Four parties held presidential primaries yesterday in Missouri, though only three fielded candidates: the Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians. James Ogle, an advocate for a parliamentary system based on ranked-choice voting, was the only Libertarian candidate on the ballot. In the final tally, he received 508 votes or 52.7 percent. The remaining 456 Libertarian voters chose “uncommitted”.
Ogle, who was profiled in a Columbia Missourian article last week, is not even listed on the LP website, which enacted strict requirements for inclusion on January 31. Ogle was the only LP candidate that paid the $1000 filing fee to appear on the Missouri ballot. Others such as former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, former air traffic controller RJ Harris, and activist R. Lee Wrights chose to skip the non-binding election.
According to Richard Winger here, in addition to Missouri, individual state Libertarian Parties are qualified to hold primaries in Arizona, California, Delaware, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.
At this time, California is the only one of these states anticipated to hold a primary. It is scheduled for June, one month after the Libertarian National Convention.
For the Democratic Missouri primary, four candidates were listed on the ballot, including IPR contributor Darcy Richardson. Richardson came in fourth place with 892 votes (1.2%); attorney John Wolfe, Jr. finished third with 1,022 (1.4%); anti-abortion activist Randall Terry placed second with 2,016 (2.8%); and President Barack Obama won with 64,405 (88.3%).
Former Senator Rick Santorum won on the Republican side.
Oglementum.
Ogle’s reply to a question about immigration: “I am in favor of legal immigration. However, I also favor enforcing current laws as unfair as they may be. But I also wish to implement better ways to improve and simplify all laws. I am skeptical [of] laws and decisions that have not used ranked choice voting.”
@38 “Winning elections is what it is about in the end – Ogle has done more of that so far this cycle than others who are taken more seriously.”
He won an uncontested beauty pageant – that’s it! the other candidates are putting boots on the ground and traveling to the various State LP conventions and debates. Ogle did participate in a debate when he was seeking the VP nomination of the BTP.
You can read the chatlog from that debate at http://bostontea.us/node/1063
The debate is timestamped – the VP “debate” began at 21:09
The Missouri presidential preference primary is simply a beauty contest paid for by the taxpayers. No delegates for any party are determined by the vote. Only one other candidate (RJ Harris) attempted to register for the election. Unfortunately, his people began that effort just hours before registration ended. Ogle gets credit for showing up and that is, as they say, about 90% of life.
I should have noted that while the primary Ogle won wasn’t contested, it would have been if someone like Wrights had joined in. $1000 isn’t a huge amount of money, particularly for campaigns who are hiring professional consultants and pollsters.
Hi Tom @39 –
You’re certainly right. There is, though, symbolic value in a primary win. Ogle gets whatever credit is due from that. If I were a candidate, I’d like to be able to show up at the convention and be able to claim a win in a contested primary in the current cycle, let alone in my career. Something like that could help someone like Wrights or Harris to separate themselves from their competition.
wolfefan@38,
“I know it’s easy to mock James but he deserves real credit for doing what it took to get on the ballot and win a primary.”
What it took was $1,000.
Apparently other candidates felt that the $1,000 in question was more wisely spent on things besides being in a primary which confers no delegates and in which fewer than 1,000 of Missouri’s six million citizens bothered to cast a ballot.
I know it’s easy to mock James but he deserves real credit for doing what it took to get on the ballot and win a primary. If one of the other non-Johnson candidates had troubled themselves to do this, it could have been a credential in their favor at the convention. Ogle’s not going to win the nomination, but he has one more primary win under his belt than Wrights or Harris or anyone else and that is to his credit. Winning elections is what it is about in the end – Ogle has done more of that so far this cycle than others who are taken more seriously.
From what I have seen and heard, Mr. Ogle should BE “committed”. As in sent to the funny farm. Along with a few others running for POTUS with LP banner.
I was in the 7th during the 2010 election season – I think Long said “Roy Blunt” almost as much as Ron Paul said “Federal Reserve” during the 2008 Presidential primaries.
I think Long will do as Blunt does. He mentioned Blunt at almost every stump speech he gave. I can’t imagine he would run away from Blunt now. Maybe.
Coulda knocked me over with a feather when Long ended up in Congress.
I used to listen to (and occasionally appear on) his morning talk show with Bonnie Bell on KWTO radio, and he really didn’t strike me as the type to even run.
I think Long will only endorse someone once they are almost assured of the nomination. Possibly after “Super Tuesday”.
Missouri changed the rules this year. I was contacted about helping with the caucus, but you must declare party affiliation before you can do anything. You don’t declare whom you support though.
I did believe that Ron Paul would’ve done better than he did. I thought he would out score Romney. I don’t hear a great deal of support in central Missouri for Romney.
Roy Blunt endorsed him, but the Catholic right won’t touch him. I am sure Billy Long will endorse him soon.
Darryl,
Root didn’t lose the 2008 Missouri primary by 29 votes, he lost it by 29 percent.
He called it a win.
