Third Party Watch

It happens every election cycle. Some libertarian writes about how the Libertarian Party should be abolished (or at least no longer run candidates). The latest comes from Ilya Somin, who writes:

Libertarians often emphasize that failed enterprises should be liquidated rather than kept going on artificial life support. That enables their resources to be [...]

Ballot Access News

Former Indiana Congressman John Hostettler will speak to the Constitution Party’s national committee meeting in Orlando, Florida, on December 12-13. Hostettler, a Republican who served 1994-2006, also has revealed that he cast a write-in vote for the Constitution Party’s presidential candidate, Chuck Baldwin, this year.
Hostettler has recently published a book, ‘Nothing for the [...]

Democracy suffers when the news media ignore long-shot candidates and the ideas they espouse, says journalism professor John F. Kirch in an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun. We all know the media blackout exists; he puts some hard figures on it:

According to a basic LexisNexis database search of election coverage from Aug. 5 to [...]

Well, he did tell us what President-elect Obama’s administration would be like. So he may not be a spoiler this year, just a prophet. Here’s Ralph Nader’s post-election, in-the-midst-of-the-transition analysis of the incoming administration:

While the liberal intelligentsia was swooning over Barack Obama during his presidential campaign, I counseled “prepare to be disappointed.” His [...]

The Indypendent, “the newspaper of the nyc independent media center,” offers a quick history lesson from its ideological perspective:

While no third party presidential candidate was able to crack the one percent threshold in this year’s election, third parties have long been an important part of the electoral process. Historically, third parties have sprung up from [...]

The following is a media release from the Green Party of the United States:

Greens focus on electing Malik Rahim, Louisiana Green Party candidate for the US House on Dec. 6

WASHINGTON, DC—Green Party leaders are focusing on the campaign to elect Malik Rahim, Louisiana Green candidate for the US House in New Orleans (District 2) [...]

Sean Fenley, who describes himself as “an independent progressive blogger,” obviously was impressed enough by small-l libertarian Ron Paul to want to team him up with various progressive candidates in 2012. Writing in Op-Ed News, he has a proposal for “real hope, real change”:

Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul should run together in the next [...]

The Raleigh News & Observer writes a wrapup on the presidential campaign in North Carolina and concludes:

Barr was a spoiler in North Carolina after all.

Though the Libertarian presidential candidate made only token appearances in the state and received a minuscule number of votes in November, he still got more votes than the margin of [...]

Ilya Somin writes at Volokh Conspiracy (ranked 7th in my 2006 list of the top 30 liberty-oriented blogs):
third party politics simply is not an effective way of promoting libertarianism in the “first past the post” American political system. That system makes it almost impossible for a third party to win any important elected offices. And [...]

Ballot Access News

Rick Jore, the Constitution Party’s only state legislator, must leave the Montana legislature in a few weeks because of term limits. Voters in his district replaced him with a Democrat. The November 2008 election in the 12th House district was between Republican nominee Ron Marquardt, and Democratic nominee John Fleming. Fleming won with [...]

The Senate Guru blog in The Huffington Post gets some very interesting responses from Georgia Libertarian Allen Buckley.

Buckley got 128,000 votes (3.4% of the total) on Nov. 4 as the Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. Senate. Because he kept the two major-party candidates, Democrat Jim Martin and Republican Saxby Chambliss, from getting more than [...]

The following is a media release from the Modern Whig Party:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
11/18/08
Contact: Mike Lebowitz—National Chairman
chairman@modernwhig.org
202-337-0893
or
Kevin Bloomfield—Future Voters Coordinator
futurevoters@modernwhig.org

MODERN WHIG PARTY ESTABLISHES FUTURE VOTERS CHAPTER

The Modern Whig Party has established a Future Voters Chapter catering to politically aware students who are not yet old enough to vote. This chapter is in recognition of the fact [...]

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader discusses his presidency in this video of his appearance on the PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer.

