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Third Party Candidates; Why the Hell Not? |
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Monday, 06 November 2006 |
Andrea Noble – Washington Prism
On a Saturday night in the small, liberal city of Takoma Park, Maryland, just across the district line from Washington DC, an energetic house party is raging. Middle Eastern drumming flows out into the chilly streets, inviting passers-by through the open front door framed with Buddhist prayer flags and into the warm living room where a belly dancer shimmies to the beat.
chatter gaily while nibbling on kabobs and sipping down imported beers. Then a tall man with a clipboard in hand comes outside to announce the arrival of a political candidate and that’s all it takes to get the burgeoning crowd to cram inside.
Appearances can be deceiving, and though this neo-hippie crowd looks contented it’s their political discontent that has brought them together.
“I’m just really tired of the two-party system that I don’t think works anymore,” said 53-year old Denise Becker, a lifelong Democrat down from Baltimore. “I really cannot vote for either of the two [major party] candidates and I really am glad there is a third candidate because otherwise I would feel really discouraged.”
Becker and the house party crowd have come together to support third party candidate Kevin Zeese in the upcoming US Senate elections. By gaining the nominations of the Green, Libertarian, and Populist Parties, Zeese has made state and national history. Never before have these three political parties come together to support one candidate; but the cooperation seems to indicate an urgency to change American politics.
In a political realm dominated by the Democrats and Republicans, third party candidates are nothing new and neither are the problems they face. Their representation in the electoral government is currently close to nothing. Out of both the House of Representative’s and the Senate’s 535 elected seats only two are held by Independent candidates.
The House of Representatives and Senate elections will be held on November 7, as well as many state and local elections, including 36 governorship. With support for the Bush administration sinking to an all time low and the Republican Party suffering from scandal fallout, many political analysts have predicted a sweep by the Democratic Party come election day.
At the same time, more Americans seem to be throwing up their hands in disgust with both major political parties and seeking out independent or third party candidates instead. In a recent Gallup Poll, 48 percent of respondents said that Democrats and Republicans were doing such a poor job in the government that a third political party was needed. That number was up from 40 percent in 2003. But in a political climate so polarized over the Iraq war, do third party candidates have a chance?
Political Outsiders
Third party candidates like Zeese are counting on the public’s feelings of alienation with politics to bolster their efforts.
“Everyone knows the two parties are corrupt and they are selling the country to the highest bidder,” said Zeese at a recent speech.
Brian Schaffner, a professor of politics at American University, said third party candidates have typically had success in elections when one of the two major parties has been enveloped in a scandal or has seen several major policies fail. Third party candidates’ virtual absence from the mainstream then makes them quickly able to fill the vacuum left if a major party is suddenly given the cold shoulder.
“When they are successful is when they hit on an outsider theme,” Schaffner said. “They will say ‘the two party system is corrupt and we need someone outside the system to fix this.’”
This was wrestler-turned-politician Jesse Ventura’s successful strategy when he ran for the Minnesota gubernatorial election in 1998. Today, Zeese is embracing the same outsider’s stance by stumping for political and electoral system reform. His proposals for both foreign and domestic policy brand him as an outsider as well.
Unlike the Democrat or Republican candidates he is running against, Zeese advocates an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and reconsideration of American funding for Israel. He also envisions a universal healthcare plan and a repeal of federal income taxes on the first $100,000 earned by all workers; ideas which are not part of mainstream discussions in American politics on either the right or the left.
“Another trademark of a successful third party candidate is being a straight talker,” Schaffner said.
A candidate known for his brutally honest talk is Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman. As a man whose debate attire consists of a black Stetson cowboy hat, weathered black leather jacket and a Cuban cigar, the former musician and mystery novelist physically stands out from the typical wash of suits and ties. Having previously authored satirical songs like “They Don’t Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore,” Friedman or “The Kinkster” as he is often called, has a mouth made for grabbing press attention.
With quips about how he wants to “de-wussify” Texas, Friedman wasn’t taken seriously when he first announced his candidacy. Yet the media swooned over his rebel image, earning him press far outside the state border. After further developing his agenda and campaigning heavily on the issues of education, healthcare, and political reform he began to create a legitimate buzz.
Friedman’s campaign manager Dean Barkley said that unlike most political candidates Friedman has no specific demographic base of support; although he is trying to target young first time voters.
“Most young people aren’t Democrats or Republicans, they are mostly turned off by politics,” Barkley said. “The strongest leaning Democrats and Republicans lie in graveyards.”
Brining in new voters is a strategy Larry Jacobs, Director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said is necessary for all third parties though he doesn’t think candidates will be able to pull it off in this mid-term election.
Barkley, who previously worked as the campaign manager for Jesse Ventura and served as a Minnesota Senator, said he sees Friedman’s support overwhelmingly stemming from a general disgust that Texans have with the status quo in politics. It’s the same disgust that led Friedman to enter the race with the tongue in cheek campaign slogan “Kinky for governor, Why the Hell not?”
In addition to his unconventional assault on politics, Friedman has adopted a platform that crosscuts the polar stance of the left and the right. From the left, he supports an expansion of renewable energy sources while from the right, proposing to step up border control.
“For anyone to run as an independent they have to be different than what is out there,” Barkley said. “It’s unfortunate in this country but if you’re brutally honest as a politician you are different.”
