort
498.00
Tours
Babka, Jim
25,020.21
Media
Bacon's Information Inc
610.00
Media
BDNet
522.50
Equipment
Bell Atlantic
12,440.30
Phones
Braun, Geoffrey
534.00
Internet campaigning
Browne, Harry
22,751.12
travel reimbursement
Brunner, Robert
2,750.00
Media
Budget Car Rental
715.64
Tours
Call Center Services
1,750.00
inquiry answering service
CardService International
15,185.72
bank services
Carlson Wagonlit Travel
1,528.80
Tours
Carney-McNichols, Inc
2,359.71
staff relocation
Cellular One
2,569.91
Phones
Century 21 Accent Homes
2,450.00
staff relocation
Circuit City
2,089.91
Equipment
Clarion Hotel, San Francisco
1,249.06
Tours
Cloud, Michael
32,947.05
travel reimbursement and fund-raising
Columbus Marriott North
925.87
Tours
CompUSA
3,733.64
Equipment
Computer Renaissance
549.38
equipment
Copy Right Video
27,050.00
campaign materials
CorpAssist
120.00
administration
Courtyard by Marriott
640.68
tours
Covey, Erich P.
1,446.00
data processing
Crown Plaza Hotel, Westshore
858.97
tours
Crystal Springs Water Company
38.95
HQ
Davis, Shannon
17,349.47
data processing
Dayton Marriott
1,438.14
tours
DC Treasurer
50.00
tours
Dean, J Harris, Consulting
72,772.61
Internet, graphics, reimbursements
DeVoil, Robert
28,556.69
data processing
DeVoil, Sr., Robert
25.00
expense reimbursement, data processing
Diversified Mailing
5,519.54
direct mail
DoubleTree Hotel, Anaheim
1,401.70
tours
DoubleTree Hotel, Fresno
996.21
tours
DoubleTree Hotel, Salt Lake
440.43
tours
DoubleTree Hotel, San Diego
1,000.00
tours
DoubleTree Hotel, Sonoma
1,527.56
tours
Dulles Office Furniture
62.70
equipment
Embassy Suites, Charlotte
2,206.48
tours
Embassy Suites, RiverCenter
250.00
tours
Enterprize Movers, Inc
297.50
staff relocation
Exxon
180.10
tours
Federal Express
3,317.10
shipping
Firm Multimedia, The
5,200.00
advertising
Foxchase Photos
276.93
media
Gateway
5,283.69
equipment
Greeson, Debra
19,375.75
tours
Hertz Rent-A-Car
1,013.73
tours
Hilton Akron at Quaker Square
859.58
tours
Hilton Arlington Towers
1,605.92
tours
Hilton Charleston North
872.24
tours
Hilton, Oakland Airport
1,702.20
tours
Home Depot
28.07
equipment
Hosterman, Greg
60.00
campaign materials
Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe
882.50
tours
Infinity Realty International
30.00
staff relocation
InnSuites Hotel
631.29
tours
JW Marriott Houston
697.69
tours
Kinko's
1,585.77
media, press kits
Kolb Electric
168.40
work at HQ
Lapel Pin, Inc
4,080.00
premiums
Laurel Graphx, Inc
1,125.00
graphic design
Leary, Saavik
41.20
ballot access
Liam Works
11,209.78
campaign materials
Libertarian National Committee
9,272.77
list rental fees
Libertarian Party of California
540.50
tours
Libertarian Party of Dallas
10.00
tours
Libertarian Party of Florida
55.35
tours
Libertarian Party of Georgia
406.85
tours
Libertarian Party, Dallas County
50.00
tours
Linx Communications
630.51
phones
Livingston's Offset Printing
488.72
premiums
Lombardo, Thomas
19,686.02
HQ rent, landlord
Long Beach Marriott
1,741.72
tours
Long, Mike
50.00
media, writing
Mailboxes, Etc
627.08
mail box
Manor House, The
504.00
tours
Marriott Palm Beach Gardens
1,168.27
tours
Merkle Mailing Services
61,495.33
direct mail
Merry Maids
1,255.00
HQ
Micro Center
1,317.44
equipment
Moving Connection
1,853.89
staff relocation
Mt Vernon Printing
19,314.66
direct mail
Network Solutions, Inc
85.00
Internet campaigning
New Media
7,330.95
Internet campaigning
Newman Communications
8,600.00
media
Novus Network Services-Discover
175.92
bank services
Nu-Tech Corp
125.00
equipment
Office Depot
661.45
office supplies
OfficeMax
410.79
office supplies
Optopia Productions
208,150.14
pay & reimburse, Willis & Yanik, insurance
Palace Station Casino
637.50
tours
Parcel Plus--Watergate
858.22
mail box
PetsMart
43.88
gate to separate office area from living quarters
Polaris Productions
134,000.00
advertising - video production & duplication
PostNet
2,854.81
data processing
Power, Virginia
159.81
HQ
Radisson Hotel, Birmingham
1,286.49
tours
Radisson Hotel, Sacramento
978.94
tours
Radisson Valley Center Hotel
1,242.80
tours
Radisson Wilshire Plaza Hotel
1,273.95
tours
refunds
11,537.00
