Good luck Libertarian Party candidates!

Michelle apparently forgot to say:

Good luck Libertarian Party candidates running as Republicans this year. Record number. Over 20 alone for New Hampshire Legislature, including LP stalwart Don Gorman and the wife of the LP State Chair in a key State Senate race.

Plus, 5 for Vermont Legislature.

Virtually ALL Libertarian victories tonight will come on the GOP ticket. Others, like Smither, will come as a result of Republican support.

One hopes HoT doesn’t ignore them, like appararently Ms. Shinghall has just done.

I’m sure it was just an oversight and she really meant to say:

Good luck to ALL Libertarian candidates today, Libertarian Party AND Libertarian Republicans.

OK, so you’re so good I have to come back every once in awhile even if you are putting me in your big HoT echelon database. ;-) Thanks for helping Matthew Moseley!! He is one of our best candidates this year, a real joy to work with and very deserving of your support. The Texas LP has a lot to be proud of!

Today I will join with Mr. Dondero. I wish every success to our Libertarian candidates, regardless of how they are listed on the ballot. I hope all non-demopublicans have a strong showing today, good luck to NOTA in Nevada, and as I do every election day, I pray that everyone who is elected upholds the standards of Liberty bequeathed to us by our Founders.

Our Libertarian candidates are the best bunch of folks anyone could hope to be associated with. Working with them has been a special blessing. It is a joy to support them and I am looking forward to seeing the results of their hard work and their faith in this country roll in big tonight.

Folks, don’t mind Eric – his dyslexia is causing him to see the Nolan chart upisde down.

“Libertarians” or close according to Eric:

Bill O’Reilly
Zell Miller
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Jeb Bush
Katherine Harris
George W. Bush
Rudolf Giuliani
Joe Lieberman

Any questions?!

No, Dondickwad, you should GO HOME to the GOP.

There are lots of local LP candidates running who we might not hear about right away. Locally, we stand the best chance to elect a Justice of the Peace (Linda Wilbert, JP#4, Brazos County, TX). Yesterday, I too made a run for some last minute fliers and was putting up campaign signs at polling places. …oh and if Linda is elected, it will be because of support from traditional DEMOCRATS! We’ll see.

Good Luck all.

Eric

(yawn)

There are a trivial number of Democrats and Republicans who merit a vote (if you have to vote at all).

But most of your so-called “libertarian Republicans” are, well, NOT.

We’ll be a lit better off if the Democrats don’t get cheated out of taking over Congress next year, but in the long run, we’ll still be sliding towards full scale totalitarianism and genocide in the Heimland.

Whether Dubai-ya suspends the elections in 2008, or Hillary takes over, it will still happen. And most of your so-called libertarian Republicans will vote “aye” every step of the way.

Don’t forget Loretta Nall. I wish I could vote for her, and will, after she’s won a statewide race in Alabama, worked her way into the governor’s office, and subsequently runs for president!

If you’re in Alabama, don’t forget to write her in!

Folks, don’t forget that your vote this year is amunition for next time, regardless who wins.

Uncle Joe’s top 10 Reasons to Vote Libertarian:

1) You won’t have to wash your hands after voting.

2) You’ll sleep better election night.

3) You send ‘em a message they’ll understand.

4) Libertarians sometimes actually win and your vote
could actually make a difference.

5) You encourage future Libertarian candidates.

6) You help draw attention to the LP, which will help
build the party.

7) You help lend credibility to libertarian ideas.

8) You make the losing ahtoritarian candidate wonder
how he (or she) could have got your vote.

9) It’s a great way to irritate your parents.

10) You really have nothing to gain by voting for
authoritarian candidates anyway.

Mathew Mosely is another first class candidate, ranking right up there with Arin Sime and Rex Bell.

Some of my other favorites this year besides Loretta:

Dick Clark – Alabama State House 79 (Auburn)
http://citizenclark.com/

John Clifton – Gov., NY
http://www.electclifton.org

I like Zeese a lot better than many of Eric’s allegedly “libertarian” Republicans.

