Category Archives: Independents and third parties

A long shot campaigns for U.S. Senate

Elections, Independents and third parties, Politics, U.S. Congress

Armies of people are being paid to elect Sen. Mark Pryor or Rep. Tom Cotton to the U.S. Senate – campaign workers, political consultants, pollsters, state party staff, political action committee employees, etc.

Nathan LaFrance’s wife, on the other hand, designed his logo for his website.

LaFrance, 35, a Libertarian from Bella Vista, is also running for the Senate, along with Green Party candidate Mark Swaney of Huntsville. In a recent poll by Talk Business and Hendrix College, they each polled at 2 percent.

Pryor and Cotton spend most of their waking hours trying to win the election. Their taxpayer-supported offices enable them to campaign on a nearly full-time basis when Congress is not in session.

LaFrance doesn’t campaign until he comes home from his job at the Walmart home offices in Bentonville. He spends several hours each night doing campaign legwork and searching the internet for potential supporters and speaking opportunities. He says he’s spoken less than half a dozen times, but he did speak along with other candidates before a big crowd at Ashdown a couple of weeks ago.

His message is the same as his party’s. Libertarians would cut taxes along with spending on government programs, which sounds like Republicanism, but Libertarians would reduce government much more, including spending on the military. Their less-government philosophy extends to social issues. LaFrance, unlike Cotton or Pryor, supports gay marriage. He’s hoping that issue will win him support that ordinarily would go to Democrats.

The major parties, he said, “are two peas in a pod. They may have different special interest groups that they’re catering to, but they’re both in Washington catering to those special interest groups.”

With their millions of dollars in campaign contributions, Pryor and Cotton can flood the airwaves and the internet with ads. So can the groups that support them. Half the time I click on a YouTube video, I’m greeted first by Jerry and Wanda from Marion telling me that Obamacare cost them their insurance policy. In fact, I clicked on a video before writing that sentence just to test it, and there they were.

LaFrance, meanwhile, said he has raised between $2,000 and $3,000 from friends, family and his own personal contributions. His total war chest is about what Pryor and Cotton each can raise in a single phone call, but it’s enough to start thinking about buying yard signs and bumper stickers. The list of Libertarian supporters in Arkansas is small, and if there’s a national network of big rich donors, he’s not aware of it. LaFrance pointed out that Libertarians oppose big money in politics anyway.

For a third party candidate, victory realistically would look something like what Libertarian Robert Sarvis did in the recent Virginia governor’s race. On Election Day, he collected 6.5 percent of the vote, but he polled above 10 percent during the race and raised enough money to run television ads.

But LaFrance isn’t hoping for 6.5 percent. He says if he can increase his campaign war chest past $5,000 and can start polling at 5 percent, interest would increase in his campaign, maybe causing a snowball effect.

“I entered this race knowing that it would be a statistical long shot to win,” he said, “but I’ve entered it with the goal of winning, and that’s still my goal. … My goal is to win, and if I don’t achieve that goal, it’s going to be a disappointment.”

It’s a really long shot, but at least voters will have choices in the Senate race. There are four names on the ballot, not two.

Green Party nominates four to U.S. House

Independents and third parties, Politics, U.S. Congress

The Arkansas Green Party nominated candidates for all four U.S. House races in Little Rock today, including two candidates who have run multiple races.

Meanwhile, Fred Smith, the former Harlem Globetrotter whose attempt to run as a Democrat was voided by a judge’s ruling in April, will run for House District 50 as a Green.

The following candidates are running for the U.S. House:
First District – Jacob Holloway, a 24-year-old ASU student
Second District – Barbara Ward of Little Rock, who works at the Historic Arkansas Museum
Third District – Rebekah Kennedy, an attorney from Fort Smith. Kennedy ran unsuccessfully for attorney general in 2006; for U.S. Senate in 2008; and for attorney general in 2010
Fourth District – Josh Drake, an attorney from Hot Springs. This is Drake’s third consecutive attempt to be elected to this seat.

Independent Arkansas caught up with Kennedy, Drake and Ward at the convention and was able to get video interviews with Kennedy and Drake. The three were realistic about their chances. Drake even said, “I joke that if I had a chance of getting elected, my wife wouldn’t let me run.” But Kennedy in particular promised a vigorous campaign.

