Libertarian Party of NY -- Convention Speeches April 14, 2002

by Bonnie Scott
(any misunderstanding of the speakers' messages are mine, and corrections/amplifications are welcome.)

George Phillies
"Organizing & Campaigning"

I. Pre-requisites: discussion about New York's ballot access situation

Sometimes regulars take up signatures by circulating additional petitions. Minor parties sometimes get caught in the cross-fire in NY State.

Out-of-district petitioners: NYC BOE issued an official ruling that they wouldn't challenge out-of-district petitioners, but that's the only area where we can count on that. Elsewhere, we would have the support of the Brennan Center in litigating a case that.s very likely to have a favorable outcome, but a dilemma is that we'd want to try this with a candidate who wasn't serious about running anyway, and they'd want to take the case of a more serious candidate. Need to see if we can find a good compromise. (Nancy Northrup is contact, and Steve H., Richard and Scott have all talked with her.)

Ironically, MA and NY laws are exactly opposite when it comes to petitioning locations. New York can't prevent us from petitioning in any public place, but won't force businesses to let us petition on their property. In Massachusetts, any mall owner has to let you have a table on its premises (and many offer one for free in hopes of future benefits from politicians) but you can't petition on public property. Massachusetts has three more weeks than New York to collect signatures: we only have six weeks, starting July 5th this year.

How many sigs?

NY Petition requirements: 1500 State Assembly 1500 County-wide races (outside NYC) 500 County Legislature (more populous counties) various City Council ?? School Boards

Carol McMahon's approach: she had a volunteer drive her door-to-door to addresses on the voter rolls. She worked weekends, and each time, she got 50 to 60 valid signatures out of the 300 she needed. One person couldn't have done that, but it wasn't hard for two people, and she finished it off in about five weeks.

II. Ramping Up

How to get a volunteer base? - coalition-building - start early - speak before civic events - contact the media

Are you involved in a local Libertarian Club? George says you might need to start a separate Political Club for the folks who really want to get serious about running candidates and winning elections. People need to be there to do politics. Jim Strawhorn admitted that they had a bit of a philosohpical club in Queens (that's the first step, Jim!). In a 'politics club,' philosophical discussions are banned. [We hope that the Buffalo and Western area chapters will prove themselves to be a Political Club this summer and fall.]

WWII story 1: They found that only 5 to 10% of riflemen shot at the enemy, whereas 50% of paired gunners (gunner and ammunition-feeder) shot the enemy. What did they learn? That a pair of people reinforce each other and keep each other on track.

WWII story 2: During Japanese attacks, they talked loudly as they attacked at night, because you can't shoot at a voice and hit it. They were encouraging each other onward. (However, this was only successful because night-vision wouldn't be invented for another 30 years.)

The lesson learned: most people run because they are asked. Get in a circle with a group, point fingers at each other until _someone_ agrees to run. The group then gives them mutual support and is their "backbone" during the campaign.

Coalition-building: pot legalization, gun owners, etc.

About the PVLA (Pioneer Valley Libertarian Association): Started in 1994, tried to run a candidate in '96, actually ran someone in '98. About a dozen people meet for two hours every month. Not to talk philosophy, but to do politics. It's the oldest Libertarian organization in Massachussetts, because the LAMA (Libertarian Association of MA) was dissolved in 2000 in favor of the LPMA (Libertarian Party of MA), which was created in 1999 when the LP achieved ballot status in MA.

III. Running

To paraphrase George, we are about to re-elect some 150 Theives and XX of their unindicted co-conspirators. This is the perfect time to get organized to oppose that.

There are only two things you can use to influence voters:

Fear "Those guys in Albany gotta be thrown out now before they do anything worse!"
Hope "Vote for me and I'll lower your taxes and improve your schools!"

Practice Speeches: George had some volunteers get up there and do a 3-minute practice stump speech. Jim Harris, Charlie Eames, Al Dedicke, Rich Cooper, and Steve Healey were the brave volunteers, and George interspersed their speeches with commentary and advice for everyone. Al Dedicke and others spoke up _highly_ recommending Toastmasters (his speech showed profiency that he credits to them). It's much cheaper than the advice required for Harry Browne's acceptance speech at the convention. Every word and gesture of Harry.s was timed and practiced, and it cost $5,000 for the consultant. Toastmasters meets twice a month, and there are 200 clubs in New York State. [I believe you just pay for your meals?]

