John Hospers, the Libertarian Party’s first Presidential candidate, turned 91 yesterday. He is best known for winning one electoral vote (a “faithless elector”) in the election of 1972. I know it’s late, but happy birthday, Mr. Hospers! You can read the Ballot Access News article here.

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On June 9th, four Green Party candidates won their races for local office: Anna Trevorrow, Ben Chipman, Joyce Palmer-Fortune and Nat Fortune.

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Terry McAuliffe, former Chair of the Democratic National Committee, has lost his bid in the Democratic primary for Governor of Virginia. McAuliffe recently received bad publicity concerning his treatment of the Nader campaign in the 2004 elections. Ralph Nader has run for President of the U.S. on the Green Party line, and more recently as an independent.

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The Libertarian Party is urging Congress to consider alternative solutions to the growing economic issue, in order to create jobs to reverse the growing unemployment rate. You can read the full article here. Here’s an excerpt: Figures released Friday by the Labor Department show unemployment rose to 9.4 percent in May from 8.9 percent in [...]

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After a two week break from campaigning, Reverend Billy – who is running to be the Green Party nominee for mayor of New York City – sent out this email to his supporters: Welcome to the Wednesday Night Gathering! We meet again tomorrow night, 7:00pm – 9:00pm at the VoteRevBilly HQ, located at 250 Lafayette [...]

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Marc Emery, the “Prince of Pot” who sold millions of marijuana seeds and helped form the British Columbia Marijuana Party, is being prosecuted in Seattle, Washington for selling seeds to Americans.  He recently gave up a fight against extradition, and is attempting to make a deal with his prosecutors in order to lighten his sentence.  [...]

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On June 9, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, ruled that Ralph Nader’s lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee for its work to keep him off the ballot in 2004 was not filed within the statute of limitations.

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Yes, that time has come dear readers. Over the past year, this blog has grown into the number one resource on the Internet for third party and independent candidate news. It has also become a hub for third party activists and independently minded voters. We have generated some 3300+ blog posts and 50,000 comments under [...]

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In the New York State Senate, the Democrats hold the majority of positions. Though, two Democrats — Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada, Jr, –defected today. The two, Democratic State Senators voted with the Republicans in order to elect Republicans to the leadership posts. It is rumored that NY Independence Party co-founder Tom Golisano is behind the coup.

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Libertarian Party intern Daniel Murdock posts an analysis of the Value Added Tax at the LP’s website. A short selection: Because the amount of taxation remains hidden, governments come to view a VAT as an easy and painless source of revenue, providing an incentive and opportunity for governments to expand by increasing the VAT.

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The 2009 European Union elections are over. The Green Party elected 46 MEP’s from various countries, including 13 from France and 14 from Germany. Spiegel On-Line International reports that overall, the 2009 elections to European Parliament were marked by “…victories for center-right and right-wing parties.”

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New York State Independence Party Chairman Frank MacKay has been named to Touro Law Center Board of Governors.

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In New York, a candidate for Mayor of Buffalo is endorsed by the Working Families Party. And, a candidate for Westchester County Executive will receive the Conservative Party line.

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On May 23, Frances Villar announced the start of her campaign to be mayor of New York City as a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.  She is 26 years old, a mother of two, and a student at a local university. The announcement was made at an event called “Billionaires, your time [...]

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Today, Sunday, June 7, 2009, in Sweden are elections for the European Union parliament. One of the parties is “Feminist Initiative” (FI!). ABBA composer Benny Andersson has donated money with the intention of leveling the playing field with advertisements that explain what to do when pre-printed ballots are missing.

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Many of our long-time readers will remember the name of former writer, friend of IPR, frequent commenter, and source of wisdom: Peter Orvetti. He has published a book of his memoirs entitled “Reconciliation: A half-life“. Although this book is not strictly concerned with third parties or independent candidates, there are a number of episodes which [...]

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A US District Judge has ruled that West Virginia citizens can circulate petitions on public lands, Here’s an excerpt: On June 3, he held that West Virginia legislators violated First Amendment rights when they banned soliciting in state parks and other recreational areas. He did not disturb a ban on hawking, peddling or carrying on [...]

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As of this writing, IPR has 50,173 approved comments and 3,372 posts over the course of a year plus about two weeks. We are continuing to log well over 1,000 unique visitors per day. All together, we have had 673 thousand visits and over 1.943 million pageviews. -paulie

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Krist Novoselic, co-founder and former bassist for Nirvana, has filed to run for County Clerk of Wahkiakum County, Washington, on the ballot as, “prefers Grange Party.”

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In the Democratic primary for Governor of Virginia, to be held next week, former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe’s lead in the polls has declined. This happens at the same time that Ralph Nader has made accusations about McAuliffe’s past behavior against Nader’s presidential campaigns.

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