While both Friedman and Zeese remain political long shots in the polls, they have succeeded in their efforts in so much as they have been able to take part in televised debates with their opponents. Many third party candidates don’t even get that chance.
Limited Access
Unless third party candidates use their personal wealth to buy media exposure (Ross Perot in the 1992 presidential race) or they are well known enough to command it (Jesse Ventura in the 1998 Minnesota gubernatorial race), they often find themselves ignored.
“It’s a bad cycle,” Schaffner said. “They have no money to make advertisements to really be competitive in an election and by not getting media coverage they can’t be competitive.”
Compounding the problem still, many candidates around the country have not been allowed to participate in televised debates. The qualifying rules for candidates to be allowed into the debates are set by the sponsors and differ widely. In Washington State the Green Party candidate for Senate, Aaron Dixon, was excluded from a debate and arrested when he subsequently tried to enter the television studio where it was taking place.
Dixon was told he had not raised enough money and did not have a high enough percentage of support to qualify. Libertarian candidate, Bruce Guthrie was allowed in the debate but only after he mortgaged his house and loaned the money to the campaign in order meet the minimum fundraising requirement.
A similar incident took place during a debate for the lone seat Delaware holds in the House of Representatives. When third party candidates were excluded from a debate, Green Party candidate Michael Berg attended the forum anyhow and as the debate was about to begin he climbed onstage alongside the two major party candidates. The debate moderator asked Berg to leave and he was summarily escorted out of the building.
In other elections across the country, major party candidates have threatened to pull out of debates if third party candidates were allowed in.
“The TV stations and media are just as guilty as the Democrats and Republicans for what goes on in the debates,” Barkley said. “The major media will ignore you because right off the bat they don’t think you can win.”
Nationwide, Joseph Lieberman is probably the most well known candidate running on an Independent ticket in the 2006 Senate elections. The Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2000 and incumbent Democratic senator from Connecticut turned Independent after he lost the Democratic primary election to Ned Lamont.
However, Lieberman has maintained that the Independent status is a technicality and he will still side as a Democrat in Congress. By holding onto a large amount of Democratic support, Lieberman has not run into the fundraising problems that plague many independent candidates.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, he has raised almost $15 million since the beginning of 2005. Comparatively the official Democrat, Republican, and two additional third party candidates in the race have not been able to raise $10 million combined.
Other third parties report significantly smaller budgets. Barkley reported that the Friedman campaign has raised between $5 and 6 million while Zeese said he has raised $70,000.
Polarized Politics
So if campaign spending was capped, if all candidates were allowed into debates and if the playing field was overall leveled, would third parties stand a chance?
Larry Jacobs said that although third party candidates in the Minnesota gubernatorial race seem to have enough money to compete on an equal playing field, he doesn’t see it making a bit of difference. Right now every election seems to be about the war in Iraq.
“This election has become one dimensional,” Jacobs said. “In those circumstances it is very hard for third party candidates.”
Instead analysts say Americans are rooting for one team or the other, with very little attention being paid to voices outside the immediate two party system. Sentiments have changed from the presidential races of the 90s when Independent Ross Perot received 19 percent of the vote in 1992 and Green Ralph Nader carried 3 percent in 2000; enough votes in both cases for the candidates to be cast as election spoilers. With tensions running particularly high in this mid-term election, Jacobs said no one wants to cast the “symbolic” vote.
“The Ralph Nader support from left of the center has been scared away,” Jacobs said. “[Voters] are more concerned with changing Congress.”
Political analyst Charlie Cook argued the legitimacy of the election spoiler theory.
“By and large third parties don’t get enough votes to cost people the election,” Cook said.
That doesn’t stop voters from worrying however. Reza Shirazi attended a recent speech of Zeese’s and was impressed by his ideas, but Shirazi said he is still weighing the pros and cons of voting for a third party.
“I agreed with 90 percent of what he said, but when I vote for the Green Party there is more chance for the Republicans to win,” Shirazi said.
Effects and the Future
Even if third party candidates don’t win, Barkley argues that their effects are felt in the political discourse. He believes third party candidates often introduce new issues to be debated in an election, citing Perot for bringing social security into the presidential debates. To get the innovators of those new ideas into office, not just the major party candidates that adopt them, Barkley and others advocate a change to the electoral system itself.
Out of 144 total candidates in the Senate races, 79 are independent or third party candidates and the odds of many of them winning elections are slim to none. Chris Driscoll, the Populist Party candidate for Maryland governor, believes this signals a need for “the winner takes all” electoral system to change. In addition to campaigning for himself, Driscoll is also trying to disperse information about proportional representation and instant runoff voting.
Proportional representation would allot the percentage of seats in the government to parties based on the percentage of the popular vote they receive. Instant runoff voting (which some states already use) would allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference and in the case no candidate received the majority, the candidate with the least votes would be dropped. Then the ballots with the dropped candidate as the number one choice would have their second choice candidate counted.
By utilizing one of these two options, Zeese believes Americans would feel better represented in politics because they could vote on what they believe rather than on their fears. While Barkley agrees a change in the system will benefit the public he says politicians need to shape up and allow alternative voices for their own sake.
“I don’t think the country can survive what the two party system has done to the soul of politics,” Barkley said.
Third Party Candidates; Why the Hell Not? |
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