The following is a media release from the Constitution Party:

P.O. Box 1782
Lancaster, PA 17608
contactus@constitutionparty.com
Mary Starrett, Communications Director

The “Fix” Is In: Same-Old–Same-Old Two Party Charade
Obama – McCain Meeting Shows “Not A Dime’s Worth Of Difference” Between Two

Lancaster, PA, (November 17, 2008) The Constitution Party (www.constitutionparty.com), America’s fastest- growing third party, points out Monday’s meeting between president-elect [...]

Says Jim Tharpe in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Libertarians have never won statewide office in Georgia, but suddenly their votes have become valuable currency in the extended U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin.

No sooner had the sun peeked over the horizon on Nov. 5 than Martin and Chambliss — [...]

The following is a statement by Green Party officials and functionaries:

Greens to Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente: Thank you

Dear Cynthia McKinney, Rosa Clemente, Lucy Grider-Bradley, John Judge and the 2008 Power to the People Campaign…

We are delegates and alternates of the Green National Committee of the Green Party of the United States as well as [...]

Reason magazine’s David Weigel gets ambigious answers when he asks Jesse Benton, press secretary for Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, whether The Man will make another run for the presidency:

“He hasn’t closed out the idea of another run,” said Benton today. “We have some time to decide whether he runs again, or whether he gets [...]

The following is a statement from Libertarian Party spokesperson Andrew Davis:

November 14, 2008

Contact: Andrew Davis
E-mail: andrew.davis@lp.org
Phone: 202-731-0002

Businessmen are Bad for Capitalism, Says Libertarian Party
CEOs and Government Assistance Stand in the Way of Economic Turnaround

WASHINGTON, D.C. – “CEOs and government ‘altruism’ are standing in the way of effective economic turnaround,” says Libertarian Party spokesperson Andrew [...]

The following is an announcement from the Constitution Party’s website:

CONSTITUTION PARTY NATIONAL COMMITTEE MEETING TO BE HELD IN ORLANDO, FLORIDA

How does Orlando, Florida in December sound?

Take a break, bring the family, and come to the National Committee meeting in Orlando on December 12 and 13. Meet Constitution Party leaders from around the country, listen in [...]

The following is a statement by James N. Clymer, National Chairman of the Constitution Party:

The Constitution Party Makes Inroads

by James N. Clymer
Constitution Party National Chairman

Or… There’s More Than One Way To Skin A Career Politician!

Constitution Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin and his running mate Darrell Castle wound up with close to 179,000 votes, showing [...]

The Washington Post’s Reliable Source blog has some fun with Ralph Nader for suggesting that third-party candidates should be invited to President Obama’s inauguration:

The sometimes cantankerous outsider has sent an open letter to Barack Obama asking that third-party candidates—the Libertarian Party’s Bob Barr, the Constitution Party’s Chuck Baldwin and the Green Party’s Cynthia McKinney—be included [...]

The New York Times asked its readers to nominate candidates for five positions in President-elect Obama’s cabinet. Guess who shows up in all five listings! Ron Paul comes in third for Treasury Secretary, fifth for Defense Secretary, sixth for Attorney General and Secretary for Homeland Security, and seventh for Secretary of State.

Ballot Access News

From preliminary election returns, it appears that these are the best counties for five particular presidential candidates:

Nader: Morgan County, Tennessee 5.2%
Barr: Esmeralda County, Nevada, 2.7%
Baldwin: Millard County, Utah, 5.6%
McKinney: either St. Bernard or LaFourche Parish, both in Louisiana, each 1.1%
Brian Moore: Essex County, Vermont, 2.1%

Thanks to Jack Ross for doing the laborious job [...]

Sarah Scrafford at WebPreneur includes Third Party Watch in her annotated list of “The Top 100 Libertarian Blogs.” We appear in the News section, with this description: “Third Party Watch reports on the important events and developments for third party candidates.”

Thank you Sarah!

David Weigel of Reason takes a look at the votes for Bob Barr, Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin, and Cynthia McKinney, all of which were disappointing to their backers and in historical context. He then concludes:

So if you add together Paul with the four candidates he gathered at the National Press Club to endorse (and [...]