Third Party Watch

For some strange reason, the folks at Libertarian Party headquarters want the presidential candidates to be focusing on ending the Iraq War and straightening out our fiscal problems. From their latest release:

“While our soldiers are dying overseas and our economy is grinding to a halt, Republicans and Democrats would rather debate fashion and relationships,” [...]

Michael Bloomberg defended Ralph Nader’s right to run for president.

“This business of Ralph Nader being a spoiler — you know, in any three-way race, two of the three are going to be spoilers,” Bloomberg said. “Come on. Everybody’s got a right to do it — you’re not spoiling anything.”

“If people want to vote for you, [...]

PolitickerNV describes Wayne Allyn Root’s win at the California Libertarian Party Convention this way:

Wayne Allyn Root, the Las Vegas odds-maker and television personality who last May announced his candidacy for president, this weekend won the 2008 California Libertarian Convention’s presidential straw poll.

“I’m grateful to the California delegates to have earned their trust and support,” said [...]

Almost two decades after the Alaskan Independence Party elected its’ candidate for Governor to the highest office in Alaska, it is still one of the strongest state-level third parties in the nation. Based upon a desire for independence, wether that is territory status or as an independent nation, this state party has flourished and succeeded [...]

There is to be no merger of the Jefferson Republican Party. The allegations of such taking place are complete fabrications. None of the members of the JRP, including the party leadership, had even heard of this until the JRP-Arkansas chairman read the interview with Angelo Cobrasci on Third Party Watch.

The Jefferson Republican Party has [...]

I’ve been contemplating what each prospective Constitution Party Presidential candidate brings to the table in terms of voter outreach and party building. I decided to seek the opinions of the intelligent crowd here at Thirdpartywatch. Here is what i’ve come up with thus far.

In this post i’m going to explore the candidacies of Dr. Alan [...]

Brian Holtz is reporting the following from the California Libertarian Party convention:

The LPCA Convention today held an open instant-runoff straw poll after hearing Burns, Kubby, Jingozian, Phillies and Root debate. The counts of first-preference results were:

20 Wayne Root
12 Steve Kubby
12 Ron Paul
8 George Phillies
3 Jim Burns
2 Christine Smith
2 Mary Ruwart
2 Karen Kwiatkowski
1 Michael Jingozian
1 NOTA

After [...]

From the Taxpayer’s Party of Michigan’s website.

“We have over 50 persons considering running for office at this time. Our goal is 100 candidates in the 2008 election. I think it is imperative that we demonstrate great growth this year. Please join us in becoming a Potential Candidate for the next election.”

I’m willing to guess that [...]

Ballot Access News

Ralph Nader’s February 24 announcement that he will run for president as an independent in 2008 has received extensive coverage, but that coverage is of poor quality. See this article as an example. To see the appearance itself, see here.

The real news is that Nader is not seeking the Green Party nomination. That [...]

—Despite differences on the Iraq War, Neal Boortz apparently identified himself as a Libertarian when he plugged the Fair Tax and pinged the GOP on fiscal issues in Rogers, Arkansas. From NWA News:

At a fundraising Lincoln Day dinner on Friday night, Benton County Republicans heard radio talk show host Neal Boortz criticize the party. [...]

Wikinews, a division of Wikipedia, just posted an interview with Libertarian Party Presidential hopeful James Burns.

Libertarians from the St. Louis, Missouri metro area heard from a number of prominent speakers, candidates and affinity organizations Saturday as they gathered in Bridgeton for the second biennial St. Louis Area Libertarian Party Caucus.

The caucus isn’t a caucus in the traditional sense—it’s not a closed meeting, no decisions are made, no candidates are nominated. [...]

Here’s what Political Lore is reporting:

Ralph Nader will appear on Meet the Press on Sunday morning, the same platform he used to announce his 2004 run for the Presidency. It is not much of a stretch to predict that Nader is likely going in front of the nation to declare his official intentions of running [...]

Off of the subject of politics, it is with great and horrible sadness that I announce the death of my cousin-in-law, Cody Atencio.

Cody was killed in a tragic car crash on the way to school on Wednesday the 20th. While I never got the chance to get to know him well, I became quite [...]

by Loretta Nall

Yesterday, I was invited to attend the Birmingham Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society luncheon and panel discussion. The topic of the panel discussion was “Is Drug Court a Good Idea?”

A little bit of info on the Federalist Society.

The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is a group of conservatives and [...]

I hate to get Godwinian here, but OperationCheckpoint.com has just come out with a product that would make Kurt Gruber proud. Here’s the product description:

Scan It® is an educational and creative play toy that helps children become acclimated with airport and public spaces security. The device is both a fun toy and an educational [...]

—Libertarian Party regional formation begins today. From the LP Bylaws:

Affiliate parties may, by mutual consent, band together to form “representative regions,” and each such “region” with an aggregate national party sustaining membership of 10% or more shall be entitled to one National Committee representative and one alternate for each 10% of national party sustaining [...]

And I always thought this would be
The land of milk and honey
Oh but I come to find out
That it’s all hate and money
And there’s a canopy of
Greed holding me down—”Tones of Home” by Blind Melon

OK, maybe not hate, money and greed, but at least a lack of basic good judgment coupled with a bad case [...]

Perhaps the best way to explain the new survey is to provide the e-mail just sent from LPHQ:

Last month 5,047 of you responded to my request for your opinions about what the Libertarian Party Platform Committee should do with our difficult task of rebuilding the party platform.

Thank you again for giving us so much insight [...]

On Tuesday I wrote:

The rumor on the Vegas streets is that Daniel Imperato will receive the endorsement of the Pope on Thursday. I also have to modify previous statements I’ve made about Imperato. I’ve stated in the past that he has no known supporters. He has one now: Gerhard Langguth of Arkansas. Langguth is curently [...]

It’s an interesting title: The Green Party broadens its color palette:

Picture the Green Party: Ralph Nader, tree huggers and an afterthought in presidential election results.

That stereotype is dated – at least the part about Nader and hippy environmentalists.

The party’s focus for the 2008 presidential election has shifted toward providing basic services for the poor, promoting [...]

While covering the meeting of the Libertarian National Committee, I indicated the following about the Iraq War Resolution:

[Wes] Benedict proposed a resolution recommending a U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq. There was some wordsmithing through the amendment process, but the motion carried. There were two no votes and one abstention. I’m not identifying the particular “no”voters, [...]

I started writing this live from the Libertarian Committee Meeting in Las Vegas, but lost my Internet access and am finishing this report from memory. Here’s what happened in the public portions of the LNC meeting:

During the public commentary section, George Phillies said he is not happy with the lack of support from LNC [...]

This letter is floating around on several lists right now:

Dear all,

I am in receipt of a letter dated February 15, 2008 from Lieutenant Governor of the State of Utah Gary R. Herbert.

Key excerpts:

“This letter notifies you that I have determined that the required number of voters appears on your petition.”

“Therefore, this letter certifies that the [...]