Libertarians run in election to sway views

The Libertarian party candidates’ presence in the 2010 elections is vast, but the chances of their election to the Senate or the House is unlikely, according to political experts.
 
So the question remains: Why do they try?

The Libertarian Party is the third-largest political party in America. In Indiana, there are more than 100 Libertarian candidates running for positions at the local and federal level.

Mike Wherry, one of those Libertarian candidates, is running for Indiana’s Secretary of State, and there are nine candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives in each of Indiana’s nine districts. 

Two of Indiana’s Libertarian candidates in the spotlight include Rebecca Sink-Burris, candidate for U.S. Senate, and Greg Knott, candidate for Congress representing the
9th District.

When both candidates were asked if they had a chance of winning the elections, both responded jokingly they were not delusional.

They said the purpose they serve in the elections is not necessarily to win, but to influence the major party candidates to adopt their views.

Political Science graduate student Nick D’Amico said third-party candidates have a history of pulling away voters from Republicans and Democrats.

This was the case during the 2000 presidential election in which Independent Ralph Nader pulled votes away from Democrat Al Gore and during the 1992 presidential election in which Independent Ross Perot pulled away votes from Republican George Bush Sr.

“When you run a third-party candidate, the other candidates don’t want to lose votes so they will start to absorb a lot of those issues into their own party platform,” D’Amico said. “Simply being in the race forces their issues to at least be discussed and even possibly implemented by other politicians who are looking to win
those voters.”

Out of 435 House elections, the 9th District congressional race has been named the 4th hottest race by Politico.com. Politico analysts have deemed the race a toss up between Democrat incumbent Baron Hill and Republican Todd Young.

Knott is not receiving much attention in the election on a national level, but he said he is confident he could win anywhere from 5 to 10 percent of the votes, which would sway both Young and Hill to adopt his views.

“It’s already a really tight race, so for a third-party candidate to come in and take 5 percent is a big deal. It’s kind of like being kingmaker in a way,” Knott said. “If they can adopt positions on my platform, they might be able to pull over my voters.”

D’Amico said the votes typically given to Libertarian candidates serve more as a signal to demonstrate voters’ disapproval rather than an attempt to actually elect the candidate.

“If you simply didn’t vote then you are not counted at all, and they don’t take that as a punishment message,” D’Amico said. “Actually running third-party candidates, it’s a signaling mechanism that signals to the national party that the national party needs to shift what it’s doing if it doesn’t want to lose support.”

For Sink-Burris, running in the election is centered around swaying political opinion as well as civic responsibility.

“Government has overstepped its bounds and is bankrupting us,” Sink-Burris said. “I’m not the kind of person who can have strong principles and can just sit by and not do anything.”

While Sink-Burris said it’s not always about winning, Knott said he might reconsider his party affiliation and let someone else take on the role as the “alternative” candidate so he can have a shot in the future.

“I wouldn’t mind running for office again, and if I run for a federal level office again, it would almost certainly be as one of the two major parties,” Knott said.“ A lot of voters only consider voting for one of the two major parties. They don’t consider voting other people even if they think they’re a
better candidate.”