So in spin terms I don’t see why winning by 4% couldn’t be a “decisive” win. “I got an outright majority, and all the other candidates were so scared of me they didn’t even run.”
@29 – did WAR call his 29 vote defeat a “decisive victory”?
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see a 4% margin of victory as “decisive”…
DWP@25,
“Ogle is calling this ‘decisive victory'”
Who can blame him?
In 2008, Wayne Allyn Root put out press releases claiming to have “won” the same primary (he came in 29 points behind “uncommitted”).
@ 20 & 24
A Libertarian primary can also show us what a candidates general election strategy will be. Indeed, if the past is any indication, it already does.
I really don’t think it is outrageous to EXPECT our candidates to take an active part in the primary election system.
I can only imagine the obvious benefit to the state affiliates with the added media attention. We don’t get a lot of opportunities to reach out and this is an opportunity for outreach that is being squandered.
PEACE
Maybe as a protest vote.
Gary Johnson received over 100 votes while on the Republican ballot, but Herman Cain and Rick Perry also got votes. I don’t understand the rationale of voting in a primary that means nothing to the convention and voting for someone that is no longer running in that race.
Ogle is calling this “decisive victory”
He mentions the possibility of write-in votes for Roseanne Barr in the MO LP primary. Missouri election law requires write-ins file a declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate. Also, I do not believe write-in vtes are allowed in primaries in MO.
In order for primaries to work, there would need to be some moderately effective scheme for likely voters to find out which candidates were running, and which were most likely to run useful campaigns or whatever.
There isn’t, so the primaries give odd results.
We are proud of our friend and team captain James Ogle, who proved all of the skeptics wrong and won the Missouri libertarian primary with several hundred votes. Could it be that hundreds of people in Missouri do truly support the US Parliament? If not, you could also look at as an interesting dichotomy in the Libertarian Party. Some will trust that the Libertarian Party backs the candidate James Ogle, the only candidate on the ballot, and that’s why they voted for him. The other half voted against him because they weren’t sure who he was and were too lazy to research. Any amount of research will show that James Ogle and the US Parliament project are the best way forward for alternative ideologies like libertarianism, greenism, constitutionalism, socialism and Catholic Trotskyism.
Congratulation James! It must of been a tough campaign.
Well, the other primaries after this one will be after the convention.
SK@19,
In theory, Libertarian presidential primaries could at least serve an informational function — Libertarian voters telling the convention delegates which candidates they prefer.
Is there any point to the LP “primaries”. The candidates aren’t chosen until the convention anyhow.
I’m pretty sure that $1000 filing fee is a new thing.
My recollection is that the Secretary of State used to contact the party, ask who the candidates were, and put all names on the ballot that the Missouri LP’s chair submitted (and further, that the chair generally made an effort to identity all declared candidates, contact them, and put them on the ballot if they expressed a desire to be on it).
And my twenty-fifth before making typos all over the internet.
I usually wait at least until my eighteenth cup espresso shot before getting out of bed.
@10 oops, I missed that part. In the future, I’ll try to refrain from commenting before my second cup on coffee. 🙂
@12 I doubt it. Personal money, more likely. US Parliament does bring in ad revenue, but I think it’s very little.
Yeah, he’s a whacko. The primary is non-binding. Missouri delegates will vote for whoever they wish at the convention and I doubt any of them will vote for him unless he is a Missouri delegate himself.
$1000!! Must be some decent money in that US Parliament crap!
I asked Ogle if he was nominated or endorsed by the Missouri Libertarian Party but got no answer (sings point to “no”). He did invite me to join his fantasy football league parliament thingy I told him I’d rather eat a turd sandwich, and he got offended on behalf of women who might have been reading along. True story.
@8 from the article
Ogle was the only LP candidate that paid the $1000 filing fee to appear on the Missouri ballot. Others such as former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, former air traffic controller RJ Harris, and activist R. Lee Wrights chose to skip the non-binding election.
SLP@3,
“Pretty much sums it up when ‘uncommitted’ nearly beats only one candidate on a ballot.”
In 2008, “uncommitted” beat every candidate on the Missouri Libertarian presidential primary ballot. By double digits.
What did it take to get on the Missouri ballot? It seems like our LP candidates missed out on some good earned media opportunities.
It is also interesting that Gary Johnson polled more votes in the GOP primary than Ogle did in the LP race. Makes one wonder what the result might have been if Johnson had dropped out of the Republican race sooner.
NC will be the Tuesday AFTER the LP Convention.
Nebraska will be one week later.
The complete list of primaries and caucuses can be found at http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P12/events.phtml
Will any of them be before the convention?
Besides California, there will be Libertarian presidential primaries in 2012 in Nebraska and North Carolina.
Pretty much sums it up when “uncommitted” nearly beats only one candidate on a ballot.
Does this mean he’ll get listed at LP.org?
Watchout LP! Ogle’s gonna get ya! He’ll make you all Deputy Prime Ministers before the week’s out!