Third Party Watch

The following is a media release from the Libertarian Party:

For Immediate Release
June 26, 2008

Contact: Andrew Davis
E-mail: andrew.davis@lp.org
Office: 202-333-0008 ext. 225
Mobile: 202-731-0002

FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY:
Libertarian Party says Heller ruling a ‘preservation of liberty in the United States’

Party says firearms are distinct component of the national character

Washington, D.C. – Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in the [...]

“We have a lot of different combinations to get to 270,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Tuesday, according to John Berman and James Gerber of ABC News. And Plouffe made it clear that Bob Barr could play a key role in Obama achieving that electoral majority:

Obama’s campaign manager sees the Libertarian presidential bid [...]

Al Sharpton sent an open letter to independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, criticizing him for saying Barack Obama is “talking white” and appealing to “white guilt.”

“I don’t know how one “talks black or white,” wrote Sharpton in the open letter, which was emailed to members of the press. “There are clearly different styles [...]

The following is a media release from the Chuck Baldwin presidential campaign:

June 26, 2008

Supreme Court Shoots Straight On 2nd Amendment

Presidential Candidate Challenges Americans To Continue Pro-Gun Momentum By Rejecting Anti- Gun Obama & McCain

Grand Rapids, MI (June 26, 2008) The Constitution Party, (www.constitutionparty.com) the largest third party based on voter registration (Ballot Access News),applauds the [...]

The following is a media release from the Bob Barr presidential campaign:

WASHINGTON, June 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/—Today the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the individual right of Americans to own guns in District of Columbia v. Heller. The ruling “will go down as one of the Supreme Court’s most important rulings on behalf of liberty,” says Libertarian Party [...]

Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidaHe told themte for President, was in Atlanta filing ballot access papers at the capitol when he was asked about the campaign by reporters. He told them he is receiving support, as volunteer workers and as contributors, from backers of Ron Paul’s previous bid for the Republican nomination. [...]

Ballot Access News

The Independent Party of Delaware has been ballot-qualified since 2000. Although Delaware allows two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate, the Independent Party of Delaware has never nominated a Democrat or a Republican for a statewide office. However, on June 19, the party held a nominating convention and nominated Republican Mike Protack [...]

The following is a media release from the Constitution Party:

Constitution Party’s Chuck Baldwin Tours Border Outposts

Grand Rapids, MI/ June 24, 2008-The country’s largest and fastest-growing third party (Ballot-Access News), the Constitution Party, announces its candidate for president, Chuck Baldwin,(www.Baldwin2008.com) will visit California’s southern border with Mexico in an effort to call attention to the need [...]

Denver’s Rocky Mountain News publishes explosive quotes from Ralph Nader, in which the independent presidential candidate accuses Sen. Barack Obama of trying to “talk white” and appealing to “white guilt.”

Nader on “talking white”:

I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What’s keeping him [...]

The following is a campaign letter from Bob Barr:

John McCain and Barack Obama Plan To Bring Back “COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM”

From The Desk of Rep. Bob Barr

Dear Friend and Fellow American,

We’re facing a “new” crisis: BORDER SECURITY.

But really, this is the same crisis we faced last year at this time, when Senators John McCain and Ted [...]

Scott Adler, an associate professor of political science at the University of Colorado, thinks that Bob Barr’s impact will be minimal in November. Many voters who like a third-party candidate still find it hard “to pull the lever, or punch the ticket, or push the button” for fear of throwing their vote away, he [...]

Psychiatrist Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD spoke at the recent convention of the Libertarian Party of New York on how urban renewal by eminent domain harms public health by dislocating residents from their homes, jobs, businesses, community institutions, and their web of relationships. Fullilove is author of Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods [...]

Aaron Gould Sheinin writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “the Barr Bomb is an idea borrowed from the Republican presidential campaign of Ron Paul,” where you “harness the power of the Internet [to] raise tons of money online in a single day. The goal is two-fold: raise cash and raise awareness by making a splash [...]

Conservative political commentator Phil Kent, a veteran Georgia journalist, thinks the McCain campaign should be worried about the possibility of Barr throwing the election to Barack Obama:

A brief history of Libertarian candidates in all 50 states shows that they can poll two percent at the very least in some key swing states. And of [...]

Stop waiting for Ron Paul to endorse Bob Barr or Chuck Baldwin, advises Liberty Maven. Ain’t gonna happen, and here’s why:

Why is it unlikely that he endorse one or both of them officially? The answer is simple. He’s a sitting Republican Congressman. If he were to publicly and officially endorse someone from another party [...]

The Park Record of Park City, Utah, notes that a vice presidential candidate owns a vacation home in the area and lives there part-time. He is Wayne Allyn Root, on the Libertarian Party ticket with Bob Barr. Root is a Las Vegas odds maker; he owns WinningEDGE International, which determines odds for people [...]

Liberty Maven takes on the seven most common complaints by some libertarians about Bob Barr—you know, he voted for the Patriot Act, etc. As for the objection that “Bob Barr is no Ron Paul,” Liberty Maven says:

No one is Ron Paul except Ron Paul. No politician has the unblemished 30+ year record fighting for [...]

Steve Newton has had his Saul Alinsky moment. Alinsky, the famous radical agitator, said: “And if you’ve got no power and no numbers, the least you can do is make a stink!”

Writing in the Delaware Libertarian blog, Newton sees that opportunity in this election year:

...the best we can do as Libertarians (in concert with [...]

Chuck Baldwin, the Constitution Party’s presidential candidate, is a featured speaker along with Ron Paul at the Revolution March to be held July 12 in Washington, D.C. The march will start on the northeast lawn of the Washington Monument at 10:30 am (assembly starts at 9:30 am) and goes to the west side of [...]

George Dance writes in Nolan Chart that it’s not only the U.S. Libertarian Party that is undergoing a change in leadership and strategy. The Libertarian Party of Canada is undergoing similar changes.

Dance writes:

Dennis Young, of Edmonton, is the new Party Leader. Young is a former Canadian infantryman who saw active duty in the NATO [...]

The Associated Press issues a long article under the headline, “GOP frets Barr could play spoiler in prez race,” by Shannon McCaffrey.

The article quotes Dan Schnur, a GOP consultant in California, as saying “Bob could be the Ralph Nader of 2008.” And it quotes a Washington-based Democratic strategist, Tad Devine, as saying that [...]

Kim Scipes takes a detailed look at how the Green Party is developing, and whether it can be an electoral force. He is a long-time labor activist, currently working as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Purdue University North Central in Westville, IN.

Scipes’ conclusion:

In short, the Green Party is getting electoral experience—and that’s good. [...]

The Green Party recently held a two-hour debate between its presidential candidates. A posting on Polidoc’s blog said:

When the Green Party Candidates face off for a debate, well, it’s really more of a team sport, where the players know that the end goal is to lift the party image higher.

And:

Poignantly, it was the [...]

At the last moment a member of the Green Party, Richard Carroll, filed to campaign against former Rep. Dwayne Dobbins of North Little Rock. Dobbins stepped down from the legislature in 2005 after prosecutors said he fondled a 17-year-old girl. There is no Republican on the ballot, so Carroll is Dobbins’ only opponent.

The [...]

The House last week passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by a 293-129 margin. It now is before the Senate, where both Senator Obama and Senator McCain are expected to vote in favor. Bob Barr disagrees:

The House on Friday passed legislation that greatly expands the power of the government to surreptitiously surveil [...]