29 responses so far ↓

• 1 Nicholas Sarwark // Jan 24, 2013 at 8:57 pm

  Further evidence that Colorado is awesome.

• 2 johnO // Jan 24, 2013 at 9:04 pm

  Someone should do the same for Greens,CP, Socialist, and even other minor parties. Would be very interesting which parties were strong in what state. LP looks mighty strong in Texas and Colorado.

• 3 Krzysztof Lesiak // Jan 24, 2013 at 10:19 pm

  Yeah, I’d really love to see especially the CP results.

• 4 Richard Winger // Jan 24, 2013 at 10:22 pm

  It’s good for people to look at election returns. But just adding up the total number of votes for all candidates of one particular party in each state is misleading. The results are a function of how many statewide offices happen to be up in each state. If Texas happened to elect all its statewide executive and judicial partisan office-holders only in midterm years, as many states do, the results above would be very different. What is being measured isn’t really party strength but which big offices are up in which years. Some states don’t elect any statewide state offices except Governor, whereas other states elect as many as 12 offices.

• 5 Stewart Flood // Jan 24, 2013 at 10:39 pm

  Agreed. And when the numbers published are also clearly inaccurate, it only brings to question the motive of the presentation.

  The motive in this case appears to be “Texas!”

• 6 Richard Winger // Jan 24, 2013 at 10:43 pm

  A fairer way to compare the Libertarian results in each state is to look at the percentage of the vote that the party’s candidates for US House got, within the districts in which the party had candidates. Those results are: Kansas 14.33%, Louisiana 8.80%, Arizona 6.16%, Massachusetts 4.47%, New Hampshire 4.32%, Indiana 4.13%, Montana 4.03%, Idaho 3.87%, Arkansas 3.66%, Mississippi 3.63%, Ohio 3.55%, Wyoming 3.50%, Texas 3.35%, Nevada 3.33%, Missouri 3.28%, Florida 3.26%, North Dakota 3.25%, Oklahoma 3.24%, Maryland 2.69%, Utah 2.63%, North Carolina 2.35%, Michigan 2.23%, South Carolina 2.18%, Pennsylvania 2.04%, Oregon 1.90%, Kentucky 1.74%, Tennessee 1.66%, Wisconsin 1.66%, Connecticut 1.17%, Delaware 1.06%, New Jersey .88%, New York .65%. Those last two states are handicapped because of the miserable ballot format, which tends to hide Libertarian candidates in obscure corners of the ballot.

• 7 Jill Pyeatt // Jan 24, 2013 at 10:58 pm

  If Wes is saying that California only has 6 people in elected offices, that is not correct.

  http://ca.lp.org/elected-officials

• 8 Matt Cholko // Jan 25, 2013 at 1:08 am

  He’s saying that CA had 6 people elected or re-elected in 2012. People elected in prior years are not included.

• 9 Libertarian Party Needs Your Support // Jan 25, 2013 at 4:22 am

  The U.S. House races (and all offices for that matter) is where the LP candidates need to tell the voters, through ALL means available, that we The Libertarian Party have the solutions to the american and world problems! Start running to WIN!

  That is the LP has the fairest, most just solutions for ALL citizens, NO special interests cashing in like they do now.

  Worldwide Solutions = http://www.lp.org/platform

  Get Involved ! = http://www.lp.org/contribute

  Free Markets and Personal Responsibility.

• 10 Eric Sundwall // Jan 25, 2013 at 6:42 am

  When the alien abductions start or the rapture begins, they’ll be sure to start in Texas also.

• 11 Executive Detractor // Jan 25, 2013 at 9:18 am

  Oh Dear, Richard!

  Please don’t write “A fairer way to compare the Libertarian results in each state is to look at the percentage of the vote that the party’s candidates for US House got, within the districts in which the party had candidates . . . ”

  –and then list Louisiana as number 2!

  Wes Benedict is from Louisiana now, and he’ll only let that go to his head.

  Especially considering that the LP.org blog says “Similar initiatives that passed in prior election years in Washington, Louisiana and California have been destructive to the LP in those states. ”
  http://www.lp.org/blogs/staff/arizona-top-two-initiative-goes-down

  Perhaps top two ain’t so bad after all?!
  Hear that Washington?!

• 12 Wes Benedict // Jan 25, 2013 at 9:44 am

  Richard wrote ” If Texas happened to elect all its statewide executive and judicial partisan office-holders only in midterm years, as many states do, the results above would be very different. ”

  Richard, I believe in 2006, a midterm election, Texas candidates received even more than 51% of the total nationwide.

  From a report I just read (which I wrote) “12,355,165 votes for Libertarian candidates, with 7,066,118 for Texas candidates, so Texas had 57% of the total.”

• 13 Steven Wilson // Jan 25, 2013 at 10:02 am

  I think elected Libertarians should give testimonials about their respective race, detailed as possible, and to have others speak on their behalf about conduct and professionalism.

  Market viability needs work.

• 14 Doug Craig // Jan 25, 2013 at 11:07 am

  wow Georgia is looking pretty good and we did it with only two candidates. This chart has been fairly stable for awhile.

