Will Third Parties Run to Victory?

America's third parties tend to be regarded by political insiders as something of a joke. No candidate from the Libertarian or Green parties has won a high-profile state or national election — or even come close. That significant failure aside, representatives from these third parties insist that they are poised to make an impact this November. In fact, this time around they might have a few candidates with enough money and support to make things interesting. Establishment politicians who recall the contentious outcome of the 2000 presidential election and the bizarre shift in Senate power last spring regard this possibility as no laughing matter.

Just ask former vice president Al Gore. Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader shaved a critical margin away from Gore — most notably in Florida, where Nader grabbed more than 97,000 votes, most of which probably would have gone to Gore in an election decided by approximately 500 votes. In a less-publicized political fracas, the Libertarian Party (LP) played a critical role in tossing control of the Senate to Democrats and now Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). The Senate was evenly divided (and ripe for Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont to defect from the GOP) at least in part because in 2000 incumbent senator Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) lost to Democrat Maria Cantwell by fewer than 3,000 votes. In that race, the LP candidate received more than 64,000 votes, most of which probably would have gone to Gorton. A similar fate had befallen Republican challenger John Ensign in his 1998 bid to unseat incumbent Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). In March 2001, National Review referred to "The GOP's Libertarian Problem" as "what may be the most underreported political phenomenon of the last two election cycles."

The Greens and the Libertarians still itch for the role of spoiler. One of the most interesting races this year will be in Georgia, where redistricting has paired two incumbent Republicans — conservative Reps. John Linder and Bob Barr — in the GOP primary. Ron Crickenberger, political director of the LP, tells Insight that the party plans to spend as much as $100,000 in the race to attack Barr's hard-line position against medical marijuana and give the primary to Linder. An LP position paper entitled "Spoiler Targets for 2002" presents the case in stark terms: "Bob Barr is target No. 1, both in terms of time criticality and in overall importance. To the medical-marijuana movement, Barr is the equivalent of the Antichrist."

Linder does not support medical marijuana, according to his office, but he has a much lower profile on the issue than Barr. A spokesman for Linder tells Insight that the LP has not contacted the congressman about these expenditures, but adds that Linder has a good working relationship with them because of his support for tax reform.

A spokesman for Barr says he, too, is unaware of the LP strategy, but in a written statement to Insight the congressman does not shrink from the challenge: "I'm proud to be the antidrug candidate in this race. … I have been a leader in the war against [illegal] drugs and if the pro-drug folks want to target me with negative ads then that tells me I've been doing a good job in that effort."

In preparing to resist the Libertarian push, Barr might consider consulting with the other vocally antidrug incumbents the LP has targeted. They include Sens. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.), Max Cleland (D-Ga.), Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Texas). Crickenberger says Americans are ready to move away from drug prohibition, and his party is focusing resources accordingly. "We believe this is a substantial opportunity to move public policy in a Libertarian direction," he says.

Asked for races in which their candidate has a legitimate chance to win, LP officials point to Wisconsin. The Libertarian candidate for governor there is Ed Thompson, a former meat-cutter, prison guard and boxer who currently owns a bar/restaurant called Mr. Ed's Tee-Pee Supper Club and serves as mayor of tiny Tomah. He is polling between 7 and 11 percent, depending on which Democrat wins the primary.

Thompson reportedly was arrested in 1997 for operating illegal video-poker machines out of his bar and charged in 1998 for refusing to cooperate with police after being stabbed in the stomach by a friend. On the surface, he appears about as likely to win as shock-jock Howard Stern, who once toyed with the idea of running for governor of New York on the Libertarian ticket. But Thompson's brother is Tommy Thompson — probably the most popular politician in the state — who resigned as governor of Wisconsin to become President George W. Bush's secretary of health and human services. In an interview with Insight, Ed Thompson says his family name has given him added exposure and insists he is a serious candidate. "I am going to win," Thompson says. "There's no doubt about it."