I am in California, and voted almost all Libertarian. I actually voted Green for the first time, for attorney general, because the Green seemed to be more Libertarian than the Libertarian. I also took a pass on our pro-war “libertarian” congressional candidate and voted for his Democrat opponent, who had the balls to vote against the Military Commissions Act. I even held my nose and gave a vote to Republican Tom McClintock for Lt. Gov. I probably had the weirdest ballot in CA today.

An interesting statistic from FoxNews: “According to Pew, libertarians make up around 9 percent of the electorate. They also find that 50 percent of libertarians typically identify with or lean Republican, while 41 percent identify or lean Democratic and 9 percent are independent or unaffiliated.”

So it begins…jammed phones, broken machines, long lines, intimidation… Why does everyone think this year will be different? They already stole 2 presidential elections (wide scale fraud). You really think they cannot steal House/Senate/Governor elections (small scale fraud)? This is the same group that managed to legalize warrantless wiretaps, suspend habeas corpus, ban books like “America Deceived” from Amazon, detain demonstrators and start 2 illegal wars based on lies. The Republicans will probably lose a few seats today to make it look good but maintain a majority. Then they’ll invade Iran on behalf of Israel.
Support indy media.
Final link (before Google Books bends to gov’t will and drops the title):
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?&isbn=0-595-38523-0

I voted Libertarian for Art Olivier for Governor, and for the other LP candidates statewide, except that I voted for Tom McClintock (R) for Lt Governor.
Locally, I live in an area with Republican incumbents, so I voted for the Democrat challengers for Congress & State Assembly.
Most important, I voted Yes on Prop 90 to limit Eminent Domain.

(Also just want to say I’m really proud of the LP and all of the wonderful people there. They really are great, and I’m sorry for being such a negative critic half the time. I just have my ideas and hopes and get carried away!)

Tech:

With ya, except that “healthy public sector” thing.

Healthy virus = unhealthy host.

But good points on the rest.

I’m with you, too, paulie!

Except I’m finding I am not so much with anarchism or “minarchism”. I think there is a place for, and a reason for a liberal democracy.

I just don’t want it to be my nanny!

The day when we logical-minded, individual rights-minded take back our rightful seat on the left will be the day when Frist falls over into the water and drowns and -we become the “right”-. The two party system deserves a 21st century argument. Chomsky deserves his place on the far end of one of one side of the sociopolitical argument -that is worth having-, and Rothbard deserves his place on the other. We need to unite and offer a balance.

I believe most of America will show that they want a better America if a real option can be put in front of them, too.

LP.org is reporting some good Libertarian showings for Georgia tonight! I’m really proud of my state!

“I also took a pass on our pro-war ‘libertarian’ congressional candidate and voted for his Democrat opponent, who had the balls to vote against the Military Commissions Act.”

Who was the pro-war “Libertarian” Congressional candidate to which you are refering?

Anyone know if the AZLP is having a party/get together tonight? I looked on their site and didn’t see anything.

Congrats to Joel Winters, who is not (and never has been, thanks to the pledge requirement) an LPer. He was elected tonight to the New Hampshire House. He ran a stellar campaign, and could well be one of the highest offices of any elected tonight to any small-l libertarian.

Smither is currently at 5.8% with 57% of the results in. I’m not sure if this is more disappointing or Badnarik’s paltry 4.3% given the significantly larger amount of money his campaign raised.

Nelson — honestly, with sentiments like that… go fuck yourself. Seriously; you need to get laid.

What is pissing me the hell off is the vast margin by which Smither looks like he got beaten by. The DEMOCRAT won… whose claim to fame was; he *worked for the charity* that was created *by the libertarian* …

WTF??? And please — don’t give me that Diebold routine. ~10% of the vote, and the *write-in* got 3-4x the vote totals? Well, something needs to be done. Seriously.

To answer zogby polls, you have to sign up at: http://interactive.zogby.com/pollregistration/registration/

You will get polled (on politics) about once a month.

This “no soup for you” attitude to libertarian-leaning candidates who run under the label “D” or “R” is arrogant and short sighted. There are MORE ELECTED LIBERTARIANS in the GOP than in the LP. Check http://chelm.freeyellow.com/how.html for details. Bye.

So we didnt win anything in the house or senate. My question is this: did our numbers improve this year? If so, by how much?

I do feel like the LP is doing more good things, but do our numbers reflect this?

