[Lnc-business] Email Ballot 2017-10: Donation to the Mark Wicks campaign

[Alicia Mattson]

I am still on the fence for this vote.

There are some very positive things.  Mr. Wicks got into the debates and
did well.  He put more money into the race than just a filing fee.  He
raised a little more money than what he put in.  He mentioned that he
wished to use the money for online ads, and I asked if the ads were ready.
I heard through the grapevine that a volunteer I know to be particularly
talented with photography and video has completed some ads for him.

One thing I am confused about is the plan for using the $5,000.  If it were
a larger amount of money, and there were more time in which to use it,
perhaps the budget could be rough.  But with so little time to use the
funding, there ought to be a definite plan for every penny.  The first info
we received from the candidate was that online ads were the plan.  Then I
saw on Facebook an ad to raise money for purchasing voter data, which
volunteers would use for phone calls and text messages...then someone (not
the candidate) emailed us to say that the funds were for voter data, not
online ads.

I am still quite skeptical that an $11,600 budget can get traction at the
last minute when the other parties are pouring so much money into the
race.  Special elections are different creatures, often different
demographics for the turnout, only one race being talked about in the
media...but it also means the two major parties are not spread thin with
races in other states and can put a lot of effort into this one race.

The LNC has limited funds.  I also voted against the deficit budget that
was adopted, and would like to not spend as much as was budgeted.

We are not able to put money into every candidate's race, so that means we
have to choose races where we think our funds will provide the best value.
Those choices are usually made based on the circumstances, rather than
directly based on the candidate.

What I've not yet heard is what makes this race different from any other
randomly chosen Libertarian Congressional candidate.  Every candidate hopes
to win, but it hasn't happened yet at the Congressional level.  Why should
we expect to see results here that are better than the typical performance
of a Libertarian running for Congress against both a Democrat and a
Republican?  What is different enough that warrants us to deficit spend?

I think the money we invested into Mr. Miller's Texas ballot access race
for railroad commissioner likely made a difference, as he retained by a
slim margin, avoiding the need for a very expensive petition drive later.
He had endorsements from several newspapers, but the result was still
within the range of a fairly typical outcome for a partisan L-branded
candidate.  So while Mr. Wicks has some good reviews from the debate, and a
media outlet calling him the winner of the debate, I'm not convinced that's
enough to substantially improve his numbers.  This is not a ballot access
race, and general goodwill as a result doesn't make this campaign
particularly unique.

-Alicia




On Tue, May 9, 2017 at 11:18 PM, Alicia Mattson <agmattson at gmail.com> wrote:

> We have an electronic mail ballot.
>
>
> *Votes are due to the LNC-Business list by May 19, 2017 at 11:59:59pm
> Pacific time.*
> *Sponsor:*  Sarwark
>
> *Motion:* that the LNC contribute $5,000 to the Mark Wicks for Congress
> campaign
>
> -Alicia
>
>
>
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