Because ‘first past the post’ election schemes work just fine when only one party is on the ballot. One of our political sources counted. In 2022, only 10% of state legislators had opposition in their primary election. Two-thirds of state legislators had no opponent in the General Election. Massachusetts needs a Second Party, the Republicans being effectively not in business…
Third Party Watch
For various reasons, I am on a large number of political email lists. Some are quite conservative. Some are far to the left. However, they have a feature in common. We are 16 months from November 2024. Nonetheless, they have all gone to high intensity fundraising for the next Federal elections, the ones in 2024. From some sites, I receive…
Thomas Knapp, Director for the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism and the former 2008 vice presidential nominee of the Boston Tea Party, has announced that he will run for the presidency in the 2024 election cycle. Knapp is running an independent, “write-in-only” campaign. Third Party Watch invites our readers to contribute to the discourse! Share your opinions…
Revised LPUS membership counts, at end of month. Note in the past two months the drops of nearly 500 and nearly1000. 2022-12 16,988 2023-1 16,507 2023-2 16,308 2023-3 15,954 2023-4 15,539 2023-5 15,060 2023-6 14,080 There had been a slow loss of sustaining members due to an unanticipated consequence of a software feature, these people still being sustaining members but…
Third Party Watch invites our readers to contribute to the discourse! Share your opinions on news and events surrounding third parties and independent candidates. While these pieces don’t reflect our views or those of our editors, they illuminate unique perspectives and enrich our understanding of topical events. Contact us today to learn more. An open letter to my friends in…
Jonathan Todd Casey supplies us with an analysis from the Libertarian Party’s Classical Liberal Caucus. The graph shows the total amount of money raised in the first five months of each year for which there are FEC records, meaning this year and going back in time through three decades. The graph shows the inflation adjusted numbers. The first 5 months…
While some people thought that the Libertarian National Committee elected in 2022 advocated for transparency, their actions since then point in different direction. The national party membership report for each month historically appeared early in the next month. It is now June 17, and the report has not yet been released. There has been no public discussion this month of…
What results can one expect from direct mail? Regardless of your political inclinations, we call the attention of readers to Richard Viguerrie’s how-to manual on doing politics. His book GoBig as seen at https://www.gorightgobig.com/ is largely applicable to any political group. Viguerrie in the associated blog gives us interesting numbers on direct mail fundraising. He estimates that he will “…mail…
No, that’s not a typo. I said lost not won. Of course most people currently living in the US would call it a victory. The winners get to write the history books. However, if you were someone who lived on this continent before the relentless swarm of invaders headed inward from the eastern shore, you would say lost. The same…
A post from Stewart Flood forwarded by George Phillies You may or may not remember reading about the Hoovervilles. Ad-hoc camps in several cities, most notable outside of the District of Columbia, put together by former servicemen who came – peacefully – to demand their back pay from World War I that the government had deferred and held hostage. There…