[Lnc-business] Oklahoma petition drive

[Daniel Wiener]

I'm concerned about the proposed Oklahoma petition drive and how it fits
into our overall efforts for ballot access next year.  The LNC's finances
are very fragile right now, and we will be facing the usual huge expenses
in 2016 to get our Presidential candidate on the ballot in a number of
different states.  We're not starting out with a surplus to draw on, as we
did in 2012.  So it will be a big challenge.

While I'd love to include Oklahoma and be successful in all fifty states,
I'm also trying to be realistic.  $65,000 for Oklahoma is a lot of money.
The way this motion is phrased, we'd have to get $60,000 in contributions
dedicated specifically to Oklahoma before proceeding, which is all well and
good.  But that seems likely to cannibalize contributions for our other
ballot access efforts.

Raising money is not a zero-sum game, and different donors may be willing
to contribute to different projects.  I can see how "ballot access" will
appeal to some people who aren't interested in the building fund or general
LNC operations or whatever.  But will "ballot access" type donors be
interested in Oklahoma in contrast to other states?  If there's only a
limited amount of money we can raise for all our ballot access efforts next
year, will the $65,000 for Oklahoma drained from that pool prevent us from
getting on several other states?

So before I'm willing to vote Yes on this motion, I'll need to hear some
convincing arguments that it won't damage our other ballot access
requirements.

Dan Wiener

-- 
*"In general, we look for a new law by the following process. First, we
guess it (audience laughter), no, don’t laugh, that’s the truth. Then we
compute the consequences of the guess, to see what, if this is right, if
this law we guess is right, to see what it would imply and then we compare
the computation results to nature or we say compare to experiment or
experience, compare it directly with observations to see if it works. If it
disagrees with experiment, it’s WRONG. In that simple statement is the key
to science. It doesn’t make any difference how beautiful your guess is, it
doesn’t matter how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is.
If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. That’s all there is to it.”*
-- Richard Feynman (https://tinyurl.com/lozjjps)
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