Yeah, you guys are right. If only ALL of the LP candidates would sell out their principles then we could finally rejoice when they reach that magical double-digit percentage!

I didn’t say anything about selling out principles. I just said I’m sick of LPers who make us all look like kooks.

Unfortunately, the LP is getting creamed tonight.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/politics/elections/national2006

Badnarik is at 4%.
Hess is at 2%.
Smither is at 6%.
Guthrie is at 1%.
Peirce is at 2%.
Hayes is at 4%.

Do Libertarians just not turn out to vote? All of these were solid candidates, and polling above these numbers. Are the votes counted accurately? I once thought LP vote totals might be suppressed by those who did the counting, but if they don’t see us as a threat, why would they bother?

Derrick, apparently Badnarik seems like a kook to you because he takes libertarian principles seriously. As for the blue-faced dude spouting off about the Communist takeover of the world, well, you’ll get no argument from me.

Some quick hits:

Eric Schansberg is well over the margin of difference in his race. So is Joe Silvestri in CD3 in Nevada and our old friend Thom Rankin is well over the margin of difference to take out Barbara “I’m gonna slap you” Cubin.

We have at least three winners in NC tonight! All for Soil & Water District Supervisor. Wish we were on the ballot.

Many reasons why non-incumbent political parties in a winner-take-all/first-past-the-post electoral system don’t do well.

The big one is Duverger’s Law. Look it up.

The solution: ranked-choice and proportional representation electoral systems, beginning at the local level.

All instant runoff voting local initiatives this year are looking good for passage.

“Many reasons why non-incumbent political parties in a winner-take-all/first-past-the-post electoral system don’t do well….

The solution: ranked-choice and proportional representation electoral systems, beginning at the local level.”
————————–
Maybe the solution is to stop trying to beat them at their game, and start gaming the system.

Only 15% of registered voters vote in the primaries. If 2/3 of those are for the dominant party in a state or district, just 5% of voters could place a stealth libertarian candidate on the ballot of the dominant major party. Even a blatantly obvious libertarian could still win if nominated in this way, since most voters pay very little attention.

Aren’t there 5% libertarians out there?

“Robert, Badnarik is someone who advocates strapping prisoners to their beds for a month so that their muscles atrophy and they’re no longer a threat to society. Of course, you haven’t seen this on his webpage since he was nominated to be the ”˜04 LP prez candidate. There were a lot of other ridiculous things there pre-nomination too, but that’s the one that sticks out most in my mind.”
————————
Badnarik was making a point about giving prisoners weights and time to use them, bulking up for their release so they could pose a greater threat to society when released too early due to overcrowding due to Drug Prohibition. I think he was trying to be funny, and his pre-nomination campaign would have done a lot better on election day if he had continued in the same vein.

Badnarik is definitely libetarian.

Lex: come to NH. We’re doing it here right now… successfully.

BTW, Eminent domain protection amendment in NH: passed.
NH Amendment further reducing the size of some districts, making it easy to run for state rep offices: passed.
Number of Free Staters elected to NH State House: at least 1.

All I have observed at this point: In US Congressional races in Texas, Libertarians got at least 2% just for being on the ballot and in some cases 3-4% ( a couple I had never heard of and others I’m sure spent very little money). So that half a mil bought Badnarik somewhere around 0-2%, maybe. LP TX is pretty strong as in many states LP candidates in 3-way ( or 4,5,6-way)races barely manage 1% if that and finish behind Greens and non-affiliated Independents.

Not sure what to say about Smither. Though I think the 18% in the special election is impressive. I guess he got the Democrat vote there? Perhaps the Republican appeal was overestimated.

I would love to hear more about how our fusion and/or stealth candidates in NH and VT did. My attention has been elsewhere. In other crossdressing news, Frank Gonzalez got 41%, which is much better than the 28% he got last time.

“We got 42.5% (compared to 39% in 2002) in NV with 7/17 of the precincts reporting.”

If a marijuana legalization initiative was going to pass anywhere you’d think that it would be in Nevada.

Badnarik does 4% in TX, hmmmmm. Others have a pretty solid 2-3%. Libertarians in TX who actually did well had no Republican challenger.

But it looks as if we libertarians have decided the highly contested Montana senate race. Looks like we’ll see our party’s name in the news during the next few days as the spoiler.

