Third Party Watch

Today is Mike Gravel’s birthday and he’s celebrating with this YouTube. He also (according to an e-mail I received from his campaign) just won a presidential straw poll in West Virginia. Here are the numbers they have provided TPW:

Below are the straw poll results from the West Virginia LP Convention, held yesterday.

Senator Mike [...]

USA Today story here.

I’m sure TPW publisher Stephen Gordon will offer more details as soon as humanly possible, either in an edit to this story or a full separate piece—this is just the “news flash!” version. Feel free to take it away in comments, though.

Chuck Baldwin’s campaign is, more and more, resembling Ron Paul’s. With the obvious change in rhetoric, the emphasis of non-social issues, and the championing of the non-interventionist foreign policy, Baldwin is quickly becoming a known name amongst Ron Paul supporters. Here in Louisiana, I’m getting calls daily—mostly from my fellow Ron Paul activists—wanting to know [...]

The AJC’s Political Insider, John Martin at Politico, CNN’s Mark Preston, Reason’s David Weigel and others report that Bob Barr will be holding a press conference on Monday. According to Martin and Preston, inside sources have confirmed that Barr will announcing a presidential race. It’s no big secret that I’m a campaign insider, but [...]

One of the recurring themes of third party politics in America seems to be the phenomenon of the “hostile takeover.” A disgruntled major party politician, an eccentric multi-millionaire, or perhaps a group of major party factional schemers decides that rather than working within the party of their putative loyalty, or perhaps forming a new party, [...]

From the Root for America campaign:

Libertarian Presidential candidate Wayne Allyn Root will be traveling to New York for a Libertarian Presidential debate on Fox Business Channel on Friday May 16th. Former United States Senator Mike Gravel has agreed to debate Root. Former Congressman Barr has also been invited by Fox. Root will appear on other [...]

From Townhall:

There’s scant prospect of any viable third party, however, when potential fringe contenders have an air of “round-up-the-usual suspects”—Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney, Mike Gravel, Bob Barr, and Chuck Baldwin. Soaring turnout in primaries shows no mass desertion from the two-party system, and the Gallup Poll of under-30 voters notes a scant 8%—unchanged from four [...]

The title was lifted to show how a Reason Facebook-promoted event is currently being billed. Here are the details provided:

A debate on the libertarian vote in 2008

Event Host: Reason magazine
Type: Music/Arts – Jam Session
Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Time: 4:30pm – 8:00pm
Location: Reason
Street:1747 Connecticut Ave NW
City/Town: Washington, DC

Description: As the Republicans settled on John McCain [...]

From David Weigel at Reason:

I saw Ron Paul on Wednesday, at a signing event for The Revolution, and he told me he won’t endorse Baldwin or Barr. He’ll kinda-sorta endorse both. He won’t stop them from using photos of him or talking about his campaign.

“Chuck was in my office today to say hello,” Paul said. [...]

It appears Chuck Baldwin’s website just went live, although it certainly isn’t fully fleshed out yet.

Chuck Baldwin is obviously relying heavily upon a candidacy which portrays him as a surrogate for Ron Paul. His main page says he is “continueing the Revolution”. Baldwin’s site also features a quote from his acceptance speech at the Constitution [...]

From the Barr 2008 Presidential Exploratory Committee:

Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr will hold a press conference on Monday May 12 to discuss his future plans and the 2008 election. Rep. Barr (bio here) launched an exploratory committee last month to determine whether he should file as a candidate for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination.

Who: [...]

There are still ongoing rumors and speculation that California’s American Independent Party may not be united with the rest of the Constitution Party’s decision about their presidential nominee.

Ballot Access News just reported:

However, [American Independent Party of California State Chair Ed] Noonan told me on the telephone on May 7 that he still will work to [...]

For the record, I’m still in love with Liv aka Mona aka Ron Paul Girl. While Gravel is busy chasing after Obama Girl, I’m at least getting some internet play from Ron Paul Girl. Mona still provides some linky-love to one of my websites and hasn’t dropped me as a Facebook friend (yet).

Here’s Ron [...]

From the Bob Barr 2008 Presidential Exploratory Committee:

Former Congressman Bob Barr has been invited to speak at the Oxford Union at the University of Oxford, the world’s most prestigious debating forum. Several U.S. Presidents have spoken at Oxford, including former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon.

The topic of the debate will be “This [...]

From the Libertarian Party blog:

Wayne Allyn Root
LD ‘08: $15,764.00
Individual: $29,988.00
Candidate: $4,421.90

Daniel Imperato
LD ‘08: $10,474.00
Individual: $0.00
Candidate: $0.00

Michael Jingozian
LD ‘08: $8,490.00
Individual: $13,090.79
Candidate: $0.00

Mike Gravel*^
LD ‘08: $895.00
Individual: $447,378.97
Candidate: $0.00

Steve Kubby**
LD ‘08: $1,280.00
Total: $2,951.22

Alden Link
LD ‘08: $885.00
Individual: $259.00
Candidate: $4,225.00

George Phillies
LD ‘08: n/a
Individual: $16,727.75
Candidate: $81,527.01

Mary Ruwart***
LD ‘08: $1,060.00
Individual: n/a
Candidate: n/a

Christine Smith**
LD ‘08: $2,460.00
Total: $16,244.00

Bob Barr (still in Presidential exploratory phase):
Total [...]

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 [...]

Ron Paul finished third in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries tonight, but it looks like those showings of 8% and 7% respectively will be enough to push him past the one million vote mark.

As of this moment, Paul has added 60,757 votes to his total… with 15% of the votes still to be counted [...]

I’ve only been an occassional contributor on TPW since Steve Gordon took over the site a few months ago. Partly to give Steve room to make things his own, and partly because I haven’t been as excited as I usually am about what’s going on. The promised Bloomberg or Unity ‘08 independent ticket [...]

Over the last few days, people have been commenting about various endorsements for Libertarian Party presidential candidates. While one can learn something about a candidate by these endorsements, one can also learn from who is criticizing the candidates.

Former Libertarian Party vice-presidential candidate Chris Bennett provides the latest published criticism of Wayne Allyn Root I’ve [...]

According to the website of the American Independent Party, which claims to be the California affiliate of the Constitution Party, Chuck Baldwin is not their presidential nominee. From their website:

Our candidates for 2008 are:
Don Grundmann—President – – http://www.truthusa.org/

You can get more info about them from their webpages.

Edward C. Noonan
State Party Chairman – American Independent [...]

The Belgrade News, in Montana, apparently ran the following article on May 2nd, which was then picked up a number of small online and print publications. It fails to realize the most significant part of Chuck Baldwin’s possible constituencies: Ron Paul voters.

Baldwin won’t be wooing the Religious Right, either, by playing the Christian card. The [...]

Paul Farris wants Ron Paul to run on the Libertarian Party ticket:

Now is the time to demand Ron Paul be on every ballot in America come November 2008. The Libertarian Convention is 22-26 May in Denver. Now is the time for Ron Paul to put his name in the hat for a sure presidential nomination [...]