Study: Highest Number of Third Party Candidates for US House Since 1934, Libertarians "Lead the Way"

From Eric Ostermeier at the Smart Politics blog at the University of Minnesota, link sent in via email:

A Smart Politics analysis of more than 17,000 general election U.S. House contests since 1932 finds there are more third party and independent candidacies in the 2010 election cycle than in any midterm election since 1934 . . .  In total, there are 443 such candidates on ballots across the nation, up 42.4 percent from 2008 and 56.5 percent from the last midterm election in 2006. . . . In 2010, the Libertarian Party leads the way with 153 candidates across the nation, or 35.2 percent of all U.S. House seats (1 candidate for every 2.8 districts). 

Read the whole thing for stats, graphs and analysis.