There is significant circumstantial evidence that some factions within the Libertarian National Committee were pursuing disaffiliation in order to secure a friendlier state party delegation at the next National Convention. In 1996, the Arizona Party delegation had been filled with supporters of Rick Tompkins, who was supported by the Phoenix group. There were sound reasons to believe that a delegation…
Posts published in “Graft”
Voter registration instead became part of the Kahn for Mayor campaign in Tucson, which by report received $50,000 in state Clean Elections funds, and apparently used the larger part of those funds to register Libertarian voters. The National Party apparently provided manpower for the effort. The Tucson group then launched the first of a series of lawsuits to establish its…
LNC Chair Nekhaila announced that he would offer at the 9/7 LNC meeting a motion to censure Austin Martin, his announcement reading: I move the following: Whereas, LNC Policy Manual §1.07.4(B)(I & II) prohibits LNC members from (I) disparaging the LNC or the Party and (II) engaging in ad hominem or otherwise indecorous attacks against fellow board members in any…
Courtesy of the FEC Filings For the first seven months of the year, individual contributions to the LNC came to $389,000. That’s $666,000 annual rate. For the month, individual contributions came to $47,491. Other income, notably a large transfer from the Libertarian Mutual Aid PAC, were slightly more than $31,000, for a total income for the month of $78,517. Total…
Third Party Watch is the recipient of an interesting series of email exchanges. Our source, closely connected to the LNC Executive Committee, preferred to remain anonymous. Our sources assert: The first of these messages was sent on Monday to the four officers of the LNC. There was no public response or any publically-seen discussion. Our sources assert: During the derivative…
The National Party’s financial situation did not improve in August. For the month, the Party raised $327,000. It also spent $458,000, leaving it with $10,000 cash on hand. Net of cash on hand, the Party was further in the red at the end of August than it was at the end of July. It was also in debt to the…
Chapter Sixteen August 2000—The Fundraising Crescendo August was the Campaign’s best single month, with close to $260,000 raised and almost $230,000 spent. Despite record one-month fundraising (and, in the end, strong cash-on-hand at the end of August), the Browne campaign continued to experience critical financial difficulties. In his article for Liberty magazine, Sturzenacker reports that on August 29 Willis emailed…
Note that the first of the following messages predates the Martin-Nekhaila dispute we reported on yesterday. We close with Nekhaila’s message announcing he will seek censure of Martin. From: Matt Johnson <matt.johnson@lp.org> Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2025 6:07:13 PM To: Austin Martin <austin.martin@lp.org>; Meredith Hays <meredith.hays@lp.org>; Steven Nekhaila <steven.nekhaila@lp.org> Cc: Paul Darr <paul.darr@lp.org>; LNC Board <lncboard@lp.org> Subject: Re: Breach of…
My usually reliable sources indicate another anomaly relating to the National Convention, this time involving the Convention Banquet. By highly reliable report the Convention Committee had intended to use Mark Tuniewicz and at least one other person as the banquet fundraisers: The people who gave the fundraising speech, worked the crowd, and incited giving money. By the same highly reliable…
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…