The fact is that most people don’t understand what it is we’re selling for one. There is little local effort and infrastructure. What about touching voters in non-election years? That’s what single issues is about for one, but there is so much much more.

The elections are about winning and we are just unable to yet. I don’t care how many Mick Jagger consultants we get, winning will not be part of the equation until people understand this. Fire the consultants. Not nearly enough people are presently libertarian to win.

Sean: re fusion in NH: there was no ‘fusion’ because there were no D-L or R-L candidates in the race. What was being done in NH was running _as_ D or R, and in that respect, most of the Rs lost, along with _many_ of the incumbent Rs in a strong sweep of the Ds across the ticket, so this wasn’t about them, this was just a bad year for running Republican here in NH. As for the D side, we have a strong victory, see #52.

The sorry fact is the Libertarians have acted as spoiler in a number of races, including it appears, Montana. But the joke is on us. The media won’t report on the Libertarians, outside of a few conservative talk show hosts, cause the last thing the media wants is to give credence to limited government views.

Watch for an almost complete blackout in the coverage of the election of Libertarian candidates in the coming days.

Devious Dave, you’d have an excellent point that “licking the Republicans doesn’t get us anywhere…”

Only one problem; Judging by the results on http://www.lp.org, the Libertarian Party has had a bad year, as well.

Only LP victories; One Town Councilman in SC, and three Water & Soil Boards.

That’s hardly inspiring.

Face it, this is a huge loss for all of us. We’re in the same boat. The American public has spoken, and they have firmly rejected out limited government ideals.

I only wish LP candidates would have done better, than at least we could make the argument for the LP instead of the libertarian Republican course. But the LP did much worse than expected.

Eric said: The American public has spoken, and they have firmly rejected out limited government ideals.

Is this really the case? Or is it more the fact that people see Republican over reaching and punished them for it, but the only alternative they saw was to vote Democrat. Is it possible that the main issue is that we were not able to position ourselves as a *viable* alternative?

Michael

Judging by the results on http://www.lp.org, the Libertarian Party has had a bad year, as well.

I’m so tired of GOP “libertarian” propaganda. The reality is that the Libertarian party had its best electoral year in history and EVERYONE who isn’t a whack-nut social right-wing drooling idiot bitchslapped the Republicans.

From Outright Libertarians:

The Libertarian Party easily had its best election season ever yesterday, with exit polls showing remarkably strong showings by our candidates — especially in the Southwest. For example, in “red state” Texas, four of our candidates for state Senate received around 20% or more of the vote, with an additional three posting similar results for state House. This, despite the adage that a gay-friendly party like ours cannot post strong results in a supposedly anti-gay state like Texas!

Here in Brazos County (TX), we really pushed hard in one race. Libertarian Linda Wilbert won 19% (701 votes) in a three way race for Justice of the Peace. Democrat had 41%, Republican 39%. 148 vote margin for Democrat.

I’m thrilled. When you work SMART, it pays off. Next time we just need more work. Simple. And we did everything on a shoestring.

Overall, the Texas statewide candidates in two way races earned 20-23%. Usually they trend 12-15%. I don’t know how much “credit” the state party can take for this, as opposed to just anti-Republican sentiment in general, but I’m tickled pink overall. We maintained ballot access easily, and after a little rest, I hope we begin preparing for the 2007 legislative session (ballot access bills) and the 2008 election. Congratulations to all.

And finally:

This election shows a broad increase in support for Libertarian candidates across the board. Libertarians receiving double-digit support for national seats in multiple states in a single election year is unheard-of. Libertarians have switched in performance from a party which typically denies Republicans or Democrats a victory by “spoiling” 5% of the vote to a party capable of attracting 15% or more of the vote in key elections across the country on a state and federal level.

This is an *excellent* electoral performance and will position the LP quite well for the 2008 general elections, when the shine has worn off Democrats’ promises to undo the predations of the Bush administration. It will also guarantee continued (or new) major-party status in several states.

I voted libertarian in Colorado. While voting, I felt very uncomfortable because the libertarian candidates, if you want the truth, are crackpots in this state.

While voting, what was going through my mind was, “I must be a clown for voting for clowns”. Now, how the hell are libertarians supposed to win when those that run as libertarians are a joke?

