With end of year campaign finance reports due, I thought it would be interesting to look back and see how those plucky upstarts over at the Libertarian Party did in raising money to run for office, since they fielded more Candidates than the state Democrat Party did.
Did I say plucky? I think I might have meant yucky. An examination of the reports shows that there literally was no money raised or spent universally across all of their candidates. The one who raised the most, John English, who ran for office of School and Lands Commissioner, was said to have dropped out before election day.
Having filed his termination report in October might also be an indicator.
Here’s what I found among the candidates. There is still a possibility that a report may yet come in, especially from Chad Haber, who has never filed a report of expenditures. But I think you get the hint of how they all did if you review the reports. Links are to the reports I reviewed:
- Emmett Reistroffer, Secretary of State. Raised $240. Spent $240.
- Chad Haber, Attorney General. Except for claiming he has no income over $2000 except for what his wife brings in, Haber has never filed a campaign finance statement.
- Kurt Evans, State Auditor. Reported that he raised nothing & spent nothing, in either his pre-general report or his EOY Report. He’s going to have to do better than that in 2016 if he intends to play spoiler again.
- Ken Santema, State Treasurer. No EOY Report yet. But raised nothing/spent nothing in his pre-general report.
- John English, School & Lands. Put $405.87 into campaign from self and donation, and spent that much, despite dropping out of the race.
- Ryan Gaddy, Public Utilities Commission. No record of any campaign finance documents due to being quickly disqualified for ballot.
What do you think? All show, and no go, or was that the start of a grand experiment for the Libertarians?
Pat is asking questions he already knows the answer to.
I love these splinter group updates. They provide perspective.
…yes, but they were all wealthy in the ideas category. Shouldn’t that count for something?
They were? Other than Haber being Bosworth’s husband or Reistroffer getting arrested getting them in the news, I don’t remember any of them.
Hey, I was just funning about…
I would rather run an honest campaign on $200 versus running on contributions from Pfiezer and EB5 recipients/law firms… smh
You should know, the rest of us humans live on a messy planet, a moral battleground. To have an effect on that world, you have to engage in its battles, which always calls for forging alliances, amassing resources, and deploying an effective army against an opponent. Promising proudly that you will not forge alliances, amass resources or deploy an effective army right off the get-go hardly constitutes a serious political effort. But I guess it’s honest, alright.
Mr. Kabongg, I knew a fellow named Baba Looey once, and he espoused your type of idea. He was eventually shot while trying to enter the country illegally from the south.
I entered the country from the south alright – South Dakota, a hospital in Yankton to be precise. As for “my type of idea,” I was attempting to describing the actual rough-and-tumble of U-S politics for anyone who is whining about why the two parties run everything, and why individuals can’t just have equal political power and leave it at that. THE WORLD IS NOT FAIR, and won’t be anytime soon. Given the inherent inequalities that exist throughout the human condition, we must engage in building ways for people to join and amass their power for good, to oppose a group amassing their own power for ill. People who step back, remove themselves from the system, yet hold out in some kind of tantrum until they get equal individual political for everyone, they’re going to be constantly disappointed. Please don’t shoot me.