VA: Libertarian Candidate for State Senate to Face of Against Careerist Republican Pol

From The Examiner:

Meeting in Waynesboro on July 23, the State Central Committee of the Libertarian Party of Virginia voted to authorize its chairman, Wilbur N. Wood of Berryville, to certify J. Todd Martinsen of Spotsylvania County as a Libertarian candidate in the election for the Virginia State Senate in the Fourth District.

Martinsen, a first-time candidate, will face off against incumbent Senator Ryan McDougle (R-4), who first won the seat in a special election called to fill the unexpired term of Bill Bolling of Hanover County, who had become Lieutenant Governor.  He was re-elected to a full term in 2007 . . .

KY: Former Chairman of Libertarian Party to Run for State Treasurer

From the Courier Journal:

Ken Moellman, a 34-year-old information-technology professional who lives in Pendleton County, says he has collected the signatures of about 7,000 registered voters in a bid to run for state treasurer. Moellman, past chairman of the Libertarian Party of Kentucky, said he is advocating elimination of the state treasurer’s post, which he called “the most useless office in state government.”

OR: Consider the Alternatives

From a letter to the editor of the Democrat Herald:

While they are not represented in Congress, there are about 50 third parties, last I counted, including the "Big Three": the Constitution Party, the Green Party of the United States and the Libertarian Party.

The tea party is a splinter group from the Libertarians, who have a single purpose that I find somewhat short-sighted, yet they benefit from a lot of attention.

I changed to Independent during the Clinton years; long before the Independent Party of Oregon was formed - which does not suit me at all. Instead of voting for "the lesser of two evils," I voted for the candidate that best represented my interests regardless of their chances of winning. I reasoned that at least my vote showed someone wanted an alternative. (I occasionally voted for a Republican, too).

Media companies are invested in the current political structure, and indeed they manipulate the public by what they choose to report or not.

We, the public, must inform ourselves, research the issues beyond the echoing sound bites and biased comments, and apply critical thinking and common sense. It requires listening, reading, and thoughtfulness. We needn't beat each other up to solve mutual problems and we needn't take on controversies drummed up by those who benefit by them.

Judy Hays-Eberts

CA: Green to Run in SF Mayoral Election

From Green Party Watch:

The Bay Area Reporter has a feature piece on Terry Baum, an out lesbian and Green who is challenging the Democratic Party status quo in San Francisco Politics by running for Mayor . . . 

AZ: Greens Organize for Tucson Mayoral Election

From the Tucson Citizen:

Meet and Greet the Green Party Primary Candidates for Mayor
Mary DeCamp and Dave Croteau
at La Indita Restaurant (Mexican/Latin American cuisine)
622 N. Fourth Ave in Tucson (north of E. 5th Street)
Every Monday at 6:30pm

If you’re a registered Green Party voter in the City of Tucson, or an Independent who registered by July 16 to vote in that primary on/before August 30, here’s your weekly chance to meet & talk with either or both Green candidates.

Previous blogs on Dave Croteau (click here) and Mary DeCamp (click here).

This is Croteau’s 3rd bid for Mayor having run before as a write-in candidate in 1999 and as the Green Party candidate in 2007, challenging Republican Mayor Bob Walkup when no Democrat ran.

DeCamp ran for the Ward 3 City Council seat two years ago in 2009 and lost to Democratic incumbent Councilwoman Karin Uhlich.

If you can’t drop by La Indita, then view these 2 Green Mayoral candidates on Friday’s KUAT Channel 6 interview: http://ondemand.azpm.org/videoshorts/watch/2011/7/22/1830-green-would-be-mayors-tout-first-primary/.

Tom Friedman Comes Out in Support of Americans Elect

From Tom Friedman's column in the NYT:

Thanks to a quiet political start-up that is now ready to show its hand, a viable, centrist, third presidential ticket, elected by an Internet convention, is going to emerge in 2012. I know it sounds gimmicky — an Internet convention — but an impressive group of frustrated Democrats, Republicans and independents, called Americans Elect, is really serious, and they have thought out this process well. In a few days, Americans Elect will formally submit the 1.6 million signatures it has gathered to get on the presidential ballot in California as part of its unfolding national effort to get on the ballots of all 50 states for 2012. The goal of Americans Elect is to take a presidential nominating process now monopolized by the Republican and Democratic parties, which are beholden to their special interests, and blow it wide open . . .

DailyKos (sort of) endorses a non-Democrat

Not quite third party related, but notorious Democrat exclusive community DailyKos is now supporting Independent Bernie Sanders in an campaign against Social Security & Medicare cuts.

