[Lnc-business] LP Donation to Mark Miller Campaign

Mon Sep 19 10:11:09 EDT 2016

Mr. Chairman and fellow LNC members,

We have been asked to make donations recently to certain campaigns.  Despite having more money to do so than in the past, we clearly don't have the means, time or frankly, even the desire to donate to every person's campaign that is running as a Libertarian.  We need to develop some criteria to apply to the process to make it as fair and efficient as we possibly can.    I think that there should be implications of the campaign beyond just electing that one person to office.   

I intend to bring or support a motion for the NLP/LNC to donate funds to Mark Miller's campaign for Railroad Commissioner in Texas.  What's at stake is ballot access in Texas.  If they do not have a statewide candidate achieve 5% in this election, they lose their current ballot access and with the size of Texas, it will likely cost us multiple 6 figures getting it back.  At present Dr. Miller's campaign is the only one that could be considered more than a paper candidacy.  As we had been having discussions about which campaigns should the LNC be donating to, it crossed my mind that Mark Miller's was exactly the sort we should be lending assistance to.  It also occurred to me that we might be hearing a little less about it than we might because his campaign manager is also our Special Projects Director, Lauren Daugherty and I know she works very hard to try and keep those roles separated.

Making it brief, Mark Miller has raised significant money already, his campaign stands to benefit the whole TX Affiliate and save it and the NLP a LOT of money, he is highly qualified for the job,  he has gotten major endorsements.

With that in mind I reached out to Lauren yesterday.  Apparently, some other people were having some of the same thoughts at the same time.
Here is Lauren's response to my inquiry.

"
Mark Miller is an exceptional candidate. He’s highly qualified for the position he’s seeking and more qualified (by far) than his 3 opponents. If he was elected, he would be well prepared to serve. He’s been a Libertarian since the 1970s and is well versed on Libertarianism and able to communicate Libertarian ideas well. And, he’s also a solid leader. He’s well liked, kind, and personable. Rarely do we find candidates of any party that are so well rounded.

Mark’s race is the top of the ticket in Texas this cycle. The Texas Railroad Commission is one of the most powerful agencies in Texas. It regulates oil and gas and has nothing to do with railroads. In Texas, oil & gas often trump property rights. It’s messy and outrageous and will make any normal human being hopping mad if they look into it. Mark is outspoken about protecting property rights.

Mark has a PhD from Stanford in petroleum engineering and has spent over 40 years in the industry. In contrast, none of his opponents have worked one day in oil & gas.

For the Libertarian Party of Texas to retain ballot access for 2018, we need one statewide candidate to achieve 5% of the vote. This cycle, the only statewide candidates on ballots in Texas are Railroad Commission (Mark’s race) and judicial races. Almost all of our judicial candidates this year are “paper candidates”. Mark is running the most active campaign, by far.

We started this campaign 1 and a half years ago, when I left employment with LPTexas. We’ve raised over $70k so far and received 2 of the biggest media endorsements in Libertarian history. I expect that we’ll break $100k within the next 2 weeks. Mark is a full-time candidate. We anticipate that he’ll very likely get more media endorsements over the coming weeks. He’s talking with reporters almost daily and traveling extensively.

We’ve just started robo calls to strategic areas and will have mailers promoting our endorsements starting in the next few days. We are planning a major radio buy that will flood the talk radio airwaves across Texas with Mark’s name and info on his endorsements and the LP for 2 weeks before early voting begins. This will cost $50k and we think this is critical to achieving the 5% needed to ensure ballot access. We’ve raised approximately $30k towards this so far and we expect to receive the final funding on that within the next week.

If we are unable to achieve the 5% needed to secure ballot access, it will take approximately 80,000 verified signatures to regain ballot access. I’m told we’d need to shoot for approximately 125,000 signatures or more to make sure we have enough “good” signatures. In Texas, if someone votes in a primary, they are not eligible to sign a ballot access petition and this makes it more difficult. The signatures would have to be gathered within a 75 day window. Experts tell me that this would likely cost between $250,000 and $500,000.

In my opinion, it is far better to spend money now, promoting an exceptional candidate, rather than having to scramble to raise even more money to regain ballot access in 2018 or 2020. I know the fundraising situation in Texas better than anyone. If we lose ballot access, it will likely be 2020 before we can afford to regain it.

Mark is a candidate that makes us all extra proud to be Libertarians. He’s highly qualified, and skilled communicator, and represents us very well. He can walk into a room of people who are skeptical or even of the Libertarian Party and when he walks out, they respect us and many support us.

Here are our goals for Mark’s campaign: 1) achieve 5% (or far more!) of the vote in order to retain ballot access for 2018; 2) grow the Libertarian Party. Mark’s a team player. We are promoting Libertarians up and down the ballot whenever we can."

"
If the LNC donates to Mark’s campaign, we’d use the money on radio buys, and/or carefully targeted robo calls, and/or large postcard to strategic areas, educating voters about the endorsements, Mark’s credentials, and the LP.

I think the max that the LNC could give Mark’s campaign directly, by law, is $5k. My understanding, based on what Bob Johnston has told me, is that if the LNC wanted to give more, they could donate it to LPTexas (which is currently an FEC filing entity) with the understanding that LPTexas would then donate the funds to the campaign. LPTexas receives directed donations regularly and I don’t foresee any problem with working with them in this way. One SLEC member said in the SLEC meeting yesterday that “Mark is our shining star”. SLEC, the officers, and key players, all agree and I think they’d be delighted to help in this way.

Folks can read more about Mark here: miller4tx.com"

"

"Thank you for considering supporting his campaign. If anyone would like to talk with me directly, they can call/text me at 931 249 9924 or email me at lauren at miller4tx.com"

Here are some links she sent to me also:

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/recommendations/article/For-the-RRC-9206271.php?t=76087424ea438d9cbb

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20160915-we-recommend-mark-miller-for-texas-railroad-commissioner.ece

Daniel Hayes
LNC At Large Member

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