Funding Liberty — The Political Scam of the Century

Chapter Nineteen

The Political Scam of the Century

In late October, the Browne Committee treated the Libertarian party to the political scam of the century. There do not appear to have been criminal acts committed. Everything it did appears to have been perfectly legal, protected by First Amendment guarantees on political free speech.

Recall how we got here. At the start of July, the Libertarian Party of the United States gave Harry Browne its most valuable intangible asset. It gave Harry Browne its nomination as its candidate for President of the United States.

Browne worked hard for the nomination. His campaign spent huge amounts of money to win it. Browne’s promised plan for the general election campaign was to run a large-scale media effort to put the Libertarian message before the American public. Browne did discuss alternative strategies. His campaign ridiculed the local organization strategy of Donald Gorman, under which the Presidential candidate would flit from place to place talking to local media and generating publicity for local candidates who actually had a chance to win.

There can be absolutely no doubt that Browne had promised to contest the election as vigorously as he could, within the limits of his campaign plans. There can be absolutely no doubt that Browne had promised that his campaign would be based on large-scale media buys, not on local appearances. Unfortunately, there can also be absolutely no doubt that Browne did not keep his promises, even within the limits of his meager resources.

During the campaign, Browne in fact spent his money doing local appearances, appearing at hotel after hotel to press the flesh with the Libertarian faithful. Invitations to these appearances at first came with an aside: ‘Business attire requested.’ These were fundraisers, not rallying points for students, workers, farmers, housewives, software developers, or most of the rest of the American public.

Browne also promised he would not follow the Gorman plan by campaigning with down-ticket candidates. He kept that promise. In California he did not even notify the Party’s U.S. Senate candidate, Gail Lightfoot, as to when he would appear in California. According to Lightfoot, she was unable to coordinate her campaign plans with his so that they could appear together. Curiously, when Browne passed through Massachusetts to address the 60,000 attendees of the Freedom Rally, a marijuana re-legalization demonstration, he had no difficulty coordinating his appearance with that of Massachusetts Libertarian Senate hopeful Carla Howell.

It is interesting to contrast Browne’s campaigning methods with those followed by the Green Party and its Presidential candidate, Ralph Nader. Nader campaigned in all fifty states, raising $5 million by October 10 and nearly $8 million by election day. While Browne ignored Lightfoot, the Winter/Spring 2001 Green Pages (The Green Party equivalent of LP News) shows Nader campaigning with the Green Party’s California Senate candidate, Medea Benjamin. My California activist friends report large numbers of Nader lawn signs billing both candidates. Like Browne, Nader did public appearances, but Nader’s were in large public facilities and not hotel dining rooms. Nader’s Portland, Oregon appearance drew 10,579 attendees, filling the house at $7 a ticket. Browne’s events were close to break-even; the Nader campaign did significant fundraising via major public events.

Based on Browne’s strategic commitment, the National Party did its own fundraising. It spent a half-million dollars to put Browne on the ballot in 49 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The National Committee tried at great expense to put Browne on the ballot in the 50th, spending resources that might not have been needed if Browne had only agreed to travel to Arizona and talk to the Arizona Libertarian Party. From July to November, the National Committee spent more than $200,000 of its own money running Browne’s TV advertisements. Those dollars were resources raised by all Libertarians, resources that could have been used to support almost any Party candidate. For example, those dollars could have been spent to assure maximum support for the Party’s three Congressional candidates in West Virginia, perhaps saving the Party’s ballot status in West Virginia. That status will be extremely expensive to recapture. The resources went instead to support Browne.