UT: Constitution Party Candidates Running for City Council

From the Constitution Party of Utah  via Third Party Politics:

I received this email with the good news that Hans Anderson is running for Orem City Council this November. Hans has been treasurer for Jim Noorlander's Congressional campaigns in the past and his father was H. Verlan Anderson who wrote some of the best books on proper principles of government.

We also have a few running for City Council in Duchesne and I am (David) running for Sandy City Council.

Hello All,

My good friend Hans Andersen (son of H. Verlan Andersen), has decided to run for Orem City Council in the election this November. He is a good, solid, patriotic man who understands limited government, liberty and the constitution . . .

TN: Green and Constitution Party File Joint Lawsuit

From Ballot Access News:

On July 19, the Green Party of Tennessee, and the Constitution Party of Tennessee, jointly filed a new lawsuit in federal court, alleging that the new ballot access law passed this year is just as unconstitutional as the old one. As reported previously, in September 2010 the old law was held unconstitutional. In response, the 2011 session of the legislature deleted the language on the petition saying the signers are members, and moved the petition deadline from March to April. The case is Green Party of Tennessee et al v Hargett, middle district, 3:11-cv-00692. Here is the complaint.

Socialist Candidate for President Opposes Raising Debt Ceiling, Urges Credit Counciling for White House and Congress

From DC Indymedia:

Presidential Candidate Stewart Alexander says “Working people should not fear the August 2nd deadline to raise the debt ceiling; the government will not collapse. It is time for President Obama and the professional politicians to attend credit counseling.” In 2006, then Senator Barack Obama argued and voted against raising the debt ceiling saying, “Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.”

Today, during a White House press conference on raising the debt ceiling, President Obama suggested the Democrats and Republicans in Washington are the “professional politicians” most capable of managing the nation’s debt. Now that the nation is $14.3 trillion in debt, these professional politicians will once again rescue capitalism and avert an economic crisis by creating more debt.

U.S. Presidential Candidate Stewart Alexander notes, during the past decade, many of these professional politicians have doubled the size of the U.S. government. “The two corporate parties of big capital have also quadrupled the size of government within the past 20 years through increased spending and raising the debt ceiling over and over again, creating more debt for working people.”

More than 71 percent of all Americans are opposed to raising the debt ceiling. Stewart Alexander says working people understand debt better than these professional politicians and President Obama. “This is how it is done by most working people. We calculate how much has been deposited into the checking account. We calculate how much is owed in bills, and we pay our bill keeping our check book balanced.” Alexander says when the checking account is near empty, “these professional politicians want to use the U.S. credit card to go on a spending spree.” . . .

NJ: Socialist Candidate Supports Community Garden Effort

From Red Bank Patch:

It’s official: socialists support fresh fruits and vegetables. Pat Noble, an 18-year-old Red Bank resident and member of the Socialist Party USA running for election onto the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders, has endorsed the efforts of volunteers who hope to develop a community garden on a vacant lot along the Navesink River.

Though a community garden, in theory, has found support from the borough’s council, its location remains a point of contention. Gardeners want to see the project developed on the lot just off of Front Street, citing its centralized and highly visible location as some primary reasons. Though they’ve been reluctant to provide reasons of their own, Red Bank’s council members want to see the garden developed, well, anywhere else . . .

TX: Libertarians Seek Ron Paul's House Seat

From Libertarian Strategy Monthly:

Within hours of Representative Ron Paul’s announcement that he will not seek re-election to Congress to focus on his bid for the Republican nomination for President, three Libertarians announced their intent to seek the Libertarian Party of Texas nomination for the seat. . . .

Libertarian Party of Texas Chair Pat Dixon said “Dr. Paul has served honorably for 12 terms as ‘the Libertarian’ representative in Congress. The Libertarian Party is proud to offer the voters of District 14 a representative in Congress who will continue to uphold the same principles to which Dr. Paul has remained committed, and that are completely absent in the Republican and Democratic parties.”

MD: Two-Party Politics Are a Joke, and the Joke is on the American People

From the Maryland Libertarian Party:

President James Madison said each generation should bear the burden of its own wars, not foist their expense off on future generations. Since Barack Obama became president, he and the Congress have been responsible for one-third of the current national debt. Record spending for entitlements, war, bailouts to banks, businesses and states have paved the way for future unfunded liabilities of up to $100 trillion. . . . Madison warned us of the need for each generation to pay its own way. If he could have envisioned the burden we are heaping on the backs of future generations, he would be appalled by the corrupt and morally decrepit actions of elected leaders at all levels of government. I know I am.

