LP Presidential Candidate FEC and Liberty Decides ‘08 Filings
From the Libertarian Party blog:
Wayne Allyn Root
LD ‘08: $15,764.00
Individual: $29,988.00
Candidate: $4,421.90
Daniel Imperato
LD ‘08: $10,474.00
Individual: $0.00
Candidate: $0.00
Michael Jingozian
LD ‘08: $8,490.00
Individual: $13,090.79
Candidate: $0.00
Mike Gravel*^
LD ‘08: $895.00
Individual: $447,378.97
Candidate: $0.00
Steve Kubby**
LD ‘08: $1,280.00
Total: $2,951.22
Alden Link
LD ‘08: $885.00
Individual: $259.00
Candidate: $4,225.00
George Phillies
LD ‘08: n/a
Individual: $16,727.75
Candidate: $81,527.01
Mary Ruwart***
LD ‘08: $1,060.00
Individual: n/a
Candidate: n/a
Christine Smith**
LD ‘08: $2,460.00
Total: $16,244.00
Bob Barr (still in Presidential exploratory phase):
Total Reported by Candidate Web site: $53,163.64
Most Individual Contributions Raised: Root
Most Personal Money Contributed: Phillies
*Numbers reflect previous campaign for President in different political party
**No electronic report available. Only total available is net contributions that do not separate individual contributions and candidate contributions
***No FEC report available
^Candidate had failed to file April Quarterly Report when data was compiled
(LD ‘08 totals current as of May 5, 2008. FEC Filing data taken from Election Cycle-To-Date totals from candidates’ April Quarterly filing. This information can be viewed at www.FEC.gov.)
UPDATE:
The Kubby campaign reports the following:The “total” figure ($2,951.22) listed for Steve Kubby above is incorrect—apparently the treasurer misread what was supposed to go on line 14 of the quarterly report and reported contributions for the period rather than net contributions for the entire election cycle. The actual figure for the election cycle to date, as reported on line 22, column B, is $16,219.77.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:50 am
In other words Liberty Decides is completely worthless?
May 7th, 2008 at 10:52 am
I always just used it as a list of people running. It did other things? spooky…
May 7th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Well disinter, it looks like Liberty Decides has been very worthwhile to the national LP itself… just not so much for the candidates and their supporters.
I’m perfectly fine with the idea behind Liberty Decides in general. It’s basically a way for the Party to raise ballot-access funds, in the format of a “straw poll” popularity contest with the Presidential candidates. The only issue I see is that they should be more clear about the fact that these funds are for the Party’s ballot access efforts, and NOT A DIME goes to the candidate(s). Fundraising for a candidate is worthwhile cause, and fundraising for ballot access is a worthwhile cause… but it causes problems when people mistakenly believe they are contributing to one when in fact they are contributing to the other. More clear and direct language could remedy this.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:05 am
The lp.org article repeatedly understates candidate money put into our own campaigns. The number quoted for me is low by a solid $100,000, namely my receipts through the quoted date (FEC line 22) are actually $198254.76, not the $98254.76 implied above. The Imperato and Jingozian numbers are also incorrect.
Where is the missing $100,000? See line 19 of my FEC filing. Candidate loans are income. The $100,000 I have transferred to my campaign for my general election campaign is currently reported as a loan. If I get the nomination, it becomes a contribution. Similarly, my good friend Mr. Jingozian has spent several hundred thousand of his own money on his campaign.
Why a loan? Calling the last dollars you give your own campaign simplifies closing your campaign out afterwards. You try to spend every penny you get, but end up very very slightly in the black, not counting candidate loans. The very very slightly left over is used to reduce very slightly the candidate loans, leaving a balance of zero and less pain for your poor treasurer.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Also, even with New Math, 447,000 is more than 30,000, so Senator Gravel is the leader in campaign donations from others.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:17 am
The “total” figure ($2,951.22) listed for Steve Kubby above is incorrect—apparently the treasurer misread what was supposed to go on line 14 of the quarterly report and reported contributions for the period rather than net contributions for the entire election cycle. The actual figure for the election cycle to date, as reported on line 22, column B, is $16,219.77.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
idrinkalldayidrinktilipassout
May 7th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
The real candidates raise more PER PLATE at a dinner fundraiser than you guys raise all year. Pathetic….As Bill Hicks would say…..Go Kill Yourself.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
stevec, Tell me about it.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Milnes is finally going to go kill himself?