over-limit contribution refunds
Reges, Stuart
42,333.74
accting, FEC compliance, data processing mgmt
Renaissance Bedford Hotel
951.97
tours
Renaissance Orlando Hotel
929.97
tours
Residence Inn
625.60
tours
Richmond Marriott
1,035.74
tours
Ridgeway Inn
1,010.06
tours
Ritz Camera
188.03
media
San Jose Hilton & Towers
1,279.45
tours
Savannah Station
835.00
tours
Seabreeze Travel
17,571.28
tours
Sheraton International Hotel
1,109.40
tours
Sheraton Suites Galleria
1,668.74
tours
Sir Speedy Printing
12,548.94
tours, invitations
Sprint
822.91
phones
Staples
5,072.75
office supplies
Time Printing
230.05
tours
Toledo Hilton
716.70
tours
U.S. Postal Service
7,400.57
shipping
Von Holtzbrinck Publishing
7,500.00
books purchased for premiums
Walter Karl List Brokerage
13,055.87
list rental fees for LP list
Washington Gas
138.19
HQ
Web Commanders
18,299.97
Internet campaigning
Web World, Inc
735.00
Internet campaigning
Wells Fargo Bank
782.45
bank services
West Coast Santa Cruz Hotel
664.63
tours
Wilke, Teresa
65.00
data processing
Williams, Jack and Meg
4,550.40
books purchased for premiums
Willis, Jennifer
16,500.00
volunteer program
Willis, Steve
14,758.22
volunteer program, tours, pay and reimburse
Windman Chiropractic
40.00
paid in lieu of health insurance
Wyndham Chicago
2,273.34
tours
Wyndham Metrocenter Hotel
621.82
tours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Payments, March-April 2000
Amount
Purpose
AccuMail
2,828.03
fundraising postage
Acree, Michael
50.00
over-limit refund
Alexander, Stan
900.00
over limit refund
AT&T
19.15
phones
AT&T
35.52
phones
B&B Duplicators
3,213.11
office suplies
Babka, Jim
2,000.00
media salary
Babka, Jim
2,166.67
media salary
Babka, Jim
2,700.00
media, salary
bank payment
2.50
bank charges
bank payment
253.50
bank charges
bank payment
65.00
bank charges
bank payment
10.00
bank charges
bank payment
271.34
bank charges
bank payment
50.00
bank charges
bank payment
2.50
bank charges
bank payment
200.00
bank charges
bank payment
76.81
bank charges
bank payment
2.00
bank charges
bank payment
100.00
bank charges
bank payment
50.00
bank charges
bank payment
25.00
bank charges
bank payment
20.00
bank charges
bank payment
60.00
bank charges
Bell Atlantic
29.64
phones
Bell Atlantic
636.38
phones
Bell Atlantic
211.02
phones
Bell Atlantic
505.38
phones
Bell Atlantic
558.87
phones
Bell Atlantic
489.35
phones
Bell Atlantic
297.75
phones
Bell Atlantic
60.08
phones
Braun, Barbara
855.00
volunteer program
Browne, Harry
750.00
Loan repayment
Browne, Harry
1,000.00
tour expense reimbursement
Browne, Harry
909.50
tour expense reimbursement
Browne, Harry
932.00
tour expense reimbursement
Browne, Harry
500.00
loan repayment
Browne, Harry
1,000.00
loan repayment
Browne, Harry
2,000.00
loan repayment
Brunner, Robert
1,000.00
media - salary
Brunner, Robert
323.95
media - moving expenses
Brunner, Robert
1,250.00
media salary
Copy Right Video
4,000.00
campaign materials
Covey, Erich
384.00
data processing salary
Covey, Erich
372.00
data processing salary
credit card fees
500.00
fundraising
credit card fees
102.77
fundraising
debit
950.00
over-limit refund
DeVoil, Robert
568.00
reimbursements
DeVoil, Robert
1,302.50
data processing salary
DeVoil, Robert
1,512.00
data processing salary
DeVoil, Robert
1,270.50
data processing
DeVoil, Robert
1,342.30
data processing reimbursement
DeVoil, Robert
1,365.00
data processing salary
DoubleTree Hotel
326.87
tours
DoubleTree San Diego
1,138.76
tours
Erdelsky, Philip
50.00
over-limit refund
FedEx
79.53
shipping
FedEx
295.62
shipping
FedEx
74.93
shipping
FedEx
35.49
shipping
FedEx
107.64
shipping
FedEx
24.46
shipping
Firm Multimedia, The
10,000.00
advertising
Firm Multimedia, The
5,000.00
advertising
Ghalazyni, Abe
185.00
office supplies
Greeson, Debra
518.50
scheduling - salary
Greeson, Debra
1,224.00
scheduling - salary
Greeson, Debra
1,394.00
scheduling - salary
Kinko's
53.34
media
Kinko's
144.21
media
Lawrence, Jay
96.87
tour reimbursement
Libertarian Party of Massachusetts
89.00
volunteer program
Linton, Roderick
218.75
legal services
Linx Communications
912.34
phones
Lombardo, Tom
1,800.00
HQ rent
Mailboxes Etc.
