November 2009 Libertarian Strategy Monthly

Libertarian Strategy Monthly

Herding Cats Since May 2009

Volume 1 | Issue 7 Sunday, November 1, 2009In This Issue:

Pages 2-3

Opinion

Things Every StateParty Should DoPages 3-6

Opinion

Keep Finances FocusedPages 6-9

Opinion

The Lone Wolf LibertarianPages 9-10

Opinion

Can The MovementWelcome ModeratesPage 10-14

LSM Archives

Blueprint For LibertarianActivistsPage 14

News & Analysis

LNC Chair PollPage 14-15

News & Analysis

November 3

rd

Election

Issue Brief:

Excerpted From AConcord CoalitionPress ReleaseThe Concord Coalitionsaid today that if Congress raisesphysicianreimbursement rates inMedicare, it shouldspell out how to payfor the changes.The Senate is expectedto consider a bill thisweek that wouldpermanently increasephysicianreimbursement ratesrelative to the currentMedicare “sustainablegrowth rate” (SGR)formula and exemptthis “doc fix” frompay-as-you-go budgetrules (PAYGO). Thisexemption wouldincrease federaldeficits by roughly$250 billion over 10years.

Privacy Alert:

Excerpted From AnACLU Press ReleaseThe Senate JudiciaryCommittee passed theUSA PATRIOT ActExtension Act of 2009today, a bill whichfalls far short of restoring the necessarycivil libertiesprotections lacking inthe original PatriotAct. The bill, passedby the committee aftertwo sessions of debate,makes only minorchanges to thedisastrous Patriot Actand was furtherwatered down byamendments adoptedduring markup. TheAmerican CivilLiberties Union hadendorsed the JUSTICEAct, an alternative billthat would heavilyreform not only thePatriot Act but otheroverly broadsurveillance laws.

“The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow anuncertain trumpet.”

Theodore M. Hesburgh

Libertarian Strategy Monthly

www.jakeporter.orgOpinions of our guests do notnecessarily reflect the opinions of Jake Porter, J.D. Porter Consulting,or Libertarian Strategy Monthly.

Conversing With Jake

Things Every State Party Should DO

By Jake Porter

W

e oftenhear complaintsand commentsthat if only thenational partydid this or thatour party wouldsomehowmagicallybecomesuccessful overnight. Unfortunately,there is no get successful quick scheme that we can use despite whatmany would have you believe.There is no magic bullet when itcomes to becoming successful in ourpolitical endeavors. On the otherhand, there are many ways in whichthe Libertarian Party can becomesuccessful. One is by buildingstrong organizations in every stateand Washington D.C. In this article,I discuss some, not all, of the thingsevery state party should do.

Advertising

To effectively advertise, each stateorganization should have:

•

Brochure promoting the benefitsof supporting the state party

•

Google Advertising campaignduring election years

•

Radio advertisements ready torun during election years

•

Public newsletter published atleast 4 times a year aimed at themedia and non party members

Communications

Each state organization should have:

•

A newsletter directed at membersand volunteers published at leastonce every two months

•

A process to send press releaseswhen necessary

•

A single spokesperson and presscontact

Elections

A state party should be able to:

•

Recruit candidates

•

Get Libertarians appointed topublic office

•

Win non-partisan races

Organization

A strong state organization will have andperform:

•

Organizations in each county

•

Membership retention andrecruitment plans

•

An actively working ExecutiveCommittee with no empty spots

•

Management of lists includingmembership, registered voters,and media contacts

Libertarian Strategy Monthly

•

Networking with otherorganizations and groupsAdvertising, elections, communications,and an active organization will start astrong and solid foundation to build theLibertarian Party upon.J.D. (Jake) Porter, a 2008 BusinessAdministration graduate, previouslyserved as Iowa Coordinator for the 2008Bob Barr Presidential campaign, andworked as Business Manager for theSaint Joseph Telegraph. Today, he is theowner of J.D. Porter Consulting, and isthe Alternate to Region 6 of theLibertarian National Committee.

Keep Finances Focused — The Massachusetts Way

By Dr. GeorgePhillies

F

or the past year, Massachusettslibertarians haveworked with a newmethod of organizingtheir organization’s finances. Our objective was simple: Make sure that money is spent where it should be spent,on doing real politics.

O

ur approach to managing spendingput the controls where they belong: atthe front end.Massachusetts Libertarians have twomajor sources of money: dues anddonations. We also have two sorts of campaign accounts: State and Federal.Only state money raised under statefunding restrictions can be spent on statecampaign activities, such as supportingnon-Federal candidates. Only Federalmoney can be spent on supportingFederal candidates or on FederalElection Activity. The definition of Federal Election Activity is very wide.For example, if we register someone tovote within 90 days of the Federalelection, including elections in which wedo not have a libertarian candidate, it isFederal Election Activity.The restrictions on raising state funds aremuch more rigid than the restrictions onraising Federal funds. We can acceptsingle Federal donations of up to$5,000. We can accept single statedonations of no more than $500.To control spending, we had to have abudget. However we have no idea inadvance as to how many members willpay dues, we have no idea in advance asto how many members will give usdonations. Those numbers havefluctuated wildly in recent years, so if looking at the past is a reasonableanswer, the reasonable answer is: Yourguess is as good as ours.What we did was to invert the budgetingschemes used by other groups. We said:We know the missions we want toaccomplish. We know that we havecertain fixed expenses. What we will dois to allocate each dues payment andeach donation as it comes in, and seewhat we can do with the money that weactually have. We also agreed that aftersix months we would revisit ourallocations, and ask if they were workingwell.To make life more interesting, we finallybrought the state organization into the