Spending by the Harry Browne Campaigns:
April 1996
Payments to staff members included:
| Stuart Reges | $5,850 |
| Lisa Paley | $1,570 |
| Harry Browne | $1,151 |
| Terry Bronson | $1,090 |
| Robert Martin III | $1,006 |
| Michael Cloud | $906 |
| Alexis Thompson | $860 |
| Diane Williams | $580 |
while disbursements to vendors included:
| Accumail | $4,790 |
| Carlson Wagonlit Travel | $3,900 |
| Mount Vernon Printing | $1,914 |
| Dean Spear & Associates | $1,500 |
| J. Harris Dean | $1,312 |
| D&S Mail for Less | $1,414 |
| Champion Printing | $1,350 |
| Liberty (list rental) | $965 |
| Postage | $500 |
| Time Printing | $514 |
and spending on possible outreach involved:
Alexander Buttons $585
For the month, mailing expenditures included $3778 for printing, $6703 for postage, and all of $965 for renting the Liberty Magazine list. Where were these mailings going? Even with several ounces of first class postage, the postage bill appears to correspond to 15,000 or so pieces. The only list rental for the month was for Liberty magazine’s list, which had far fewer names.
May 1996
| Payments to associates of the campaign included: | |
| Michael Cloud | $4,631 |
| Harry Browne | $1,987 |
| Terry Bronson | $1,912 |
| Lisa Paley | $1,546 |
| Robert Martin | $1,320 |
| Diane Williams | $664 |
| Alexis Thompson | $400 |
while disbursements to vendors included:
| Mount Vernon Printing | $5,706 |
| B&B Duplicators | $703 |
| Mailboxes mailing services | $523 |
| Postage | $500 |
| InstyPrints | $457 |
| Accumail | $92 |
For May, we have a very large payment for printing, approaching $6000, but only $592 for mailing, and no list rental.
June 1996
| In June, payments to staff members and consultants included: | |
| Stuart Reges | $5,511 |
| Terry Bronson | $3,041 |
| Lisa Paley | $1,547 |
| Robert Martin | $1,006 |
| Diane Williams | $730 |
| Alexis Thompson | $570 |
while payments to vendors included:
| Accumail | $5,089 |
| Dean, Spear Associates | $4,226 |
| Mount Vernon Printing | $3,713 |
| Carlson Wagonlit Travel | $3,270 |
| Postage | $1,650 |
| D&S Mail for Less | $1,481 |
| Time Printing | $418 |
There was also an expense for possible future outreach:
Interface Video (radio ad $702
production)
An LNC investigation of the Browne event, conducted after I wrote the following, found that I was right as far as I went.
For June we have another $4000 in printing, over $6500 for postage, and not a penny for list rental. For the past two months, printing comes to nearly $10,000 and postage comes to nearly $8,000. There are no list rental expenses. In his 8/1/85 memo to Cloud, Ayres, Dean, and Winter, Willis asked why whenever a mailing was made to donors “Why wouldn’t we also mail the same letter to the people on the LP list who haven’t given to the campaign yet? We know it’s going to make money (I can’t imagine the LP list ever NOT making money for the Browne campaign).” Willis’s memo is circumstantial evidence that the Browne campaign in doing a mailing would routinely have sent letters to most of the National Party membership. However, from February 1996 onward there are no payments to the LNC for use of the Libertarian Party list. Did Willis lose his argument, so that Browne mailed to donors but not to Libertarian Party members?
Lark’s 2001 investigation answered that question.
In Total: Browne’s Quest for the Nomination
| Put all these reports together. What did Browne spend to capture the 1996 nomination? For July 1994-June 1996, the Browne campaign reported raising approximately $868,000 and spending approximately $818,000, leaving a shade under $50,000 on hand to launch the Fall General Election campaign. Major recipients for the two years included: | |
| People | Payments |
| Michael Cloud | $57,083 |
| Sharon Ayres | $55,290 |
| Stuart Reges | $45,055 |
| Harry Browne | $39,021 |
| Lisa Paley | $31,449 |
| Terry Bronson | $24,605 |
| R. E. Martin, III | $22,014 |
| Dean, Spear Assoc | $20,225 |
| J Harris Dean | $ 895 |
Barbara Allen $7,322
Bill Winter $3,428
Diane Williams $3,234
Perry Willis $3,043
Marti Stoner $2,983
TOTAL $316,547
or 39% of all pre-nomination campaign spending. In addition to the above, somewhat under a dozen other people received a few thousand dollars or less each. The Campaign claimed that payments to staff included extensive reimbursements. Is this claim, on which no documentation has been presented, plausible? We’ll consider this question in a few paragraphs. There were also large payments to a series of vendors, including:
| Accumail | $76,366 |
| Mount Vernon Printing | $57,994 |
| Carlson Wagonlit Travel | $57,246 |
| D&S Mail For Less | $30,701 |
| Libertarian National
Committee (mailing lists) |
$18,803 |
| B&B Duplicating | $18,176 |
| Time Printing | $16,111 |
| Other Postage | $14,178 |
| Jack Williams(books) | $6,884 |
| Other Printers | ca. $5,000 |
The total payments to vendors included $244,735 for printing and mailing and $57,246 for travel. It would appear that 30% or so of spending went to printing and mailing, largely to direct mail fundraising, and that 7% went to travel. These amounts do not include any reimbursements to the campaign staff for printing, mailing, travel, and other expenses. The campaign raised $868,000. By many standards, a campaign that invests primarily on direct mail fundraising and gets a 10 for 3 return on its investment is doing well.
During the first half of 1996, the campaign’s spending on advertising materials that might have reached the general public was perhaps $3400, or less than 0.5% of all campaign spending for the period. I say ‘might’ because material of the indicated sorts was distributed at Party State conventions, primarily to loyal activists who were almost certain to vote for the Party’s nominee, as well as to the general public. In the two years prior to the election, the campaign made almost no effort that cost money to bring its message to the American people. There were a few radio ads in New Hampshire, a book that did not achieve even manipulated best-seller status, and some signs and badges. So much for the campaign that Willis claimed —in 2001—that he supported because it would do outreach.
