Last updated on June 1, 2025
As written in 2001
The terms, conditions and rates under which Browne rented the LNC membership mailing list raise very serious questions about the conduct of the National Party. I have spoken to a series of Libertarians who have rented or proposed to rent lists, including 1995 supporters of an aborted Presidential campaign, two of our other Presidential candidates, and advocates of the 2002 Ed Thompson for Governor (of Wisconsin) campaign. They agree on a series of facts.
First, as noted at the start of the Chapter, it has been true for a very long time that our Party’s terms to list renters have been ‘cash in advance’. Second, the rate for renting names and addresses of Party members has long been held at $125/1000 for the list of current Party members. ‘Cash in advance’ and ‘$125/1000 names’ are very different from the conditions given Browne by the LNC. The National Party allowed Browne to delay paying for use of its list until he received the nomination months and months later. I have thus far found no other candidate who was allowed to rent first and pay later.
When the National Party let Browne delay payment, it effectively presented Browne with an interest-free loan from the National Party, a loan given no other candidate. The loan was half-secret. LNC, Inc. disclosed in its FEC reports that it had obligations from the Browne campaign. The Browne Campaign failed to acknowledge in its FEC reports that it was in debt to LNC, Inc.
The LNC has a standard rate for renting mailing lists. That rate was in use in Fall 2001; I have found Libertarians who recall the same rate in 1993. If you look at #1-#6 above, you will find this rate in use. The list of current members costs $125 per 1000 names to rent. Well, it costs $125/1000 names, unless it is February 1996 and you are Harry Browne. See #2) above. In 1996, the Browne Campaign was allowed to pay $62.50/1000 to rent the list. Effectively, the Browne Campaign did not have to pay for half of each of four list rentals, a gift to the campaign from the National Committee of an additional $3333.
The elected Libertarian National Committee did not, according to its minutes, approve any loans to Presidential aspirants. Nor did it approve giving the Browne campaign $3333 as a gift in kind via special discounts for list purchases. Nonetheless, Browne was given special terms by the National Office. He rented the mailing list and did not pay immediately. He rented the list repeatedly and was charged only half the customary rate.
The Party’s Conflict of Interest rules explicitly forbid the National Party’s staff to support pre-nomination Presidential campaigns with party resources. Browne was given a line of credit. Browne was given a direct subsidy for rentals of the LNC mailing list. Those gifts were support for Browne’s campaign with LNC resources. Browne was even allowed to keep his line of credit in May, 1996, a month in which the LNC reported $208,108.40 in debts and obligations owed by the LNC, and only $1,469.90 in cash on hand. Other campaigns did not receive similar help from the LNC.
Why didn’t the National Committee notice that it had loaned Browne’s Campaign $11,185.01 and effectively given the campaign $3333, acts contrary to its own fixed policy? It would appear that they didn’t notice on their own, and no one told them. The loans, though not the gift, were on the record with the FEC, so information was there if someone thought to look.
For this failure, criticism must go in the first instance to National Treasurer Hugh Butler. Criticism must go in the second instance to Party Chair and CEO Steve Dasbach. The loans happened on their watch; they did not notify the National Committee that there had been deviations from standard policy. Blame must further go to the entire National Committee. The loans were disclosed on the National Committee’s FEC reports, which are publicly available. Did National Committee members fail to consult the record? Or did they remain silent about a use of Party resources to support their preferred candidate? Answers to these questions are difficult to determine.
Finally, there were almost certainly staff members who knew about the loan, but who failed to raise the issue with their employers. The one staff member who surely must have known about the loan was the Party’s Assistant Treasurer, the man who signed the FEC Disclosure forms. Who was that one staffer? It was Browne’s paid man on the LNC Staff…
Perry Willis.
