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" Have the Libertarian Party actually won a contested election anywhere?"

Very very very few...and most are city/local races. This is from the Libertarian Party website:

" Libertarian Mary O'Connor was elected to the city council in Brooklyn Center, Minn., coming in second out of four candidates in a non-partisan race where the top two won.

O'Connor garnered 5,024 votes, fewer than opponent Kay Lasman's 5,655 -- but enough to defeat Tom Reynolds, who won 4,207 votes, and Charles F. Nichols Jr., who took 2,851.

* Also in Minnesota, Libertarian Mark Thorsted came in second in a five-way race to become one of two new members on the Otsego City Council. He and co-victor Jessica Stockamp defeated incumbent Jerry Struthers and two other challengers -- Tom Darkenwald and Terri Ruschmeier -- and will serve four-year terms.

* In Florida, longtime Libertarian Jim Culberson was elected in a three-way race to the commission that oversees the Sebastian Inlet Tax District, which includes parts of Brevard and Indian River counties. He garnered 36,129 votes, compared to his opponents' 35,633 and 30,605 votes.

In running for the seat -- a non-partisan race -- Culberson spent approximately $5,700, compared to a war chest of $80,000 directed against him by a local lobbyist, according to Bruce Wechsler, chairman of the Brevard County Libertarian Party."

The LP likes playing games I guess...I gathered that from this part of the Libertarian website...pathetic actually.

"While the Libertarian Party was unable to draw enough votes to affect the outcome of the presidential race -- candidate Michael Badnarik earned approximately 380,000 votes -- the party did affect several state-level races.

* A race for Oregon state representative was apparently decided by Libertarian Tom Cox's involvement. By drawing 9.5 percent of the vote, Cox drew enough support away from the incumbent -- who had reneged on a 2002 campaign promise not to raise taxes -- to cause her defeat.

Incumbent Mary Gallegos, a one-term Republican who voted for a huge tax increase last year, received 42 percent of the vote to be defeated by Democrat Chuck Riley, who drew 48 percent. With a difference of only 6 percentage points between the two, Cox's percentage clearly affected the outcome.

Cox, who ran as a true fiscal conservative, told newspaper reporters following the election that he believes he took votes from Gallegos, causing her downfall after one term in office. Gallegos promised when elected in 2002 that she would not raise taxes.

"This isn't the victory we would have loved," Cox said. "But [Gallegos] was in my crosshairs from Day One, and this is well within the range of success."

* And in Washington State, the race for governor remains undecided but Libertarian candidate Ruth Bennett apparently has taken enough votes from Democrat Christine O. Gregoire to allow Republican Dino Rossi to take the lead. Polls taken before the election hinted that Democrats were more likely to support Bennett than Republicans were.

Election officials said it could take up to a week to count the many thousands of absentee and provisional ballots that will determine the race. According to news reports, after nearly 1.9 million votes had been counted on Nov. 3, Rossi was leading by only 1,064 votes. Before the election, Bennett was polling at about 2 percent -- a deciding factor in the race.

In other races, Libertarian candidates attained sizable vote totals -- showing that there is a market for the Libertarian message -- but did not achieve the desired posts. "