On September 30th, local Albemarle County, Virginia CBS19 interviewed Virgil Goode and his chances of winning the Presidency.
“If grassroots America wakes up and says, ‘Look, we want someone that’s for the U.S. citizen first and for grassroots America, then they’re going to vote for Virgil Goode,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Newsplex.
Goode said Obama and Romney want to preserve jobs for Americans, but he says he has a different plan to make sure that happens by putting a moratorium on immigration.
“We need jobs for U.S. citizens first and we need to reduce legal immigration. Obama’s not gonna say that, and neither is Romney. Big difference,” he said.
With not a lot of money
and a one- or two-man campaign staff, Goode says he’s never thought even once about giving this up.
“We need to save America and return to the days when citizenship counted for something,” he said.
Some people say that since the election might come down to Virginia, votes that go to Goode and not Romney might push over the win to Obama.
One conservative says that this time around, his values just match up better with the Constitution Party and Virgil Goode.
“Yes, I’ve made the decision that I’m going to support the man who most upholds my values,” said Albemarle County resident Michael Lusk.”In my family, I have to take care of my own children before I concern myself with those outside of my family. I think as Americans, we have to take care of Americans first.”
Go to Newsplex to watch the whole media coverage of Virgil Goode and read the article: EXCLUSIVE: Virgil Goode Says He Can Win the Presidency
@73 Starting Microsoft in a garage with $2000 and hoping to make a go of it is “wishfull thinking.”
Using the possibility of failure to avoid attempting to succeed is what separates the masses from the leaders in life.
One or two articles is enough. If you put that up on every Goode article in a row that will be considered spam.
Virgil Goode 2012!
It’s pretty clear that Darcy is putting the best spin he can on a difficult client. Can’t fault him for doing his job.
“I don’t find the Johnson campaign boring.”
The video ads that the campaign has made which are on YouTube are very good. Gary Johnson’s campaign speeches have been good as well.
I still don’t like Johnson’s attachment to the Fair Tax, but I will say that this has been a much better campaign than the Bob Barr campaign was.
Paulie: “I don’t find the Johnson campaign boring. YMMV, of course.”
Actually, I don’t either. I misread what Knapp had said. I thought it meant that Roseanne is the most colorful candidate & the least likely to put anyone to sleep. I agree with that. She’s a bigmouth & she’s nutty.
We haven’t reached much less organized the vast majority of people who already agree with us, so I think advertising would help.
“With pary building and a strategic advertising plan – starting 2013 and running through Nov 2016 – the LP could change all this and beat that 15% in the early polls and make it impossible for the Debate Commission to exclude Johnson on a second try.”
There’s absolutely no basis (other than wishful thinking) for believing this to be the case. Popular, wealthy, charismatic candidates have traditionally done this, without strategic advertising plans or party building. Those things tend to coalesce around a candidate, not a party.
The miracle of the LP is that it does survive as an almost 19th century issues driven party, rather than a manifestation of some personality or popular figure. And that’s alright. Meaningful and consistent (which of course will be subject to much howling) protest is a decent space to occupy.
Projecting that such a party as the LP can hope or expect to succeed with message tweaking or TV ads in Rochester is delusional. Coming to terms with that is hard for those who yearn so hard they can pee about it.
A strategic advertising plan for the entire LP is a canard.
The winner of the LP nomination drives that boat, not a committee or a SupaPac (yet).
“Richard Winger’s influence in the third party community — particularly his overwhelming focus on ballot access and endless lawsuits, coupled with his almost maniacal devotion to the “big three” of the third parties (Libertarian, Green and Constitution parties) — has limited everybody’s ability to imagine what might be possible. ”
This is unfair to Mr. Winger, ‘everybody’ has the ability to imagine possibilities without reading BAN.
My message to the Barr/Sheehan campaign today:
(I’m leaving out the name of the slow paying campaign for now).
Reply was:
I don’t find the Johnson campaign boring. YMMV, of course.
Tom, your view of “significant libertarian accomplishments” is a “Roseanne” episode featuring homosexuality & the appearance of a sci-fi writer-director? Um, okay.
Even if someone were to consider those significant libertarian accomplishments, she also has had significant anti-libertarian accomplishments.
Knapp: “They’re the only two post-nomination candidates in this election cycle who couldn’t be better marketed as insomnia cures.”
This I agree with. Then again, any 2 weirdos running would be more colorful than the serious candidates who represent parties that are actually ballot-qualified in most states.
