In Summer 2002, Bill Winter announced his intent to step down as editor of LP News. He was put on part-time status, at full-time pay, while working from a remote site, to discharge debts the party owed him.
In 2002, the campaign groundswell for Carla Howell encountered a series of difficulties. Instead of a three-way race against a Democrat and a lame-duck Republican Acting Governor widely believed to be severely underqualified for her post, Howell found herself running against:
A popular Democrat, Shannon O’Brien, who had solid ties to the entire Democratic Party machine.
A well-known Republican, Mitt Romney, who could run as an outsider and point to his experience running the Olympics.
An effective Green Party speaker, Dr. Jill Stein
Flamboyant independent eccentric and father’s rights advocate Barbara Johnson.
In the end, despite spending vast sums of money, despite multiple debates against her four opponents, despite name recognition from her 2000 race, Howell finished fourth. Howell received 23,044 votes, substantially fewer votes than the 31,790 votes received by Dean Cooke’s minimally funded 1998 Libertarian campaign for the same office. Howell received fewer votes than the 24,898 received by Randall Forsberg, who ran in 2002 as a last-minute write-in candidate for U. S. Senate against Democrat Senator Kerry and Libertarian Michael Cloud. As was predicted a year in advance by Massachusetts libertarian activist Craig Matthias:
“I’m going to predict here that Carla will be utterly humiliated in the Governor’s race. She did well against a weak Republican in the Senate contest (and, as weak as he was, he still beat her), but against strong Democratic and Republican candidates this year, she will get creamed….”
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