Illinois Herald: Libertarian Comptroller Candidate Takes On Establishment

Julie Fox promotes the fact that she has accounting experience in both the public and private sectors. “I understand the importance of the bottom line, in both the private and the public sectors,” Fox explains, “I also understand the difficulties that exist at times when putting together a balanced budget. As a former auditor, I understand accounting controls – checks and balances – which must be in place in order to control spending and protect an organization’s assets.”

The Libertarian candidate goes on to make a bold but endearing statement while explaining why she’s running for Illinois Comptroller. “I’m an ordinary citizen like you,” Fox says, “I am motivated to run for Illinois State Comptroller for the same reasons that have motivated me to be politically active as a libertarian since 1993 – I want to use my expertise and experience to help bring government back to the people, as it should be, not in the hands of power-seeking career politicians who do not represent their constituents in Springfield or Washington.”

Unlike most politicians, especially those advocating a cut in patronage and pork barrel spending, Julie Fox practically lists out a line-by-line list of budget cuts she proposes making to bring the state’s currently unsustainable deficit spending under control. “Our current state budget is a mess because politicians, rather than accountants, are managing our state’s finances,” she says, “Unlike our typical politicians, I learned subtraction in school. We can easily cut the budget spending and balance the budget without a tax increase. Let me count the ways.”

The Comptroller candidate then proceeds to actually list out an itemized list of proposed budget cuts. The first is one many have suggested – combining the state’s Comptroller and Treasurer’s offices for a savings of $60 million annually. Fox also identifies $500 million in pure pork barrel spending doled out to state legislators for their home districts. Fox points out that one of those items this year is $40 million for a stadium in Chicago that the citizens don’t even want.

Read the full article here.

paulie January 25, 2014

Agreed, Jill and Steven.

Thomas, did you see this from Marc Montoni? I guess it’s too late to use it for Lee but maybe you could use it to help Julie..

Insufficient fundraising is most often due to insufficient asking.
What he needed was a campaign manager who is good at raising money. He had a huge amount of good will from his 2012 P effort; he could easily have translated that into a $250 to 500k race.
I’m not hard to find — had I received a fundraising letter from Lee (at least before this antic), I probably would have coughed up a hundred or so, maybe more — only because I personally was impressed with how well he did on stage against someone who had been coached by a professional.
Lee’s mistake was not having someone who knew how to “close the sale” following up on new campaign contacts.
Were I managing a campaign like Lee’s, my first act would have been to rent the national LP database (or perhaps start cheap and just get the last couple of databases of LP convention delegates — those lists are free) and send out a mailing extolling the campaign and seeking buy-in.
The next thing for him to have done would have been to contact every FB “like” and ask them to provide their full contact info. Not all would supply it, but a percentage would, and those are the people to whom you send a letter asking them to invest. For that matter, **every** LP candidate should be doing that anyway, and passing the contacts along to LPHQ. Some prospects may not be ready to contribute to a campaign, but they might be interested in local LP activities, or investing in a state ballot access drive, or something — and if we enroll them some other way this time, next time some of those *will* be ready to invest in a campaign.

6 Comments

paulie January 25, 2014
Agreed, Jill and Steven.
Thomas, did you see this from Marc Montoni? I guess it’s too late to use it for Lee but maybe you could use it to help Julie..
Insufficient fundraising is most often due to insufficient asking.
What he needed was a campaign manager who is good at raising money. He had a huge amount of good will from his 2012 P effort; he could easily have translated that into a $250 to 500k race.
I’m not hard to find — had I received a fundraising letter from Lee (at least before this antic), I probably would have coughed up a hundred or so, maybe more — only because I personally was impressed with how well he did on stage against someone who had been coached by a professional.
Lee’s mistake was not having someone who knew how to “close the sale” following up on new campaign contacts.
Were I managing a campaign like Lee’s, my first act would have been to rent the national LP database (or perhaps start cheap and just get the last couple of databases of LP convention delegates — those lists are free) and send out a mailing extolling the campaign and seeking buy-in.
The next thing for him to have done would have been to contact every FB “like” and ask them to provide their full contact info. Not all would supply it, but a percentage would, and those are the people to whom you send a letter asking them to invest. For that matter, **every** LP candidate should be doing that anyway, and passing the contacts along to LPHQ. Some prospects may not be ready to contribute to a campaign, but they might be interested in local LP activities, or investing in a state ballot access drive, or something — and if we enroll them some other way this time, next time some of those *will* be ready to invest in a campaign.
Steven Wilson January 25, 2014
Julie is a great candidate. I had a chance to talk with her at our state convention in 2010 in Jefferson city. She is intelligent, passionate, and a professional. Illinois has a great chance to do something if they elect Julie. Good luck.
Jill Pyeatt January 25, 2014
Thomas, I know you’re busy now with Julie’s campaign, but I’m hoping to see you posting some articles soon.
Thomas Hill January 25, 2014
Jordan Page will be playing a fundraising concert for the Julie Fox campaign on 2/1/14.
More info can be found here, http://juliefox.nationbuilder.com/jordan_page_concert
paulie January 24, 2014
+1
Jill Pyeatt January 24, 2014
Go, Julie!!

Comments are closed.