Libertarian Booster PAC Denies Supporting Robert Sarvis for Virginia Governor as Part of Democratic Party Plot

Wes Benedict, the longtime Texas Libertarian Party man and
current executive director of the Libertarian National Committee,
who founded the Libertarian Booster PAC, responds
in a statement today to accusations floating around the
right-wing world that his PAC only supported Robert Sarvis’s LP
campaign for governor of Virginia as a tool of moneyed Democratic
Party interests, specifically donor Joe Liemandt (who has
also given six figures to the Obama campaign in 2012)

Says Benedict:

I realize that, no matter what I say, paranoid right-wingers
will think I’m a sneaky operative trying to help Democrats beat
Republicans. This message is for the rational people out there.

I founded the Texas-based Libertarian Booster PAC in late 2011.
Its purpose was to recruit and assist Libertarian Party candidates
for public office. You can read more
about it here.

In 2012, the PAC focused solely on non-federal races in Texas.
With satisfactory accomplishments, and no partisan election
happening in Texas in 2013, I looked to expand to other states
where permitted by law. Virginia was one of two states with a
gubernatorial election in 2013 plus state legislative elections, so
it was an obvious choice.

Back at the end of 2008, a man contacted me expressing interest
in the Libertarian Party. It turned out he was a successful
high-tech entrepreneur. One of his comments was along the lines of,
“What could the Libertarian Party do if it had a million dollars?”
Naturally, I contact this man whenever I think I have a good idea
that needs funding.

I’ve raised $300,000 from this donor for the Libertarian Booster
PAC. He has provided very little in the way of instruction or
advice regarding use of the money….

It was my idea, and my decision, to have the Libertarian Booster
PAC help recruit Libertarian Party candidates in 2013 in
Virginia. I
even advertised about it in February.

According to The Blaze, “[Rush] Limbaugh said the
Democrats enlisted a ‘fake Libertarian candidate’ who was ‘bought
and paid for by an Obama bundler.'” That’s an outright lie, and
Limbaugh should retract his claim.

My strategies and tactics have never been secret. They are
common strategies in the Libertarian Party, and they are the same
strategies promoted at the founding of the Libertarian Party. I try
to publicize them any way I can. I’ve even written a book about
them and included a chapter about PACs.

I want Libertarians to win elections. But I also want them to
run for office even when they’re unlikely to win. Why? To get the
public to discuss and consider libertarian principles…

The total amount the Libertarian Booster PAC gave to Sarvis’
campaign was barely
over $11 thousand, by the way. Sarvis freely discussed the
PAC’s role in helping him get on the ballot in
my October interview with him, hardly a good idea if that was
the key to revealing he was some sort of Democratic plant all
along.

Benedict points out that:

If I wanted to hurt the Republican in Virginia, I would have
supported a right-wing candidate who sounded like a Tea Partier —
who only talked about cutting welfare, Obamacare, and how bad
Democrats are. I would never have helped someone like Robert
Sarvis, who talked a lot about social issues that appeal to liberal
voters. As it turned out, polls show that if Sarvis weren’t in the
race, McAuliffe would probably have won by a slightly bigger
margin.

I’ll be writing more extensively about the Sarvis campaign
and its meaning for libertarianism and Libertarianism in American
politics moving forward here next week.