Logan Clements

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Douglas Logan Darrow Clements is a California businessman and political activist, best known for his candidacy in the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election and his 2005 proposal to build the Lost Liberty Hotel on the site of property owned by U.S. Supreme Court justice David Souter.

Clements holds an undergraduate degree in economics and a Master of Business Administration degree (1992) from the University of Rochester. He founded the American Venture Capital Exchange in 1993 and American Venture magazine in 1997. Clements sold American Venture in 2001 and has been attempting to launch a television program documenting government abuses of power. As of 2005, Clement's company, Freestar Media, claims that it is still seeking investors for the project.

[edit] Gubernatorial campaign

Clements campaigned for governor of California in the recall election of 2003 on an Objectivist platform of slashing government spending by 50% by privatizing public schools and other government functions, and of drastically reducing government taxes and regulation. Clements, who ran as a Republican, came in 131st of 135 candidates in the final tally, garnering 274 votes out of about 9 million cast.

[edit] Lost Liberty Hotel

Main article: Lost Liberty Hotel

On 23 June 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Kelo v. New London upheld the use of eminent domain seizure of private property for private commercial development, as long as a "public purpose," such as higher communal tax revenues, was served. The 5-4 decision provoked considerable outcry from libertarians, among others.

A few days after the decision, on Monday, June 27, Clements faxed a request to Chip Meany, the Code Enforcement Officer of the Town of Weare, New Hampshire. The request sought to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road, one of the homes of Supreme Court justice David Souter, who sided with the majority in Kelo. Souter spent most of his youth at the home, which was owned by his grandparents.

In a press release, Clements claimed that the town would certainly collect more taxes and enjoy greater economic benefits from a hotel than it was currently collecting from Justice Souter's private home, and thus such seizure would be permissible under Kelo.

Republican state representative Neal Kurk of Weare said he saw the plan to build the hotel on Souter's property as "poetic justice," and a "cute idea to drive the point home." However, since he opposed Kelo, he hopes that "Justice Souter's property will be protected by the good sense of New Hampshire townspeople." [1]

Voters gathered signatures to place the issue on the March ballot. The ballot measure, known as a "warrant article," would have taken Souter's property for the hotel, and set up a fund into which residents could pay to raise money to reimburse Souter and pay the town's legal expenses in case of a legal challenge. The petition authorizing the ballot measure, which legally required twenty-five to pass, was signed by one hundred ninety Weare citizens.

But on February 4, 2006, a deliberative session was called, at which a proposal by Selectman candidate Walter Bohlin to change wording of the petition after the fact, was decided upon by a vote of 94 for to 59 against. Bohlin's change effectively nullified the petition's wording, changing the language from authorizing to opposing the taking of property that was authorized under the Kelo decision.

The original wording of the petition, passed by one hundred ninety Weare residents, was as follows: "Shall the town ask its selectmen to use their Eminent Domain powers to take David Souter's home for an inn..."; The wording, after alteration by ninety-four out of the body of one hundred fifty-three attendees of the deliberative session, inserted the word "not," to result in the following: "Shall the town ask its selectmen not to use their Eminent Domain powers to take David Souter's home for an inn..." Proponents of the hotel concept said they considered the alteration to be a shocking instance of the kind of government corruption and usurpation of rights that Kelo exemplifies.

An Associated Press story by Kathy McCormack [2] implying that the City of Weare had voted the project down appeared on February 5th, more than a month before the actual election. Weare voters passed the altered measure as it appeared on the town ballot when they went to the polls on March 14, 2006.