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) [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

It is reported on ChuckBaldwinForum.com that “the chairman of the Constitution Party of Ohio received over 230,000 votes with a campaign featuring a positive message and an urban agenda.” Robert Owens is the person, and he was running for the position of state attorney general.

The posting continues:

The campaign featured five debates in which the [...]

Ballot Access News reports that independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader “did not seek the nomination of any nationally-organized party. But he did seek out the nomination of various parties that are just organized in one state. Also, in a few states, for pragmatic ballot-access purposes, he created new one-state parties.”

It continues:

In eight states, parties that [...]

The following message is from the Ralph Nader presidential campaign site:

Hold Your Heads Up High

Posted by The Nader Team on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 at 12:56:00 PM

Hold Your Heads Up High .

Against all odds.

We prevailed.

On $4 million total — what Obama raised in one day.

Nader/Gonzalez overcame ballot access obstacles.

We put our shift the power agenda [...]

The following message is from the Chuck Baldwin presidential campaign site:

Post-Election Message

by Chuck Baldwin
Constitution Party 2008 Presidential Candidate

Friends ,

The results of the presidential election come as no surprise.

While we all will struggle with the choice Americans have made, we will in no way hang our heads in defeat. The progressive development of our 16 year [...]

In three states—Missouri, Indiana, and North Carolina—the victor in the presidential race did not get 50% of the vote. And the vote for third-party candidates conceivably may have altered the outcome.

The problem is trying to determine the mindset of the voters who took the third-party route, an impossible task. Would they have voted [...]

With about half of today’s projected 140M votes counted, independent Ralph Nader has about 350K votes and Libertarian Bob Barr has 300K. If this pace holds, Barr would finish with a disappointing 600K (barely over 0.4%), and Nader would get a surprisingly low 700K. Both were polling at 1% on election eve.

Thanks to Bradley Jansen for providing this cheat-sheet service on Nolan Chart. He lists 14 “likely battleground states with information of the main third party candidates on the ballot and their history of support in the state (and how they may affect the electoral outcomes).”

Now if we could get only one of the mainstream [...]

Mother Jones doesn’t pretend to be an “objective” magazine, so don’t expect anything but sneers in this article focusing on Howard Phillips, the power-broker of the Constitution Party. But don’t let that scare you away from reading this article, because there’s a lot of interesting speculation mixed up with the leftist conspiracy-mongering. For [...]