Gorman soon took advantage of his position on the National Committee to call its attention to evidence of further wrongdoing during the 1996 Presidential campaign, evidence that had been collected over the summer by James Lark but not generally understood by those who saw it. In a letter sent to the National Committee in preparation for its October meeting and reprinted by permission of the author, Gorman wrote:
“Dear LNC Colleagues,
I hope everything is going well at the meeting and I’m sorry I cannot attend.
I would like to have this report read before or during negotiations of Steve Dasbach’s contract. We have been gathering this information recently and have not had time to fully evaluate its content. However, at the very least, I would ask that contract negotiations for Mr. Dasbach be postponed to the December meeting so that we will have time to research these matters more fully.
I believe that Chairman Lark’s report on the Willis matter contains new evidence of further wrongdoing. As a former Presidential candidate I understood the evidence at once. The issues are rates and terms for mailing list rental.
1) The LNC has for many years rented its ‘current membership list’ at $125/1000 names. It did in 1995 when people were exploring a campaign for Mr. Cowan. It did this week, when Ed Thompson’s campaign in Wisconsin rented the list.
What did Harry Browne pay? He paid 125/1000 in early January and early February 1996. But in late January, 1996 Harry was only charged $62.50/1000, a rate no one else gets.
Here’s a partial quote from Chairman Lark’s report, in which I have inserted a clarificatory footnote:
“According to invoice, campaign rented current member list for $1766.50 (14,132 names at $125/1000 names), lapsed member list for $1785.90 (17,859 names at $100/1000 names), and paid a charge of $15.50 to FEDEX something on behalf of Michael Cloud. Invoice paid on Jan. 23, 1996.
Invoice from LP to Browne campaign for $3343.00 on Jan. 17, 1996. According to invoice, campaign rented the current member list for $833.25 (14,132 names at $62.50/1000 names), the current member list for $833.25 (14,132 names at $62.50/1000 names), the current member list for $833.25 (14,132 names at $62.50/1000 names), and the current member list for $833.25 (14,132 names at $62.50/1000 names), and paid a charge of $10.00 to FEDEX something on behalf of Michael Cloud. [GP: that’s four rentals of one list, matching the $3343 in the invoice.]
Invoice from LP to Browne campaign for $1865.75 on Feb. 6, 1996.
According to invoice, campaign rented current member list for $1865.75 (14,926 names at $125/1000 names).”
We see here one rate for Mr. Browne, another for everyone else, as set by Mr. Willis. Someone appears to owe the LNC $3333. And interest.
2) I have rented the ‘current member list’ myself. I know other people who rented it. The payment terms are always ‘cash in advance’. Those were the terms given my own campaign. Those were the terms quoted Mr. Cowan’s 1995 exploratory effort before he decided not to run. I was very surprised to read Chairman Lark’s statement about Browne’s unpaid mailing list invoices:
“The invoices from January, February, March, April, and June were paid (total: $11185.01) on July 3, 1996. At this time, one cannot conclude from this information that the Browne campaign received special treatment, because as far as we can ascertain there are no clear examples of other enterprises or campaigns that received different treatment. However, it appears that the national office under Mr. Willis’ direction exercised a considerable degree of forbearance concerning the Browne campaign’s list rental payment performance in the first six months of 1996.”
No clear examples of different treatment? Mr. Chairman, I did not receive a six-month “loan”, and every other enterprise or campaign we have checked that rented those lists got different, less favorable treatment, going back from this week through to living memory of 1993.
Don Gorman
LNC Member-at-Large”
In writing this, Gorman of course understood that LNC, Inc. is a large, complicated organization, with 4 National Officers, 5 At-Large members, 9 Regional Representatives, 9 Alternates, paid staffers, interns, contractors,… It was exceedingly likely that some of them did not know.
Here again, I vaguely recall the Browne campaign as a good thing compared to the two versions of disastrous socialism the entrenched Kleptocracy had to offer–yet disappointing nonetheless. Until reading the platforms and votecounts of all parties for centuries and realizing in 2007 that persistence in garnering spoiler votes is what changes the laws, the LP was a source of disappointment–to the extent that it strayed from the original vote-getting platform. The important thing, however, is the sadness and disappointment we bring to totalitarians by pressuring them to repeal bad laws. That makes it worthwhile for us to press on and for them to obstruct us.