Third Party Watch

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 [...]

In case you missed it, or wish to watch it again, here is the footage of the 2008 Libertarian Party presidential debate.

Part I:

Part II:

A tip of the hat to Hardy.

The day leading up to the LP national convention is already eventful, with a few issues to key an eye on for this weekend, particularly in the presidential race.

Four LP candidates (no, I’m not naming names) have privately indicated that they are not certain they will get enough tokens to qualify for the “C-SPAN debate” [...]

Here’s the media wrap-up from day one. The Washington Times took the headline-o-the-day with their front page article, “Marijuana project parties with Barr.”

The Libertarian National Convention kicked off yesterday with a tea-and-cookies reception hosted by the Marijuana Policy Project featuring none other than Mr. Barr, the party’s leading candidate for its presidential nomination.

Stacy McCain [...]

From Libertarian Party Headquarters:

Washington, D.C. – The Libertarian Party will hold its biennial National Convention this week in Denver, where it will select its presidential nominee for the 2008 election. The convention will be held May 22 through 26. 



“This is going to be a watershed year for the Libertarian Party,” says Libertarian [...]

According to Google News…

Top tier

“Bob Barr”: Results 1 – 10 of about 1,143 for Bob-Barr
“Ralph Nader”: Results 1 – 10 of about 928 for Ralph-Nader

Second tier

“Mike Gravel”: Results 1 – 10 of about 188 for Mike-Gravel
“Alan Keyes”: Results 1 – 10 of about 185 for Alan-Keyes
“Cynthia McKinney”: Results 1 – 10 of about 169 for [...]

From Mike Gravel for President 2008:

I congratulate the California Supreme Court for recognizing a self-evident truth: Marriage is a fundamental constitutional right that ALL Americans share! Anything short of marriage equality means second-class citizenship for gays and lesbians. Obama, Clinton and McCain choose to deny this truth but California just made their obstinate opposition much [...]

From the Root for America campaign:

Wayne Allyn Root will debate former United States Senator Mike Gravel on Fox Business Network on Friday May 16th. It is believed to be the first-ever Libertarian Presidential debate to be televised nationally, outside of C-Span coverage during the Libertarian convention. Former Congressman Bob Barr was invited to join the [...]

From the Green Party:

Green Party leaders called for national defeat of the $300 billion Farm Bill, calling it a capitulation to major agribusiness interests and a blow to small farmers.

“While the bill contains a funding for nutrition and some environmental reforms, the bill would provide huge subsidies for powerful agricultural corporations, giving them greater power [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

While he hadn’t joined the Libertarian Party at this time, here’s recent footage of Mike Gravel:

John McCaslin reports that Bob Barr will be a guest at the 2008 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. In a different article, McCaslin reports the following:

Former Republican congressman and rumored 2008 Libertarian Party candidate for president Bob Barr was seen huddling with pundits and leaders of various state-based center-right and libertarian think tanks and [...]