Third Party Watch

Ken Sain reports that a Green Party congressional candidate will stage mini-plays as a campaign tactic. Playwright Bill Davis calls the series the “Green Dialogues” and hopes they’ll attract support for his Congressional bid.

Jim King, past state Chairman of the American Independent Party and the AIP’s 2002 candidate for Lt. Governor has decided to [...]

Well, I finally got the message boards setup and working!

http://www.thirdpartywatch.com/mb

(or click the link in the sidebar to your right)

Now all I need are some suggestions for message board topics. Post away!

Who is Jim Burns? Well, he wants to be the 2008 Presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party.

He’s been involved with the LP for over 20 years, held numerous party leadership positions, and run for office many times. Never successfully. In fact, he’s launched and abandoned Presidential campaigns in both 2000 and 2004.

Why am [...]

I’ve been looking over the campaign finance reports of Harry Browne’s 2000 and Michael Badnarik’s 2004 campaigns. It’s interesting to see familiar names donating to each race.

I see that Badnarik donated $500 to Browne’s 2000 campaign. I don’t see Browne donating to Badnarik’s 2004 campaign, however. David Bergland gave Harry Browne $1000, Badnarik $300, [...]

Green blogger Ken Sain reports that the Green Party of Utah may run Julian Hatch against distant cousin Orrin Hatch in next year’s Senate race.

The Full Story

The Libertarian Party has dropped the July 31st goal for 5,000 new or renewed memberships. As of right now, the party has accomplished 1,700 new/renewed memberships. No word on what percentage was renewals and what was growth.

New York governor George Pataki has stated that he will not seek a fourth term. [...]

We had the opportunity to interview Chris Bennett, founder of the new political consulting project Liberty Consulting. Mr. Bennett has worked on numerous LP campaigns over the years, and was Michael Badnarik’s Illinois state coordinator in 2004. He is a genuinely interesting guy. After speaking with him several times I believe that [...]

Richard Rider, Libertarian candidate for mayor of San Diego is currently running 5th with 1.6% of the vote. Only 14% reporting at this time.

You can view the results as they come in, click here.

We mentioned a poll yesterday that said Russ Potts is supported by 9% of voters in the Virginia gubernatorial race. Potts is a Republican State Senator, but running as an independent candidate in the governor’s race.

One item we failed to mention, but that the campaign is particularly pleased with is the question on [...]

Libertarian candidate Richard Rider has gotten a some national attention in his bid to win the mayoral special election in San Diego. Most Libertarians seem to be at least aware of his campaign.

Well, today voters are going to the polls to finally decide this race.

I’ve heard a great number of people within the party [...]

The Executive Director of the Libertarian Party, Joe Seehusen, has decided that August 5th will be his last day in office. It’s unclear the exact reason for his departure.

The full resignation letter is available at Liberty For Sale:
http://libertyforsale.com/?p=217

Russ Potts, a Republican State Senator and independent candidate for Virginia governor, has started to break out in the latest poll.

A new Mason-Dixon poll shows Democrat Tim Kaine leading Republican Jerry Kilgore by a margin of 38% to 37%. Potts is 3rd with 9% of the vote, a significant boost from other recent [...]

The Libertarian Party’s 1980 Vice-Presidential candidate David Koch has been giving away a LOT of money over the years…. to Republicans.

See a full list of his political donations.

Ken Sain has been doing an awesome job of keeping people up to date on the happenings at the Green Party’s national meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Some major news that he’s just broken includes…

Peter Camejo, past candidate for California governor and Ralph Nader’s 2004 running mate, will most likely make another run for governor in 2006.

Neither [...]

The Green Party’s big national meeting is still going on in Tulsa. Ken Sain has filed another report that details what went on Friday. The highlights include a campaign school, fundraising dinner, and some organizational stuff.

Click here to read the story.

This is an excellent article from Liberty For Sale’s Tim West on the Libertarian Party’s obsession with membership over actually winning elections. Very much worth reading the whole thing in my opinion.

From Liberty for Sale:

When the LP stops having it’s entire focus on “outreach” and the impossible attempts at bringing new members into the [...]

Green Party activist and blogger Ken Sain is reporting all weekend from the Green Party’s National Meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His blog is probably the best place for comprehensive coverage of the event.

Earlier today he filed this interesting report on 2004 VP candidate Pat LaMarche and some of her reflections on last year’s campaign [...]

These are all pretty easy, but…

1. Name all of the individuals who have ever appeared on the ballot in the United States as a candidate for President on the Libertarian line, excluding the party primaries.

2. Name the individual(s) who’ve appeared on the ballot for President or Vice-President more than once.

3. Who was the only LP [...]

Who’d have thought we’d see two articles on this site in the same day that mention the Black Panther Party?

Well, it appears that former party members are working to trademark the slogan “Burn, Baby, Burn” for use on a new hot sauce, salsa, and clothing line.

From WGAL, Channel 8:

Former Black Panthers are hoping the phrase [...]

You might have already noticed, but I’ve added a temporary poll to the sidebar on the right side of this page. Basically, I’m just curious what everyone’s party affiliation is as a way to better know where the audience of this site comes from.

The Rev. Al Sharpton has endorsed Elaine Brown, the Green Party’s candidate for mayor of Brunswick, Georgia. In fact, Sharpton will go a step further and appear at a $50 a plate fundraising event for Brown on August 6th.

While she’s still facing an uphill battle, this attention and fundraising help might make [...]

Does anyone know anything about this party? I recently tried to find out some information to see if there was an active Florida organization, it took the Florida chairman a few days to get back to me. In the meantime I’d emailed the national and regional contacts on the website.

First, the regional representative [...]

I was just curious to see how much money some recent third party presidential candidates were working with. Using a quick search of the FEC’s database and taking the most recent total expenditure numbers from each report… this is a pretty good idea of how much each major candidate from 2000 and 2004 was [...]

The Green Party’s national meeting opens today in Tulsa, Oklahoma. JMBZine reports that the event has received some front-page newspaper coverage from local media. Read the story.

A new political party is being organized in Nevada. Named the White People’s Party, it has already caused a stir by trying to limit membership to whites only.

From The Las Vegas Sun:

The Republican and Democratic parties “pander to the minorities,” says Michael O’Sullivan, chairman of the board of directors of the party, which will [...]