156.60
mail box
Merry Maids
160.00
HQ
Merry Maids
160.00
HQ
Merry Maids
160.00
HQ
Mt. Vernon
8,912.29
fundraising
Newman Communications
2,333.33
media
Newman Communications
2,333.33
media
Newman Communications
2,333.33
media
O'Connell, Dan
100.00
over-limit refund
Olson, William J.
5,000.00
FEC challenge attorney
Olson, William J.
5,000.00
FEC challenge attorney
Optopia
1,476.00
administration - health insurance
Optopia
1,476.00
administration - health insurance
Pacific Bell
219.62
phones
Pacific Bell
140.81
phones
Pacific Bell
102.71
phones (Braun phone)
Page, David
50.00
over-limit refund
Parcel Plus
75.00
mail box
Peart, Thomas G.
244.84
advertising - video expenses
Peirotti, David
500.00
media - photos
Petty cash
200.00
shipping
Petty cash
200.00
shipping
Polaris Productions
30.00
advertising
Polaris Productions
6,000.00
advertising
Polaris Productions
30.00
advertising
Polaris Productions
5,500.00
advertising
Polaris Productions
30.00
advertising
Polaris Productions
3,500.00
advertising
Postage petty cash
200.00
shipping
Power, Virginia
63.39
HQ
Seabreeze Travel
1,633.00
tours
Seabreeze Travel
1,363.00
tours
Seabreeze Travel
1,917.00
tours
Seabreeze Travel
75.00
tours
Seabreeze Travel
1,459.50
tours
Sheraton International
99.68
tours
Sprint PCS
80.45
phones
Sprint PCS
61.26
phones
Sprint PCS
202.36
phones
Sprint PCs
122.25
phones
Staples
267.51
office supplies - printer
Staples
41.78
office supplies
Staples
215.49
office supplies
Timberlake, R.H.
25.00
over-limit refund
UPS
445.18
shipping
Virginia Power
80.00
HQ
Walter Karl, Inc.
2,103.48
LP list rental
Walter Karl, Inc.
2,120.43
LP list rental
Washington Gas
80.00
HQ
Washington Gas
32.72
HQ
William J. Olson Trust Account
5,000.00
FEC challenge attorney
Willis, Jennifer
1,000.00
volunteer program
Willis, Jennifer
1,000.00
volunteer program
Willis, Perry
2,000.00
administration
Willis, Perry
3,167.00
administration
Willis, Perry
1,000.00
administration
Willis, Perry
500.00
administration
Willis, Steve
210.90
postage reimbursement
Willis, Steve
2,500.00
volunteer program
Willis, Steve
265.50
expense reimbursement
Willis, Steve
1,000.00
volunteer program
Willis, Steve
500.00
volunteer program
Yanik, Stephanie
500.00
tours
Yanik, Stephanie
1,500.00
tours
Mike Lepore
is for GENUINE libertarians, that is, socialists.
Not for phony libertarians (advocates of
capitalist wage-slavery).
Please use common sense when cross-posting.
Mike Lepore
LIBERTARIAN SOCIALIST WEB SITE:
http://www.idsi.net/~lepore/soc/
http://www.idsi.net/~lepore/soc/
http://www.idsi.net/~lepore/soc/
Croaker
Mike Lepore <lep...@idsi.net> wrote in message
news:390844F6...@idsi.net...
> This newsgroup : alt.politics.socialism.libertarian
> is for GENUINE libertarians, that is, socialists.
> Not for phony libertarians (advocates of
> capitalist wage-slavery).
>
> Please use common sense when cross-posting.
Oops... I don't know if it showed up on the server yet, but I made an angry
reply to this.... I was absolutely sure I had changed over to my inbox and
thought that this had been emailed to me. (Which should explain it to you
folks if you read my other message and it didn't make any sense.
Guess that makes ME the fuckin' idiot, eh? My apologies.
M.Simon
wrote:
>This newsgroup : alt.politics.socialism.libertarian
>is for GENUINE libertarians, that is, socialists.
>Not for phony libertarians (advocates of
>capitalist wage-slavery).
Socialists are against theft by capital.
Their remedy is theft of capital.
Simon - http://www.spacetimepro.com Control the World from a Parallel Port
Free Software Source Code - Free CNC Source Code
Mike Lepore
> Socialists are against theft by capital.
> Their remedy is theft of capital.
Or, you might say, socialists intend, that on the day
of the workers' revolution, when the various forms
of private property are up for renewal, that
private ownership of personal belongings should
be renewed, but that no action should be taken
to renew the institution of private ownership of
the industries, and the term of the latter would be
allowed to elapse by default.
So I guess it's a matter of perspective.
Either way, the industries won't be "taken" anywhere.
The workers won't run away with the buildings.
What will actually happen is that the capitalist-
appointed managers will show up at the shops,
and the workers will laugh and explain to the
former bosses that they have decided to
recognize a new body of management,
namely, the workers' assemblies and their
delegates.
--
Mike Lepore
http://www.idsi.net/~lepore/soc/