We anticipate that FEC reports for significant third parties will be filed by day’s end, so that we will have a comparative report and more detailed reports in a few days. For the Libertarian Party, the full staff report to their National Committee is now at the link. I summarize:
The LNC financial report covering July is now available. Of particular note, as of the end of July the hotel bill for $249,000 had not yet been paid.
As of the end of July, the LNC had $341,198 in the bank, to be matched against $323,244 in accrued expenses and liabilities and $29,815 in the credit card balance. Note that until April of this year that credit card balance was usually under $3,000. The net result is that the nominal cash reserve is negative. It is -$10,012.
For the month of July, there was $95,022 in general fundraising, $278 for restricted project, and $1290 in other income, for a total of $96,590. In the same period, the national committee spent $114,196, meaning that the net result was a loss of $17,606. In the last six months, the LNC has spent $166,671 cash out the door more than it had in income, including being in the red five months of the last six, this sixth being April in which the balance sheet was $6,566 in the black.
There was a separate report on the convention.Through the end of June, the convention raised bit more than $587,000 but cost more than $507,000, for a net return of under $80,000. Your author recalls assertions that the convention was hoped to bring in more than a half million dollars, which it did, of which the net return was to be perhaps half of that or a bit less.
There is a datum on the joint fundraising scheme with one of our presidential candidate’s opponents. Thus far in the month the scheme has raised $610,000, of which the LNC will receive eventually $61,000. $549,000 will be available to an opponent of our party to campaign against our party’s candidates and platform. Month-to-month fundraising for independent candidates is difficult to predict, so for this income stream the traditional rule about not counting one’s chickens before they’re hatched is a wise precaution.
The August membership report is not available yet. It seems that the staff is still attempting to recover from the change to the new CRM. However, there is a membership report complete through June. The report shows that membership peaked at well under 13,000 in March, and has been falling ever since. There is no indication of a bump in membership near the date of the convention.
It would appear that the income from renting out our party’s good name to the Kennedy campaign will raise a considerable sum of money, but that income will surely come to an end with November of this year. At that point, we are back to the long-term financial situation of the party, namely it is spending significantly more money than it is bringing in, at least on paper it is literally out of money, and membership continues to fall.
The traditional election year bumps upward in LNC income and national party membership are noteworthy for their absence. If there are crypto whales, they are not in evidence.
The fooforaw previous months over whether all LNC members are eligible to serve, based on whether or not they have renewed their memberships, must remain up in the air, because the table in the report has not been completely updated. However, there is a previous assertion that in fact all LNC members are indeed sustaining members, so this issue can be allowed to go to sleep.
“t would appear that the income from renting out our party’s good name to the Kennedy campaign will raise a considerable sum of money, but that income will surely come to an end with November of this year”
It is rumored RFK will suspend his campaign tomorrow.
The thing speaks for itself. The Latin term res ipsa loquitur translates to “the thing speaks for itself,” and is used in the U.S. legal system to refer to a doctrine of law in which an individual is assumed to have been negligent because he had exclusive control over the incident that caused the injury or damages. This assumption may be made even without specific evidence of negligence, as the accident, injury, or damages would not have occurred in the absence of negligence.
With respect to funding expenditures opposing our Presidential candidates, Political Wire reports:
“Donald Trump said Tuesday he would “certainly” be open to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. playing a role in his administration if the independent candidate drops out of the 2024 race and endorses the former president, CNN reports.”
All that and they still haven’t updated everyone’s membership cards. 15 months waiting for my Life Membership card.
And if RFK drops and joins Trump as is rumored, then the entire JFC falls apart and the LP is in real financial trouble.
Would the JFC necessarily fall apart? Or could RFK keep it open and use the money on Trump’s behalf? If that ends up being the case, the LP would effectively be helping fund raise for Trump.
Because it would no longer go towards the candidate as intended, and it no longer serves any purpose of getting around limits of contributions to a candidate.
Couple expenses of note:
7000.60 Credit Card Fees Expense $3,076 – that’s a lot of interest on $29.8K balance – makes you wonder why they never did the line of credit they kept talking about which would be a much lower interest rate?
8130 Postage & Shipping $5,759 – that appears ways above normal office shipping. Fundraising postage usually falls under that category or whatever program or project it is related to. Makes you wonder what they’re shipping?
Is that $61k soul money part of total fundraising?
I believe that the Joint Fundraising Committee money is not in the report series yet.
And one of our regular correspondents comments:
July financials are out & another month under $100K. The report doesn’t look complete for July & raises too many questions – not sure why Bill bothered to forward it.
I am questioning the 4200.10 Convention Packages Revenue of $17,211 – first GAAP would require this to be backed into May. If so there would be a corresponding entry under assets. It should not be in July. Of course what is this related too? Who buys a package 2 months after the convention? If this is for 2026 then it should be properly deferred. There’s no corresponding entry on the balance sheet under liabilities.
1501 Undeposited Funds – civi $30,264 is another huge red flag. Are they claiming there’s a delay of getting 1/3rd of their revenue from Stripe or whatever credit card processor they’re using to their bank account, which normally happens in 24-48 hours?
Finally, for the first time in a long time they’re literally under water – doesn’t look like they’re paying the credit card bills either.
https://14453097707609202612.googlegroups.com/attach/9efb587fc93c0/07-2024-Staff-EOM-Reports%20v8.16.24.pdf?part=0.1&view=1&vt=ANaJVrGYl7iHkFrFWIvMxMTv-62UK2Rj9lSX855WQlC91zzHvzuimYsXPLG0QfVUqa-A-NaLXdxEG5ujNqUK2hnmkjz-7OVySrhati5TZB99Gclfbqr9D9k