I guess when I go to the local libertarian drinking fests in the bars with the college students, we will still have our share of NAMBLAS and other sexual deviants there because the LP is the party of “anything goes”.

I have tried to be open minded but most of those people are just too radical and unrealistic. According to them, I have nothing to offer. They know everything and are in charge of freedom. How can one person or one group of people have a monopoly on “proper” thinking?

Those people sound more like the thought police than the thought police. Libertarians here are much more intolerant than D’s or R’s.

Julian, the door is open to enter or leave. If you’re so damned unhappy that all libertarians aren’t cut from the same sack cloth then feel free to go somewhere else that suits you better. It’s still a marginally free country.

Julian,

I think we are actually more intolerant to fellow libertarians than we are to R’s and D’s. We hear things like if you are not 100% pure or you are from the LRC you are not a liberatarian. If you are against/for this one thing then you are not a libertarian and we need to purge you from the party. This only divides us instead of uniting us and marginalizes us as a party.

As far as why our numbers come in below our polling is pretty simple. With a winner take all system, and a libertarian not having a chance to win, many of these votes that would have gone to a libertarian goes to the lesser of two evils. What we will hear in the media in the next few days is that certain third party candidates were spoilers and took votes away from their respective candidates. In fact, it is probably the opposite, because of our voting system the R’s and D’s took a lot more of our votes away then we took from them. Until we change our voting system libertarians will have a hard time

Mike Nelson has asked for an excuse as to why the LP numbers didn’t bounce because of reforms. Some possibilities:

1. The LPHQ did not trumpet the reforms. The press release after 2006 downplayed them. Rebranding takes effort.

2. The membership oath is still there.

3. The LP still calls for no immigration quotas and some other unrealistic positions.

4. Reform won’t work because people don’t want even a moderate libertarian party. (That’s right, it is possible that the anti-reform forces are correct.)

5. Reform won’t work because we have too many people like Mike Nelson in the party calling moderates “retarded.”

If 4 is correct, let’s have a purge. Explain to people what the Oath means before they sign it. Ask those who are not anarchists to leave the party. Tell them up front that they don’t belong. Go back to being an educational organization.

I don’t know which factor is correct.

TerryP,

That’s why I’m probably leaving. I can spend my time doing something more productive than quixotically hoping Libertarians will ever get along enough or shut up long enough to actually figure out a way which to attack our real enemies. As long as we aren’t making the rules, or at very least influencing them in major ways, how much “principle” we claim to have doesn’t mean a damn thing.

It’s not principled to let unprincipled people continue to win. It’s not libertarian to create a party so polarizing and isolated that the only hope of winning enough moderates to shrink government hinges on some imaginary mass evangelization to the pure libertarian ideal.

Claiming that anarchism is the only principled way to be a libertarian is like saying socialism is the only way to be compassionate to the poor or interventionism is the only way to protect national security. It’s a dirty, weighted fallacy and a battle I’m sick of and saddened by.

So we didnt win anything in the house or senate. My question is this: did our numbers improve this year? If so, by how much?

I do feel like the LP is doing more good things, but do our numbers reflect this?

No. The LP did better in the last couple of comparable elections (1998 and 2002). So much for the supposed benefits of gutting the platform.

Do Libertarians just not turn out to vote?

Some do, some don’t.

All of these were solid candidates, and polling above these numbers.

Third party and independent candidates almost always poll a lot better than they end up doing. When it comes time to actually vote, the “wasted vote” syndrome gets us.

Are the votes counted accurately? I once thought LP vote totals might be suppressed by those who did the counting, but if they don’t see us as a threat, why would they bother?

No, the votes are not counted accurately.

But while the cheating accounts for some of it, the systematic barriers account for a lot more.

(cont). What would be a more efftive use would be to contunie to work on this party, yes thier are nut jobs in the LP, but i igamine their are nut jobs in all the parties, even those who run for office. I still think a change in stratagy (and lots of ideas have been bounced around) would be helpful

Congratulations to our candidates for making big strides this year. Even my parents voted for Libertarians for the first time. I think, if anything, the higher totals a sign of hope for libertarianism.

