Recent events are reminiscent of events in the period 1994-2004. History does not repeat, but there can be variations on a theme. We return now to the turn of the millennium, and LNC funding. The original Project Archimedes (hint: it failed) will by and by be seen. We appear to be recycling the old plans.
I plan daily posts. Readers who don’t want to wait may find all the posts you will be seeing here in my book Funding Liberty.
Funding Liberty!
Chapter 1
The Chicken Comes Home to Roost
And here is where we begin:
April 21, 2001. The Libertarian Party’s National Committee meets. In late afternoon, close to 4 P. M., former Party National Secretary John Famularo circulates around the hall, personally handing out copies of a memorandum to members of the National Committee.
Famularo’s memorandum read:
“To: LNC Members and Alternates
From: John D. Famularo
Date: 21 April 2001
Subject: Proposed Contract with American Liberty Foundation, Inc., et al.
Since the LNC is currently contemplating entering into a joint venture with American Liberty Foundation, Inc., Real Campaign Reform, Inc., and U.S. Justice Foundation, Inc., and since Perry Willis and Jack Dean are principals in at least two of these organizations, and since the LNC may be depending on the veracity of statements from these individuals and may be assuming that these individuals and others involved in this joint venture have the same basic motivation for participation as the LNC and Libertarian Party, I believe that the following information is germane at this time.
Mr. Willis, the National Director at the time, assured the LNC in early 1995 that any paid work for the Browne campaign had ceased. There is evidence that Mr. Willis continued to work for the Browne campaign throughout the balance of 1995 and into 1996 prior to the July 1996 nominating convention, through a mechanism of billing Jack Dean’s company, Dean & Spear for work done by Willis for the Browne campaign. This type of transaction would not appear on either Browne’s or the LNC’s FEC reports. Attached is a copy of an invoice from Perry Willis to Jack Dean referencing a contract for payments for Willis for work done for the Browne campaign. There is other evidence available.
It is worthy of note that the hiring of Mr. Dean and his company as contractors to the LNC was done at the urging of Mr. Willis during his term as National Director.
See Attached.”
The attachment was an invoice.
An invoice dated February 28, 1996, 12:11 PM, to Dean, Spear & Associates of Fullerton, California. An invoice from Perry Willis of Arlington, Virginia, identified as “Billing for February, 1996, Browne for President contract”
An invoice for $2000, itemized as:
- December Letter $500
- January Letter $500
- February Letter $500
- First Prospecting Letter $500
Total: $2,000
The Invoice given to the National Committee was a printed copy of a computer .pdf file. .pdf is a specific computer format for generating high-quality printed documents. To my knowledge, Famularo had in his possession an unsigned electronic file. If there was ever a paper document bearing signatures, I have yet to find a witness who saw it.
My friends on and near the Libertarian National Committee report that the LNC’s response was quite muted. There was no discussion of the documents during the LNC meeting. Famularo reports that no one asked him afterward about the Invoice or his cover memo. In particular, according to Famularo no one on the LNC asked about the ‘additional evidence’. Perhaps some LNC members had not had time to read the memo. Some later said that in the rush of the meeting they did not notice receiving it. Perhaps LNC members needed time, more than the few moments before the resumption of their April 21 meeting, to recognize what they had been given or to compare the Invoice with their memories of the LNC’s rules.
Famularo tells me that on the morning of the meeting he spoke separately with three high LNC officials, namely National Chair Jim Lark, National Vice Chair Dan Fylstra, and 2001 National Director Steve Dasbach. He described the memo’s contents. According to Famularo, one of them didn’t immediately see the issues that the memo raised, a second wanted to hear nothing unfavorable to Browne, and the third said nothing.
The LNC may not have responded immediately to Famularo’s revelations because his cover letter needed to connect a few more dots. The memo notes that Willis had said that in early 1995 he had stopped working for the Browne campaign for pay, that there was evidence that Willis had continued to work during early 1996 for the Browne campaign for pay, and that the attached invoice shows a billing path to Willis. However, the memo neglected to remind readers that the attached invoice not only shows the billing path but the dates for Willis’s work, these dates being within the period in which Willis was supposedly not working for the Browne campaign, and therefore the invoice was direct evidence that ‘Willis continued to work for the Browne campaign…into 1996’.