• 15 Doug Craig // Jan 25, 2013 at 11:12 am

  Also please follow us in Georgia we have one of the top facebook pages of any state in the country……… https://www.facebook.com/LPGeorgia

• 16 Richard Winger // Jan 25, 2013 at 12:35 pm

  #11, the Louisiana top-two system is not nearly as bad as the Washington and California top-two system. Louisiana has no primary so everyone runs in November (for Congress) and therefore no one is excluded from the November election. By contrast, since Washington and California started using their versions of top-two, no minor party candidates for either house of Congress have been able to run in November. That is the main reason California and Washington look so weak in Wes’ chart.

  #14, please, please, tell us that the Georgia Libertarian Party is trying to get a bill introduced that will let the Georgia LP run candidates for US House! I offered the Georgia LP $1,000 if it would just get a bill introduced that gives the LP the same ballot status it has for Congress that it already enjoys for the statewide offices. So far no one has got back to me.

• 17 Wes Benedict // Jan 25, 2013 at 12:46 pm

  LP.org, lists at the very bottom of this page http://www.lp.org/candidates-12

  candidates, such as these from California that ran in the primaries:

  Gail Lightfoot (CA) US Senate
  Art Tuma (CA) US House 7
  Steve Collett (CA) US House 33
  Mike Benoit (CA) US House 50
  John Webster (CA) State Senate 13
  Charley Hooper (CA) State Assembly 1
  Janice Bonser (CA) State Assembly 8

  While I don’t plan to make changes to the charts in this posting, I think including primary candidates in “top-two” states would make sense. California candidates got reasonably high percentages in the primaries where they ran, even if they didn’t proceed to the November election.

  I would like to see lots more LP candidates in California in the primaries.

  Richard, would you be opposed to efforts to recruit more LP candidates for the California primaries?

• 18 Michael H. Wilson // Jan 25, 2013 at 1:12 pm

  We get to pick our own party designation in Washington State so I was thinking of using Lib. Democratic. How’s that fit in the scheme of things?

• 19 Wes Benedict // Jan 25, 2013 at 2:22 pm

  Mr. Sarwark,

  I agree that Colorado is awesome. From 21 candidates in 2010 to 66 in 2012? That’s great growth.

  I would like to know who provided the brainpower and manpower to make this happen and how they did it?

  Was your LNC regional rep, Norm Olsen involved?

• 20 Doug Craig // Jan 25, 2013 at 3:11 pm

  Richard Winger.. we are looking to try to get that bill introduced…I am the vice chair down in Georgia but I am not the go to guy on that project… Mark Hinkel has been calling us to push us on this BTW.

• 21 Jill Pyeatt // Jan 25, 2013 at 3:31 pm

  WB @ 17: “I would like to see lots more LP candidates in California in the primaries.

  Richard, would you be opposed to efforts to recruit more LP candidates for
  the California primaries?”

  I can assure everyone that we’d like more candidates for primaries, but it’s certainly hard to convince people when the possibility of being on the final ballot is so small. There’s lots of conversation going on in the state as to what to do about this top-two thing. I personally think concentrating on getting Libertarians to run in winnable local races (like city councils) is the best area to put our efforts, but I’m only speaking as a regional chair. I’m no longer part of the Ca Executive Committee.

• 22 ATBAFT // Jan 25, 2013 at 4:08 pm

  Unfortunately, complied this way, the LP vote is tiny contrasted with literally billions of votes for the major parties’ candidates.

• 23 Richard Winger // Jan 25, 2013 at 6:16 pm

  #21, Doug Craig, thanks! Glad to hear that.

  It’s too soon for me to have an opinion about whether many Libertarians in California should file in the June 2014 primary. I’m more fixated on getting rid of top-two. I have written each legislator asking for a bill to repeal it.

• 24 Nicholas Sarwark // Jan 25, 2013 at 7:46 pm

  @20: Joe Johnson challenged the board to fill the ballot and contest all of the legislative races. There was a volunteer effort to call registered Libertarians and recruit them to run for office. Norm Olsen was instrumental in coordinating paperwork and assisting candidates with getting all of their filings done.

• 25 Mark Axinn // Jan 25, 2013 at 9:37 pm

  Of course it helps when you don’t have to petition to get on the ballot.

• 26 David // Jan 25, 2013 at 10:33 pm

  Montana’s totals are more like 294,871 in 2012.

• 27 George Phillies // Jan 26, 2013 at 9:56 am

  Excellent work. Thank you! And if you did not run a candidate in a district, well, that’s why you got no votes. That’s a zero performance.

• 28 Ex-Texan // Jan 27, 2013 at 4:51 am

  Five LPTX candidates each got over a million votes — 1 for Railroad Commission, and 4 for court seats. Of the five, three had no campaign web sites, and the fourth’s campaign site did not mention the LP. All five were in statewide races against Republicans with no Democrat opponent, and each received between 17% and 22% of the vote. Libertarian John Jay Myers ran for Senate against both a D and an R on that same statewide ballot, and received only 2% of the votes.

  A vote against the GOP isn’t quite the same thing as a vote for the LP.

• 29 Stephen VanDyke - HAMMER OF TRUTH // Jan 28, 2013 at 6:08 am

  One day we’ll have a proper, full-time PAC (or whatever) to take vote results and mine them for trends, weaknesses, strengths and use that data to assist in developing a plan of action for liberty candidates.

  One day… but apparently not today.

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