LIBERTARIANS FOR SAUERBREY
A story of an infiltration effort by the Libertarian Party of Maryland.
By Kevin O'Connell
PROLOG
It was July of 1997 and Libertarian Party of Maryland member Steve Boone and Chairperson Amy Rule were waiting to meet Republican Party candidate Ellen Sauerbrey. While Rule was the current Chair her term was coming to an end and Steve Boone was already set to become the next Chair. Boone's presence was needed for continuity into the next administration of the Maryland Libertarian Party.
For Rule and Boone it would be wait and see until the final minute if Sauerbrey would show . Mrs. Sauerbrey had run for Governor only three years before, losing by a narrow margin of about six thousand votes. During that previous election her opponent's campaign team portrayed Sauerbrey as a strong, if not radical, conservative. In Maryland it does not matter if you win the Republican primary as the majority of voters are registered Democrats. A Republican candidate in Maryland has to appeal to the registered Democratic Party voters, not the voters registered as Republican. For this election she was presenting a moderate appearance to gain more appeal to these Democratic Party voters. For the Republican candidate to even be seen meeting with the anti-American Libertarian Party officers could severely damage the carefully cultivated new image.
There are many good reasons for a Republican candidate to not meet with the Libertarians. For those readers not familiar with the Libertarians I will use the last National Libertarian Party convention as an example. The elements participating in this convention were far more extremist than anything Sauerbrey's opponent had painted her in the previous election.
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The National Libertarian Party Convention, Washington DC , July 1998
Speaking on stage at the Libertarian Party Convention was author Charles Murray of the notorious attempt to scientifically justify racism, "The Bell Curve".
While many people have heard of "The Bell Curve" only a few know the source of the data used as justification for the claim of the racial inferiority of blacks. Almost all of the material claiming blacks having lower IQ came from an organization called The Pioneer Fund. The Pioneer Fund was formed in 1937 by Wickliffe Preston Draper with Harry Laughlin appointed as it's first President. These two men came out of the Eugenics Movement and it was Laughlin who had authored the Model Eugenics Laws that were passed in thirty of our states. These laws allowed the forced sterilization of thousands of mentally retarded and mental heath patients up until the 1970s. Adolph Hitler sent Goebbels to attend a dinner in Germany where Laughlin was honored for writing these laws. The laws Laughlin authored were translated into German and became the infamous Nuremberg Laws "On the Prevention of Hereditarily Ill Progeny", one of the foundations for the Holocaust.
The Pioneer Fund founders advocated the forced sterilization of the "lower ten percent" of the American population, spoke at Congressional hearings opposing the immigration of Jews because so many are "feebleminded" and distributed imported Nazi propaganda films to American High Schools. The Pioneer Fund is still active today, funding research and publication of materials similar to Murray's "The Bell Curve".
The Libertarians also had control of the hallways around their convention hall and only organizations that got their approval would be allowed to lobby their members.
While Charles Murray spoke on stage members of the Liberty Lobby passed out their own brand of hatred to the Libertarian Party members. The Liberty Lobby is classified as a Neo-Nazi organization and is the publisher of the notorious anti-Semitic newspaper "The Spotlight".
Between the hallway and the speaker's stage the Libertarians had a path of contacts that reached from today's neo-Nazi movement all the way back to the Third Reich. This is not surprising to those who know that their Party Platform demands the return of the "right to discriminate" in employment, housing and service businesses. It was laws like these that gave the Nazis their opening to start the Holocaust in Germany so it is no surprise to find their kind at the National Libertarian Party convention.
Walk a short ways from the Liberty Lobby booth and you come to the Secession booth manned by Libertarian Party member Carol Moore. This is because secession from the United States (for that matter secession from any State, county or township) as an individual "right" is a demand of their platform.
A few steps from the Secession booth Michael Sherwood spoke on the stage. Sherwood was the founder of the Constitutional Militia Association in 1975 and as recently as 1995 founded the United States Militia Association. You can't have secession without having an army ready to fight the resultant civil war. Sherwood is just one of the many connections between the Libertarian Party and the current Militia Movement in the U.S.
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While the above events are from the 1998 National Libertarian
convention they are representative of the day to day operations of the
Libertarian Party and the people it has attracted. It is little surprise
Rule and Boone could not help but wonder if a Republican candidate would
risk attending a meeting with them.
THE BEGINNING
An excited Rule and Boone returned from the meeting and ideas were forming in Rule's mind.
First Rule and Boone had promised Sauerbrey that their party would not run any candidate to oppose her in the 1998 Gubernatorial race. Additionally they assured her that the Libertarian Party would mainly run their candidates against incumbent Democrats where the Republican Party had no candidates. This implied that they sided with the Republican Party against the Democrats. The truth of the matter is that Libertarians view the Republicans as no different than the Democrats and oppose both of them with equal vehemence.
They also came back boasting that Sauerbrey indicated that if elected Governor she would not oppose their efforts to change ballot access laws to allow the Libertarian Party easy access to the ballot.
Libertarian Chair Rule recognized that Sauerbrey had exhibited trust in them and immedialty set about to organize a way to infiltrate Libertarian Party members into the Republican Party political machine by using the Sauerbrey campaign.
Libertarian Party bylaws prohibits the Libertarian Party from offering endorsements or support to a candidate of another party in a partisan race. Rule proposed to form "Libertarians for Sauerbrey" and began to recruit fellow Libertarian Party members. Rule set herself up as the central point to organize the other members to serve as officers in this political action committee. This would create an organization that technically was separate from the Libertarian Party.
