Posted on 11/05/2013 12:56:21 PM PST by RKBA Democrat
A major Democratic Party benefactor and Obama campaign bundler helped pay for professional petition circulators responsible for getting Virginia Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Robert C. Sarvis on the ballot — a move that could split conservative votes in a tight race.
Campaign finance records show the Libertarian Booster PAC has made the largest independent contribution to Sarvis’ campaign, helping to pay for professional petition circulators who collected signatures necessary to get Sarvis’ name on Tuesday’s statewide ballot.
Austin, Texas, software billionaire Joe Liemandt is the Libertarian Booster PAC’s major benefactor. He’s also a top bundler for President Barack Obama. This revelation comes as Virginia voters head to the polls Tuesday in an election where some observers say the third-party gubernatorial candidate could be a spoiler for Republican Ken Cuccinelli.
Obama bundler Joe Liemandt helping fund Libertarian candidate in governors race
A spokesman for Sarvis provided no direct answers late Monday when TheBlaze asked about Liemandt’s Democrat ties and whether Sarvis had been recruited to split conservative votes as a way to aid Democrat Terry McAuliffe.
“We’re coordinating Sarvis interviews with Richmond, Norfolk and Charlottesville TV news teams to reach Virginia voters – our first priority – on Election Eve,” John Vaught LaBeaume, Sarvis communications director and strategist, responded in an email to TheBlaze.
According to Virginia election filings posted by the Virginia Public Access Project, Liemandt contributed $150,000 of the Texas-based Libertarian Booster PAC’s $229,000 revenue. The Libertarian Booster PAC reported providing $11,454 to pay for signature collection, yard signs and campaign materials for Sarvis and another $4,690 for four Libertarian candidates running for the Virginia state legislature.
$10,000 of the Libertarian Booster PAC’s $11,454 in-kind donations to Sarvis went to secure a spot on the ballot.
Liemandt’s Democratic Ties
In March 2012, ABC News reported Liemandt was among three dozen of the Obama campaign’s largest bundlers invited to a state dinner honoring British Prime Minister David Cameron. ABC News reported the invited bundlers, who also included Vogue editor Anna Wintour and Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, were responsible for at least $10.7 million of the $250 million the campaign had collected to that point.
Liemandt and his wife Andra have also been contributors to the Libertarian National Committee, but their largess has been mostly focused on the Democratic Party.
In March ’12, ABC News says Liemandt was among 3 dozen Obama bundlers invited to a state dinner.
Donations linked to Liemandt’s company, Trilogy, also has split its political giving between libertarian third-party efforts and liberal Democrats. During the 2012 election cycle, Trilogy poured $100,000 into another libertarian group — Libertarian Action Super PAC — while simultaneously making generous contributions to the Democratic National Committee ($92,400), the Democratic Party of Ohio ($12,453) and Barack Obama ($10,000), as well as more than $25,000 for Democrat Party organizations in Florida, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire.
The Liemandts have some other friends in common with the Obamas. The couple and some friends flew to New York to have dinner with Berkshire Hathaway billionaire Warren Buffet in October 2011.
On Sunday, the Danville Register & Bee, a Virginia newspaper owned by Berkshire Hathaway, announced that, for the first time in its history, it would back a Libertarian for public office. It endorsed Sarvis, a political neophyte, saying he “offers a real alternative this year, a break from the two-party paradigm that has not served us well.” Signature Fight
According to campaign finance reports, the Libertarian Booster PAC focused the vast majority of its spending on getting Sarvis on the ballot, paying for people to circulate the petitions to collect nominating petitions for Sarvis.
News reports indicate the Sarvis campaign turned in 18,000 signatures, well above the 10,000 necessary to get his name on the statewide ballot.
But that didn’t come without a court fight. Virginia election law says people circulating nominating petitions for a third-party candidate must be legal state residents. Court records show Darryl Bonner, a Pennsylvania resident who has been hired to circulate petitions in other states’ elections, joined with the Libertarian Party of Virginia to argue that rule violated the First Amendment right to petition.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Virginia residency requirement last spring in an action where the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia represented the Libertarian Party and Bonner. The State of Virginia indicated in October it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sarvis’ Positions Questioned
Some political observers have questioned Sarvis’ libertarian chops, pointing to some decidedly un-libertarian views on issues ranging from the economy and tax cuts to climate change. Conservative radio host Glenn Beck touched on Sarvis’ policy positions during his broadcast Monday morning, urging Virginia voters to educate themselves before heading the polls Tuesday.
“Terry McAuliffe looks like he may win in Virginia, if conservatives don’t come out in droves. If you don’t do everything you need to do,” Beck said. McAuliffe’s Republican opponent, Cuccinelli, gained favorability with Virginia conservatives as attorney general after leading the state’s legal charge against Obamacare, but a victory in Tuesday’s election is anything but certain. Obama bundler Joe Liemandt helping fund Libertarian candidate in governors race
“This guy is not a Libertarian,” Beck said of Sarvis on Monday. (Image: TheBlaze TV)
“And so the first litigator against it you would think would be a shoo-in but, no, not necessarily,” Beck added. “And here’s why: Because you got this libertarian who has taken nine points off, but he’s not really a libertarian … Do not be fooled… Libertarians, if you indeed are voting for this guy, you need to know who he is, at least what he’s saying because he doesn’t sound like any libertarian I have ever met.”
