Third Party Watch

Just wondering… what do you guys think of mixing in a little more international coverage on this site?

It wouldn’t be a major shift, but is anyone interested in the happenings of minor parties in Canada, England, and elsewhere? I was curious if it’s something I should pursue.

Taken from The Lincoln County News:

The margin in the House is now down to 74 Democrats and 73 Republicans, with one Green Party member and three Unenrolled, after the announcement Monday by Biddeford Rep. Joanne Twomey that she is leaving the Democratic Party, at least for now.

“I’m not leaving the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party [...]

I had a chart of third party representation in Congress over the years, but now I can’t seem to remember what I did with it.

If anyone knows where I can find that information it would be much appreciated.

(Email or post in the comments section with a link.)

It looks like Missouri politics might begin looking a little something like New York, at least if this “fusion” proposal becomes a reality.

From the Kansas City Star:

Some candidates already are campaigning and fundraising for the 2006 elections, some even for the 2008 elections. So consider this hypothetical ballot for governor three years from now:

_ Matt [...]

Randy Stufflebeam is the current chairman of the Constitution Party of Illinois and will be the party’s candidate for governor of that state in 2006. We had the opportunity to talk with him and find out a little more about his campaign.

TPW: Why did you decide to run for Governor of Illinois?:

Stufflebeam: The [...]

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Time for turkey, beer, and football… and some sort of parade or something.

Personally, I’ve been in Italy for the last few days and won’t be returning until this weekend. However, the site will continue to be updated and tomorrow we’ll have a very interesting interview. For now, [...]

From The LA Times:

Kinky Friedman, iconoclastic country singer, mystery writer and now independent Texas gubernatorial candidate, tonight joins the legions of non-California political hopefuls who have traveled to Los Angeles and, like game show contestants, returned home with a door prize.

Cash.

“We’re trying, of course, to make this a financial pleasure,” Friedman said by phone from [...]

Ballot Access News reports that five different parties won partisan elections on November 8th. They include the Libertarians, Greens, Working Families, One New London, and Hammonton First parties.

Liberty For Sale reports that the Florida Libertarian Party has experienced some encouraging results with their most recent fundraising effort.

This is an interesting read… a “Report [...]

Today is the special election for 2 Minnesota State Senate seats. One of those has a very strong Independence Party candidate (Del Haag).

Considering that Haag is clearly the most qualified candidates and has just recently won a major newspaper endorsement, this could be an exciting win for the Indpendence Party tonight!

I won’t be around [...]

>> Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon quit his right-wing Likud on Monday to lead a new centrist party into early national elections, taking a gamble likely to reshape Israeli politics for years to come. He has asked President Moshe Katsav to dissolve parliament and order new elections.

>> Members of the British National Party [...]

Some good news for Independence Party candidate Del Haag:

Superior preparation makes Buffalo City Council Member Del Haag a standout in the three-way race that will fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of Republican Sen. Mark Ourada. A career in state and local government, 17 years on the City Council and leadership posts in [...]

With the news that Libertarians would skip running any statewide candidates in Illinois next year, that state’s Constitution Party jumped on the opportunity and has fired off the following press release:

As a fellow “Third Party” organization, the Constitution Party of Illinois (CPIL) is saddened to hear that the Illinois Libertarians have voted not to run [...]

From Ballot Access News:

The Illinois Libertarian Party state convention, Nov. 12-13, voted not to run any statewide nominees in 2006. If no other minor party qualifies statewide in Illinois in 2006 either, Illinois voters will face a Democratic-Republican monopoly for statewide offices for the first time in 40 years, next year. However, the Constitution Party [...]

We had a little technical problem with the message boards and they were down for about a day, but everything is fixed now and they should run even faster than before!

Constitution Party candidate for Congress, Jim Gilchrist, decided to skip the League of Women Voters forum because he objects to the positions of the group. Seems like this could actually work to his advantage by generating some nice free media, such as this article from the Daily Pilot:

Congressional candidate Jim Gilchrist, a member of [...]

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) will be facing a similarly named challenger next year in Green Party candidate Julian Hatch. They are actually distant cousins.

The Green Party of Utah nominated the environmental activist and disabled veteran last week at their convention.

“I am opposing my own relative so citizens of Utah will finally have a real [...]

>> An item in the Asbury Park Press that explains to voters how Instant Run-off Voting would have changed the results of an election last week.

>> The Alabama Libertarian Party has rolled out a brand new website this week.

>> This article takes a nice look at some of the “things learned” from last week’s city-wide [...]

After all the “spoiler” talk that has surrounded this race, it’s kind of amusing to hear that the Democrats could have avoided all of this.

From the Asbury Park Press:

He was called a spoiler by the Democrats who lost the race for Monmouth County freeholder last week, but Green Party candidate Brian Unger could have been [...]

From the Pensacola News Journal:

The Rev. Chuck Baldwin had a flock of six when he founded Crossroad Baptist Church in 1975 in Brownsville.

Baldwin was 23 years old, but most thought he was 16 and pulling their leg when he knocked on their door, preaching the word of God.

But Sunday, at 6800 Mobile Highway, about 600 [...]

The Minnesota Independence Party, the party originally formed by/around Jesse Ventura, currently has one member in the State Senate. As of the end of this month she could have some company.

I’ve mentioned this race a few times in passing, but I think the November 22nd special election for Senate District 19 in Minnesota [...]

...in Costa Rica.

This is an interesting news item from PHXnews.com on the massive growth of libertarianism in the Central American nation.

The growing Costa Rican Libertarian movement, which controls some 10% of the country’s Congress, has announced it is the main party in 13 of the country’s 81 counties.

The Movement also is doing well in Presidential [...]

From The Olympian of Olympia, Washington:

Battling a controversial clause in the No Child Left Behind act will be one of the state Green Party’s primary goals this year.

Party members plan to sponsor schools, support teen activists and set up “counter-recruitment” tables to compete with military recruiters on high school campuses, they said Saturday at their [...]

It appears that Koch Industries has decided to purchase Georgia-Pacific for about $13 Billion. Yes… THAT Koch Industries.

From the Twin Cities Pioneer Press:

Well, it looks like the dust has settled sufficiently to move onto the next election, here about 36 hours after the polls closed.

One of the most interesting things to come out of this week’s LNC meeting was the selection of the Platform committee. Among those chosen for the committee was Libertarian activist Tim West, a prominant LP Reformer and founder of Liberty For Sale.

Read the full story from Liberty For Sale.