May 7th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Did Irwin Schiff file FEC reports?? Michael Badnarik?? Jim Lewis?? (I am obviously talking about the years when their campaigns were active).
What is the penalty to the treasurer if he neglects or refuses to file?
Are there ANY benefits to filing?
PEACE
Steve
May 7th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Yeah, Mike Gravel raised the most by far. Why doesn’t it say that above?
May 7th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Most (all?) of the money Gravel raised was for the Democratic primary. It’s not really a fair comparison to the LP-only candidates.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
But that was Gravel’s strategy – get attention through the Democratic debates. I understand where you’re coming from, but you’ve got to factor in that Gravel knew from the beginning that he would most likely switch to a third party.
Here’s the latest crazy Gravel video on Youtube (we’re filibustering this one, too): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI6PA4v6dZg
May 7th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Ross,
I’m not sure that that was his plan from the beginning, but it did definitely become part of it after his exclusion and before the primaries.
But its of no matter, he’s here with the Libs and ready to fight for the nod.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I think he was considering it from the beginning. The Democrats have been disrespecting him from the 70s onward, and he was not in line at all with the Democratic leadership.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Is Alden woman ass?
May 7th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
John Anderson – are you the former presidential candidate John Anderson?
May 8th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Liberty Decides is not worthless. It’s a great way to get rich people who have no shot at getting the LP nomination (e.g. Imperato) to donate large sums of money to the LP.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:08 am
disinter: if Milnes’s vote as an official candidate would count as a delegate vote, it might be an idea for a serious candidate to sponsor Robert’s trip and stay at the convention in exchange for his vote. Think of it, he could also entertain the LP on his progressive alliance with the GP and in that case he need some proof of support by the GP for such an alliance also, you know, to make it believable…
May 8th, 2008 at 3:12 am
Well, since yesterday I like it more to look at TPW, to see a beautiful face, stylish dress and intelligence of Mary Ruwart (and to not only see the face of Root). Jingozian has a nice one too.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I communicated with our National Party Headquarters the unfortunate fact that these numbers are incorrect, because they do not include candidate money transfers to their campaigns when those transfers are logged as loans. The response was that they deliberately are not including loans, even though they are as a result wildly distorting the extent to which candidates, notably my good friend Mr. Jingozian, are in fact putting their money where their campaign is.
It is extremely unfortunate that our Party National Headquarters, despite the brouhaha over my good friend Dr. Ruwart, is continuing to seek to manipulate our Presidential campaign by releasing clearly false or misleading information about the Party’s Presidential nominating campaign.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:12 am
By way of comparison:
The only Green presidential candaite that shows up on the FEC radar is former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney:
total recieptss $91k
individual donations $80k
on hand at reporting time $42k
And despite him being the most hate man among the peaceniks, the jolly old elf of the public interest, Ralph Nader, is ahead of them all
Nader/Gonzalez 2008
reciept $611k
individual contributin
transfer from authorized committee $6k
candidate contribution $40k
cash on hand $361k
debt $100k (I’m guessing this left over ‘04?)
Alan Keyes on the other hand. The FEC has no reprorting for him as anything but a Republican so far:
receipts $382k
individual contributions $320k
cash on hand $20k
And, somehow, $506k in debt?! (I’m sure there’s a good story there!)
I can’t find any FEC records for Rev. Baldwin.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:50 am
Is Alan Keyes paying himself a salary from his campaign again this year? I wonder how much being a perma-candidate pays. I’m not being sarcastic; if he can make a good living while having fun as a presidential “contender”, more power to him.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Most of Nader’s debt comes from a situation with ballot access in Pennsylvania in 2004 that I vaguely remember.
There was some issue with Democrats disrupting his signatures (signing names like Donald Duck and then saying things like certain signatures were unreadable so they didn’t count, etc.) and he didn’t make the ballot in PA, so he was either sued or the state charged him a lot. It was either $60,000 or $90,000.
As some of you probably know, PA is one of the hardest states, if not the hardest, to get ballot access in.