I continue to reprint segments of my book Funding Liberty, available at https://3mpub.com/phillies/Politics.html. After all, if the LNC actually revives sections of the 1994-2004 political era, for example Project Archimedes, it is worthwhile to consider how that turned out last time.
The last paragraph of today’s entry may sound particularly familiar to those aware of the current day situations:
Funding Liberty!
Chapter 2 – Part 1
Where It All Began
Browne’s 1996 Campaign
Where did the chickens first hatch? To find the rookery, we need to go back in time. We need to go back a half-decade to 1994 and the first traces of the 1996 Presidential campaign. From those traces arise two interlinked themes, namely Harry Browne’s 1994-1995 nominating campaign, and reactions of the LNC to Browne’s overt and covert diversion of LNC staff and resources to his campaign’s use.
Harry Browne joined the Libertarian Party—according to his own speeches—in the summer of 1994. Browne started at the top. He promptly launched a campaign to secure the Party’s nomination for President of the United States. Browne’s campaign collected its first money in mid-September.
Browne laid out the first of his many campaign plans in an interview in the October 1994 LP News. He dwelt on money and his book. Browne asserted “I can bring in new support…and new money from outside the LP—starting with the investment world. My campaign committee includes renowned investment writers like Douglas Casey…and Robert Prechter. We’re already raising good sums of money from people who have never donated to the LP…my new books will reach tens of thousands of politically aware people who have never been exposed to the LP.” There are recollections that Browne told the New York Junto group and the Connecticut State Convention that he could raise $50,000,000, mostly from outside the Party.
Browne’s October 1994 interview also focused on his financial plans. “If I can’t bring in significant amounts of the three ‘M’s—new media coverage, new money and LP members—I don’t deserve the nomination…” and “(From October 1994 to February 1995) I want to raise $150,000. This goal is important…This money will also finance a 30-minute videotape that local parties can put on TV stations, as well as show to small groups in homes.” Browne recycled the 30- minute videotape idea for his 2000 campaign. As we’ll see later, it’s easier to produce a 30-minute video tape than it is to get the tape onto the airwaves.
By October 1994 Browne had laid out his plan for a New Hampshire campaign. “I will run throughout 1995 and early 1996…seeking media coverage, new money, and new members. This will step up especially in September 1995 when my new book is published and when the New Hampshire primary campaign should begin.”
In 1994 the Browne campaign retained the services of Kiana Delamare, paying her $24,361 during the period October-December 1994, including 9 weekly or aggregated payments of exactly $854.00 each. These weekly payments nominally correspond to a yearly salary of more than $44,000 per year. The payments were for ‘consulting services, supplies, and travel’. My sources indicate that the payments in fact covered a half-year’s salary, largely paid in late 1994 because in Summer 1994 the Browne campaign was short of cash. Delamare and Perry Willis were reportedly the organizers of a Browne fundraiser held simultaneously with the December 1994 National Committee meeting.
The April 1995 National Committee minutes identify Delamare as “the woman living with Perry Willis”. According to Dean Ahmad’s memo posted on lpus-misc in 2001, “(Willis’s) girlfriend Kiana was paid by the campaign for a period that virtually coincided with her relationship with Perry.” By hiring Delamare, the Browne Campaign transferred very large sums of money into the immediate proximity of Perry Willis. The alleged relationship between Delamare and Willis does not appear to have been secret. It is extremely hard to avoid the conclusion that Browne knew his payments were entering Willis’s extended household.
Forgive me, as I’m still struggling with your point here. Last time you graced me with a brief reply, back on Chapter 1 part 1 of 5, you said “here” was when membership and income had already gone up for several years, then down for several years – or so I thought. That is, circa 2004, at the tail end of these ten years of growth and decline.
Now, you seem to be suggesting that they are instead that the “here” your party was at before is somewhere at the front door of the bell curve – that is, perhaps around 1995 or so? That is, you seem to be saying that Mr. Willis then is like Miss McArdle recently, and Miss Delamare then is like Mr. Padgett recently.
But, that came then before a decade of several years of growth followed by several years of decline, whereas now your party is at a point after such a bell curve.
In addition to the factors aside from party membership and income which I’m still not delving into because I still don’t know whether such analysis is welcome, I therefore still don’t see how your party was “here” before, even if we don’t consider any of those other factors.
I’ve read in unrelated comments that you are overwhelmingly busy, so perhaps someone else understands your point and will condescend to explain it to an outsider.