[Lnc-business] LP Donation to Mark Miller Campaign

Mon Sep 19 11:13:48 EDT 2016

DanieL  You beat me to the punch by one hour.  I will co-sponsor such a motion.  Yes, I would like to win this election, as well, but do be advised that Texas has a straight ticket voting device that, according to Richard Winger, about half of Texas voters employ (of course, some of them pull the Libertarian lever on this).  Thanks, Bill Redpath
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On Mon, 9/19/16, Daniel Hayes <danielehayes at icloud.com> wrote:

 Subject: [Lnc-business] LP Donation to Mark Miller Campaign
 To: "lnc-business" <lnc-business at lp.org>
 Date: Monday, September 19, 2016, 10:11 AM

 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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