To: lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com 
Subject: ?lpaz-discuss] Why has there been no press release] 
From: "auvenj" <auvenj@lycos.com>  Add to Contacts  
Date: - Sun, Apr 27 2003 1:41:23 AM0000 
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Some folks on this list have been wondering why I, and/or the Party, 
have not immediately issued a strong press release concerning the 
candidates accused of misusing clean election funds.  Your concern is 
not unreasonable.  You knew there had to be more to this than simple 
foot-dragging, and you are right.  One of the key principles that I 
and the new board have adopted has been to operate in an open and 
transparent manner; to that end the information below is provided.

Shortly after the Tribune story broke yesterday I created a draft of 
a press release and sent it to the board for review.  We have 
wordsmithed the draft a little, but it has been ready to go for a 
while and the basic thrust of it was and is the same as C.D.'s 
original suggestion and Dugger's letter.  However, we have not sent 
it out yet and we may not send it at all. 

A review of the ALP, Inc. financial records revealed that during the 
2002 campaign season the _Party_ received $1,500 from each of the 
three candidates mentioned in the Tribune article. The party also 
received $1,500 from Kimberly Swanson, another clean elections 
candidate who was not mentioned in the Tribune article. In addition 
to the $6,000 that the party received from clean elections 
candidates, the party added $4,000 of other party funds and paid 
National Voter Outreach (NVO) $10,000 for "voter registration" 
services. This $10,000 was IN ADDITION to the nearly $20,000 cited in 
the article that was paid to NVO directly by the three candidates.

How many Libertarian voter registrations were obtained with the 
combined total of nearly $30,000 spent by the party and the three 
candidates? No one seems to know, but the most optimistic estimates I 
have heard are "very few", with "none" and "almost none" being common 
responses.  Certainly not a significant number, because we didn't see 
a big pop in the total number of registered Libertarians last year.  
Traditional voter registration costs have ranged from $1.50 - $11.00 
per registration.  Assuming that the cost was very close to the high 
end of the traditional range, $10, we should still have seen around 
3000 additional registered Libertarians.  There was nothing of the 
sort.

These facts can be substantially verified by anyone who takes the 
time to examine the financial filings of the candidates and the 
party, and look at the total number of registered Libertarians over 
the period.  Additionally, the only board members who have actually 
spoken with the candidates (I have not) indicate that they weren't 
the "carpetbaggers" we have all been assuming they were. The impact 
of this reality on the ability of myself and the current ALP, Inc. 
board to properly respond to the clean elections investigation of 
these candidates can best be described as a land mine. When the press 
gets the above information (notice I didn't say "if"), the only 
explanation that the current board can offer is that last year's 
decision for the party to accept money from clean elections 
candidates and hire NVO was made solely by the prior chairman. Even 
the previous board never met nor voted on accepting money from clean 
elections candidates or hiring NVO.

This explanation isn't likely to carry much weight with the press, 
nor make it into the resultant story.  Even if it does make it into 
the story most of the public will not make the proper distinction 
between the current board and the prior board.  People on this list 
who should damn well know better aren't making the proper distinction 
between the current board and the prior board; it is ludicrous to 
think that the press and the general public could or would.  
Nevertheless, if asked by the press or anyone else I will not attempt 
to defend Peter's actions.  To do so would only be to dig the hole 
deeper.  But responding truthfully and directly when asked, and 
issuing press releases that will almost certainly call attention to 
the situation, are two different things.

It also bears noting that, while we have asked repeatedly we have not 
yet been provided with all of the party records from the previous 
secretary, John Zajac.  While we don't *think* there is anything else 
out there to bite us on this...we can't even hope to be certain of it 
without all of the records.

That is why there has been such a delay in what should otherwise have 
been a very straightfoward response to Friday's story. I am fearful 
of attracting public attention to the party on this matter, when I 
KNOW that there's a big landmine Peter left that would probably blow 
up in our faces.  It's dangerous to respond to this situation 
publicly with the claim, "we can't control our candidates, these guys 
are carpetbaggers not Libertarians" when anyone who cares to look at 
some public records can see that the party accepted money from all of 
these candidates.

Suggestions for how to handle this without it turning into a full-
fledged public relations disaster for the party are of course 
welcome.  We have considered writing a press release which simply 
condemns clean elections without mentioning the candidates, but there 
doesn't seem to be a way to do that without appearing to be (= being) 
totally evasive of the issue at hand.  Whatever happens, I wanted to 
be sure the true situation is known among the Libertarians on this 
list.  I can't change what Peter did last year.  I can only say that 
I never had the opportunity to vote on the matter, I would never do 
something like that myself, and I will not compound the problem by 
attempting to cover it up from the membership.

--Jason Auvenshine



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