Harry Browne has charged into the last six weeks of his presidential campaign -- bolstered by invitations to two televised third-party debates, a new, hard-hitting TV ad, several lobbying efforts to try to end the media "Browne-Out," and a planned lawsuit against the FEC.
"We're working hard to win every possible vote -- despite the fact that the major media continue to shut us out, and the fact that Browne was not invited to the presidential debates," said Perry Willis, Browne campaign manager.
As expected, Browne was not included in the three debates sponsored by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD).
However, the campaign attracted considerable media attention when the Massachusetts LP filed a last-minute lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston to try to stop the first debate, held in Boston on October 3.
The lawsuit noted that the state legislature spent $900,000 to help the University of Massachusetts defray the debate's costs -- and argued that since the LP is a recognized political party in the state, Browne should be allowed to participate.
"It is an outrage that taxpayer money is used to fund biased, exclusionary debates," said Massachusetts LP State Chair Elias Israel. "The Libertarian Party will not go to the back of the bus in Massachusetts."
A judge rejected the suit, saying it was filed too late.
Because of the suit, the campaign's "phone rang off the hook with calls from the media," said Jim Babka, Browne's press secretary. "Thanks to [the Massachusetts LP's] innovation and effort, we got some good national exposure."
But Browne wasn't shut out of every debate: He appeared in a televised third-party debate on September 28 at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in the RiverCentre in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Hosted by Governor Jesse Ventura, the debate included the Natural Law Party's John Hagelin and the Constitution Party's Howard Phillips. Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan declined to participate.
Ventura seemed very responsive to Browne's comments, said Michael Cloud, one of Browne's campaign fundraisers.
"[Ventura] repeatedly laughed at Harry Browne's jokes, gave Harry thumbs-up on a number of points on tolerance, public policy, [and] liberty and responsibility," he said. "Much of Harry's message and Harry's personality resonated with the governor."
In other debate news, Browne is scheduled to appear at a possible five-way debate sponsored by Judicial Watch on October 20 (after LP News went to press).
The 90-minute event, to be held at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC, is also expected to feature Nader, Buchanan, Hagelin, and Phillips. It is scheduled to be televised nationally by C-SPAN. Al Gore had accepted an invitation to attend, but later recanted.
In early October, the Browne campaign also released a new television ad which slammed Al Gore and George W. Bush for their hypocrisy on the drug issue.
"We believe this ad is the most powerful of the five we've created," said Willis. "It will be our workhorse ad for the remainder of the campaign."
The ad features man-on-the-street comments about the failure of the War on Drugs, highlights the lengthy prison sentences served by many young people, and shows Browne wondering if "Al Gore and George Bush would be better off today if, for their youthful indiscretions, they had served 10 years in prison?"
"Our new ad gives a human face to the invisible victims of the drug war," said Willis. "And the ad also provides an interesting hook for the media by pointing out the hypocrisy of George Bush and Al Gore."
The ad -- which can be viewed online at www.harrybrowne2000.org/misc/warning.htm -- was scheduled to start running in late October on the Sci-Fi cable channel. Other Harry Browne ads are still running on the CNN Headline News channel, and the campaign plans "Don't Waste Your Vote" radio ads during the least week of the campaign, said Willis.
Over the last month, the campaign also stepped up its efforts to end the media "Browne-Out."
In late September, the campaign launched "Operation Do Your Job" against NBC's Meet the Press, which invited Nader and Buchanan on the show for a debate, while excluding the Libertarian.
Browne, who was running ahead of Buchanan in recent polls, asked: "Why does Meet the Press exclude the fourth-place candidate from its debate, but invite the fifth-place candidate?
"If Buchanan and Nader are newsworthy, think how much more newsworthy is a candidate who has attained their level of support without their celebrity and press coverage."
Libertarians bombarded the program with e-mail and phone calls -- briefly shutting down the office voice-mail system -- and even held a protest outside of NBC's studios in Washington, DC, but the show refused to include Browne.
In mid-October, the Libertarian Party launched its "Wallop Gallup" campaign, to try to get the nation's largest pollster to include Browne, along with Nader and Buchanan.
Despite Gallup's refusal to include the Libertarian, Browne continued to run neck-and-neck with Buchanan in the polls over the last six weeks of the campaign.
For example, both a Reuters/Zogby poll and a Rasmussen poll released on September 21 showed Browne tied with Buchanan -- "despite receiving much less media attention, having much smaller name identification, and having less money to spend than [Buchanan] does," said Willis.
According to Reuters/Zogby, Browne and Buchanan were tied at 1%, while Rasmussen Research had them tied at 1.2%.
"The bad news is that we can't convince the media that this phenomenal achievement is newsworthy," said Willis.
On September 29, the Zogby poll showed Browne ahead of Buchanan by 1.6% to 0.6%.
The Browne campaign also planned to file a lawsuit to knock down unfair and unconstitutional federal election laws, said Willis.
On October 26, the campaign plans to file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, challenging the Federal Election Campaign Act.
"This lawsuit could unstack the deck, and make it possible for third parties to compete against the Republicans and Democrats," said Willis.
The suit, which is supported by Gun Owners of America, Howard Phillips, and Citizens United, charges that the Federal Election Commission gives preferential treatment to the major parties; that taxpayer-funded campaign subsidies are unconstitutional; and that campaign contribution limits discriminate in favor of "celebrities, incumbents, and ruling families," said Willis.
"If we win, it would completely free up the election process," he said -- and probably eliminate disclosure laws, campaign limits, federal campaign funding, and the FEC. "We think it has a fair chance of succeeding."
The Libertarian Party is expected to endorse the lawsuit, but had not done so when LP News went to press.
Browne also continued to travel around the country, making campaign stops in New Hampshire, Virginia, Michigan, Colorado, Washington state, North Carolina, and other states.
His speech at the Economic Club of Detroit on September 25 was broadcast by C-SPAN.
Browne's campaign also generated media coverage, including articles in the Los Angeles Times, George.com, the Tampa Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, the Women's Interactive Network, WashingtonPost.com, www.Wired.com, ConservativeHQ.com, the Detroit News, and the Village Voice.
Browne appeared as a guest on the Oliver North Show, National Public Radio, the Talk America Radio Network, the Wisconsin Radio Network, and on dozens of other radio stations. TV appearances included America's Voice TV, the Florida News Channel, and Hannity & Colmes on the Fox News Channel.
Despite all the campaign efforts, Willis cautioned that Browne's final vote totals may not be as high as some Libertarians hope.
"Our vote total will probably suffer from the fact that national TV has decided to focus just on Nader and Buchanan -- which sent a message to the electorate that we don't exist and we don't matter," he said.
Browne's vote could also suffer because of the perceived closeness of the race between Bush and Gore, he said, causing some people to vote for the "lesser of the two evils."
But whatever the vote total, Willis said the Browne campaign has achieved a number of important goals.
"This campaign brought us standing in the polls for the first time; competitiveness with a media-recognized candidate (Buchanan); more TV coverage than previous campaigns; bigger crowds; and better-quality TV ads than in 1996," he said. "We're very pleased with what we've done over all."
