First, let me say that there are many things in Mr. Hornberger's articles that I don't object to. He has every right to question decisions made by the LP leadership and by the Harry Browne campaign. I also think it is fair for him to argue that Perry Willis and Harry Browne share responsibility for campaign decisions. I think Perry and Harry would be the first to agree. So I hope that people will not characterize my essay as an attempt to silence Mr. Hornberger. To the extent that he is asking tough questions based on facts, he's behaving responsibly.
What I object to is Mr. Hornberger's repeated attempts to imply that there is some kind of conspiracy of wrong-doers who have been working collectively for years. Four times in his most recent diatribe he referred to the "unethical interlocking relationships, conflicts of interest, and improper payments" that he claims "have pervaded the party for many years." Four times in one essay he used that exact phrasing. I guess he's really trying to emphasize that point.
Mr. Hornberger started making these accusations in an essay entitled, "The Libertarian Party Needs a Divorce." He mostly complains about decisions made by Harry Browne, Perry Willis and Steve Dasbach. He drags in Sharon Ayres, Bill Winter and David Bergland. That's not a divorce, Mr. Hornberger, that's a purge.
Harry and Perry have already responded to Hornberger's allegations and as I said above, they bear the responsibility for campaign decisions so it's reasonable for Hornberger to question them.
My concern is with Hornberger's attempt to imply that the other four individuals I named are also involved. When reading his essays I feel like I'm watching an Oliver Stone movie or an episode of the X-Files. He implies that there is a dirty truth out there that he can't quite explain, but it's out there. Unfortunately, individuals can't defend against vague accusations.
The truth is that Bill Winter, Sharon Ayres, Steve Dasbach and David Bergland do not have "interlocking relationships" or "conflicts of interest" with the campaign and do not receive "improper payments." In the subsequent four parts of this essay I will defend each of these individuals in turn. I will discuss what I understand to be the specific allegations against each. If Hornberger or others know of anything beyond what I discuss, please clarify exactly what you think these individuals did and what evidence you have to support it. If all you have is a vague sense that "they must have done something wrong," then please keep your comments to yourself.
I wasn't going to write this piece until I read Hornberger's most recent essay dated April 28th. He is continuing to repeat allegations that are not true. Like most conspiracy theorists, Hornberger bases his beliefs on some elements of truth, so I'll start by reviewing the facts.
In 1995 Bill Winter and Perry Willis each did paid consulting work for the Browne campaign while serving as headquarters staff. The headquarters staff then and now operate under a detailed policy manual that lays out in great detail what constitutes a conflict of interest. At that time, the manual said that:
Neither the National Director nor any other employee of the Party shall:
1. Endorse, support, contribute any money, or use his or her title or position to aid any candidate in any Party primary, or in any campaign for office, or nomination, within the Party or any State Party.
The only relevant prohibition here is whether doing some consulting work for the campaign constituted "support" for the campaign. Perry and Bill felt that they were providing generic services that would be purchased elsewhere if they did not provide them. So they felt it did not constitute support, it was a simple contractual arrangement.
It turns out that Perry and Bill were doing something that was deemed inappropriate in their consulting work: they used the computers at the headquarters provided to them by the LP. This is the one and only transgression that I know of and it happened for a short period of time 5 years ago and was stopped immediately upon request. You can't expect your staff to be perfect. Sometimes people make errors in judgement. As David Bergland likes to say, "Utopia is not an option."
Hornberger has taken this one incident and tried to magnify it into a long-term scandal. Remember that he claims that these problems "have pervaded the party for many years." Willis and Winter used LP computers instead of walking half a mile to the nearest Kinkos where they could have rented computers. Yes, it was a bad idea. But it happened a long time ago and they stopped it immediately upon request.
I encourage others to check for yourself whether Hornberger is accurately portraying events. He says, "I also had already read the minutes of the Libertarian Party National Committee meeting (which are posted on the LP's official website) at which Willis, Winter, and Browne were disciplined for the improper payments."
You can do what I just did and read through all of the minutes posted on the LP website and you won't find anything approaching what Hornberger claims. Look at the minutes for the Aug 26-27, 1995 meeting and you'll find a description of the facts I describe above. Steve Dasbach explained that he didn't consider consulting work for a campaign to be prohibited by the policy manual, but he told Perry Willis and Bill Winter not to use computers owned by the party anymore for their consulting work. They were not "disciplined" and neither was Harry Browne. This is an example of Hornberger's use of pejorative language to exaggerate the facts. Those minutes also indicate that the LNC did not conclude that the payments were "improper." It's clear from the minutes that Dasbach claimed they were proper and the LNC did not overrule him.
The other mention of this comes in the minutes for April 5-6, 1997 at which the LNC amended the policy manual to specifically forbid consulting work for campaigns. This had little effect because no office staff members were working for campaigns and as far as I can tell, no office staff member has worked for a campaign since the new policy went into effect.
Mr. Hornberger, do you allow for the possibility that well-intentioned people can disagree on questions like what constitutes an improper payment or a conflict of interest? Isn't that exactly why the LNC has a policy manual? We all have our own sense of these things, so we write down formal guidelines for the staff and provide a mechanism for updating those guidelines. Working for a campaign was not prohibited in 1995, so why do you insist on criticizing Willis, Winter and Dasbach for taking actions that they thought were proper and which were within the guidelines set by the LNC? The LNC made the guidelines stricter in 1997 and nobody has violated the policy since that time. Where is the pervasive violation of policy that you keep talking about?
In his latest essay Hornberger says:
In view of the specific issues concerning unethical interlocking relationships, conflicts of interest, and improper payments to LP officials that were raised in my original series, "The Libertarian Party Needs a Divorce," I believe that LP members specifically have the right to know whether or not any of the $300,000.00 ended up in the pockets of LP staffers or members of the LP National Committee, including David Bergland, Sharon Ayres, Steve Dasbach, and Bill Winter and, if so, whether the receipt of such money influenced their judgment and decision-making as LP officials.Asked and answered, Mr. Hornberger. Mary Gingell considered this an important question to clarify and she asked Perry Willis to do so. Perry indicated that no payments have been made to LP office staff or LNC members by the Browne exploratory committee. I'll forward a copy of Perry's message to you, Mr. Hornberger, the next time I'm in my office and can access my email archive.
I want to address one final issue before ending this overview. Mr. Hornberger keeps attaching affidavits to his essays asking various people to swear to their innocence. Don't you realize, Mr. Hornberger, that this is an insulting request? Don't you remember that people hated "loyalty oaths" not because they weren't loyal but because they hated having their integrity questioned? It seems to me that either you do realize how insulting this is and are using it as a device to provoke the people you are criticizing or you are unaware of this, in which case I'd say that you've been spent too much time working as a lawyer.
As stated above, in the next four parts of this series I will defend Bill Winter, Sharon Ayres, Steve Dasbach and David Bergland. I have not talked to any of these individuals about my plan to publicly defend them. In fact, my guess is that they'd ask me not to do so. But I can't listen to Hornberger any longer and stay silent. Part 2 will follow soon.