KY: Independents Can Make Decisions that No Party Candidate Could Make, Says Galbraith in Gov Debate

From Cincinnati.com:

Two of the three gubernatorial candidates debated in Covington Thursday afternoon, Republican State Senate President David Williams and independent candidate Gatewood Galbraith . . . 

Galbraith blamed partisan politics for Kentucky’s woes and said as an independent, he will work with both sides of the aisle. “I foresee that after my stint as governor, I’m going to be one of the most disliked people in the state because I’m going to have to make decisions that neither party candidate can possibly make, because they’ve got to answer to the party,” Galbraith said. “I don’t answer to anybody except God and an occasional judge or two.” . . .

MS: Independents Seek Gubernatorial Seat

From the Jackson Free Press:

Hoping to attract voters who are undecided in voting for Democrats or Republicans, Independent candidates Will Oatis and Bobby Kearan are looking for a piece of political action. Will Oatis, Independent

Independent candidate Will Oatis, 37, was born in raised in Silver Creek. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Southern Mississippi. He spent 20 years in the U.S. armed forces including three combat tours in Afghanistan over the span of eight years. Oatis has more than 20 military awards, including a Bronze Star, a Global War on Terror Expeditionary Medal and the Global War on Terror Service Medal.  . . . .

Reform candidate Bobby Kearan moved to Mississippi at the age of 10. He grew up in Winston County and attended Louisville High School. He is a “computer guy” who lives in Rankin County and works for a Mississippi-based financial institution. He manages its software security updates.

His campaign motto is “One of the People, for the People” and he approaches his candidacy from the perspective of a working man.

Kearan, 39, supports cuts that would leave a smaller, more efficient government, and state payroll reductions more aligned with the state’s median income.

NYC: Socialist Workers Party Scramble to Submit Petition in House Race

From Ballot Access News:

On July 13, the Socialist Workers Party submitted 7,080 signatures to place its nominee for U.S. House on the ballot in New York’s special election set for September 13. No other group or independent candidate submitted a petition. The law requires 3,500 for independent candidates, or the nominees of unqualified parties, for U.S. House, and the law does not reduce this number when the petitioning period is short (as it almost always is, in special elections).

The SWP collected these signatures in only four days. The only other candidates on the ballot will be the Democrat and the Republican, unless the Green Party exercises its right to nominate someone without a petition (the Green Party is a qualified party in New York, so it has this option).

IA: Independents Outnumber Democrats, Republicans

From the Chicago Tribune, via the Hankster:

Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said Iowa voters have long shown a preference for a divided government that gives both parties a say in running the state, and he expects that to continue.

"I think when it's all said and done, it's up to the independent voters," Gronstal said. "They've often said it's good to have divided government."

Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in Iowa by about 646,000 to 610,000, but there are more independent voters than members of either party: nearly 702,000.

Anonymous and the Greens

The Greens appear to be reaching out to Anonymous, or is it the other way around?  Or is it just plain satire?  From the Seattle PI Ethicist blog:

We don’t need a “new” party, we need to vote for a party that already exists and represents us. Vote Green. The Green party is in 49 states. Anonymous should vote Green. If you like Anon, you should vote Green. If you want a transparent government, Vote Green.

Do you like torture? Go on and vote Democrat.
Do you like being broke? Vote Republican.
Do you want to work at Walmart when you retire? Vote Democrat.
Do you want to see your children working as slaves? Vote Republican.
Do you hate having health care? Vote Democrat.
Do you love chaos and anarchy? Vote Republican.
It doesn’t really matter whether its Dem, or Rep, they’re two sides of the same coin: Corruption.

The Green party will ban lobbying INSIDE government offices. The Green party will make it illegal to vote on any issue for which large donations were paid, or to submit laws written by lobbyists.  Do you want GOVERNMENT, or this Fourth-Reich divine right insanity? America is already a Tyranny, already Fascist, already over the edge. It’s time to change. Obama had his chance and failed miserably. He extended the Patriot Act. he allows torture, and rendition. Look at how he treats Manning. Look at how he plots against Assange. Someone told the truth? How evil of them.
VOTE FOR CHANGE. Vote Green.

This ad paid for by Anon

MN: Ranked Choice Gives Greens a Boost

From Twin Cities:

In November, voters in the St. Paul City Council election will be able to choose up to six candidates per seat, ranked in order of preference. In other words, downtown residents could conceivably vote for all five candidates who have filed to run for office in Ward 2.
Nov. 8 will mark the city's first experience with the new "ranked voting" system, otherwise known as "instant run-off voting" or "ranked-choice voting," which was supported by voters in a ballot question last year. . .  

