Relations with State Parties Libertarian State Parties provide a substantial part of the volunteer and other support for Presidential Campaigns. The Browne Campaign’s treatment of state Party relationships in 1996-2000 does not appear to provide a positive model for future Libertarian campaigns. Between the National Convention and Labor Day, relations between Browne and the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party went badly downhill.…
Posts tagged as “Harry Browne”
Chapter Five 1996-The General Election The Nominee Campaigns Browne captured the nomination. What did he do with it? The biggest number associated with the campaign remains the fanciful assertion that the Browne campaign effort spent $3.5 million dollars in 1996. This claim was made by Harry Browne in LibertyWire, an electronic newsletter for his supporters, in an issue dated “a…
Browne did try to work the radio-talk-show circuit. However, the demographics of radio talk shows are not optimal for a Libertarian. Talk radio listeners are often older, politically active, but already committed to another political party. Hosts may convert to the Libertarian Party. What about their listeners? Many listeners who are not committed to another party are extreme conservatives, who…
With that caveat, what can we say about the 1996 Browne Campaign? The link to the prior Chapters is the Willis Invoice. At some point in 1995 or early 1996, Willis entered into the ‘February Contract’, nominally with Dean, Spear & Associates. The Dean in question is Jack Dean, a regular supplier of Internet services to some Libertarian campaigns and…
Chapter Four Pursuit of the Nomination Browne’s Opponents Speak We now reach 1996. The machinations of the Browne campaign remain underground, largely out of sight of loyal Libertarians across America. Until the revelations of 2001, only a select few suspected that matters were not quite as open and above board as they appeared. Among those select few were staffers and…
Chapter Three Browne’s 1994-1995 Campaign Finances Chapter One described the Willis Invoice, Willis’s surprising response, and evidence that Browne knew and approved of Willis’s conduct. The Invoice was itself unremarkable, being simply a billing for routine fundraising efforts. Only in context is the Willis Invoice staggering. The context appeared in Chapter Two, where I described machinations involving Perry Willis, Bill…
December 1995: The LNC Acts The December National Committee Meeting resumed its consideration of conflict of interest issues. LNC Treasurer Hugh Butler proposed a resolution: “Whereas, the LNC is aware that LP headquarters employees have accepted outside consulting work, and, in as much as the LNC deplores conflicts of interest within the Party, Therefore be it resolved that consulting work…
As written in the early noughts: My sources with old issues of Mass Liberty, the Libertarian Association of Massachusetts newsletter, quote from ‘An Interview with Harry Browne’ published in the June, 1995 issue: “As far as money is concerned, I don’t know how much we’ll raise, but we are aiming at 50 million dollars… We have a lot of avenues…
Dasbach’s interpretation is astonishing. The Policy Manual provided a blanket ban on ‘support’ with absolutely no qualification as to whether the support consisted of material goods or intangible services, whether it was donated or paid for, or whether or not it was reciprocated by the campaign. The claim that ‘support’ ceases to be ‘support’ if the supporter calls himself a…
I continue to reprint segments of my book Funding Liberty, available at https://3mpub.com/phillies/Politics.html. After all, if the LNC actually revives sections of the 1994-2004 political era, for example Project Archimedes, it is worthwhile to consider how that turned out last time. The last paragraph of today’s entry may sound particularly familiar to those aware of the current day situations: Funding…