1999
We now reach 1999, the last year before the Presidential Campaign would be launched. If the campaign were to accumulate a million dollars in cash, it had to do so now. In 1999, the Browne Campaign raised $561,030, which could have taken it half-way to its million dollar goal. It also spent $542,228, ending the year with $44,670 cash on hand, less than 5% of its objective for the start of 2000.
How was the money spent? Once again, staff and staff-associated firm expenses led the way. The total count of people on the payroll rose to nine. Payments to staff came to 42.6% of spending:
| WHO | AMOUNT |
| Perry Willis | $49,837 |
| Optopia | $20,591 |
| Stephanie Yanik | $23,500 |
| Robert DeVoil | $19,610 |
| Michael Cloud | $16,351 |
| Stuart Reges | $15,580 |
| Jim Babka | $15,860 |
| Debra Greeson | $14,114 |
| Jennifer Willis | $12,500 |
| Steve Willis | $8,183 |
| J Harris Dean | $9,700 |
| Web Commanders | $9,173 |
| TOTAL | $231,230 |
In addition, expenses that could have paid for relocation totaled over $4100. Total campaign cash channeled to the campaign manager, his cohabitant, his business, and his relatives came to more than $114,000, more than 20% of all of the Browne campaign’s receipts for 1999.
There is nothing wrong with paying people with an honest wage for an honest day’s work. However, most Americans have long since concluded that when they see a list of a politician’s relatives on the political payroll that there is cause for concern.
At the start of 1998, Harry Browne had emphasized he would not declare his candidacy until all elements of his campaign were in place, including in particular “…the audio and video tapes, and the commercials.” Browne’s Spring 1999 letter emphasized the great progress his campaign had made. Writing “a little over 200 days” before January, 2000, he reported “Our Momentum 2000 fund now stands at $703,000.” While your interpretation depends what you think is meant by “fund” and “stands”, a reasonable Libertarian could readily interpret this sentence to mean that Browne 2000 had over $700,000 in bankable money in storage.
Such an interpretation was incorrect.
In Fall 1999, production began on ‘The Great Libertarian Offer’, a campaign infomercial videotape. The infomercial’s producer was Kristen Overn, who in addition to other services signed a letter to potential donors describing the project. In the letter, she emphasized that the total cost of the project could be held under $100,000.
Why did the campaign change its emphasis from members and fundraising to a 30-minute commercial? In his LibertyWire of January 20, 2001, the “Campaign Report”, Perry Willis wrote “…During the Spring and Summer of 1999, as it became obvious that we were not going to meet our most important goals for the Exploratory Committee, we began to shift gears. We needed a new direction to substitute for the goals we were abandoning…The most obvious thing was to shift to the next major project, which was the production of a 30-minute informercial…By the time we finished it we had little money left with which to broadcast it.”
Overn’s fundraising letter assured potential donors that “more than three quarters of a million dollars” in “cash and pledges” had already been raised. This amount was “roughly enough money to handle all the day-to-day expenses of the campaign through election day”. This money would not be touched for producing the infomercial. On the other hand, given that the campaign had this huge financial reserve for campaign operations, the majority of future money raised was said to be available for advertising and promoting the campaign.
A suspicious mind might have wondered what it meant to set aside a reserve fund. What would happen to the million dollars the campaign had planned to accumulate by January, 2000 for an advertising campaign? Was the reserve fund additional money, or a change in objectives? How was the money being set aside?
In fact, “cash or pledges” must have been almost all “pledges”. Of the $750,000 being set aside in September 1999, the cash component could be no more than the campaign’s $10,783 total cash on hand at the end of September. Worse, the pledges proved highly volatile. When the Browne campaign went broke the next April, the $750,000 reserve fund turned to smoke and mirrors. The reserve fund was not there.
Older readers may find that the ‘cash and pledges’ phrase echoes a claim of that great American President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As World War II began, Roosevelt promised that the United States had enough weapons ‘on hand and on order’ to protect the country. Roosevelt neglected to emphasize that almost all of the weaponry in question was ‘on order’, not ‘on hand’ and that purchase contracts are a militarily ineffective substitute for guns, beans, and bullets.
Where did the rest of the campaign’s 1999 spending go?
WHO AMOUNT PERCENT AND WHY
Polaris Productions $101,500 18.7% TV ad production
Printing And Mailing $47,297 printing, mailing, postage, and shipping
Merkle Mail $34,229 7.1% direct mail
Hotels $26,686 4.9% two dozen hotels
Rent And Moving $20,961 3.9% staff expense
Harry Browne $11,123 2.1% reimbursement for phone, supplies, etc.
Computers And Office Supplies $11,441 2.1% including some office supplies
Phone Services $11,006 2.0%
Cardservice Int $7,798 1.5% credit card charging
Travel $7,586 1.5%
List Rental $6,924 1.4% LNC, Walter Karl List Rentals, LPCA
And finally:
The Firm Multimedia $1,000 Media Services and Advertising
Other miscellaneous expenses included lapel pins, office maintenance, and $3,058 in refunds to contributors.
At the end of 1999, the campaign had $45,674 in cash on hand.