Jim Ivey, former political chair for the Green Party of Minnesota, said ranked-choice voting has boosted his party's chances at the polls. He thinks the Green Party will no longer be looked upon as a potential "spoiler" in tight races.

"We worked for years to make this happen," said Ivey, a Lowertown resident who is running for city council in Ward 2. "The Green Party was a key supporter. It's strategic for creating a third-party presence in local politics. It gives people a chance to vote for what they really believe in, and know that there's no risk in doing that....It's great for us."

It's been such a draw, in fact, that the party has recruited a slate of local candidates, some of whom have no previous Green Party affiliation but share the party's "progressive" values, Ivey said.

Dullard Mush (The Anon Guy) fails to smear Nevada's largest third-party

It is unsurprising that Nevada's largest & most organized third party, the Independent American Party, has had its fair share of critics and even enemies, especially those that throw around inaccurate, and even simpleton-minded condemnation of the IAP and its members. 

With a political group as battle-hardened, and yet as modestly successful in state and local politics as the IAP is- people in both high and low places of society, as well as being of, or not of, our state government, are always seeking to throw any kind of monkey-wrench into the works.

Dullard Mush, a blog that a run by a Nevada blogger known as 'The Anon Guy', whom in addition, runs another blog that constantly features Pro-Barack Obama campaign emails is no exception in his constant criticism of the IAP over various petty matters, such as voter registration and the Party's name, campaigning, etc.

However such smear tactics haven't gone entirely unnoticed in their ad hominem inaccuracy and factual distortion, even if they do go unnoticed by the media and public attention, nevertheless.

Examples of Anon's attack pieces would include:

* A subliminal attack on the IAP's former congressional candidate, Russell Best, suggesting that he accidentally filed for US senate when in fact the Secretary of State's office had inaccuracy reported on their website that he was running for US Senate, when Tim Fasano was yet the official IAP Senate candidate that was supposed to be listed on that website instead.

Anon did not do a follow up on the matter, which isn't surprising.

* A petty and inaccurate article that bashed the IAP voter registration gains throughout the years. Anon didn't pay attention to the fact that while the IAP has been balloted qualified since 1992, its numbers didn't start to grow until after 2001, which is quite odd because- if Anon is right that the solid majority of Nevadans only register IAP simply for the name -then why didn't the IAP explode in voter registration numbers during the 90's? Why were there only 15,462 registered IAP'ers, in Nevada as of January of 2001, which made up barely 2% of the state's voter registration total then?

It is noted that when the IAP became more active in the political scene in Nevada around 2002 with increased efforts of activism and media coverage, the Party's numbers then began to skyrocket.

Anon also failed to note that in terms of the percentages in each county's voter registration totals, the IAP is larger in the rural and more conservative parts of the state, where the voters would be more the wiser to know just what political party they are registering to, and where not only would such voters be sympathetic to the IAP's message, but even vote for IAP candidates in high percentages, as well as electing a few to office too. Another thing, the majority of the Party's voters may lie in Clark County, which is likewise for all political parties in Nevada, but in Esmeralda County alone, while IAP may only have 47 registered voters there, Esmeralda has a total of 562 registered voters, according the June 2011 totals. So over 8% of the voting population in Esmeralda is IAP, which is very good for a third party!

With this one county being just one example out of many here, yet Esmeralda has also seen high vote percentages for IAP candidates and even saw the 2010 election of one into local office there. 

Once more, Anon's arguments began to break down.

Anon also tried using even more petty comparisons in the same article when it came to IAP candidates and the numbers; trying to use a long-refuted argument of how the majority of IAP voters fail to come out to vote for the Party's candidates for major offices. Yet Anon takes on his true anti-third party mentality here when he forgets that it is a common habit of the typical American voter to be more likely to stick to the status-quo on voting for majority-party candidates for such high-profile races that voters would be the most passionate about; while on the other hand, when it comes to state office, and other elected offices that aren't as extensively covered by the media or conspicuous to the general public, then will the status-quo bend, or even get broken, and third party candidates will do much better in these races in comparison to the higher offices; this fact is true for all third parties, including the LP, the IAP, the Greens, etc.

And need I say, there's also the factor of just how hard, or how little, such third party candidates for major & minor offices campaign for votes; that is another thing to consider on the vote totals.

