Whitney Bilyeu, chair of the Libertarian Party’s National Committee, issued the following statement which reiterates the LP’s long-held position that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility should be immediately closed:
… Read more ...Last month the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing regarding the status of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, reviewing its nearly two decade history and the current plans for the site.
Maine state representative John Andrews has switched his registration back to Republican. The change happened at the end of 2021, as he feared that a legal battle might have kept the Libertarian Party off the ballot in Maine.
“I was a Republican before and many of my principles are aligned with them,” Andrews told the Bangor Daily News while explaining his party switch.… Read more ...
The Illinois Green Party has released a statement stressing that the party “wholeheartedly supports the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) in its struggle with the Chicago Public Schools over in-person learning and school safety.”
Chicago students recently returned to class following a CTU walkout that flared tensions between the labor union and the city’s Democratic mayor.… Read more ...
“Frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me,” Missouri congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver said in an 1899 speech: “I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.”
Note to Missouri governor Mike Parson: You’re getting this “Show-Me State” business all wrong.
Parson tried to charge Elad Gross, a candidate for state attorney general, $3,618 for documents Gross requested under the state’s Sunshine Law, claiming more than 90 hours of required “research and processing” at $40 per hour.… Read more ...
Third party and independent candidates have occasionally been featured on Saturday Night Live over the years, most notably during the 1992 and 1996 elections when Dana Carvey appeared numerous time as Ross Perot.
Just for fun, I’ve compiled a collection of some of the more notable sketches that I thought might be of interest to IPR readers.… Read more ...
Dr. Benjamin Spock, the famous pediatrician and antiwar activist, was nominated for the presidency by the People’s Party on July 29, 1972.
Organized around opposition to the Vietnam War and originally co-chaired by novelist Gore Vidal and Spock himself, the People’s Party was a loose coalition of state and local parties, including California’s Peace & Freedom Party and Zolton Ferency’s Human Rights Party in Michigan, a party that enjoyed considerable electoral success in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.… Read more ...
FairVote President & CEO Rob Richie had a conversation with Andrew Yang, former Democratic presidential candidate and now a FairVote Action Board Member, to hear why he believes Ranked-Choice Voting is the best electoral reform for safeguarding our democracy right now.
Yang recently launched the Forward Party, a PAC which is intended to become a political party with an agenda that includes the promotion of structural reform of our electoral systems.… Read more ...
New York Times opinion columnist Thomas L. Friedman is proposing some unusual tickets for the 2024 presidential election in his latest editorial. We’re talking unusual like Biden-Cheney, Harris-Romney, or Klobuchar-Cheney.
Friedman makes the case that after years of political turmoil, Israel’s recent elections have produced a model that America might want to follow: “Key Israeli politicians swallowed their pride, softened policy edges and came together for a four-year national unity government — led by rightist Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and left-of-center Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid.… Read more ...
In mid-2020, I mused that if the COVID-19 pandemic ended up producing any silver linings, the most likely bright spot would be its impact on government — so-called “public” — education. Throughout the previous spring, government schools had largely shut down in-person classes, switching to ad hoc and, it seems, fairly lame, “remote learning.”… Read more ...
WV MOUNTAIN PARTY: The Mountain Party (the WV affiliate of the Green Party) is recruiting qualified candidates to run for elected office across West Virginia. Many seats are up for election in 2022. While much of the conversation is focused on the legislature, they are paying special attention to local races such as Board of Education and Conservation District Supervisor.… Read more ...
IPR’s favorite map maker Nick (@Mill226) has created an interesting match-up that combines the vote total for Libertarian presidential campaigns and the combined Green/Nader vote from 1996-2020 U.S. presidential elections. During this time period the Libertarians polled approximately 9.4 million votes to around 7.4 million for the Greens/Nader, a 56-44 margin.… Read more ...
Assemblyman Chad Mayes, the only independent in the California legislature, has decided not to seek re-election after 8 years in office and is publicly pondering a bid for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Initially elected as a Republican in 2014, Mayes has been highly critical of former president Donald Trump and ultimately decided to leave the GOP prior to seeking re-election in 2020.… Read more ...