Third Party Watch

Word is that the Constitution Party of Montana has disaffiliated with the national CP. They seem to be following the lead of other affiliates in New York, Ohio, and I believe Oregon that have all done the same thing.

This must be particularly stinging as the Montana party is in good shape to capture a [...]

Michael Badnarik has a few photos from the Portland convention on his official campaign blog.

Click here to check it out.

TODAY’S CANDIDATE OF THE DAY IS…

Joe Dumas, the “taxpayer’s best friend” and Libertarian candidate for Hamilton County Commission, District 2, in Tennessee.

Though technically, Dumas is on the ballot as an independent… but he’s endorsed by both the Libertarian Party of Tennessee and the Hamilton County Libertarian Party.

Dumas is a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga engineering [...]

TODAY’S CANDIDATE OF THE DAY IS…

Brian Kelly, Libertarian for Michigan State Senate in District 12.

Kelly has a pretty nice looking campaign site, but it’s somewhat short on biographical details and issue positons at the moment. However he does lay out a solid defense against the “wasted vote” nonsense that’s often thrown at third [...]

Well, that’s an interesting spot for a fundraiser…

From Kansas.com…

Kansas Libertarians were stopped from holding a fundraiser at a nudist camp in southwest Shawnee County when sheriff’s deputies blocked people from entering.

Shawnee County deputies said they were merely enforcing a court order when they stopped people from accessing Lake Edun on Friday. Last year, Shawnee County [...]

TODAY’S CANDIDATE OF THE DAY IS…

John Murphy, an independent/fusion candidate for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania’s 16th District.

Murphy’s campaign slogan is that he’s “the corporate-free candidate.”

Although running as an independent, Murphy claims the endorsement of the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party, the Pennsylvania Reform Party, The New American Independent Party (I’m not exactly sure what that is), and [...]

Why do third parties exist? To win elections or to advocate for unpopular policies?

The New York Libertarian Party’s current nominee for Lt. Governor and past U.S. Senate candidate, Donald Silberger:

“In my opinion our purpose is not to elect people to office.”

“In my opinion, our purpose is to bring… during the course, principally of campaigns… [...]

Looks like we might be able to add South Carolina to the to the growing list of gubernatorial contests featuring very credible independent candidates this year.

From TheState.com…

State Sen. Jake Knotts picked up a batch of petition forms from the State Election Commission on Thursday, the latest sign the Lexington County Republican might run for governor [...]

The Libertarian Party is in the process of rolling out a new web-based “get out the vote” tool for this year’s elections.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check www.ballotbase.org for more info.

TODAY’S CANDIDATE OF THE DAY IS…

Richard Ranzau, the Reform Party’s candidate for governor of Kansas.

Ranzau is a physician assistant from Wichita and a veteran of both the current war in Iraq and the original Persian Gulf War.

His primary issues of concern seem to be cracking down on illegal immigration, cutting the state’s dependence on foreign [...]

Thomas Knapp of the popular Kn@ppster blog is apparently fed up with the Libertarian Party in the wake of last weekend’s convention. In response, he’s begun laying the groundwork for a new political entity that he calls the Boston Tea Party.

The new party’s website: http://www.bostontea.us

The press release…

“Cyberia” (PRWEB) July 5, 2006 – Citing the [...]

Good news for Green Party state representative John Eder in his re-election fight, from The West End News…

In a historic move, the Maine AFL-CIO has endorsed Green Independent State Representative John Eder in his re-election bid for the District 118 State House seat representing the West End and Oakdale neighborhoods.

Eder has a 100% voting record [...]

The Vermont Progressive Party has decided to skip running a full slate of candidates in this year’s statewide races.

Instead, the party will field a single candidate for Auditor of Accounts as a way to maintain major party status. In Vermont, a party must win 5% of the vote in a statewide race and the [...]

TODAY’S CANDIDATE OF THE DAY IS…

David Chastain, the Libertarian candidate for Georgia State School Superintendent.

This is part of a recent story in The Florida Times-Union that details why Chastain’s campaign might just resonate with voters this year:

Chastain makes a slightly different argument. He says things are backward at the state Department of Education. Unlike local [...]

Randy Stufflebeam and the Illinois Constitution Party have been removed from the ballot for filing only about 20% of the required signatures, according to Ballot Access News.

Additionaly, the Democrats are filing a nonsense challenge to the Green petitions in what seems like an attempt to tie up GP resources and try to cast some public [...]

Since Joe Magyer did such a fantastic job reporting back what he was seeing at this year’s Libertarian National Convention in Portland, I wanted to create a centralized page of links to his reports. In case you haven’t been reading along and you feel a bit lost by all of the material that’s been [...]

The Following Report was submitted by Joe Magyer from this weekend’s Libertarian National Convention in Portland, Oregon. Joe is covering the event for Third Party Watch and we’ll be posting his dispatches as they’re received.

— DAY 4 / Part Two ————————————————————

Good Libertarian that I am, Sully invited me to attend the Torch [...]

The Following Report was submitted by Joe Magyer from this weekend’s Libertarian National Convention in Portland, Oregon. Joe is covering the event for Third Party Watch and we’ll be posting his dispatches as they’re received.

— DAY 4 / Part One ————————————————————

After the convention was winding down, I was riding a complete emotional [...]

Ok, so the LP now has new leadership and a new slimmed down platform. But there is still a pledge… and now dues. Kind of.

This is just an open topic for debating the results of this weekend’s convention. If you happened to miss any of the action, check out Joe Magyer’s Convention [...]

It looks like Senator Joe Lieberman will begin collecting petition signatures to put himself on the ballot as an independent in case he loses his party’s primary next month. Either way, Lieberman says that he will remain a Democrat if elected.

From Reuters…

Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000 who ran [...]

The Following Report was submitted by Joe Magyer from this weekend’s Libertarian National Convention in Portland, Oregon. Joe is covering the event for Third Party Watch and we’ll be posting his dispatches as they’re received.

— DAY 3 / Part Five ————————————————————

We’re still furiously calculating the results from the At-Large and Vice-Chair races. [...]

The Following Report was submitted by Joe Magyer from this weekend’s Libertarian National Convention in Portland, Oregon. Joe is covering the event for Third Party Watch and we’ll be posting his dispatches as they’re received.

— DAY 3 / Part Four ————————————————————

The nominations for the LNC seats have just begun, while at the [...]

The Following Report was submitted by Joe Magyer from this weekend’s Libertarian National Convention in Portland, Oregon. Joe is covering the event for Third Party Watch and we’ll be posting his dispatches as they’re received.

— DAY 3 / Part Three ————————————————————

There were 2 primary speakers during lunch. The first was a [...]

The Following Report was submitted by Joe Magyer from this weekend’s Libertarian National Convention in Portland, Oregon. Joe is covering the event for Third Party Watch and we’ll be posting his dispatches as they’re received.

— DAY 3 / Part Two ————————————————————

There is now discussion by the delegation over removing the “cult of [...]

The Following Report was submitted by Joe Magyer from this weekend’s Libertarian National Convention in Portland, Oregon. Joe is covering the event for Third Party Watch and we’ll be posting his dispatches as they’re received.

— DAY 3 / Part One ————————————————————

The morning opened up again with a harsh ring from the automated [...]