The California Libertarian Party has been on the ballot in all elections starting with 1980. In the November 2008 election, it polled a higher share of the vote for its Assembly candidates (in the districts in which it had Assembly candidates) than ever before in its history. Even though all of the party’s 2008 Assembly candidates had both a Democratic and a Republican opponent, the party’s share of the vote in the districts in which it ran Assembly candidates was 6.87%.
California Libertarians running for U.S. House also did relatively well, receiving 4.33% of the vote in the districts which had Libertarians running. Excluding districts with only one major party candidate, that was the best showing for U.S. House for California Libertarians since 1992.
Pamela J. Brown, Assembly candidate in 2008 in the 40th district (San Fernando Valley), polled 14.76% against both a Democrat and a Republican. That was only the second time in the history of the California Libertarian Party that one of its nominees in a partisan race (with both major parties in that race) had exceeded 10%. The other instance was in 1980, when Roberta Rinehart polled 16.78% for Assembly in the 70th district (Anaheim).
Posted to IPR by Paulie.
Good. Hopefully it will be even better in 2010 so they can steal Republican votes and get the Democrats the 2/3 majority.