The cover memo also did not remind readers as to why the discrepancy was of interest. Since 1982, the LNC’s employment policies had forbidden the National Director to do secret work for a person seeking the Party’s Presidential nomination. The Invoice implies that there were major breaches of LNC rules by Harry Browne’s 1996 Presidential Campaign Committee.
Here matters stood for three weeks. Were wheels were turning behind the scenes? To the alert Libertarian public, nothing appeared to happen. My sources say that the National Committee members did not discuss the memo on their closed email lists. Most Libertarians, even most Libertarians who are electronic mailing list readers, apparently never examined the Invoice, because it was being circulated in an electronic format that was not in that time frame generally accessible.
Dramatis Personae
Who are the people and groups I mentioned above?
The LNC is Libertarian National Committee, Inc., elected governing body of the Libertarian Party of the United States. The LNC consists of four National Officers (Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer), five At-Large Representatives, and nine Regional Representatives (each of whom has an Alternate Representative).
John Famularo was a long-time Pennsylvania activist and outstanding critic of a clique widely seen as having excessive influence over the Libertarian Party. On the date shown in the Invoice, Perry Willis was the Libertarian Party’s National Director, the Party’s highest-ranking paid employee.
Jack Dean is the Dean of Dean, Spear & Associates, a political consulting group, and principal of Web Commanders, an Internet firm oft-associated with Libertarian campaigns and groups, including the Libertarian National Committee. Harry Browne was the Party’s 1996 and 2000 Presidential candidate. FEC (Federal Election Commission) filings for late 1995 and early 1996 show Dean, Spear & Associates received an average of $1000 a month from Harry Browne’s Presidential Campaign Committee for “consulting” and other activities.
American Liberty Foundation, Inc. and Real Campaign Reform, Inc. are organizations apparently formed by Harry Browne or his associates around the time of the 2000 Presidential campaign. U.S. Justice Foundation, Inc, is a tax-exempt conservative 501c(3)organization. The proposed joint venture with the LNC involved fundraising for litigation not then filed against Federal laws regulating campaign and political finance.
A Surprise Confession
Continued next time
Yes, physical mailing are more expensive than digital ones but the last report I saw showed that the results are also much better. That is also probably why so many companies continue to use mailings. I spent 4 years sending out a newsletter for the state party and the cost was about $200 every other month. The return on that was about $1,500 each mailing.
The Willis situation is well-documented and a lesson learned.
However, the reasons that 2001 Archimedes failed are also lessons learned, and 25 years later is a different world, too.
An analysis of the reasons it failed, not necessarily just the personnel, is in order, to learn those lessons and move forward and do better.
“Recent events are reminiscent of events in the period 1994-2004. ”
Forgive my idle curiosity, but how so? Circa 1984-5 might the closest parallel from my reading of libertarian party history: your 1984 presidential ticket had far underperformed the preceding one, your national office location at the time had to close down, and many of your donors and activists left after losing a faction fight.
Even so, at that point it had been only one presidential cycle of precipitous decline, whereas now you have had two: from 3.3% to 1.2% to 0.5% in aggregate popular vote percentage.
I could add a number of other factors to this analysis, but I don’t know at what point I’ll exceed your tolerance for comment number, comment length, or expounding on factors which indicate negative prognosis. I won’t be surprised if I already did, in which case I apologize. If further thoughts in this line are welcome, let me know. I’ll hold off at least a day or two before submitting them even if they are. As always, if some parts of this are ok and others aren’t, please publish whichever parts are ok, with […] to indicate missing content if possible.
Membership and income peaked and crashed. I shall summon data to show this.
So, if I understand correctly, “here” is circa 2004, after several years of growth followed by several years of decline? If so, 2004 has some marked other differences. I hinted at a couple of them, and could list other differences, but none of the ones I have thought of put them in as good a position as they were in in 2004. Should I bother to list those other differences, or would that be a waste of my time and yours?
I could do so in comment or article submission form, or not at all.
“The original Project Archimedes (hint: it failed)…”
Two reasons I assume it failed originally and might not this time:
1. Physical mailings are more expensive than digital outreach.
2. The expense was entirely paid by the LNC while the income was being split with the state parties because of the Unified Membership Plan. It worked out great for the state parties, not so much for the LNC.