Acting Gov. Scott McCallum is a Republican who was appointed when Tommy Thompson left for Washington, and he appears vulnerable. The Democrats will not hold primaries until later this summer and, in the meantime, Ed Thompson has been lapping up media attention and increasing his name recognition. He already has appeared on the Today show and was featured in a lengthy piece in the Style section of the Washington Post. In his interview with Insight, he pointed out that he is doing much better in the polls at this stage than another "hopeless" gubernatorial candidate who eventually went on to victory: Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura.

Since strange circumstances sometimes yield unexpected results, another gubernatorial race for Libertarians to watch might be in Massachusetts. Republican Gov. Jane Swift, the once-popular incumbent who gave birth in office to twins, earlier this year decided not to run when it became clear that Republican Mitt Romney, head of the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee, was throwing his hat in the ring. Several Democrats still are battling for the primary nod.

In the midst of it all sits Libertarian Carla Howell. A management consultant who now is campaigning full time, she collected more than 300,000 votes (11.8 percent) in her 2000 bid for the Senate seat of Democrat Edward M. Kennedy; she fell fewer than 26,000 votes short of the Republican candidate. It is impossible to know whether she will control those votes this fall or if they will move to Romney in a close race because none of the polls conducted so far have included her as an option — a snub she dismisses as "absurd" given her showing in 2000.

Howell remains confident, however. She tells Insight that her campaign will spend approximately $1 million by Election Day — an astronomical war chest by Libertarian standards and one that will allow her to buy precious time on television. "I certainly have a chance," she says. "I'm a dark horse, but we'll see."

Howell says her campaign will get a boost from a possible ballot measure that would give voters the chance to eliminate the state's notoriously high income tax. She is cofounder and chairwoman of the ballot initiative — a measure none of the other candidates supports. Asked if she fears her candidacy might "spoil" the election for Romney and give it to a big-spending Democrat, Howell argues that neither Democrats nor Republicans advocate smaller government. "You can't spoil tainted meat," she says.

Dean Myerson, political director for the Green Party, also dismisses criticism that his party spoils elections. "The whole concept with spoilers is that we have a responsibility to protect Democrats when they run bad candidates," Myerson tells Insight. "We're running candidates because that's what our supporters want."

According to Myerson, the Green Party's best chance this year also is in a gubernatorial race, this one in Maine. He says Green candidate Jonathan Carter and his supporters slogged through the Maine winter to get 20 percent of party members to sign a petition supporting the campaign. Myerson says the signatures put Carter on the ballot and made him eligible for public funds. The political director says the campaign eventually should receive "close to $1 million. He's going to have the funds to run a serious campaign."

Opposing Carter will be a Republican, an independent and Rep. John Baldacci (D-Maine), according to Myerson. He says he is unaware of any polls so far, but adds that the crowded field might favor a dark horse. "It's a four-way race," he notes, "so you can win with 30-some percent."

Optimistic predictions aside, these third-party candidates are all long shots — just like Ventura. But Chuck Muth, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC), is one political operative who takes the third-party threat seriously. The RLC derides as RINOs (Republicans in name only) those GOP officials who stray from their small-government promises and it urges the party to stick to fundamentals such as tax cuts. Muth has worked in Nevada to find common ground between Libertarian and Republican candidates for the state Assembly, cobbling deals so the two parties compete in as few districts as possible. "I wish someone at the national level would do it," he says, noting that more and more elections are coming down to the wire, and that tenuous majorities in both the House and the Senate are on the line. "Two or 3 percent is the spoiler level in a lot of these races," he warns.

Will Third Parties Run to Victory?
No.
Will Third Parties Ruin Victory?
Yes.

Will Anything change as long as Socialist (democrat) and Socialist Lite (republican) continue to run the game?

Will this nation continue to have its freedoms limited as long as these two parties are in power?

YES

Southern Party bump

The brigadeers and brownies will do their usual bashing and whining and siphoning votes away from Conservatives and then spend the next two years, a) complaining about the DemocRATs in power or b) complaining that the Republicans aren't any different than the DemocRATs.

