LAMA, the “Libertarian Association of Massachusetts”, was until recently the Massachusetts affiliate of the national Libertarian Party. It is still in operation, will likely put on the ballot a slate of Libertarian candidates for statewide office, but the Libertarian National Committee now recognizes a different group, the Mises-associated “Legitimate Libertarian Association of Massachusetts”, as the national party’s affiliate. Both groups claim to be the legitimate LAMA.
LAMA maintains a Federal PAC and, as required by state law, a separate state PAC. Both PACs file financial disclosures, so it is straight forward to look at their financial records.
LAMA has a remarkable record of inaction. In the past year, the Federal PAC has burned through almost $35,000, mostly for its state convention plus a much smaller amount for the NationBuilder data management tool, and is down to $1,251. In the same time period, the State PAC has been almost totally inactive, simply sitting on its $7,173.
There is absolutely no indication that any money in the last year and a half was spent by either PAC on candidate support or public outreach on libertarian issues.
For 1/1/2021 to 6/30/2022, in its Federal account the Libertarian Association of Massachusetts had $18,692.50 in contributions, and spent $34,798.35, including a $750 contribution refund. It began with $17,357.28 cash on hand, and ended with $1,251.43 cash on hand.
Where did that money go? There was at least $26,029 for conventions, this being primarily the 2022 convention because there was covid in 2021. NationBuilder got $4,212 for database management.
In more detail, a largely complete list of expenses includes:
LAMA holds a state convention, usually every year. The 2022 convention cost $11,516 to the Sheraton Framingham, apparently for this year’s convention plus $2000 on 12/17/2021 for an unidentified convention, $4746 to Signal Graphics for associated printing, $4,223 to the Addressers of California for direct mailing, $1,461 to Whitney Bilyeu for for convention speaker travel expense, $491 to Jeff Lyons for Convention speaker travel expense, $360 to Boston Town Crier for a Conference Activity Tour, $222 to Dunkin Donuts for conference donuts.
The Association also spent $290 to Peachtree Data for mailing list processing and $720 to Peerly, Inc., for text messaging advertising. L2, Inc of Washington received $417. Their business includes mailing lists of voter records.
To receive money, the Association spent $460 to Evo Payments for online transactions, $378 to EventBrite for online transaction fees, and $100 to authorize.net for online transaction fees. A Post Office Box cost $613. Fedex received $317. $132 was spent on postage.
There is no indication that any money was spent on candidate support. Most spending went for the state convention. Over $4000 was spent on NationBuilder, for database management, management that when I was LAMA Treasurer was done reliably with a spreadsheet and ledger.
The Libertarian Association of Massachusetts also has a State PAC, usable to support state and local candidates. It contains $7,173.46 as of this writing. In the period from 1/1/2021 to 7/31/2022 there were $11 in expenditures on bank issues, $0 in income, and no other expenditures. No money was spent on candidate support, advertising, or other political activity.