Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 19:05:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: phillies@wpi.edu ("George D. Phillies")
Subject: [lpaz-discuss] Funding Liberty, Another Chapter
To: liberty_1st@excell.net, lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com, lpus-misc@dehnbase.org, PALibernet@yahoogroups.com
Reply-To: lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com
Newsgroups: talk.politics.libertarian,alt.politics.libertarian
CHAPTER BROWNE01
THE BROWNE CAMPAIGN'S ANNOUNCED STRATEGIC PLAN
******
Summary:
In 1996, Harry Browne was the Libertarian candidate for President. He did
poorly even for a Libertarian, finishing fifth. The Browne-Jorgenson
ticket received a half a percent of the popular vote, and no electoral
votes. In early 1997, Browne nonetheless launched a campaign to secure
the 2000 Libertarian presidential nomination. Browne announced his
campaign plans, and announced two major requirements to be met if he were
to run:
(1) By January 2000, expand the National Party from 22,000 to
200,000 members.
(2) By January 2000, have $1,000,000 in the bank for a spectacular
campaign launch. These were extremely aggressive goals for
Libertarians. The following chapters discuss how Browne tried to reach
these them.
******
Details:
To judge how the Browne campaign spent its money, I begin with the
campaign plans. I can't read the minds of the Browne staff. I don't know
what they were actually thinking. However, the Browne campaign
distributed an extensive series of fund-raising letters. Many of those
letters discussed campaign strategy. The letters tried to convince
potential donors to support Browne and his strategy. The announced
strategy may not have been the true strategy, but it was the strategy in
which donors invested.
Harry Browne ran for President in 1996. His campaign was by most measures
a failure. He finished fifth, the worst positional outcome by a
Libertarian Presidential candidate in several election cycles.
Rationales for the failure have been offered. Ross Perot was very strong.
Ralph Nader had not been expected to finish so well. Nader ended strongly
in California, and ended ahead of Browne in the Presidential vote totals.
In 1996, then-LP National Director Perry Willis wrote of the 1996 election
that LP membership had increased by more than 8500 during 1996, and
concluded "...why am I making it sound like the members we recruited are
so much {\ul more} important that the votes we did (and did not) get?
{\bf Because they are.}"
Despite -- or perhaps because of -- his 1996 campaign, Browne and
supporters soon made plans for a 2000 run. The Browne campaign laid out
its plans in a February 10, 1997 letter reportedly sent to ``maximum
donors'' to his 1996 campaign. In that letter, Browne revealed the
formation of an exploratory committee, and set forth his campaign
objectives:
"It all comes down to one thing: how big the Libertarian Party is.
Today the Libertarian Party has about 22,000 members. While that's the
largest membership in its history, it is still way too small to make an
impact on American politics {\em We need a party at least ten times that
size -- 200,000 or more members} \ldots And, too, if I announce my
candidacy at the start of 2000, we need to have a large pile of money
already in the bank -- ready to start TV advertising and a full-time
campaign. That means {\em at least $1 million accumulated in advance} --
but a lot more, if possible.
Browne's announced strategy for the 2000 Libertarian campaign thus had two
independent goals:
(1) The Libertarian Party needed to increase its membersip from 22,000 in
1997 to 200,000 by 2000.
(2) By the end of 1999, the Browne campaign needed to stockpile at least
$1,000,000 cash on hand as a warchest.
Party members would serve as donors and potential volunteers. The
campaign would make a spectacular early launch of Browne 2000 during a
quiet phase of the quadrennial campaign news cycle. The ensuing publicity
would be used to raise enough new money to keep the Browne campaign in the
public eye. Browne cautiously did not say he would not run if his goals
were not met.
Browne was now a candidate for the Presidential nomination.
Realistically speaking, in 2000 no serious Libertarian could promise "this
time, we're going to capture the White House". So what did Browne
actually promise that he would do if nominated?
The author listened to Browne's lecture at the pre-nomination New
Hampshire State Convention. Browne described possible outcomes of the
election, asking listeners to imagine, just imagine, if a Libertarian were
to do well. Imagine if a Libertarian Presidential candidate got a million
votes. Imagine if a Libertarian got into the Presidential debates.
Imagine if... I listened carefully. Browne's words were beautifully
crafted. Browne almost never promised anything. He just asked listeners
to imagine if wonderful things were happening, with no explanation of how
these things would come to pass.
Candidate speeches are not contracts, designed to survive passage through
a fine-toothed comb under the watchful eye of a gaggle of attorneys.
Afterwards I spoke to New Hampshire Libertarians. Many of them clearly
believed that a million votes and a debate appearance against Bush-Gore
were specific goals for Browne if he got the nomination. Many of them
were firmly convinced that these were good goals, perhaps hard to attain.
Many of them were firmly convinced that for several reasons, notably that
Browne had run before, Browne was the Libertarian most likely to reach the
goals they had just been led to imagine. So they supported Browne.
The Browne strategy called for developing a much larger party and
accumulating a warchest for the campaign. How was this strategy to be
implemented? On one hand, the Browne campaign needed a campaign committee
that would raise and stockpile a million dollars, produce TV ads, and have
a campaign apparatus in place and ready to roll in January 2000. On the
other hand, the campaign needed a recruiting effort that would get the
Libertarian Party the 200,000 members that Browne had demanded. These two
goals were totally unrelated.
The next two chapters deal with 200,000 in 2000, the campaign to increase
Libertarian Party membership nearly ten-fold in under four years. Later
Chapters will deal chronologically with the Browne exploratory committee,
how much money it raised, and how the money was spent. We then reach
December 1999, the launch of the Browne campaign, and how Browne conducted
his quest for the Presidency.
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-~>
Get great low international calling rates
from Net2Phone! Click Here!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/xnHDCB/kJXCAA/4ihDAA/JwNVlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
Community email addresses:
Post message: lpaz-discuss@onelist.com
Subscribe: lpaz-discuss-subscribe@onelist.com
Unsubscribe: lpaz-discuss-unsubscribe@onelist.com
List owner: lpaz-discuss-owner@onelist.com
Web site: www.ArizonaLibertarian.org
Shortcut URL to this page:
http://www.onelist.com/community/lpaz-discuss
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/