I reach very nearly the end of the road in reporting how Barr 2008 spent its donors' money. by George Phillies
(libertarian)
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Election Day
This series has reached Election Day 2008. The actual FEC report on Barr 2008's spending near election day covers the interval from October 16 to November 24.
Suddenly, the Barr 2008 campaign went deep into debt. The ammount of debt is slightly different than originally reported; a corrected FEC filing clarifies the amount that was actually owed. The major difference was an original statement of a $20,000 debt to Shane Cory; the corrected filing shows that there was no such debt to Cory.
So who was suddenly owed money?
Libertarian author James Bovard was owed $47,000 for an Authoring Fee. McKenna Long & Aldridge was owed $39,414 for Legal Fees. Terra Eclipse was owed $35,566 for Information Technology. Campaign Manager Russ Verney was owed $15,000 for Political Consulting. Doug Bandow was owed $6466 for Political Consulting. Campaigner Pro of Ontario Canada was owed $6,057 for campaign software. Dr. Robert Stuber was owed $4000 for Fundraising Consulting. Mr. Steve Sinton was owed $4000 for Political Consulting. Lisa Franzman of Kailua, Hawaii 96734 was owed $2,160 for rent.
Then the printing, marketing, and mailing people were owed money: $433 to Gillis Express Mailing Direct Marketing, $1149 to All Points Packaging & Distribution for Online Order Fulfillment, $1756 to Press Well Services for Printing, and $1362 to UPS Shipping.
Last and hardly least, the Vice Presidential candidate had actually campaigned. As a result, Wayne Allen Root was owed $4797 for Campaign Expenses.
That's a lot of money to be promised close to election time, spent but not yet paid.
For the campaign from end to end, Barr 2008 had spent $1,324,518 after raising $1,361,178. That's significantly more than Badnarik spent, and more than Browne spent after receiving the nomination.
What did Barr 2008 actually do with its money? For the one month period discussed here, Barr 2008 spent $181,160 and raised $143,416. Alas, in these last five weeks the Barr campaign made commitments for far more; its debt went from next to nothing to over $210,000.
Do the math. In the last financial reporting period of the campaign, for every dollar that came in the Barr campaign spent two and a half dollars, the extra beyond cash on hand being turned into debt.
Four years ago, every state party had the opportunity to get a copy of Badnarik's donor list for their state, paying only copying and shipping charges. In 2008, those lists are not accessible. Perhaps it is only reasonable that the Barr campaign is refusing to share its mailing lists with the National Party. After all, it has a huge debt to pay off.
Barr 2008 paid people. $57,000 was owed to Jim Bovard for authoring; he was actually paid $10,000. $5860 was actually paid to Steve Gordon. Steve Sinton and Robert Stuber were each paid $4000 for Consulting. Doug Bandow got $5000 for Political Consulting. More than $4000 went for FEC compliance, Ashley Petty, Mike Ferguson, and a photographer. $9000 went for space rent; $8000 went for room rentals.
Barr did travel. That's a mark of a real campaign. He paid in these four weeks more than $6000 for hotels and more than $25,000 for plane and train travel. Another $16,000 went to more companies that provide...limousine services.
Oh, yes, those limo companies. Lest you question, here is a complete alphabetical list of where the $16,286 went: A Candies Limo, A First Choice Limo, Ambassador Limousine, Arista Limousine, Inc., Beres Executive LLC, Gold Star Executive Transportation, International Limousines, M&M Limousine Service, My Chauffeur Limousine Service, Sir Randolph's Classic Transportation, and Town Car Executive.
Nearly $50,000 was spent on various sorts of information technology, including $9000 to Aristotle and more than $4000 to Thru Tech. $35,000 of that $50,000 is still owed to Terra Eclipse. Over $30,000 went for printing, postage, and shipping.
Some money was spent on a sort of advertising: $17,606 for Direct Marketing.
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How could it be that "Suddenly, the Barr 2008 campaign went deep into debt" from a debt-free position in the previous report? One clue is in that previous report, where (as you told us) the Barr campaign reported no travel expenses -- ridiculous, as Barr was campaigning in 8 states in that period, and continued to do so up till election day. Obviously travel expenses were either being purchase n/30 or put on credit cards, and being expensed only when the bills or statements became due. That accounts for a good chunk of the almost $50,000 in travel expenses.
Another almost $50,000 is for the two campaign books ghosted by Jim Bovard, which should have appeared earlier in the campaign but didn't, but which at least could be used to generate revenue after the election.
Besides the books, the mailing list was the only asset the campaign could use to retire its debt afterward -- which explains why the campaign did not simply give it to the LNC (though IIRC they did offer to do so in exchange for help retiring the debt, which was not forthcoming).
How big was the reported debt, anyway? You don't say: you mention only that it was $20,000 less than reported elsewhere.
Posted By: George Phillies
Date: 2009-06-27 06:52:14
The debt, not including the $20,000 initially and erroneously said to be owed to Mr. Cory, was as I said "..its debt went from next to nothing to over $210,000..." To be precise, it's
$214,221.59
That number does include $44,057.28 owed to American Express, which could include travel expenses.
I am not aware of a Barr request that the LNC pay his campaign debts. There might have been one because there was discussion of paying Barr's debts in the LNC, but from what I could tell that discussion corresponded to several LNC members wanting to do their candidate a favor.The presentation at the San Diego meeting was 'surprise, Barr is not giving us his lists', which went over poorly.
It would appear that the books are somewhat hypothetical. They are not listed on Amazon. However, Amazon searches are somewhat unpredictable--on some days I cannot find my own books, including the volume that Springer-Verlag has been selling for almost a decade now. A google search does reveal the titles, but the assertion on the libertarian web site announcing tham was that one would be out in October and one was available on the web site. The Barr campaign expenses do include a significant amount to Equipity, an Atlanta print-on-demand publishing house that is seemingly no longer in active operation, so far as I can tell fromweb searches. There is nothing wrong with Print on Demand...I have used it for course material for some of he more esoteric courses I teach. However, you are not going to get rich on it.
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