Posted at The Daily Liberty by George Phillies. Permission and encouragement to repost sent via email by the author.
Phillies and Barr are both Libertarian Presidential candidates on the ballot in New Hampshire. Additionally, Barr is on the ballot in 44 other states. At the Libertarian National Convention in Denver this year, Phillies received 49 votes (fifth place, 7.9%) on the first ballot, 36 votes (fifth place, 5.7%) on the second ballot, and 31 votes (fifth place, 4.9%) before being eliminated. He did not endorse any of the remaining candidates for subsequent balloting (Bob Barr, Mary Ruwart, Wayne Root and Mike Gravel) in his concession speech.
Phillies is a professor of physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, is the State Libertarian Party chair, and has previously run for US House and Libertarian National Chair. He has also served as the chair of the Worcester County ACLU, and was the National Volunteer Coordinator for Aaron Russo and Michael Badnarik. Additional biographical information here.
Barr Campaign spent $18,691 on Limo Services. That’s in September. That was 7% of funds raised by Barr 2008 in September.
For September, the Barr campaign raised $252,383, for an election cycle total to date of $1,106,681. That includes $197,159 though the end of May, raised immediately before or after the nomination date and through May 31.
As a benchmark, the Harry Browne 2000 campaign reported that it raised in total 2.4 million dollars. While a large part of the Browne funding was for the pre-nomination campaign, Browne raised a million dollars between getting the nomination and election day. Badnarik 2004 raised slightly more.
A search of the Barr 2008 FEC Financial disclosures reveals total spending for limo services, for that one month, of $18,691.56, including payments to A First Choice Limo, Alternative Business Enterprises, Crystal Limousine, Inc., Executive Three Enterprises, International Limousines, Lavdas Limousines, Luxury Limo, M&M Limousine Service, Royal Legacy Limousine, and Town Car Executive. There was also travel associated with those Limos, including travel expense payments to various airlines and hotels for $27,696, and $1687 in meeting expenses.
Of particular note as a point of comparison is Browne 2000’s spending on television advertising. To quote from my book ‘Funding Liberty’
“The list of vendors shows where Browne 2000 put its actual effort for the campaigning year. This was a video-based campaign, one of the first such in our Party’s history, with $150,000 going to Polaris Productions for TV ads, $104,000 to Copy Right for video tape copying…and $127,000 through The Firm Multimedia for air time and related support…The Libertarian National Committee independently spent more than $209,000 on ad time for the Browne Campaign, in good part in the weeks before the election in which the Browne Campaign had stopped buying ad time.”
The Barr Campaign did pay people. Leading people being paid for consulting in September are:
For fundraising consulting:
Robert Stuber … $12,000For political consulting:
Doug Bandow $10000
Shane Cory $12000
PrimeOne Political Consulting 2500Steve Sinton $8000
Russ Verney $5485.14
Also, Liberty Strategies was paid $11,000 for Contract Services.The political consultants were all paid near the start of the month, except Steve Sinton was paid half at the end of the month. Note that Mr. Cory is apparently not being paid evenly in every month, so it might be inappropriate to annualize his payment. Robert Stuber appears to be the Robert Stuber who until January of this year was Spotsylvania County Republican chairman. Steve Sinton, we find on the web, is a professional voice. In 2006, a Steve Sinton at approximately the correct address ran for Congress as a Democrat.
Liberty Strategies www.libertystrategies.org/ is an Atlanta based firm. The Principal of Liberty Strategies according to its web pages is Bob Barr. Prime One Consulting was identified in the Libertarian Party of Oregon newsletter as the consulting firm of Richard Burke, who is reportedly doing western-states organizing for the Barr campaign.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute web pages http://cei.org/people/doug-bandow say of Bandow “Doug Bandow is the Bastiat Scholar in Free Enterprise at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Vice President of Policy for Citizen Outreach, a Washington, D.C.-based grassroots political organization.” The sometimes unreliable wikipedia says of Bandow “Douglas (Doug) Bandow is a former columnist with Copley News Service and former senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He resigned in 2005 due a scandal involving payments for columns from lobbyist Jack Abramoff and wrote about it in the Los Angeles Times. He served as a Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and as a Senior Policy Analyst in the 1980 Reagan for President campaign. He is also a columnist for Antiwar.com.” On December 28, 2005, Chuck Muth, president and CEO of Citizen Outreach, announced that Bandow was joining the think tank as vice president of policy. Although Muth noted that he and Bandow did not “agree 100 percent” on every issue, he expressed admiration for his new colleague’s reasoning “based on objective thought and not emotion.” “He’s able to justify any public policy issue from a limited government standpoint in the best tradition of our Founding Fathers,” he said.”