Some tips:
- Remember to ask them to vote for you, many times!
- Don't keep your hands in our pockets, learn to gesture naturally
- "If" you vote for me...
the "if" was discussed: some audiences react better with it, some without it
- step forward, not backwards when talking to people

IV. Where can we get volunteers?

- 800+ LPNY members, plus a couple of thousand others in our contact database. That averages out to about 30 members per congressional district, or 1 out of 10,000 people in the state.

- Hard Work. e.g., Dave Hoesly actively reads all the letters to the editor in the Rochester area and sends them a packet of info.

- Other groups: network with groups who support Libertarian issues.

- pot-luck picnics in warm weather

- George wants to make tapes for LP volunteers to show them what they can do

Town committees in MA as a way of organizing. (MA has a unique situation with those organizational units.) The LPMA launched 140 a few years ago, but most have failed. Lesson learned: it takes 5-10 LP volunteers to make a successful town organization, with 1-2 dedicated people who show up at all meetings. 2-3 LP'ers in the area just aren't enough to keep a group going.

V. Followup:

A sheet was circulated in the room (among the dedicated volunteers who arrived at 9am on a Sunday) to find possible candidates. The main question was phrased as George had phrased it:

I'd run if I could get on the ballot:

Jak Karako - Manhattan
James Eisert . Manhattan, running for Comptroller
Steven Becker (a maybe) - Rochester
Jonathan Freiermuth . Honeoye Falls
Charlie Eames . Rochester area
Larry Kiser . Rochester area
Al Dedicke . Livingston County
Kent, Kroermer@hotmail.com (where?)
Audrey Pappaeliou (and Bruce M, she says)       - Brookhaven
Don Lovelace . North of Rochester
John Clifton - Queens

I'd campaign-manage:
Audrey Pappaeliou
Bonnie Scott
Richard Cooper

Dr. Jennifer Daniels
"Taking on the System: My Campaign in Syracuse"

There are planty of reason to quit--DON'T!

Tips for running a campaign, as learned on the 2001 Mayoral campaign trail:

- Eat well! Take someone with you to eat noxious food offered to you, like meat. :-) Food taken by you and consumed by the volunteer at your side is as good as food you ate yourself--people will like you for it.

- Have an entourage--at least three is best, one to _never_ leave your side, and others to 'peel off you' to talk to people along your path at an event, to collect contact info from interested people, etc.

- A lot happens between 6pm and 2am, so managing your sleep cycle is extremely important. At times, she went from bar to bar at night to reach people (another person to go with the candidate is CRITICAL in those situations) and slept a 'split-shift,' or about four hours at two different times during the day. Keep track of your sleep, and schedule it like you do appointments--seven hours a day, unless you've learned that more or less is better for you.

- Maintain the family -- Dr. Daniels was lucky enough to have her mother able to take care of her three children during the campaign: they lived with her, and Grandma cooked for them all--often for the campaign volunteers, too. Jennifer couldn't have done it without her.

- Have a plan in case you don't win. Sounds silly, but don't spend all your money, make sure you have some energy to pick up the pieces in your life afterwards (in the case of a serious campaign like the one Jennifer ran).

- Four months before the election, don't plan on being able to work a full-time job.

- 75% of your money should be spent in the last 1-2 months before election day.

- Start fundraising a year before your election. Ask BIG and tell them why you need it.

- Mental attitude is key. She recommends _The Greatest Salesman in the World_, but she says to skip the first hundred pages and just read the stories in the back--they kept her upbeat during her campaign. She also says you need to get a volunteer to call you _every_day_ to say something encouraging. If they had a criticism of something she'd done on the campaign trail the day before, they would say something nice first, voice the criticism tactfully, and then end with another compliment.

- Target voters only! What is a voter? If they don't live in your district, they are not a voter as far as you're concerned. If they are non-registered, they are not a voter (although your campaign might be simultaneously doing voter registration; if you're not, just move on). A good question to ask to elicit this information is "Did you vote for (incumbant) or (that other guy) in the last election?" However, there are many non-voters who will work for you, maybe even long hours, so be on the lookout for them and don't alienate anyone. Smile at everyone, even if they say outrageous, insulting things. Festivals--she encountered 90% non-voters there.are another very important place to have an entourage for the candidate.

