Motion: Establish and Fund a Campaign Support Fund (Special Fund)

Jessi Cowart

Jessi Cowart

Vice Chair
Hello LPTexas SLEC Officers and Representatives,

Today, I am making a motion to establish a new Special Fund which we call the Campaign Support Fund. I have attached two documents:
  • The formal motion wherein I move to adopt the Special Project Plan for the new Campaign Support Fund, repurpose an existing LPTexas bank account to pre-fund the effort and update the LPTexas Policy Manual to document the establishment of this new Special Fund.
  • The Special Project Plan for the proposed Campaign Support Fund as required by Section 6 of the LPTexas Policy Manual.
I am hopeful that the establishment of the Campaign Support Fund will be an important first step in the direction of LPTexas taking a more active and supportive role with our LPTexas candidates and their campaigns. Getting Libertarians elected to office is, after all, the main reason we are here!

Thank you for your consideration, and I appreciate your co-sponsorship of this motion.
 

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What is the budget for this project?

Given the time frame, why do this as a motion of SLEC rather than by the officers?

Can we get a list of current special projects and their activities?
 
Jacob Bradley said:
What are the TEC implications of this? Are we sure that the state party can legally offer this type of support to candidates?
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@Jacob Bradley Excellent question! We've got a high-level understanding of this (somewhat complicated by the fact that there are some differences between TEC vs. FEC-filing candidates/parties), but there is definitely more we need to unpack in terms of direct donations, etc. One of the objectives of the committee I plan to form is to tighten up on this from an election code perspective. Also, if we do end up helping out candidates in a more direct way, we need to make sure that our process is completely objective to ensure no feelings/accusations of favoritism, etc. That will be the other objective of the committee: to develop an application and vetting process that is documented and transparent.
 
Additionally, why should we be soliciting directed donations to the party for us to then distribute to candidates rather than people donating to the candidates themselves?

That seems like the sort of behavior that will slow down the process of getting funds to our candidates.
 
For the record, this evolved out of a discussion re volunteer training and the need we have as a party for competent campaign managers. So think “campaign manager training” as one example of how we can “strategically support campaigns”, then add marketing and whatever else we can think of as ways to build the party and promote our message in ways that provide support to LPTexas-nominated candidates.
 
Anastasia Wilford said:
What is the budget for this project?

Given the time frame, why do this as a motion of SLEC rather than by the officers?

Can we get a list of current special projects and their activities?
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@Anastasia Wilford

1) No specific project budget at this time, but I will tell you that one of the first things we'll want to do is solicit RFPs for candidate/campaign manager training. Whether we're able to effectively identify a provider and deploy training in the near-term (for this current election cycle) remains to be seen, but the need is there whether now or later.

2) Because this body would revolt, lol.

But seriously, I like to move quickly, but I also think it's incredibly important that we are being transparent and giving this body an opportunity to express concerns, make recommendations, etc. We share the fiduciary duty, so to the extent possible, I like to share the decision-making.

3) The current list of special funds is outlined in Section 7.5 of the Policy Manual. I know that wasn't your specific question, but I'm not aware of any other formal special projects (e.g., there is a plan documented in accordance with Section 6 of the Policy Manual) at present. Tagging in @Andrew Amelang in case there is something out there of which I'm not in the know!
 
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Andrew Amelang said:
For the record, this evolved out of a discussion re volunteer training and the need we have as a party for competent campaign managers. So think “campaign manager training” as one example of how we can “strategically support campaigns”, then add marketing and whatever else we can think of as ways to build the party and promote our message in ways that provide support to LPTexas-nominated candidates.
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If that's the case, then it would seem the more prudent thing to do with those funds would be to roll them under the existing budget item of "Candidate Recruiting and Support" which is currently only $500
 
Jessi Cowart said:
The current list of special funds is outlined in Section 7.5 of the Policy Manual. I know that wasn't your specific question, but I'm not aware of any other formal special projects (e.g., there is a plan documented in accordance with Section 6 of the Policy Manual) at present. Tagging in @Andrew Amelang in case there is something out there for which I'm not in the know!
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Just looking for the list per the policy manual so we can get an idea of where things sit before weighing in on the motion
 

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Anastasia Wilford said:
Additionally, why should we be soliciting directed donations to the party for us to then distribute to candidates rather than people donating to the candidates themselves?