The Barr campaign is also paying people for Field Consulting, namely
Mike Ferguson … $2500Stephen Gordon … $2500
Ashley Petty … $3350
Jason Pye … $1164According to web searches, Mike Ferguson (source: mikefergusononline.com) is the National Field Director for the Bob Barr for President Campaign. Stephen Gordon serves (source: Third Party Watch) as the eCampaign Manager for the Bob Barr 2008 Presidential Campaign. Ashley Petty is (source: LinkedIn) “Communications Assistant, etc.” at the Bob Barr 2008 Presidential Campaign. Jason Pye is identified on a Bob Barr 2008 Flickr site as “our Campaign Blogger”.
Counting Liberty Strategies, that’s nearly $70,000 for people, or more than 27% of monthly income. In comparison, the Browne 2000 campaign paid its associates only 17% of income, while its television advertising rose to 20% of the month’s income. That’s right; on a percent basis of funds raised, Browne 2000 spent nearly three times on television ads what Barr 2008 spent on limousines.
Of course, you have to put these people and other volunteers someplace. Expenses for “put” include
$15,789 in Rent to Post Corporate Apartments, the Paces Foundation, and Lisa Franzman
$ 7,077 for Office Equipment and Furniture.
To see the really impressive Bob Barr furniture http://www.flickr.com/photos/26574201@N07/page6/The office consumed $2,580 for Office Supplies.
The campaign tries to reach out to people via telecomm methods:
AT&T Mobility $410 Cell Phone
Charter $351 Cable
Telephone $1696The campaign is also paying for ballot access and legal support:
Legal Fees $14,582 to Orrin Grover, Matthew Sawyer, Drew Shirley, and Samuel Stretton
Ballot Access $5021 to Mike Ferguson and Jake Witmer (this includes $200 to Witmer properly logged as legal fees.)
Professional Data Services, Inc. $1750 Compliance ConsultingVarallo Inc. $978 Court Transcripts
Printed and web outreach include $6500 for Book Publishing to Equipity, $6302 to Thru Tech and Rack Space for IT, and $2900 to Campaigner Pro for Software.
The campaign did direct mail. As explained by Richard Viguerie in describing his early efforts, direct mail has two effects. First, it raises money. Second, and far more important, it frames the political discussion for the readers of the letters. For direct mailing I note
Direct Marketing $41,962 including
AKA Printing $2,086Gillis Express Mailing $14,183
Press Well Services $16,264
Schlesman Enterprises $9,428and someplace in there Hudson Phillips, $450 for Graphic Design.
All that direct mail requires mailing lists. The campaign paid $4400 to Basic Media, Inc and Diener Consultants for List Rental . These sources are both Ron Paul-right wing list sources. If you were looking for a libertarian opening to the left, try again elsewhere. Basic Media, Inc. is apparently loosely associated with BreakTheMatrix.com; as reported at http://thisnovember5th.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/breakthematrixcom-take-back-the-media/ , Basic Media indicated that it would be advancing to offering stock, but was not yet ready to do so. Agence Global http://www.agenceglobal.com/article.asp?id=1006 reports that Diener Consultants is “one of the largest fundraising and political-strategy operations on the right”. The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/jul/19/20060719-114206-4187r/ reports that “Diener Consulting Inc., whose president is Phil Sheldon, son of the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition. Diener serves as the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps public-relations arm, as it did for Mr. Keyes in his unsuccessful 1996 and 2000 presidential campaigns and failed U.S. Senate races in Maryland and Illinois. “
There is some effort at advertising the campaign to the public. I see volunteer media; I find
Signs by Tomorrow $16,348
Bumpersticker.com $4,956
Promotions Direct $3,008
whose distribution is covered by some part ofAll Points Packaging & Distribution 4418.27 … order fulfillment
Postage $6414
Fedex $988Finally, there is real mainstream media advertising:
Charleston Gazette $1,001…AdvertisingThat’s 0.4% of campaign income.
I think that’s the same post I linked.
And from my book, the Browne 2000 September spending
Chapter Eighteen
Going Through the Motions
The September-October Campaign
[GP: To give the percentages first:]
Disbursements to the campaign’s associates came to 17% of income. Their firms received another 6%. The candidate received $7,500 in repayment of his loans to the campaign, but nothing for expenses.
Throughout September, polling data continued to be less than encouraging. The September 5 Portrait of America poll found Browne down to 1.0%. A Zogby poll taken two days later put Browne at 0.3%. There was absolutely no indication that Browne would reach the 5% of the vote of which he once talked. He remained in fifth place behind the Duopoly candidates, Bush and Gore, and the respected alternative candidates, Buchanan and Nader.
