[Lnc-business] Re. SD petition drive

[Wes Benedict]

Roland,

First of all, I'd like to report that although things haven't gone as 
well as hoped, they're not going too badly. Mr. Tuttle was not able to 
collect as many signatures as we had hoped, but he has collected enough 
so that we have gotten an okay deal for the money we have spent, and we 
probably have sufficient time to get the thing finished. What we need to 
finish the drive is about as many signatures as we collected in 2 weeks 
in Oklahoma.

Similarly, Ken Santema has done a pretty good job of keeping up with 
things given the circumstances, but, as happens often, managing a 
petition drive has taken more effort than hoped, particularly given that 
the drive was hoped to be finished months ago, yet it's February and 
still not completed.

Mr. Tuttle received a $5,000 payment at the beginning of his contract. 
He did not collect enough signatures to qualify for a second payment of 
$5,000. His contract expired 12/31/2015. I have started the process of 
hiring other petitioners to help with this petition drive.

The LNC took on some risk in signing a contract with an upfront payment 
of $5,000. For example, the possibility existed that Mr. Tuttle could 
have accepted the $5,000 and collected no signatures at all. But that is 
not what happened. Mr. Tuttle collected a bunch of signatures, just as 
not as many as we had hoped. It appears that the number of signatures he 
collected will result in an average cost per signature that is quite 
reasonable.

The basics of the deal for the contract was $5,000 up front, $5,000 when 
half done, and $5,000 when completed. My preliminary counts show that 
Mr. Tuttle made it around 1/3 of the way.

I'll be reviewing the numbers in detail. I need to collect a little bit 
more information before knowing exactly where we stand. If I find that 
Mr. Tuttle collected significantly more than 1/3, then perhaps, although 
not obligated by contract, we may decide additional payment is warranted.

Last week Mr. Tuttle told me he was not going to be collecting more 
signatures. Below, you implied that he still wanted to. If he wants to 
collect more signatures, he needs to send me an email requesting a new 
contract with the newly applicable terms.

I have the signatures in my possession. I'm holding them all now. Future 
signatures are being mailed to me.

I'm involved because the LNC Ballot Access Committee and the LPSD seemed 
to need my help. I like it when petition drives go as planned and do not 
require my personal assistance. That how things have gone in recent 
years in Arkansas, Illinois, and New York: the LNC approves the money--I 
send the money per the contracts--that's the way I like it.

Sometimes well-meaning volunteers, activists, and contractors get in a 
little bit over their heads thinking they can get a certain amount of 
signatures collected in a certain amount of time or for a certain price, 
or thinking they can raise a certain amount of money or win a certain 
election.

We might be able to finish this drive for $15,000, but it may take $20,000.

 From the minutes where South Dakota ballot access expenditures were 
approved:
https://www.lp.org/files/20150903_ECTC.pdf
> SOUTHDAKOTA BALLOT ACCESS Discussion yielded the following background 
> details: Mr. Redpath has long projected that the LNC would likely need 
> to spend $20,000 to achieve ballot access in South Dakota for our 2016 
> presidential ticket. A petitioner that the South Dakota affiliate has 
> successfully used in the past (Charles Tuttle) has offered to complete 
> the drive for $15,000. A successful drive would result in party status 
> for both the 2016 and 2018 election cycles, with a chance to retain 
> for another 4 years if a 2018 gubernatorial candidate receives 2.5% of 
> the vote. The South Dakota affiliate has collected 600 signatures so 
> far towards the goal of 10,000 raw signatures to achieve 6,936 valid 
> signatures. Mr. Santema believes the affiliate can collect an 
> additional 1,000 volunteer signatures. Mr. Redpath moved that the 
> Libertarian National Committee encumber $15,000 for a petition drive 
> to acquire party status in South Dakota. Following discussion, the 
> vote on the main motion was as follows: Voting “aye”: Goldstein, 
> Hagan, Lark, Mattson, Redpath, Sarwark, Vohra Voting “no”: (none) 



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

On 2/8/2016 1:02 PM, Wes Benedict wrote:
> I will get back to you all later this afternoon with all of the  > details and facts. Thanks, > > 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 On 2/8/2016 12:51 PM, > Roland Riemers wrote: 
 >> Wes,  My understanding on SD is that Tuttle received a $5,000 >> 
advance last year for SD,  but is behind schedule,  but needs the >> 
next installment so he can finish the drive, and he is willing to >> 
finish off the drive if he gets the second installment now, and he >> 
feels there would be no problem in doing so. >> >> Tuttle is a bit 
pissed at the SD state chair, Ken, because when he >> arranged to meet 
Ken to turn over 500 signatures, Ken got busy and >> blew him off.  
Ken's excuse is he is very busy at this time of >> year, and thus can 
not be involved in the petition process, and >> apparently there are 
some people handling this for him. >> >> So,  exactly what is the count 
now and who has the petitions?  Do >> we now have other paid petitioners 
in SD?   Will we be paying >> Tuttle the second installment?  We are 
also able to make multiple >> turn-ins with the SOS, so will we be doing 
that so we can get a >> validity count and know how much more we need? 
 >> >> Anything I can do to help, let me know. >> >> Roland Riemers >> 
 >> >> _______________________________________________ Lnc-business >> 
mailing list Lnc-business at hq.lp.org >> 
http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org > > > > 
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