Third Party Watch

It is being reported that Former Senator Eugene McCarthy has died at the age of 89. McCarthy served 2 terms in the United States Senate as a Democrat and campaigned for the Democratic Presidential nomination on three occassions (1968, 1972, 1992).

In addition, McCarthy was an independent candidate for President in 1976 and again in [...]

From UPI:

An Illinois man who spent more than two years fighting a ticket for not buckling up ended up where he was at the beginning, with a $25 fine.

The long legal battle also cost Kenneth Prazak about $2,000 in legal fees. It could become even more expensive if he is ordered to reimburse the village [...]

This could be an interesting race for the Greens next year…

From The Alameda Times-Star:

A co-author of San Francisco’s successful ballot measure opposing military recruiters on public high schools and college campuses has announced he might run as a Green Party candidate against U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Activist Todd Chretien, 36, of San Francisco has formed [...]

It looks like the well organized Republican machine delivered for John Campbell, as he actually won Tuesday’s special election entirely on the strength of his absentee support.

Absentee Voter Results
————————————————-

John Campbell (Rep) 30,895 (53.18%)
Steve Young (Dem) 14,697 (25.30%)
Jim Gilchrist (AI) 10,944 [...]

Interesting news from Idaho… the founder of a weekly newspaper in Boise has decided to launch something called the United Party.

Republicans and Democrats are as polarized as Shiites and Sunnis. Politicians of both parties sound like rival mobs of chimpanzees run amuck in their habitat, throwing poo on each other and romping gleefully away going [...]

Well, it was a good run for Jim Gilchrist. In the 48th Congressional District’s special election yesterday he managed to poll 25% for a close third.

John Campbell (Rep) – 41,450 votes (44.7%)
Steve Young (Dem) – 25,926 votes (28.0%)
Jim Gilchrist (AmInd) – 23,237 votes (25.1%)
Bea Tiritilli (Grn) [...]

Just a quick update as I sign off for the night. With about 75% counted, Gilchrist is still in third with 22%, the Democrat has 27% and the Republican has 48%.

You can continue to track the results here:
http://www.oc.ca.gov/election/Live/e29/results.htm

Early returns from the California special election for Congressional District 48 show Republican John Campbell with 53% of the vote, Democrat Steve Young with 25%, and Constitution Party candidate Jim Gilchrist in third with 19%.

I would expect that when things are said and done we’ll see Gilchrist jump a few more points and probably finish [...]

When I first started up this site earlier this year I found that there were 3 really essential blogs that I would check everyday. One was Ballot Access News, one was Liberty for Sale, and one was Ken Sain’s blog.

In a bit of really unfortunate news, today Ken has been forced to shut down [...]

From News 8:

The Libertarian Party announced their candidate for the upcoming special election.

Ben Easton will run for the state representative seat vacated by Todd Baxter.

Easton said the special election will give people the chance to learn about the Libertarian party since it’s the only election in January.

“The Libertarian Party likes to take advantage of any [...]

This article is a little long, but well worth the read. Basically, it shows how having a few members of a third party on a local board can actually make a difference in public policy. In this instance it’s the Greens on the Portland School board who worked with the Republicans to deny [...]

A nice recap of the Gilchrist campaign from USA Today:

Conservatives who see illegal immigration as the next powerful political issue are getting an early test run barely 100 miles from the Mexican border.

Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project of armed citizen border patrols that began last fall, has transformed a special congressional election with [...]

I just received this mass email from the Gilchrist campaign…

Message from Democrat Bill Orton
Former candidate for California State Assembly, District 67

My name is Bill Orton. I recently was the Democratic party nominee for a state legislative seat in Orange County. Among other things, I took a lot of guff from my own party [...]

This poll shows Libertarian presidential candidate Otto Guevara with the support of 8% of Costa Ricans. That puts the Libertarians in fourth place behind the National Liberation Party (45%), Citizens Action Party (20%), and Social-Christian Unity Party (10%). They are leading the Union for Change which is currently polling at 6%.

In October, [...]

From Ballot Access News:

The Nebraska Green Party expects to qualify for the 2006 ballot statewide, and also hopes its 2006 candidate for Secretary of State, Doug Paterson, will poll the needed 5% to keep the party on the ballot automatically for 2008. The party is two-thirds done with its 2006 petition. No other minor party [...]

This is a nice endorsement for the Gilchrist campaign in their uphill battle for California Congressional District 48.

The National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents 10,000 front-line U.S. Border Patrol employees, today announced its endorsement of Jim Gilchrist for Congress in the 48th Congressional District.

In a letter to Gilchrist, dated December 2, T.J. Bonner, [...]

This is a nice little profile on the Green party’s candidate in Tuesday’s California special Congressional election. Jim Gilchrist will almost certainly dominate the minor party news on this race, but there’s also a Green and a Libertarian in the race.

From The Daily Pilot:

The Green party has never had a member elected to Congress, [...]

I like the strategy on this… for anyone who thinks the election is already decided and doesn’t feel like voting it creates a “send a message to Washington” rationale for supporting Gilchrist.

http://www.jimgilchrist.com/audio/gilchrist_time_ad.mp3

Ross Perot appears to be on the verge of investing in a major development project in Ireland. One thing I noted was the mention of his son (Ross Jr.) as the chairman. Does anyone know what his political leanings might be?

From BBC News World Edition:

He’s the Texan billionaire who twice ran for the [...]

Since there isn’t a ton of US based third party news right now, but Canada is quite active, you’ll probably be seeing a little more coverage than usual of Canada. Their elections are only a few weeks away and several parties (specifically the Greens) are hoping to have break-out performances.

To help everyone brush up [...]

A pretty harsh attack piece by Eve Fairbanks of the Washington Examiner:

At first glance, Jim Gilchrist seems like your typical, easily dismissed small-party candidate. Running for the Orange County, Calif. House seat vacated by new Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Chris Cox, Gilchrist is a retired certified public accountant and the founder of the Minuteman [...]

Last year I was not following the minor parties quite as closely as I have been since launching this blog in June. So, I guess I must have missed this…

http://bidinotto.journalspace.com/?entryid=181

Any thoughts or reactions? Was this a major deal in Libertarian circles at the time?

It is the holiday shopping season, so I thought I’d take a quick look around the various party websites and see what kind of merchandise each was selling.

The Constitution Party’s store appears to be empty except for a free “information packet” that visitors can request. However, they are pushing a Peroutka video on their [...]

From The Ottawa Sun:

The Green party hopes to double its support in the Jan. 23 federal election, bringing it in further from the political fringe, deputy leader David Chernushenko said Tuesday.

But the party’s chief goal remains getting its first MP elected to the House of Commons, Chernushenko said from Ottawa.

The Greens, who again intend to [...]

The always-excellent Ken Sain reports on a bundle of newly reported Green Party victories from last month’s election:

The national Green Party office continues to update the election database with more Green victories in 2005.

The latest figures: Greens ran in 176 races in 2005 and so far 43 Greens were elected to office. That translates to [...]