The Browne Campaign ran a dispersed operation with operations in several geographic locations. The Campaign’s headquarters was near the District of Columbia. The candidate had residence in Tennessee. The primary financial reporting operation was in Tucson. This success could usefully be taken to heart by the National party. In recent years the National Party has based its efforts in the District of Columbia, either in a slum location whose safety was open to question (some would say ‘whose lack of safety was not open to question’) or the expensive Watergate building located in the immediate vicinity of sensitive government facilities likely to be subjected to foreign attack.
The Browne campaign showed that political work can be dispersed to multiple sites across the USA.
Television advertising rose to 20% of the month’s income. For once, less was spent on making the ads than on running them, but ad production continued to cost 10% of campaign disbursements. The campaign spent $43,248 to run TV commercials, with purchases on September 5, 18, 21, and 27. The FEC lawsuit resurfaced on September 16, this time with the campaign collecting pledges for a future lawsuit against FEC regulations. On September 18, the Campaign reported the $20,000 TV ad purchase it actually made on that date. On September 18, the Campaign also reported that the National Party had spent $113,000 for TV ad purchases ‘as a result of fundraising done at the convention banquet’.
On September 18 LibertyWire included news from two state campaigns. The Texas report covered a wide variety of candidates. The Massachusetts report discussed only Libertarian Senatorial candidate Carla Howell (who happened to be Browne Campaign organizer Michael Cloud’s constant companion). The Party had dozens of U.S. Senate candidates. Why Howell? We come to this matter in the closing chapters.
On September 21, the Campaign made its outreach effort to other Libertarian campaigns, offering copies of one Browne ad—the ‘battered voter’—to other Libertarian campaigns on Beta format (broadcast quality) video tape.
In September the Browne campaign did make a few efforts to mobilize its supposed volunteer base. The September 20 LibertyWire bonus issue, while mostly a response to critics who said that Browne ought to try earning news coverage, also included a list of things that volunteers could do for the Browne campaign. On September 26, the Browne Campaign invited LibertyWire subscribers to join Harry Browne’s Minutemen, a special-purpose organization tasked with lobbying the media to cover Browne’s campaign. Evidence of the scale of these efforts is difficult to determine.
What were the financial details?
The Campaign began September with $50,078 cash on hand, took in almost $161,000, and spent nearly $189,000. Actual disbursements for thirteen campaign associates, some new, included
Ray Acosta $ 2,500
Jim Babka $ 4,799
Sue Babka $ 85
Robert Brunner $ 2,500
Laura Carno $ 5,000
Robert DeVoil $ 4,566
Robert Flohr $ 1,562
Ryan Goldfinger $ 941
Debra Greeson $ 2,150
Anthony Hogan $ 300
Jennifer Willis $ 2,000
Steve Willis $ 6,190
Perry Willis $ 5,000
TOTAL $35,093
Payments to firms of long-time associates included
New Media $ 4000
Optopia $ 5654
Web Commanders $ 2160
TOTAL $11,815
Other vendors included
The Firm Multimedia $33,248 (run TV ads)
Hotels $32,093 (catering and refreshments, rooms)
Polaris Productions $19,000 (ad production)
Seabreeze Travel $ 9,569 (travel)
Accumail $ 8,491 (mailing)
Liam Works $ 5,000 (publications)
Newman Communications $ 4,667 (publicity)
Cardservice $ 2,852 (credit card service)
Double standard duly noted.
🙂
I did a word search for “limousines” and came up empty. That’s as far as I’m gonna go. I don’t have any wish to do a full analysis, and until I do I’m not going to say whether Barr spent wisely (whether on limousines, or in general) or not. That won’t stop me from holding everyone else to the same standard.
http://www.thedailyliberty.com/story/2008/11/15/15176/561
Yet GP also says (comment #3 above), “criticize is the headline writer getting his perk; I merely report what the spending was.” Perhaps he thinks that reporting the figures alone will automatically give rise to the criticism. But it doesn’t; one has no way to evaluate these figures without a comparing them to other campaigns.
And by a “comparison” I don’t mean GP’s conclusion that one campaign was more efficient than the other — I mean give the dollar amounts for both, and show that one is our of line wrt the other.
For example, let’s take the first item: $18,691 on limousine services in September. How much did the Brown campaign spend in September? How many cities did each campaign in, and what’s the ratio? Then, assuming the Barr ratio is higher, is it any higher than the increase in the price of gasoline between Sep.96 and Sep.08?
With that data, one could possibly judge whether the Barr campaign spent “too much” on limousines or not. Not without.
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2008/10/george-phillies-leaks-shane-cory-lnc-memo-about-mary-ruwart-child-pornography-position-disputes-being-the-source/#comment-20424
“On some past occasions, I have been modestly critical of Harry Browne’s presidential campaigns, with respect to their financial efficiency. (Not, however, with respect to their ideological stands.)
The Bob Barr 2008 campaign makes Browne 2000 look like a miracle of fiscal efficiency.”
