Third Party Watch

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) [...]

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 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

According to Ballot Access News:

Barack Obama has the top spot on the ballot in 15 states and the District of Columbia. John McCain has the top spot on the ballot in 14 states. Chuck Baldwin has the top spot in 6 states. Ralph Nader has the top spot in one state. Cynthia McKinney has the [...]

Agency France Presse (AFP) takes a look at the campaigns of third-party candidates:

...the libertarian candidate Bob Barr, independent Ralph Nader and, to a lesser extent, Chuck Baldwin’s Constitution Party and Green candidate Cynthia McKinney, could have a significant impact on the hopes of McCain or Obama, who remain locked in tight races in key battleground [...]

The lead story in today’s Style section of the Washington Post spotlights Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney. Entitled “Stealth Candidacy,” the feature starts with McKinney addressing a crowd of “graying Black Panthers gathered for a reunion” in Atlanta.

“Cynthia’s candidacy has brought some real vibrancy and energy to the party,” says Thano Paris, a [...]

Maria Recio of McCletchey Newspapers writes that “the troubled presidential debate for third-party candidates scheduled for Sunday at Columbia University in New York was canceled Friday after none of the four candidates had committed to the event.”

Barr claimed a conflict while McKinney opted for an online debate originally scheduled for that evening. Baldwin was reluctant [...]

The Caucus, the political blog of the New York Times, devotes this posting to Sunday night’s third-party debate (see article below, too). Noting that Ralph Nader (Independent), Cynthia McKinney (Green Party), and Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party) are expected to show up, the Times goes on to elaborate on the one person who apparently will [...]

Ballot Access News

C-SPAN will broadcast the October 19 debate between Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney, and Chuck Baldwin, although it is not yet known if it will be broadcast live. The debate will be Sunday evening, October 19, at Columbia University in New York city. The moderator will be Amy Goodman of Pacifica Radio. It is [...]

Hofstra University on Long Island is the site of the final presidential debate Wednesday night. Until then, the campus is alive with student activities, including historical reenactments. The irony of the situation is captured ontheWilderside.net:

Just finished watching an exchange between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, both 3rd Party candidates. Lincoln did not mention [...]

Scott McLarty protests on OpEdNews.com that basically only one viewpoint on the Iraq war and the Wall Street bailout will be given to the American people in tonight’s presidential debate. He has an alternative proposal:

When the LWV [League of Women Voters] ceded authority over the debates in 1988, it called the growing Democratic-Republican domination [...]

Ballot Watch News reports that both the Libertarian Party and the Green Party have expanded the number of congressional candidates they are fielding this year. The Libertarian Party has 127 nominees on the ballot compared to 114 in 2006. The Green Party has jumped from 45 congressional candidates in 2006 to 58 this [...]

Douglas E. Schoen, a pollster, writes in the Los Angeles Times that “the presidential election could well turn on a factor that has gotten virtually no discussion this year—the votes drawn by Libertarian Bob Barr, Green Cynthia McKinney and independent Ralph Nader.”

After demonstrating how their candidacies could make a difference in various states, Schoen asks: [...]

The following is an e-mail from the Green Party of the United States:

Leave the Oil in the Soil!

Dear ,

Were you sickened as we were by the chants of “Drill, Baby, Drill” at the Republican convention? But it got worse. In a cynical election year attempt to win voters [...]

The following is a media release from the Green Party:

Distributed by the Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
National Women’s Caucus of the Green Party of the United States http://greens.org/gp-uswomen/

For Immediate Release
Monday, September 29, 2008

Contact:
Morgen D’Arc, Spokesperson, 207-761-7797, morgenizer@yahoo.com
Linda Manning Myatt, Spokesperson, 248-548-6175, lmmyatt@wowway.com

Green Party National Women’s Caucus challenges NOW to support the historic McKinney/Clemente [...]

“If John McCain wants to bow out, I’m willing to step in and take his podium on Friday,” says Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party candidate for President:

The financial meltdown won’t come any closer to a resolution because a presidential debate is postponed. Now is the best time for Americans to see how prepared their leaders [...]

Bob Barr (Libertarian Party) calls Treasury Secretary Paulson’s $700 billion gift to his Wall Street friends the “bailout from hell”:

The Bush administration played this game before, using 9/11 to ram the Patriot Act through Congress, and then misused its authority while resisting court oversight. Never again should Congress allow itself to be duped in this [...]

Under California law a party is qualified to participate in primary (and thus also general) elections if 1) it achieves as many registrants as 1% of the voter turnout in the last regular gubernatorial election, or 2) had a statewide candidate win a 2% share in that election. Here are the registration numbers and selected [...]

According to Ballot Access News:

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is on the ballot, so far, in 46 states.

The Libertarian Party’s Bob Barr: 44 states.

The Constitution Party’s Chuck Baldwin: 37 states.

And the Green Party’s Cynthia McKinney: 32.

Tampabay.com in St. Petersburg reports that the Florida ballot is going to look like a phone book:

Ralph Nader is on the Florida presidential ballot, along with other semi-big names like the Libertarian Party’s Bob Barr, the Green Party’s Cynthia McKinney, and the American Independent Party’s Alan Keyes. Because it’s easier to be a minor [...]

The Burlington (N.C.) Times News reports to its readers that they will have alternatives to the Republicans and Democrats in November:

In addition to Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, Libertarian Bob Barr’s name will be on the North Carolina presidential ballot.

Three other candidates who won’t be on the ballot qualified as write-in presidential candidates: [...]

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr previously was a Republican congressman from Georgia. Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney previously was a Democratic congresswoman from Georgia. Both lost their seats in 2002.

CQ Politics asks:

Is it just coincidence that Barr and McKinney represented districts in the suburbs of Atlanta, or is something more at [...]