Third Party Watch

Eric Dondero reports on his site that Ed Thompson would “consider” a 2008 Presidential campaign. Not sure if this means anything or is just talk at this stage, but still certainly interesting to think about.

From the Mainstream Libertarian…

Elected Libertarian Town Councilman and former Tomah, Wisconsin Mayor Ed Thompson said today that he would “consider” [...]

The results of a few recent polls worth taking note of…

>> Conn. US Senate:
Lieberman (Independent) – 49%

>> Virginia US Senate:
Allen (Rep) – 49%
Webb (Dem) – 44%
Parker (Ind. Green) – 2%
(source)

>> Maryland US Senate:
Cardin (Dem) – 47%
Steele (Rep) – 46%
Zeese (Green) – 4%
(source)

>> Mass. Governor:
Patrick (Dem) – [...]

Hello, folks. As you quite likely noticed, Austin recently invited me to become a legit contributor to TPW and I happily accepted. Long a fan of Austin’s site, I was pretty flattered to receive the invite. Many of you probably recall reading through my thorough (verbose) coverage of the 2006 LP National [...]

David Horn isn’t running a particularly serious campaign this year, but at least he’s got a good reason.

Horn is a computer programmer and the Constitution Party’s candidate for Congress in Michigan CD-7. This is his second run for the seat as he was also the party’s nominee in 2004.

His 2004 showing was the best [...]

I don’t feel all that great about the fact that it’s so easy to lose and find votes like this. Obviously elections and voting counting are a 100% exact science, but it would be nice if it wasn’t quite so easy for votes to fall through the cracks.

From Ballot Access News…

Joe Cobb was a [...]

Georgia Libertarian, founder of The American Politic, and all-around good guy Joe Magyer is going to become a Contributing Writer for Third Party Watch. You may well remember Joe from his adventures at the LP National Convention in Portland earlier this year. If not, check out his reports by clicking here.

So [...]

[NOTE: Sorry for the lack of updates in the last few days, I’ve been fighting off a really bad cold and haven’t felt much like writing.]

Michael Badnarik’s Congressional campaign has drawn much praise and criticism over the past few months, mostly on blogs in the Libertarian and third party world. The critics generally [...]

A real disappointment for the Libertarian Party of Vermont as they failed to file their paperwork on time and have lost their place on the ballot for their very promising slate of state legislative candidates.

From Ballot Access News…

The Libertarian Party of Vermont nominated nine candidates on September 13, 2006. Seven were running for the legislature [...]

From the Associated Press…

Gubernatorial candidate and professional wiseacre Kinky Friedman was accused Wednesday of making another racially offensive remark _ this time in a year-old interview in which he said sexual predators should be thrown in prison and forced to “listen to a Negro talking to himself.”

The independent candidate already was under fire for referring [...]

TODAY’S CANDIDATE OF THE DAY IS…

Bryce Holthouse, Libertarian candidate for United State House of Representatives from Missouri’s fourth district.

His bio doesn’t seem to have been updated since his last run, an unsuccessful bid for state representative in 2004. At the time he was working at Taco Bell and finishing up college:

I was born in [...]

Not a third party campaign… but just a quick little update for anyone who might be interested. Last week I officially qualified for a place on the ballot as a candidate for Duval County Soil and Water Conservation Board.

I’ll be facing off against a former board member (he was defeated in 2004) come November, [...]

From the Centre Daily Times…

Green Party U.S. Senate candidate Carl Romanelli said Wednesday that Republican Sen. Rick Santorum has agreed to participate in a series of debates with him across the state in the two weeks leading up to the Nov. 7 election.

A Santorum campaign spokeswoman would not confirm whether Santorum specifically agreed to that [...]

Loretta Nall, marijuana legalization activist and current Libertarian/write-in candidate for governor of Alabama, has joined the Phillies for President campaign. Nall will apparently serve as the campaign’s Media Coordinator.

Not that I’m at all taking sides on this, but is she aware that Steve Kubby is also running? That seemed like more of a [...]

Scott Bludorn is moving to New Hampshire. Specifically, he and his wife have joined with the Free State Project and signed on to be part of the first 1,000 individuals who plan to make the move in hopes of establishing a concentration of libertarian-minded individuals.

Earlier this year, Bludorn received 46% of the vote in [...]

From OregonLive…

Several Oregon Libertarians are trying to recall the state chairman, alleging misuse of party money and violation of bylaws.

Roughly 200 dues-paying members will receive petitions in the mail this week, said party member Mark Vetanen. They need 15 percent – or 30 signatures – to launch a formal recall vote.

Among the allegations by Vetanen, [...]

Yet another example of why running paper candidates is a stupid waste of time in almost all cases. From the Dallas Morning News…

When it comes to uninspiring court contests, the statewide Court of Criminal Appeals pretty much takes the cake.

Three Republican incumbents, none of whom deserves to be a shoo-in for re-election. One Democrat [...]

With about 90% reporting in Minnesota, everything went about as expected.

Peter Hutchinson defeated Pam Ellison in the Independence Party primary for governor by a margin of 66-34%.

In the GOP primary, Governor Tim Pawlenty has 89% of the vote to Libertarian-turned-Republican Sue Jeffers’ 11%.

The Independence Party also saw contested primaries for Attorney General and U.S. Senate. [...]

Bernie Sanders won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Vermont today, but he’s not interested in keeping it. His victory tonight will simply prevent him from facing a Democrat on the Fall ballot.

Congressman Sanders is running as an independent and will caucus with the Democrats once elected.

Anyone see results from any other interesting [...]

Aside from Texas, I think the Georgia LP is going to be the best chance for some headline-making results on election night.

Zogby has a poll out showing Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Garrett Hayes doing quite well with 8.1% of the vote. His share of the vote might actually force a run-off in the state.

Plus a [...]

Primaries are being held in about a half-dozen states today. Here are a few contests you might find worth watching…

>>> NEW YORK: No GOP primary for governor and a heavily lopsided Democratic contest. Hillary Clinton will win renomination to her Senate seat over peace candidate Jonathan Tasini, who has been endorsed by [...]

This looks to be a nifty new way to consider the viability of current Libertarians running for office…

http://www.lp.org/candidates/article_8.shtml

Congressional Candidate Bob Smither currently leads the pack by a wide margin, largely due to the massive amount of media coverage his race has received.

From the Rocky Mountain News…

Welcome to the big dance, Libertarians.

Club 20, an influential Western Slope lobbying group, this year for the first time invited third-party candidates to participate in congressional and gubernatorial debates.

The Libertarian Party was so thrilled that members came from across the state to cheer on their candidates on Saturday.

“We’re just happy to [...]

That’s exactly the question being asked by New York gubernatorial candidate John Clifton in this flier…

http://electclifton.org/losers.pdf

Honestly I don’t know how effective this type of campaigning is. A lot of the wording is above the heads of 99% of voters, such as: “If only one percent of NY State’s electorate votes off the treadmill [...]

A bit of a rough article in today’s St. Petersburg Times about Max Linn’s gubernatorial campaign, highlighting the long-odds he’s facing and the difficulty he has been having getting equal media attention…

His campaign got a table way in the back of the civic center, next to the sushi. He was the only candidate to show [...]

ColoradoPols.com has the news that the Green Party’s candidate for Colorado Secretary of State has dropped out of the race…

Green Party candidate Rick VanWie today announced that he was withdrawing from the race for Secretary of State. VanWie had no chance of winning in November, but he might have been able to siphon votes from [...]