In addition, it was Cuccinelli and not Sarvis who won the endorsement of former congressman and noted libertarian Ron Paul and his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — two conservatives who share Beck’s concerns. Democratic Ploy?
So why should a Texan with such extensive ties to big-government Democrats pour money into a Virginia libertarian gubernatorial campaign that has virtually no chance to win?
The Center for Public Integrity offers insight on the power and strategy of PACs: “Super PACs are allowed to collect unlimited contributions from individuals, unions and corporations to produce political advertisements that are not coordinated with any candidate,” it says. “They were made possible in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.”
CPI illustrated the potential impact of strategic third-party candidates in the 2012 presidential race. Republican-turned-Libertarian Gary Johnson could potentially peel away some Republican votes in a tight Obama-Romney race. And Virgil Goode, nominated by the conservative Constitution Party in Virginia could have been a key to hurting Romney enough in that swing state to give its electoral votes to Obama.
With a divide between the Republican Establishment in Washington and its conservative grassroots base widening, could strategically leveraging a third-party be Democrats’ ace in the hole?
keep smoking that libertarian crack and pounding that kool aid
H/T to Philip Van Cleave at VCDL who had this to say in an earlier alert this afternoon:
“It appears a major Democrat benefactor and Obama campaign bundler, Joe Liemandt, has been making sizable contributions to the Sarvis campaign. In fact Liemandt’s PAC is the single largest independent donor to the Sarvis campaign.
Is Liemandt a stealth Libertarian?
Seems pretty unlikely - the Democrats and the Libertarians don’t have much in common philosophically speaking, but the Democrats benefit when the Republicans and Libertarians split the vote.”
DUH....
Who didn’t realize this??
Democrats have been funding Libertarians to split the R vote for a decade now.
On the Federal and State Legislator levels this has cost us HUNDREDS of seats in the last 10 years. In the 2008 election alone, I counted 13 House seats we could have won, had the L not split the R vote.
Given what has happened, how much of a difference do you think those 13 seats would have made in the Pelosi-controlled House?
“Seems pretty unlikely - the Democrats and the Libertarians don’t have much in common philosophically speaking, but the Democrats benefit when the Republicans and Libertarians split the vote.””
I’ve been known to give a few bucks to the Democrat’s spoiler.
everyone, try to not keel over from surprise on this!
Translation for low-information types:
Democrats do whatever it takes to win. Republicans play by the rules and get beat.
This is Terry-effin’-McAulliffe here...if anyone things the Clintons and the best strategists in the DNC weren’t behind this election, you’re naive. We’re seeing the opening moves in the great Hillary chess game of 2016. (We’ll be the ones rooting for the guys playing checkers...)
*””Seems pretty unlikely - the Democrats and the Libertarians don’t have much in common philosophically speaking,””*
They have a huge amount in common, not only shared politics, but a common effect on America, and a shared war against conservatism.
Sarvis is a good libertarian.
Libertarian Party Platform:
Throw open the borders completely; only a rare individual (terrorist, disease carrier etc.) can be kept from freedom of movement through “political boundaries”.
Homosexuals; total freedom in the military, gay marriage, adoption, child custody and everything else.
Abortion; zero restrictions or impediments.
Pornography; no restraint, no restrictions.
Drugs; Meth, Heroin, Crack, and anything new that science can come up with, zero restrictions.
Advertising those drugs, prostitution, and pornography; zero restrictions.
Military Strength; minimal capabilities.
Libertarians are chumps again, as usual. Obama’s backing will give Sarvis even more Libertarian votes.
DUH, indeed.
They can whine, but the GOPe will do absolutely nothing about this, nor to prevent it in the future. I am sure they don’t want to win nor be in the amjority. Not enough, anyway.
Candidates can unequivocally appeal to the base, provide a clear opposition, quit schmoozing lobbyists who would just as soon go after a dem, and expect these spoilers, run against them, and quit listening to campaign advisors
Reading the constitution is a good start.
They find a likely winner and latch on.
The libertarians are a lot closer. What is wrong with that?
Sarvis will pull more from the Left than the Right.
The gratuitous knocks against libertarianism is BS.
Nothing. Statists are idiots.
Unfortunately it would be difficult for Republicans to use a similar strategy against modern-day Democrats.
Who could we find to the left of someone like Bill de Blasio or Hillary Clinton? Maybe we could fund some sort of Jurrasic-Park type program to reanimate Lenin’s body?
So you would vote for the Democrat spoiler?
New strategy. The Obamites usually get sealed court records released that smear opponents.
Captain Louis Renault asks, “C’mon, do I really have to say it?”
Nothing really, as long you realize and accept that it is helping to elect Democrats and is in line with Democrat election winning strategy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.