But I feel like the electoral barriers created by a combination of radical ideology, historical political failure, personal acrimony/a gigantic ideological divide in the membership, having a base that doesn’t believe in real world politics, having more bitter ex-members than current members, etc. – not to mention electoral barriers, media resistance and other outside factors beyond our control – make me question if the LP itself can ever succeed. We tried to do our best with the LRC to at least change the parts we CAN do something about. And maybe we’ll keep trying for a little longer.

But frankly, I feel like we’ve been holding a stillborn baby for a third of a century and trying to convince ourselves it’s alive. Meanwhile, the rest of the world keeps moving without us.

Paulie
We did about 50% better than 4 years ago in the same races.We caused 1 run off in a statewide race.We had fox Atlanta and the Atlanta Journal paper at the election party.We would haved liked to have done better, but we improved over last cycle with the same amount of money.We just need more people helping with campaign if we want to improve our numbers.

Hang in there people. We got *lots* of double-digit results. That is a great showing, and a great baseline / starting point for the 2008 campaigns. Let’s get this party started…

I think folks don’t understand what all we’re up against here. For all practical purposes”¦ it’s impossible. This leads people to build up unrealistic expectations and then they want to quit in disappointment after investing all the emotion and energy into the campaign. The worst part is that that makes people quit, like in Michelle’s case.

I’m telling you folks, putting too much into elections at the neglect of all the others is deadly. The elections should be of tertiary concern right now. But nobody wants to listen. Look at the things we’re PRESENTLY good at: building coalitions of single issues campaigns. Drawing attention to certain issues.

Exactly.

You don’t walk into a mafia commission meeting with a water pistol and get a seat at the table. Sorry.

I dont think anyone posted this, but a lot of propety rights initiatives passed: http://www.castlecoalition.org/media/releases/11_8_06pr.html

And lp.org is reporting 7 winners right now, not 4 as Dondero said (I don’t know if the page has been updated since his post).

The sorry fact is the Libertarians have acted as spoiler in a number of races, including it appears, Montana.

That’s the best news all night, if true!

I’ve studied the results all tonight, and what’s crystal clear to me, is that the American voting public has soundly rejected libertarian principles in this election. Everywhere Libertarian Party and Republican Liberty Caucus backed candidates have been soundly defeated.

Joel Winters apparently won as a Democrat for NH legislature. Goodbye RLC, hello DFC.

Americans want bigger government; thus they’ve voted resoundingly for the Democrats.

False on several levels. For starters, the biggest issue was the war, and people voted for the perceived smaller government (anti-war) side. Also, against torture, wiretapping and the rest.

Also, if you want to look at economic issues, government under the Bush/NSGOP regime grew even faster than under Demos. That was rejected as well!

Kudos voters.

free state wyoming.

voting with feet is looking better and better each day.

If you’re going to vote with your feet, I would suggest leaving the US(S)A while you still can.

While I am not sure I would consider this a victory for the LP-Frank Gilmour, US senate candiate from MO, helped screw the republican out of a vicotry.

If it turns out to be true, I consider that a victory.

Go LP, beat NSGOP!

As far as why our numbers come in below our polling is pretty simple. With a winner take all system, and a libertarian not having a chance to win, many of these votes that would have gone to a libertarian goes to the lesser of two evils. What we will hear in the media in the next few days is that certain third party candidates were spoilers and took votes away from their respective candidates. In fact, it is probably the opposite, because of our voting system the R’s and D’s took a lot more of our votes away then we took from them. Until we change our voting system libertarians will have a hard time

This is the reason we are marginal, not our views.

If 4 is correct, let’s have a purge. Explain to people what the Oath means before they sign it. Ask those who are not anarchists to leave the party. Tell them up front that they don’t belong.

Carl,

I’m not necessarily for “purging” y’all from the party because you are not 100% libertarian on all the issues, or because you favor an incremental strategy – which I think is one possibly valid way to go, but not the only possible one.

It’s only when you actually try (and do) change the official LP stance on issues, or build non-libertarian views into LP campaigns, or try to run the 100% libertarians out of the party that I start to have a problem.

But to the extent that you want to support libertarian poistions, I welcome your help, even if you’re only with us some of the way.

Our problems, in most cases, is not our policies. It is our marketing,

Correct.