When Anon gets down to the congressional offices, he still continues the distortion, failing to note the IAP's spike in numbers that their candidates receive; pointing instead to how the LP candidates, or rival candidates of other third parties get better percentages when compared to the number of their party's registered voters in their district or area. However, the math he uses is quite interesting and even more over-exaggerated; for example, if 'Candidate A' is a member of a party that has a total of 200 registered voters in his District and he gets 400 votes in a race, then he has gotten 100% more votes then there are registered voters of his party in that District. Then there's 'Candidate B', who is a member of a party that has a total of 1000 registered voters in the same District, and in the same race, gets 1,500 votes, or 50% more then the number of registered voters in his party. 

And according to Anon's logic; 'Candidate A' performed way better then 'Candidate B', because he got a better percentage of votes when compared to the number of registered voters of his party in his District.

-Such logic would make sense in a Leslie Nielsen movie.

Anon did his best to try making the Nevada LP look good in comparison to the IAP, yet he still fails when confronted with the facts, numbers, and logic; especially when several IAP candidates that ran for state offices in 2006, and in 2010, actually proved wrong his arguments about the percentage of IAP voters voting for, or not voting for, the IAP line; these examples are- Janine Hansen running for Secretary of State in 2006 and her brother Joel, who ran for State Attorney General in 2010; both won more votes then the number of IAP registered voters in Nevada at the time...

And if we stick to Anon's own logic, we are talking about only the Active Voters here.

Another argument that he makes, which also has been turned upside down, is the partially-accurate fact that IAP candidates do exceptionally well in races where they are running against a sole Republican, or Democratic candidate, because it is simply between two candidates only in that race. This argument may be true indeed, but he also forgets that while any kind of third party candidate can do well in two-way races, there are also several exceptions where IAP candidates have placed Second, or even won partisan office in races where the IAP candidate was up against more then one opponent. Such examples would be Jackie Berg's 2006 race for Eureka County Clerk, John Lampros's 2010 race for White Pine County Commission Board, Arthur Wehrmeister's 2010 race for Esmeralda County District Attorney, and Janine Hansen's 2010 race for State Assembly District 33, where she won Second place over her Democratic opponent.

Again, when confronted with such facts and results, Anon's arguments continue to fall flat and into the dark crevices when first seeing the real light of day.

* His attack on the IAP in this piece, which he defended Scott Ashjian, the "Tea Party of Nevada" candidate for US Senate last year. Yet Scott was exposed as a crooked businessman with serious legal and financial issues under his belt, as well as being a possible political operative that violated NRS.293.184 by lying on his candidate paperwork. Many of the Tea Party groups in Nevada also denounced Ashjian's candidacy, stating that he never was involved with them or even participated in their rallies, unlike the IAP, which has been working closely with the movement in Nevada since 2009. Ashjian basically ran as a candidate of a fake political party, whose leaders and officers were not only family and business associates of him, but included several outspoken Democrats, including Barry Levinson, who served as the Secretary for the TPN.

As Ashjian failed to garner enough votes to on election day to qualify his 'political party' for the Nevada ballot in 2012, he soon dropped out of the public eye and has been maintaining a low profile since, except for still fighting against a few legal charges that won't go away. 

Yet Anon's silly calls of hypocracy on the IAP's joint-lawsuit with the Tea Party movement fall on deaf ears, as many third party activists in Nevada, including Debra Dedmon- a officer with the Clark County Libertarian Party and a online blogger who as goes by the name 'LibertarianGirl' -denounced Ashjian's candidacy as a fake third-party candidate.

Anon Guy's criticism fails, yet again.

* Anon claimed in another article that IAP'er Ike Yochum's 2010 candidacy in the State Senate, Washoe District 1 race would help out Ty Cobb in his battle against fellow Republican Ben Kieckhefer, when Ty Cobb went on to lose the GOP Primary against Kieckhefer. While this piece wasn't critical of anything Independent American, his stereotypical prediction of that race was as accurate as his facts are on the IAP itself.

As much as he has gone out of the way to bash the IAP and anything related to it, the main fact that very few Nevadans pay attention to a petty and spiteful anti-third party blogger such as him, and even those that do and also take the time to research his claims, like this writer has, rings true. Especially when taking notes of his friendly twitter correspondence with Nevada's Secretary of State, Ross Miller, whom has been hostile to political third parties in the state and even crafted legislation (A.B. 81 & A.B. 82), that would have greatly hurt Nevada third party candidates during the last session. And if not for the efforts of the citizen lobbyists of the IAP, the NVLP, and others, then such bills wouldn't have been watered down and stripped of the harmful language that was contained in them at the time.

As always, there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to the conga line of anti-Independent American bleaters and screechers that yet miss the mark. 'The Anon Guy' is no exception, and neither is his ignorant and simpleton prejudice.