The three believe in Green Party values – stopping climate change, nationalized health care, a reduction of corporate influence in Washington. Drake was more passionate about health care while Kennedy focused on energy and the environment.

Asked why they aren’t running as liberal Democrats, they all said they believed in the Green Party. Kennedy and Drake asserted that there’s not much of a difference between Democrats and Republicans, anyway.

Kennedy said it would be more effective to compete with Democrats from the left than to simply lose to “prepicked” candidates in the primary. She said both parties are so poll-driven that they won’t do much to change the status quo – in particular concerning her primary issue, climate change.

“Instead of having an intelligent conversation among the people of this democracy about where we want to go in the future, we just have people rehashing the same things over and over, and unfortunately, it’s not true that you can leave well enough alone and never change everything and everything will stay the same,” she said.

Drake said, “You’d rather run with a party that stands for ideals that you can believe in, that you can be proud of, rather than always apologizing for the lesser of two evils that the Democratic Party has become.”

Smith’s earlier Democratic candidacy was thrown off the ballot after a circuit judge ruled that he had not provided proof that his felony conviction for theft had been dismissed or expunged by the filing deadline. It’s a long story, so if you want more, here it is.

All told, the Greens nominated 14 candidates in Arkansas and endorsed Dr. Jill Stein for president. Roseanne Barr – yes, that Roseanne Barr, was a candidate.

Occupy Little Rock’s concerns legitimate, but methods need to evolve

Independents and third parties, Politics

Several hundred Occupy Little Rock protestors marched through the streets of the state’s capital city Oct 15, and while lots of people, particularly Republicans, are dismissing them, they shouldn’t dismiss their concerns.

The protestors were a more diverse group than many would expect. I didn’t see a lot of the aimless young hippies they have been painted as being. They certainly weren’t a “mob,” as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called them, “anti-American,” as Herman Cain called them, or “the FLEA party,” in the words of a Democrat-Gazette columnist who wasn’t at the protest.

The protestors represented a variety of political persuasions, judging by the signs – everything from the Ron Paul-ian “End the Fed” to the Marxian “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

The protestors directed their anger mostly at big corporations and the government, and I agreed with a lot of what they were saying. Any American who is not outraged at the bank bailout hasn’t been paying attention. As the columnist Nick Kristoff put it, “The banks have gotten away with privatizing profits and socializing risks.”

But we don’t want America to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Most corporations aren’t causing the world’s problems; they just provide needed goods and services and employ people.

Finally, if the Occupy Little Rock protestors really want to accomplish their goals – and right now, it’s not clear what their goals are beyond expressing their anger – they need to organize and work within the system as the TEA Party has done.

As they marched along the street, the protestors chanted, “This is what democracy looks like!” I thought, “Well, really, this is part of democracy, but democracy really looks like people voting, running for office, and contacting their legislators.” If Occupy Little Rock doesn’t evolve into that, it won’t accomplish much.

Americans Elect putting democracy online

Elections, Independents and third parties, Politics

The writer Rita Mae Brown once shared a piece of wisdom that has been used so many times that it’s become a cliche: “Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”

If that’s so, then if Americans keep electing officials like they have been, then the country truly has gone nuts.

In 2012, there will be a new way. Americans Elect is creating an online nominating process where voters can register as delegates at the effort’s website and then eventually select a nominee. The group is collecting signatures – including 1.6 million already collected in California – to get on the ballot in all 50 states.

Americans Elect is a nominating process, not a political party. Delegates who register at the website are asked a series of questions to determine their political views and will be connected to like-minded voters. Six candidates will emerge from that process to compete for the group’s nomination in June. Each must name a vice presidential running mate who is a member of a different party or is an independent. At that point, Americans Elect’s job is finished and the nominee will run his or her own campaign.

The effort has strong backing so far. It says it has raised $20 million, including $1.55 million from investment executive Peter Ackerman, who’s son, Elliott, is the chief operating officer. Its chief executive officer, Khalil Byrd, is a Republican strategist. Its board of advisors includes former CIA chief William Webster. Its chief technology officer, Joshua Levine, did that same job at E-Trade.

More in my column this week for the Arkansas News Bureau.

Here’s a very informative story in the Los Angeles Times.

And, once more, here is the Americans Elect website, www.americanselect.org.