A Bit of My History
Jim Babka on Jun 19th 2008
I have had some very interesting experiences and met many interesting people. Living in the Midwest, I’ve discovered that I’ve met far more “famous people” than normal people do. I’ve been published in national publications, quoted or acknowledged in books, and heard on national radio programs.
It never gets old. And I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had.
I’ve also participated in historical events. And by historical, I mean moments someone might write about what I did years later or it was obvious lots, perhaps millions of people were affected by my efforts. For example, I was Chair of the Libertarian Party of Ohio when we petitioned for statewide party ballot status and recruited candidates. The result was party status for only the second (and so far, the last) time in the state party’s history. And we recruited a record number of candidates that year — 70 of them, so that every person in Ohio had between 1 and 4 Libertarians to vote for various partisan offices. I am no longer a Libertarian Party member, but I am still proud I was part of those projects.
In 2002-03 I spearheaded a lawsuit challenging the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (McCain-Feingold). My group, RealCampaignReform.org built a case, assembled plaintiffs, raised funds, and educated the public. Our case, Paul v. FEC, was consolidated with 10 other plaintiff groups and was ultimately the McConnell v. FEC case. I was able to go to the District Court and Supreme Court hearings to watch the litigators argue. Unfortunately, we lost our claims, which dealt with two parts of the bill — 6-3 and 5-4 were the counts. But some of our arguments made into the dissenting opinion.
And while we’ve participated in Congressional legislative history here at DownsizeDC.org, I still don’t yet feel we’ve done anything “historical.” But our time is coming.
But the most memorable and fun job I ever had was Press Secretary for the Harry Browne 2000 campaign. And the moment Libertarians talked about most when that campaign was over was when we slammed Meet the Press. People had so much fun participating in that event. And as a result, Harry Browne was the only Libertarian candidate to appear on Tim Russert’s show. And, thanks to us, Howard Phillips was the only Constitution Party candidate to get on the show and John Hagelin was the only Natural Law Party candidate to get on the show.
Johnny Kramer does an excellent job of explaining the history and outcome of that event. I’m mentioned more than once in his account, and I was reminded of things that I had forgotten. If you read it, you’ll get a bit of my history.
Filed in The Basement, The Bureau
So Jim, I always knew you were a rebel- rouser, what I want to know is, When did you cut your hair? Ha Ha
[...] reading a post on LewRockwell.com about Tim Russert’s death. The post was referred to me by PositiveLiberty co-blogger Jim Babka whose dealings with “Meet the Press” the post discusses. As Johnny Kramer’s LRC [...]