- The backbone of your campaign is the volunteers. Stroke them, make them happy. For example, Jennifer got a dozen doughnuts every time Steve came up, and even ate some with him. Offer volunteers anything you can give them at no or extremely low cost, like healthy food and t-shirts with your name and picture. How to get them? Let everyone you know, know--that you're running, for which office, that you need their help, and that you expect to win. They won't help if they think you might drop out of the race half-way. Some of Dr. Daniels. most valuable supporters would give her signs at cost, copies at one cent per page. She had three folks who drove her places--gas money is a donation, too. Accept _anything_ someone thinks is valuable enough to offer you.

- You need to organize your volunteers, which is a separate role from that of your campaign manager. Regrettably, door-to-door campaigning died for her, for lack of organization.

- Run to win. Make sure you're getting what you paid for: she recounts example of bus ads not delivered and DPW workers taking down her signs (leaving others in the same area).

-You really need to start three years before the election because you have no budget to quickly raise awareness of yourself. Knock door-to-door and tell people you're running. Don't even bother with literature at that time, it's expensive (relatively: she pays $100 for 2000 pieces). Just meet folks and tell them you're running.

- She found fundraisers ineffective--you need rich friends. Otherwise, just ask for money from people, don't go through the motions and risk losing money on the fundraiser. The money is better spent rewarding your volunteers directly with t-shirts and campaign trinkets--or tips for drinks for them (you can't possibly have a drink at every bar you need to visit, but you don't want to offend the bartenders).

- Run in a primary. It's cheap compared to a general election: she spent $1000 for ads all everything else for the primary, compared to $100,000 for her general election. OTB (opportunity to ballot) is a unique mechanism in New York State whereby anyone can force a primary if a major-party candidate is running unopposed.

- Run to win. Make sure you're getting what you paid for: she recounts example of bus ads not delivered and DPW workers taking down her signs (leaving others in the same area).

-You really need to start three years before the election because you have no l budget to quickly raise awareness of yourself. Knock door-to-door and tell people you're running. Don't even bother with literature at that time, it's expensive (relatively: she pays $100 for 2000 pieces). Just meet folks and tell them you're running.

- She found fundraisers ineffective--you need rich friends. Otherwise, just ask for money from people, don't go through the motions and risk losing money on the fundraiser. The money is better spent rewarding your volunteers directly with t-shirts and campaign trinkets--or tips for drinks for them (you can't possibly have a drink at every bar you need to visit, but you don't want to offend the bartenders).

- Run in a primary. It's cheap compared to a general election: she spent $1000 for ads all everything else for the primary, compared to $100,000 for her general election. OTB (opportunity to ballot) is a uniue mechanism in New York State whereby any person can force a primary for a major party if the person would otherwise be running unopposed. Spent on ads on busses, a banner over the main street in town, yard signs, window signs, radio ads, TV ads, etc. Run a couple ads a week building up to the race. Start early enough.

- What to wear? You'll need to spend money. She bought a $500 fuschia suit at Talbots, all silk. Accessorized with a pearl necklace and earrings. One of her volunteers advised her to buy "falsies." The bright side was that they kept her warmer when it got cold out. The lesson learned: voters elect shallow candidates because they themselves can be shallow. Learn to deal with it and use it to your advantage--personal appearance is important. Borrow clothes if you can, but otherwise, take someone with you to buy. "Don't eat in the suit," though, because dry-cleaning bills can cripple your campaign!

- When it comes down to it, default back to economic issues

The day of the election

- You need pollwatchers, and a lawyer or two in your pocket, just in case.

- The candidate MUST go to visit the polls on election day. Be seen, and witness irregularities. Dr. Daniels found amazing irregularities that were unfortunately just not worth pursuing in her circumstances.

These speakers were followed by a short panel of LPNY recent candidates, who gave advice gleaned from their experience with "Elections and the Drug War."

Example: On handling tough issues posed to you on the road

Steve Healey: You must understand the goals of your campaign (to win, to educate, or to grow membership...). The goals will determine what sort of response you give [to the really outlandish questions].

Scott Jeffrey: It's not so much what _you_ say, you should listen to what they have to say on it. Let them tell you [how gov't made something worse for them].

John Clifton: Attract friendlies to _you_ on the issue, e.g., set up a sign and a table to "legalize pot" when collecting signatures (of a candidate who would legalize pot) and receptive people will come to you.

One piece of wisdom from Steve was to look at certain people not as problems, but as obstacles, tools, or puzzles. John talked about the need to develop "knee-jerk libertarian voters." Youth outreach via the marijuana issue is one good way to do that.

The end of that panel marked the end of an optimistic, forward-looking convention with new blood and a new dedication to attempt to gain ballot access in New York.

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