Barr Campaign spent $18,691 on Limo Services
By phillies
That's in September. That was 7% of funds raised by Barr 2008 in September.
For September, the Barr campaign raised $252,383, for an election cycle total to date of $1,106,681. That includes $197,159 though the end of May, raised immediately before or after the nomination date and through May 31. As a benchmark, the Harry Browne 2000 campaign reported that it raised in total 2.4 million dollars. While a large part of the Browne funding was for the pre-nomination campaign, Browne raised a million dollars between getting the nomination and election day. Badnarik 2004 raised slightly more.
A search of the Barr 2008 FEC Financial disclosures reveals total spending for limo services, for that one month, of $18,691.56, including payments to A First Choice Limo, Alternative Business Enterprises, Crystal Limousine, Inc., Executive Three Enterprises, International Limousines, Lavdas Limousines, Luxury Limo, M&M Limousine Service, Royal Legacy Limousine, and Town Car Executive. There was also travel associated with those Limos, including travel expense payments to various airlines and hotels for $27,696, and $1687 in meeting expenses.
Of particular note as a point of comparison is Browne 2000's spending on television advertising. To quote from my book 'Funding Liberty' "The list of vendors shows where Browne 2000 put its actual effort for the campaigning year. This was a video-based campaign, one of the first such in our Party's history, with $150,000 going to Polaris Productions for TV ads, $104,000 to Copy Right for video tape copying...and $127,000 through The Firm Multimedia for air time and related support...The Libertarian National Committee independently spent more than $209,000 on ad time for the Browne Campaign, in good part in the weeks before the election in which the Browne Campaign had stopped buying ad time."
The Barr Campaign did pay people. Leading people being paid for consulting in September are: The political consultants were all paid near the start of the month, except Steve Sinton was paid half at the end of the month. Note that Mr. Cory is apparently not being paid evenly in every month, so it might be inappropriate to annualize his payment. Robert Stuber appears to be the Robert Stuber who until January of this year was Spotsylvania County Republican chairman. Steve Sinton, we find on the web, is a professional voice. In 2006, a Steve Sinton at approximately the correct address ran for Congress as a Democrat. Liberty Strategies www.libertystrategies.org/ is an Atlanta based firm. The Principal of Liberty Strategies according to its web pages is Bob Barr. Prime One Consulting was identified in the Libertarian Party of Oregon newsletter as the consulting firm of Richard Burke, who is reportedly doing western-states organizing for the Barr campaign. The Competitive Enterprise Institute web pages http://cei.org/people/doug-bandow say of Bandow "Doug Bandow is the Bastiat Scholar in Free Enterprise at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Vice President of Policy for Citizen Outreach, a Washington, D.C.-based grassroots political organization." The sometimes unreliable wikipedia says of Bandow "Douglas (Doug) Bandow is a former columnist with Copley News Service and former senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He resigned in 2005 due a scandal involving payments for columns from lobbyist Jack Abramoff and wrote about it in the Los Angeles Times. He served as a Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and as a Senior Policy Analyst in the 1980 Reagan for President campaign. He is also a columnist for Antiwar.com." On December 28, 2005, Chuck Muth, president and CEO of Citizen Outreach, announced that Bandow was joining the think tank as vice president of policy. Although Muth noted that he and Bandow did not "agree 100 percent" on every issue, he expressed admiration for his new colleague's reasoning "based on objective thought and not emotion." "He's able to justify any public policy issue from a limited government standpoint in the best tradition of our Founding Fathers," he said."
The Barr campaign is also paying people for Field Consulting, namely According to web searches, Mike Ferguson (source: mikefergusononline.com) is the National Field Director for the Bob Barr for President Campaign. Stephen Gordon serves (source: Third Party Watch) as the eCampaign Manager for the Bob Barr 2008 Presidential Campaign. Ashley Petty is (source: LinkedIn) "Communications Assistant, etc." at the Bob Barr 2008 Presidential Campaign. Jason Pye is identified on a Bob Barr 2008 Flickr site as "our Campaign Blogger". Counting Liberty Strategies, that's nearly $70,000 for people, or more than 27% of monthly income. In comparison, the Browne 2000 campaign paid its associates only 17% of income, while its television advertising rose to 20% of the month's income. That's right; on a percent basis of funds raised, Browne 2000 spent nearly three times on television ads what Barr 2008 spent on limousines.
Of course, you have to put these people and other volunteers someplace. Expenses for "put" include
The office consumed $2,580 for Office Supplies.
The campaign is also paying for ballot access and legal support: Printed and web outreach include $6500 for Book Publishing to Equipity, $6302 to Thru Tech and Rack Space for IT, and $2900 to Campaigner Pro for Software.
The campaign did direct mail. As explained by Richard Viguerie in describing his early efforts, direct mail has two effects. First, it raises money. Second, and far more important, it frames the political discussion for the readers of the letters. For direct mailing I note and someplace in there Hudson Phillips, $450 for Graphic Design. All that direct mail requires mailing lists. The campaign paid $4400 to Basic Media, Inc and Diener Consultants for List Rental . These sources are both Ron Paul-right wing list sources. If you were looking for a libertarian opening to the left, try again elsewhere. Basic Media, Inc. is apparently loosely associated with BreakTheMatrix.com; as reported at http://thisnovember5th.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/breakthematrixcom-take-back-the-media/ , Basic Media indicated that it would be advancing to offering stock, but was not yet ready to do so. Agence Global http://www.agenceglobal.com/article.asp?id=1006 reports that Diener Consultants is "one of the largest fundraising and political-strategy operations on the right". The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/jul/19/20060719-114206-4187r/ reports that "Diener Consulting Inc., whose president is Phil Sheldon, son of the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition. Diener serves as the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps public-relations arm, as it did for Mr. Keyes in his unsuccessful 1996 and 2000 presidential campaigns and failed U.S. Senate races in Maryland and Illinois. "
There is some effort at advertising the campaign to the public. I see volunteer media; I find
Finally, there is real mainstream media advertising:
Barr Campaign spent $18,691 on Limo Services | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
Barr Campaign spent $18,691 on Limo Services | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
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