That seems like the sort of behavior that will slow down the process of getting funds to our candidates.
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@Anastasia Wilford That's a fair point. I don't think it's an either/or scenario, and our donors should always donate directly to the campaigns they support. But I imagine there are some folks out there (hopefully with fat wallets) who aren't in the weeds like we are and who perhaps don't have the time or wherewithal to research specific candidates and would rather donate to this fund so that we can distribute as needed. I guess the argument could be made that they could just make a general donation, but I think campaign support is something specific that donors can get behind (as opposed to just helping "keep the lights on," ya know?)
 
I have two seperate concerns with this motions.

1. This adds a waiting period for campaigns that need the money quickly. Instead of encouraging people to donate directly to campaigns, we add more steps to get those campaigns the money.

2. By choosing some candidates to recieve money, and others to not, we gave the serious risk of disenfranchising some candidates by telling them, thanks for running a campaign but we are choosing not to help you. We can say, we will donate to more important or more winnable races, but who's to say what is important or what is winnable?

While this will help some candidates, it will also cause unwanted and unneeded drama at some point with other candidates and their constituents, and maybe even our donors who see that their donor money is going to candidates they don't see as Libertarian enough.
 
I co-sponsor.

And to answer the question about why not just donating to candidates, LPTexas can donate MORE to an individual candidate than individuals donors can, so this is a good way for those have either maxed out their contributions to a candidate or who want to help candidates in other areas but may not know who has the most need or the most effective use of the money.
 
Jacob Bradley said:
I have two seperate concerns with this motions.

1. This adds a waiting period for campaigns that need the money quickly. Instead of encouraging people to donate directly to campaigns, we add more steps to get those campaigns the money.

2. By choosing some candidates to recieve money, and others to not, we gave the serious risk of disenfranchising some candidates by telling them, thanks for running a campaign but we are choosing not to help you. We can say, we will donate to more important or more winnable races, but who's to say what is important or what is winnable?

While this will help some candidates, it will also cause unwanted and unneeded drama at some point with other candidates and their constituents, and maybe even our donors who see that their donor money is going to candidates they don't see as Libertarian enough.
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@Jacob Bradley Both good points, and I want to again reiterate that this fund should not be an "instead of" option for direct donations to campaigns. If you strongly support a candidate, the best and quickest way to support that campaign is via a direct donation. But for John Q. Libertarian out there who doesn't know specific candidates and just wants to help move the needle, this fund give him a way to make a donation in a targeted, meaningful way.

You are so right about the potential drama. Personally, I envision this as an application process wherein a candidate has to meet a set of defined criteria and funding is provided on a "first come, first serve" basis. But that will be a decision of the aforementioned committee rather than a Jessi decision :)
 
And guys -- the candidate/campaign training element is the front and center piece of this motion right now. While I hope that we eventually get to a place where our campaigns are running like well-oiled machines and we have surplus dollars in the fund to help out our candidates, I don't think we'll be there in the near-term (at least probably not this election cycle).

So while I wrote the motion in a way so as not to close the door on the possibility of helping our candidates financially in the future (again, to the extent election code allows), I don't want the logistics of that to be an obstacle for this motion. Right now, we just want to establish the fund and start training our folks how to run efficient and effective campaigns.
 
Jeff Miller said:
I co-sponsor.

And to answer the question about why not just donating to candidates, LPTexas can donate MORE to an individual candidate than individuals donors can, so this is a good way for those have either maxed out their contributions to a candidate or who want to help candidates in other areas but may not know who has the most need or the most effective use of the money.
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Yes, LPTexas has access to more funds than most of our individual donors, but this special project is also intending to allow/solicit directed donations
 
I am fully on board with creating this special fund for candidate/campaign manager training, providing paid block walkers, etc. I am not okay, at this time, with considering using any of the funds to directly give donations to individual candidates. (assuming it is even legal for a political party to do so) If the language is updated to reflect that then I would be happy to co-sponsor!
 
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