Third Party Watch

From Barrett for Congress:

Two years ago, the politicians wanted Kevin Barrett fired from his teaching job. Now Barrett is turning the tables. Barrett is calling on the voters to fire the politicians, starting with his own 3rd District Representative, Ron Kind.

“The Democrats were elected in 2006 to end the war,” Barrett explains. “They failed. Ron [...]

It looks like Dr. William (B. J.) Lawson aka Ron Paul, Jr. just poured an entire can of ass-whoopin’ on Republican Augustus Cho in North Carolina’s Fourth Congressional District GOP primary. Here’s an update from last night from David Weigel:

UPDATE 9:04: I just spoke to B.J. Lawson, who is clobbering Augustus Cho 70-30 with [...]

From John Murphy for Congress:

John Murphy, the Independent congressional candidate in the 16th district, told his campaign volunteers today that Democrat candidate Bruce Slater had changed his position in the last month on health care as result of the Murphy campaign.

Murphy explained that his campaign brochure, released over a month ago in both hardcopy and [...]

The Independent American Party of Nevada just hosted a great state convention in Reno, with nationally known writer Dr. Jerome Corsi as our keynote speaker. Other speakers included, Jim Clymer our national affiliate chairman, and California Eagle Forum President and author, Orlean Koehle, who both addressed the convention and the invited public. We reconfirmed our [...]

Filing for Federal offices ended last week and it produced a couple of surprises. Among those are two credible major party candidates who have decided to run as independents instead of taking on incumbents in their party primaries. Either of these races could, in theory, produce an upset…

In District 14, Congressman Connie Mack [...]

Faith and freedom were the themes of interviews with two Constitution Party candidates recorded at the party’s national convention in Kansas City.

Dr. Gregory Thompson, a former public school superintendent, says the system is failing children, parents and the state and needs reformed. In the interview, he claims “…ninety percent of our children, after going through [...]

From a great article about one of my favorite elected Libertarians:

I couldn’t convince likeable libertarian Ed Thompson on Friday to run for the Legislature this fall.

Too bad.

The Tomah mayor and bar owner would be a refreshing voice at the Capitol—not to mention a whole lot of fun.

Thompson, the younger brother of former Gov. Tommy Thompson, [...]

Insurance Agency owner Floyd Fitzgibbons announced today his plan to run for the 3rd Congressional District. The 51 year old native Nevadan’s entry into the contest will have an important bearing on the outcome of the election due to the large number of disenchanted Republicans and that 80,000 registered voters in the 3rd district are [...]

From John Murphy for Congress:

John Murphy, the Independent congressional candidate in [Pennsylvania’s] 16th District, announced to his supporters yesterday that the campaign had collected over 2,400 signatures at voting precincts throughout the 16th District on April 22.

John Murphy said “even though we have collected close to a hundred more signatures than required, the Democrat Party [...]

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan wants to snatch House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat from her in November, but first she’s going to need the help – and signatures – of 10,198 friends and supporters.

Sheehan was at San Francisco City Hall on Friday to take out papers for her independent run for [...]

Mary Ruwart’s Candidacy Cause for Celebration
by John David Christensen, Vice-chair Vermont Libertarian Party

Dr. Mary J. Ruwart’s recently announced candidacy for the Libertarian Party’s (LP) presidential nomination should be cause for celebration by libertarian activists everywhere. Or at least by those who desire a movement that is as broadly-based and spirited as the revolution Ron Paul [...]

Since I did not notice it reported elsewhere on this site, I thought I would mention that the Constitution Party nominated Darrel Castle for Vice-President of the United States. I do not know much about him. He is the national vice-chairman of the Constitution Party and a member of the Constitution Party of [...]

Christine Smith has posted a laudatory “open letter to Shane Corey and Andrew Davis” over at Nolan Chart. Excerpt:

Thank you for having the courage to express a libertarian perspective on such a matter and for defending the integrity of the LP on this issue. The last thing our party needs is to become associated with [...]

Mary Ruwart, candidate for the Libertarian Party’s 2008 presidential nomination, will appear on Steve Kubby’s Blog Talk Radio program. Monday, April 28th, at 6pm Pacific.

Likely topic of discussion: Exactly what you’d expect.

Over at American conservatism’s home on the web, Town hall, Paul Jacob has a look at the Libertarian Party:

[I] prefer to think of the persistence of the Libertarian Party as charming, not pathetic. Everything is stacked against them. The two parties in charge have made sure that it is very hard for “minor parties” to [...]

Audio here.

Third Party Watch Publisher Stephen Gordon was recently interviewed on Seattle’s Newstalk 710 KIRO.

Good Third Party Watch sound-byte from Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic: “It’s a good source of—like—alternative (I come from the alternative rock world)—it’s a good source of alternative politics.”

Here’s another from Novocelic: “It’s kind of like the independent music store, the underground, the [...]

Ballot Access News

On April 11, Idaho Governor Butch Otter signed S.1514. It takes effect immediately. It says that if someone changes his name and then runs for office, the ballot will list both the candidate’s new name and the old name. The bill was introduced because Marvin Richardson had changed his name last year to [...]

In a rare* example of Democratic-Republican collusion, Arkansas Democrats are not challenging Republican House incumbent John Boozman, and Arkansas Republicans are not challenging Democratic House incumbents Marion Berry, Vic Snyder, and Mike Ross, nor Democratic Senator Mark Pryor.

The Green Party of Arkansas is stepping up to give both parties a challenge.

So far they have nominated [...]

As with several other recent videos, this one is based on the candidate’s topical position paper.

Libertarian Party founder David F. Nolan weighs in on Bob Barr’s presidential aspirations over at Nolan Chart.

All in all, an impressive list of credentials that add up to what could be called the Good Barr—a prospective candidate everyone should be happy to support.

Right?

Unfortunately, there is another side to Bob Barr as well: a plethora of [...]

These straw poll results just in from Susan Hogarth at North Carolina’s Libertarian Party convention:

Mary Ruwart: 17
George Phillies: 3
Wayne Allyn Root: 2
Bob Barr: 1
Mike Gravel: 1
Steve Kubby: 1

I’ll update this article as I get more information on which candidates attended, who participated in any candidate debates/forums, and how the straw poll was conducted.

Update: According to [...]

Steve Gordon is in Kansas City this weekend, attending the Heartland Libertarian Conference. Presumably he’ll be providing coverage of conference events for TPW’s readers ASAP.

From the outside looking in, here’s the news on the front that everyone seems most interested in:

According to bloggage at the New York Times (confirmed by other sources), Bob Barr announced [...]

Here’s a release I received in my e-mail:

Friday and Saturday Night we will broadcasting live from the Heartland Libertarian Convention in Kansas City, MO.

Friday night show is from 6:30 Pm till 8:30 Pm. We will be interviewing Local, State,and National Libertarian Candidates. Saturday 10:00 AM till 12:00 PM we will be broadcasting live the Libertarian [...]

It looks like the former Minnesota will be talking about his potential presidential aspirations on Larry King Live tonight.

From the program teaser:

Jesse Ventura…for president!!?? The former wrestler-governor is back and talking politics. Where has he been – and is he really making a run for presidency?

The International Herald Tribune has another possible angle to the [...]

During a weekend state convention in Peoria, the Illinois Green Party chose former public schoolteacher and 2006 congressional candidate Kathy Cummings as its nominee for US Senate.

Cummings was denied ballot access for her congressional campaign in 2006 despite turning in 2 1/2 times the required number of petition signatures. After gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney polled [...]