Since the Libertarians for Sauerbrey were created by Libertarian Party of Maryland officers to further the goals of that party it would still be considered a Libertarian Party of Maryland operation, technical separation not withstanding. The entire Libertarian Party of Maryland could still be disenfranchised and have it's affiliation with the National Libertarian Party canceled. Similar events have happened before and usually the disciplinary committee just does not forward the charges to be voted upon. Mostly these actions just needed to be hidden from public view.
SETTING THE HOOK
It wasn't enough for the Libertarians that Sauerbrey had voiced she would be favorable to not opposing their legislation. They felt the fish nibble at the bait and blood lust made them want to set the hook firmly into their prey.
In December of that year the Maryland Libertarian Party initiated contact with the Ellen Sauerbrey for Governor campaign. The Maryland Libertarian Party offered to form a group called Libertarians for Sauerbrey and do campaigning for the Republican candidate. But their services were conditional and not negotiable, they would only do this if Mrs. Sauerbrey would agree to assist the Libertarian Party in changing the ballot access laws into their favor. The Libertarians for Sauerbrey were welcomed into the Sauerbrey campaign machine and even included in some of her campaign material.
THE STING
The Libertarian Party of Maryland had truly planned not to run a gubernatorial candidate in 1998. The Maryland Libertarian Party is so small, something like one hundred members, that their resources were strained to the limit just trying to get their candidates into local level offices.
At the July meeting Rule and Boone had told Sauerbrey that their main focus would be to run against Democrats that did not have Republican Party opposition. Rule and Boone both knew that just the previous month one of the Baltimore County Libertarian Party Central Committee members began setting up his campaign to run against incumbent Republican Congressman Bob Ehrlich. Those who have read my report on the Zeigler for School Board campaign know how this works. James DeLoach starts putting his Libertarian Party connection out of sight and resigns his position on the Baltimore County Libertarian Party Central Committee. He then runs as a Democrat to challenge Congressman Ehrilch for his seat. Rule and Boone both knew about this but will always claim that DeLoach's was not a Libertarian Party action since he filed his papers as a Democrat. Just as they will claim the Zeigler for School Board was not a Libertarian Party action. Just as they will claim that the Libertarians for Sauerbrey is not an operation of the Libertarian Party.
Next the group that formed to assist the Sauerbrey campaign, Libertarians for Sauerbrey, was to be a hollow shell of an organization. The Libertarians for Sauerbrey was not to be putting up any significant numbers of signs or any other campaign material. They would recruit enough of their members to make a show of apparent effort when in front of the Republicans. This show of effort would be used to gain entrance to the other Republican groups and candidates they came in contact with within the Sauerbrey campaign machine.
That the offered deal was not going to offer any real support to Republican Ellen Sauerbrey was absolutely required by the Libertarian Party by-laws. Had Rule and Boone provided any real Libertarian Party support the National Libertarian Party could have taken disciplinary action. Since this was an successful effort to use a Republican candidate Chairperson Rule, Boone and the other Libertarian Party participants will get praises rather than discipline from their party.
Not only did they pull a fast one with the Libertarians for Sauerbrey they used their infiltration into the Sauerbrey campaign to further the Libertarian Party at every possible opportunity. Part of the idea behind the Libertarians for Sauerbrey was to get within the Republican Party machine and position themselves for further influence, infiltration and building up their own party.
As one example Mrs. Sauerbrey's campaign workers knew
someone who needed a wheelchair lift for their car. The person needing
the wheelchair was former Miss Congeniality for the Miss Wheelchair Maryland
pageant in previous years, Ms. Learae Mera. The Sauerbrey campaign staff
referred Ms. Mera to Barry Costello as he had voiced support of Sauerbrey
in the 1994 gubernatorial race. Costello was also a devout member of the
Libertarian Party and dedicated to it's success. Costello arranged the
donation of a lift and money was raised with help from the Libertarian
Party. It was impressed upon Ms. Mera that the credit for the success of
this effort belonged to the Libertarians. Now the Libertarians were able
to get next to Ms. Mera and were able to ply here with their recruitment
material. The Libertarians were able to brag long and loudly, to enough
people that it eventually reached me, that they were able to get Mrs. Mera
to register to vote as a Libertarian. What really pleased them was that
this was done at a Sauerbrey campaign function they had been invited to
attend. This was one of the real functions of the Libertarians for Sauerbrey,
to infiltrate the Sauerbrey campaign and spread their influence as much
as possible.
IN CLOSING
Any deal made to withhold objection to Libertarian Party introduced legislation was not done in good faith and as such there would be no obligation to honor it.
One effect of our ballot access laws is that political hucksters who would deceive the voters are denied easy access. Those laws are there for a very good reason and it serves the public interest that people like the Libertarians have show us what those laws protect us from.
Let all who read this learn the lesson from these events. The Libertarians are the self declared enemies of the Republicans, Democrats and every other political party. They are the enemies of the United Sates and are dedicated to destroying it.
You cannot make an alliance with your enemies and not expect them to cheat you and attempt to destroy you.
As for myself, I still think Sauerbrey would make a better Governor then the current incumbent. I do find the presence of an anti-American group like the Libertarians within her campaign disturbing. However my background with the Libertarians has shown me that they are a deceptive lot and they probably used a lot of half truths, perhaps even outright lies, to gain entry into the Republican campaign machine.
Kevin O'Connell