Third Party Watch

by David F. Nolan

While most of the postings here in the last couple of weeks have centered on various candidates’ prospects for the Libertarian Party nomination, very little has been written about how things are likely to shape up in the general election. And since a lot of the discussion here has revolved around how [...]

In several comment threads here at Third Party Watch, readers have inquired as to the current status of the Boston Tea Party.

I gave up active participation in the BTP some time ago, considering it moribund. That assessment may have been premature:

The BTP now claims four state affiliates, up from one at the time that I [...]

MyRide has a unique way of interviewing presidential candidates. Here’s what looks like the first of a series:

MyRide: Tell us about your current car situation, what you’re driving, etc.

FM: I’m currently driving a 2005 Nissan Xterra Off Road edition because I just like the way it looks and I do a lot of outdoor [...]

We thought we’d provide some video of the key independent and third party contenders for the presidential race in 2008. Our goal was to provide footage of video which (for the most part) hasn’t ever been embedded at Third Party Watch before. When possible, we selected video from the candidate’s official YouTube channel [...]

Ballot Access News

According to this Orlando Sentinel newspaper story, Prohibition Party presidential candidate Gene Amondson said he will probably vote for the Republican nominee for president.

It is almost always a mistake for any minor party candidate to say that he or she will vote for a major party opponent. In 2004 the Green Party lost [...]

Here’s the link to join our Facebook network.

I’d like to make a personal request and ask that everybody who visits this site take a couple of minutes of your time to contact one or more legislators in Alabama and urge them to support HB738, which is a bill that will significantly decrease the signature requirement for independents in Alabama.

The committee meets [...]

By Kevin Zeese and Linda Schade

Citizens from across the political spectrum in Maryland worked together for a dramatic reversal in how Maryland votes. Since 2002 Maryland has experimented with paperless electronic voting. That experiment will end in 2010 when Maryland adopts a paper-based voting system with optical scan recounts.

This is a dramatic turnaround for a [...]

I wonder if anyone knows (without cheating) who the presidential candidate for the Free Soil Party is? I’ll tell you a little bit about her, but hold off on her name until after the jump.

Short platform (longer platform here):

Peace in the world and in our nation, an end to war;

An end to rape and [...]

From my e-mail:

The National Socialist Order of America is running John Taylor Bowles (50), a retired federal officer of the USDA, for President in 2008. Last week, Matthew Ramsey was named as his Vice-Presidential candidate running mate. Bowles’ first Vice-Presidential candidate running mate (William Hoff) was killed in an automobile accident in December 2006.

According to the Seattle Times, it probably will. Background:

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling Tuesday shoved Washington politics into a strange realm where two candidates from the same party could run against each other in the November election.

The decision also means minor political parties could largely vanish from the general-election ballot. And it may help [...]

From the Examiner:

In the opening to his fourth book, due out April 1, the former wrestler and governor of Minnesota writes: “As I begin to write this book, I’m facing probably the most monumental decision of my 56 years on this planet. Will I run for president of the United States, as an independent, in [...]

... or 40 years of the Peace and Freedom Party, anyway. The San Francisco branch of the California organization plans to celebrate on Saturday.

The Peace and Freedom Party was apparently actually founded in 1967, but it was in early 1968 that it achieved ballot status by registering more than 100,000 voters under its banner. They’ve [...]

In a somewhat amusing article spewing conservative venom at John McCain, James Antle provided these descriptions of America’s third parties:

Constitution Party—Formerly the U.S. Taxpayer’s Party, Ballot Access News ranks it the largest third party in terms of registered voters. Yet most of its members belong to the California state affiliate, the American Independent Party, apparently [...]

According to John Killian:

The American Party met March 7 and 8 in Avon Park, Florida and nominated the following ticket:

President Diane Beall Templin (was nominated in ‘96 and ‘04) of California
Vice President Linda Patterson of Indiana

For those who don’t know who John Killian is, he’s the guy who gave this fire and brimstone speech on [...]

I’ll let his website tell the story. It begins in 2006:

In the 2006 congressional election eight thousand people in the 16th District had the courage to say “NO” to the two factions of the Corporate Party. I just can’t thank those folks enough for the courage they displayed and the confidence they placed [...]

From Frank MacKay of the Independence Party of America:

With Mayor Bloomberg’s departure from the 2008 Presidential race, there are still three undeniable truths. First and foremost, there are still millions of Americans who feel disenfranchised and frustrated with our current political system and who feel that the two major parties don’t really represent [...]

According to Miller Politics, The New American Independent Party has named their “first presidential candidate, Frank McEnulty.”

It looks like the Boston Tea Party political party is DOA. From Tom Knapp:

A few months ago, I noted that the Boston Tea Party was essentially moribund/inactive, and accepted the offer of Jim Davidson to serve as replacement chair and try to get things going again.

In my opinion, that attempt has failed—I couldn’t even [...]

Anthony Pollina appeared on The Mark Johnson Show recently talking about his campaign for Governor in 2008. Rep. Chris Pearson (P-Burlington) also spoke with Johnson about the 2008 legislative priorities for the Progressive House caucus.
Pollina is a former Radio Show Host himself and a former Policy Advisor to Bernie Sanders. The Progressive Party has [...]

I was browsing several Secretary of State’s websites, when I trounced across California’s. I decided to take a look at the finalized primary results from February 5th. It was interesting to look at the numbers of each candidate, and especially how those votes corresponded for Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney in more than one primary.
Then [...]

The following was distributed as a MySpace bulletin:

Open Letter to Congressman Ron Paul from Frank MacKay,
Chairman of the Independence Party of America

I want to wish you the best of luck in your congressional primary on Tuesday, March 4th.

Thus far during this Presidential election we have refrained from commenting on candidates that are in major party [...]

SH writes:

The two factions of the Prohibition Party are working out the details of a merger. The Dodge faction has endorsed Gene Amondson for President. Amondson had been nominated by the Webb faction last year. The Dodge faction had nominated Dodge last year, but he died in the late fall. Discussions on re-organizing the merged [...]

Richard Winger is reporting that the founder of the world Natural Law parties has died:

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died at his home in The Netherlands on February 6, 2008. He was age 91. In 1992 he told his followers all over the world to found Natural Law Parties in their own nation.

The U.S. Natural Law Party [...]

Ballot Access News

The Personal Choice Party, as expected, submitted a petition to re-qualify for the Utah ballot on February 15. Assuming it has enough valid signatures, and also assuming the Libertarian Party has enough valid signatures, there will be 5 fully-qualified parties in Utah this year (the Constitution Party did not need to petition this [...]