[Lnc-business] Fwd: Re: Fwd: LP Donation to Mark Miller Campaign

Mon Sep 19 12:17:27 EDT 2016

Richard Winger answered the signature requirement question.

Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict at lp.org
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	Re: Fwd: [Lnc-business] LP Donation to Mark Miller Campaign
Date: 	Mon, 19 Sep 2016 15:57:48 +0000 (UTC)
From: 	Richard Winger <richardwinger at yahoo.com>
Reply-To: 	Richard Winger <richardwinger at yahoo.com>
To: 	Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org>

The same number as were required in 2016...47,086.

Last time we did the petition, in 2004, we needed 45,540.
Richard Winger 415-922-9779 PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org>
*To:* 'Richard Winger' <richardwinger at yahoo.com>
*Sent:* Monday, September 19, 2016 8:23 AM
*Subject:* Fwd: [Lnc-business] LP Donation to Mark Miller Campaign

Richard, do you know how many valid signatures required to get back on 
the ballot in 2018 if Texas in falls short this year?

Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232,wes.benedict at lp.org <mailto:wes.benedict at lp.org>
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at:http://lp.org/membership

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	[Lnc-business] LP Donation to Mark Miller Campaign
Date: 	Mon, 19 Sep 2016 14:11:09 +0000 (GMT)
From: 	Daniel Hayes <danielehayes at icloud.com> 
<mailto:danielehayes at icloud.com>
Reply-To: 	lnc-business at hq.lp.org <mailto:lnc-business at hq.lp.org>
To: 	lnc-business <lnc-business at lp.org> <mailto:lnc-business at lp.org>

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 <http://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 <mailto: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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