Either way, they are marginal fringes whose only use is by the DemocRATs to undermine their opponents and they are not taken seriously by anyone except their own narrow focus group.

They cannot construct. They can only destroy or obstruct. Hey, they sound like DemocRATs to me!

Will Third Parties Ruin Victory?
Yes.

Will they ruin victory for the Dems, GOP, or both? It seems that in every election there are left-wing parties taking as many votes away from the Democrats as conservative/libertarian parties are taking away from the Republicans. Wouldn't it then balance out? For example, in the last presidential election, Ralph Nader received more votes (2,882,955) than Harry Browne, Pat Buchanan and Howard Phillips combined (931,346).

(Source: http://fecweb1.fec.gov/pubrec/2000presgeresults.htm)

Will Third Parties Run to Victory? No. Will Third Parties Ruin Victory? Yes.

What was the excuse for the ruination of this Republic before the Third Parties made the National scene?

Will the two entrenched National Parties Run to Victory? Absolutely YES.

Will the two entrenched National Parties depend soley on their "bots" for support? Another absolute.

Sooner or later you people are gonna have to get your heads out of your collective asses, and help us rebuild this once Great Republic. That ain't gonna happen with Dems/Repubs. How many more decades of history do we need to observe? Blackbird.

Want some third party votes?

They're yours for the taking. But you have to earn 'em.

Run consitutional candidates like Ron Paul, and I'll abandon my third party candidates in a heartbeat.

If not, and you let the R's power brokers dictate the results of primaries, and continue to run police state candidates, then you'll never get my vote.

It's just that easy.

I agree. I find it hilarious that people who care so much for freedom and liberty can't bring themselves to exercise that freedom to vote for someone besides Democrats or Republicans. Think, people, think!!! I'd vote for a Constitutionalist Libertarian over a RINO every day! It's all about knowing the issues, knowing the candidates, and having the guts to vote based on your conscience, rather than a follow-the-leader sheeple mentality...

The adherents of so-called third-parties would have much more success if they would build their power bases (if they have one worth any mention) within the national parties. Then, they'd be a force to be reckoned with. If they stay outside the party as a third party, they will lose. Show me an example from recent history where that is not the rule. If you are smart, and you have a following, take over the national party - don't be marginalized by going th e T.P. route. That's exactly what the major party establishment wants you to do. That is how they maintain their stranglehold.

"Will Anything change as long as Socialist (democrat) and Socialist Lite (republican) continue to run the game?"

LOL, that is an accurate characterization. I see the Greens, though, as a purer form of socialists yet, only disguised by their name.

"If they stay outside the party as a third party, they will lose. Show me an example from recent history where that is not the rule."

Gov. Jesse Ventura here in Minnesota—and by a large margin over the Dem. and Rep. candidates. Of course I wasn't one of the ones who voted for him, thank goodness!

Thanks for the ping.

Third Parties are the only way to impact the views of the converging direction of the establishment parties. Winning isn't getting elected, it is moving the pile on issues.

Dole wouldn't even read the grass roots platform, so the GOP nominated Bush not McCain. If Bush can't read any better than Dole, then he will have a problem. BTW since Bush ran as a conservative, there must be a dozen conservative things he has accomplished. Anyone care to mention the main 3 or 4?

A spokesman for Barr says he, too, is unaware of the LP strategy, but in a written statement to Insight the congressman does not shrink from the challenge: "I'm proud to be the ~~antidrug~~ anti-constitution candidate in this race. … I have been a leader in the war against ~~[illegal] drugs~~ Americans and if the ~~pro-drug~~ pro-freedom folks want to target me with negative ads then that tells me I've been doing a good job in that effort."

As more and more CONSERVATIVE Americans wake up to the folly of the INSANE War on Drugs, fascists like Barr will eventually be sent packing. Drug prohibition is a statist, left-wing agenda: live it, learn it, love it.

Help take back our God-given birthright of liberty: vote LIBERTARIAN whenever a Drug Warrior is up for re-election, be he Pubbie or Rat.

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