I didn’t like the headline, either; it sounded like Mr. Phillies was picking a fight with the Barr campaign, where I got the idea that he was just reporting facts.
It certainly didn’t give me a bad impression of the campaign; for that, I’d have to compare it with figures for comparable campaigns.
In fact, since I’ve heard that Mr. Phillies wrote a book on Harry Browne’s 1996 campaign expenses, I’d urge him to give us a comparison for those two campaigns, which are fairly close in results.
From that link…
In addition:
There was electronic outreach in the information technology expenses, which included $13,441 for website management, $1,872 for website hosting, $1,873 for telecom and teledata services, $600 for Server and Computer Maintenance, $200 for MAC software, and $90 for a PC service. $100,000+, annualized rate, for website management is farely impressive.
The party spent much money to put people onto the ballot. Ballot Access Petitioning Expenses came to $41,710 to petitioners including Darryl Bonner, Eric Rittberg, Gary Field, Karen Pierce, Kurt Rice, Labor Ready Inc., Mark Pickens, Scott Kohlhaas, Stavros Mendros, and Tekno Solutions. Legal services, much related to ballot access, came to $20,760.
Staff travel came to $19,814 for hotels, $9,994 for air and auto expenses, and $328 for auto travel. Recall that, for some petitioners, hotel and travel costs may have been covered.
Direct mail raises money and frames questions: Printing, mailing, and related bits included: $37,879 for non-candidate-related printing, mailing, and editing, $3,750 for writing for non-candidate mailing, $1,025 on postage meter issues, $1,105 for other postage, $759 for Shipping Services $1,575 for office supplies, $532 for publications, and $400 for Non Candidate Party Editing and Graphics. Copier leasing and maintenance was $1431. That mail brought in members. Membership cards cost $1433.
Credit Card Processing Fees came to $480. $448 was paid for address and phone verification. $378 went for fundraising consultants.
Total employee pay came to $33,376. Staff members were Andrew Davis, Austin Petersen, Casey Hansen, Elizabeth Parker, Erin Taylor, Louise Calise, Mark Meranta, Robert Kraus, Sean Haugh, and Susan Dickson. When you employ people, you incur other expenses. A list of these includes $5,675 for Social Security, $4,748 for Federal unemployment and withholding, $1350 for Medicare, $1212 for 401K payments, $1232 for D.C funding and withholding payments and health insurance, $1260 for VA Withholding, $254 for NC – Withholding, $292 for payroll processing, $283 for SC – Withholding.
All these people had to be placed someplace. The rent for the D.C. Office was $9,903 a month, not counting $240 rent for parking spaces. That’s $120,000 a year.
D&O (Directors and Officers) Insurance was $821. Other insurance was $579
Reporting all this to the FEC? FEC Filing cost $1000.
So as a bonus for your liveblogging I am giving you the matching analysis of the LNC:
For those of you curious about where the LNC’s money went while they were busy with the fair Angela,
http://www.thedailyliberty.com/story/2008/10/23/23406/548
LNC Financials, September and Half of October.
I quote from the opener:
In September, the Libertarian National Committee received $172,292 and spent $178,677. In the first 15 days of October, the LNC raised a further $72,761 and spent $66,796. Total disbursements for the year through 10/15 were $1,529,817.
How was all that money spent?
Absolutely none of it went for limousine services.
There was actual outreach.
Outreach: The LNC spent $3100 for CPAC 2009 registration. $900 went for radio ads. The “LP Branding Project” spent $92. Meetup received a $72 annual fee.
No worries, I fixed it.
Although I was sorely tempted to call it “George Phillies says Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr found in bed with dead yak; speculates yak may have died from shame” based on your comment.
:-p
Paulie,
I am not offended, not at all. You do the work of putting these things up, and writing the headline is your well-earned reward — the ‘perk — for your hard work.
Mind you, if I report “Republican candidate found in bed with dead yak” that is a purely factual report, so long as it is true. ‘the yak committed suicide, out of shame’ is an inference, since we cannot know what went through its mind.
However, if readers decide to shift their financial support to Mike Munger or Bob Underwood electbobunderwood.com or whoever because they spend their money better, that is fine with me.
At this time, in NH I have a street sign campaign, an Adwords campaign, a Facebook campaign, and a radio campaign, all targeted to boosting the Libertarian vote. The other Libertarian, well, zero out of 4 is not bad.
It certainly sounded critical to me.
I’ll change it later – liveblogging the debate now.
“criticize” is the headline writer getting his perk; I merely report what the spending was.
Wow…..
“Finally, there is real mainstream media advertising:
Charleston Gazette $1,001…Advertising
That’s 0.4% of campaign income.”
If that’s Charleston, WV, that would have been classified advertising to hire locals as petitioners in an unsuccessful attempt to put Barr on the ballot.
Not exactly mainstream media advertising as normally understood.