Finally, Browne reached the Fourth of July weekend and the Libertarian National Convention in Anaheim, California.
Browne had opponents. Three other men were running actively for the Libertarian Presidential nomination. Browne, Don Gorman, Barry Hess, and Dave Hollist staged a debate before the delegates. Neither Don Gorman nor Barry Hess elected to raise against Browne any of the serious financial or other issues that were known to exist relating to Browne’s campaign practices. Bumper Hornberger had entered the race the prior year, withdrew, and then entered again just before the Party Convention. Having reached the Convention, Hornberger declined to debate Browne. Having missed being pounded by his opponents, Harry Browne won the Libertarian Party nomination for election as next President of the United States.
Chapter Fifteen
July 2000—Campaign Kickoff
For better or worse the Libertarian Party had chosen a candidate. It had had choices: Champion of local organization Don Gorman. Prominent Arizona activist Barry Hess. David Hollist, proponent of contract insurance. Champion of ethics Jacob Hornberger. The convention chose Harry Browne. The Party had several Vice Presidential contenders. There was a surprise draft movement for Don Gorman. Gorman declined the nomination. The convention nominated Art Olivier, who defeated Steve Kubby and Ken Krawchuk for the nomination.
Gorman drew enormous attention by appearing on the convention floor while the Draft Gorman effort was under way. To the author’s eye— the author was a delegate—the Draft Gorman effort had enormous popular support among the delegates. Most Gorman supporters whom I questioned did not understand that in America you cannot give money to support a Vice Presidential candidate. Donations to support a Gorman Vice Presidential campaign were legally required to pass through Harry Browne’s Campaign Committee, which would have been under no legal obligation to forward them to Gorman. To the astonishment and admiration of the delegates and some among the press, Gorman turned down the draft, saying that the delegates should select from the men who had spent the past months campaigning for the Vice Presidential nomination.
Did the National Convention generate publicity? Did the publicity help the Party or the candidate’s standing in the polls? Northampton County (PA) LP County Chairman Ken Sturzenacker did a complete search of the Associated Press Newswire, and compiled information on other sources. An edited version of Sturzenacker’s material appeared in the November 2000 Liberty magazine. The following draws from Sturzenacker’s original research.
July began with CSPAN coverage of the National Convention. This was the most press coverage the National Party had received since 1998 and 1996. In an omen for the future, despite the TV coverage, membership in the National Party decreased during July. The decrease was not large, but it should have sent a warning to Libertarian activists. The Party had had its best shot for publicity over the Fourth of July weekend, during a period in which other campaigns were relatively quiescent. The snoozing libertarian masses that might have been drawn to the Party remained adoze.
Browne captured the nomination. The nearby major newspapers in California, the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times, reported Browne’s nomination as local, not national, news. The LA Times is extremely liberal; the Register inclines somewhat in our direction. Neither thought our convention was of nationwide importance.
Of greater import is the AP Newswire. The Associated Press is a unified subscriber/collector agency involving several thousand newspapers in the United States and around the globe. Its subscribers’ readers, listeners, and viewers number many hundreds of millions of people. Prior to the National Convention, Browne had been mentioned twice on the AP newswire, once when he declared his candidacy, and once in coverage of the California primary, in which Browne did very poorly. Browne’s third mention was when he took the nomination. The AP report went out in three versions, the first saying the LP is America’s top third party, and the other two crediting Browne with hoping to revitalize an ‘ailing’ party.
For ten weeks, that would be the last mention of Browne by the AP. Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan typically had 2-3 stories per day on their campaigns. Browne was to have no more for many weeks. Browne’s 1999 plan to be the leading third-party candidate, the one shown when ‘third-party’ was mentioned, had sunk without a trace. Third-party fundraising successes tracked other indicators of campaign success. For July 2000, Bush and Gore raised vast amounts. Green Party Presidential candidate Ralph Nader received over $400,000; Pat Buchanan and Lyndon LaRouche each pulled in over $200,000; and Natural Law Party candidate John Hagelin received $126,000. Browne’s fundraising left him in seventh place at $111,000. Browne did collect more than Constitution Party candidate Howard Phillips, who raised just over $173,000 for all of 2000.
