[Lnc-business] Oklahoma petition drive

[Nicholas Sarwark]

FYI, a donor has already pledged $30,000 specifically for Oklahoma,
which we intend to use to solicit matching funds from other donors to
get to the target amount.  That pledge is contingent on us doing the
Oklahoma drive.

Our consideration of doing the Oklahoma drive is only after the
Oklahoma LP has committed to collect a certain number of signatures as
well as recruiting as many candidates as possible to use the ballot
access if we are successful.  The Oklahoma LP has already started a
drive and will be jointly petitioning with the Greens for the
volunteer efforts, though no LNC funds would be used to circulate
Green petitions.

It's been 15 years since this party has had 50 state ballot access.
15 years is long enough.

-Nick

On Fri, Jun 19, 2015 at 8:48 AM, Daniel Wiener <wiener at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> 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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