I’m betting that was Benton that sold the list. Could also be some of the yeast infected republiCUNTs in the C4L (not all of c4l, mind you).
#28 It seems Ron Paul has been giving his fund raising list and supporters to the Republican party and other candidates. In Montana, the US Senate LP Candidate Dan Cox reported that his Republican competition was doing these push polls, where they ask the question; if the election were held today and the choice is Republican Dennis Rehberg or Libertarian Dan Cox who would you vote for. Well if people mention Cox, then the caller will explain why Rehberg is another Ron Paul. The Republicans were calling Ron Paul supporters in Montana. The Senate race in Montana will be close. The theme for the republicans is a vote for a 3rd party is a vote for Obama.
Facebook friend:
Parts of my response:
Andy @ 52,
“Knapp must be hard up for money.”
Nope. I haven’t been offered a great deal of money, and I’m not sure I’ll accept the amount offered. I may just donate the work.
I’m a huge fan of Roseanne Barr, and a huge fan of Cindy Sheehan, for two reasons:
1) Both of them have significant libertarian accomplishments, direct and indirect, under their belts.
The Roseanne episode “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” probably did more for social tolerance of gay men and lesbians than the combined total of all Libertarian Party action on the issue (especially considering that some LP action on the issue has been negative). Joss Whedon got his start on Roseanne, which makes her at least partially responsible for, among other things, the libertarian-themed Firefly. Sheehan put a face on the human costs of the war in Iraq.
2) They’re the only two post-nomination candidates in this election cycle who couldn’t be better marketed as insomnia cures. There are parts of their platform that I wouldn’t vote for (if I voted), but I am sick and tired of watching paint dry in fall of an election year. Time for some goddamn monkeywrenching.
Roseanne Barr’s campaign is not the first national write-in campaign. In 1967 Dick Gregory announced he would be a write-in candidate for President with his main issue ending the War in Vietnam. He wrote a book to promote his campaign, titled “Write Me In.”
After The Peace & Freedom Party qualified for the California ballot, and Peace & Freedom Parties formed in at least 10 other states, Gregory sought the Peace & Freedom Party nomination. PFP instead nominated Eldridge Cleaver.
Gregory did get on a few state ballots. In New York the Communist Party organized a Freedom & Peace Party, and nominated Gregory. In several other states, The New Party would name Gregory after Eugene McCarthy declined the nomination.
But Dick Gregory still promoted his campaign as a national write-in effort, since he was only on the ballot in a few states.
59, Virgil actually does answer emails. It isnt he that I am so upset with. It is the CP. I cant vote for a candidate whose party doesnt respond any more than I can vote for a candidate whose campaign doesnt. I am not necessarily done with Virgil, the CP, or even Gary Johnson for that matter.
Roseanne’s campaign is still a gag. If she had been serious in any way she would have made the effort to get on the ballot.
However, getting good PR for her future career is something she is seious about, and pretending to run for POTUS is a great way for her to mix comedy with sympathy and creat a little buzz for herself. This should get her back on the couch on various talk shows for a while and help her lock in another TV gig.
Roseanne is self-centered, egotistical and quite serious about only one thing – promoting Roseanne.
JD, I know it’s disappointing to not receive a response in a timely manner. Having said that, the Goode campaign has virtually no paid staff or manner in which to properly handle responses, which is disappointing. Overall, I think the campaign should have a manager other than the candidate. That would go a long way in helping the overall success and organization of the campaign.
He thinks the other candidates are boring.
Here is the thread I mentioned above.
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2011/01/roseanne-barr-to-seek-green-nomination/
Darcy, if Rosanne is a serious candidate, how come her first mention of running sounded like a comedy routine? We had a discussion here about it (I’ll see if I can find it) and no one could tell if she was being serious. I was of the belief that it was a gag similar to Colbert for President, because it sounded like a gag. At what point did her run transform from gag to serious or was the original stuff not intended as a gag?
54, I agree 100%.
“Virgil Goode claims he can win the Presidency”
This kind of thing strikes me as unwise. I know it is tempting when someone objects that a third party candidate can’t win by responding yes he can, but there is a fine line between projecting hope and enthusiasm and sounding delusional.
I found it very refreshing in the Press TV interview of Merlin Miller that we posted that when he was asked if he could win he said “Of course not” or something like that, and then turned it into an opportunity to bash the two party system, ballot access restrictions, corporate influence, etc.
When third party candidates are asked if they can win they need to use it as an opportunity to criticize the system rather than feign hope that isn’t fooling anyone.
Darcy: “I appreciate all of the time, money and energy spent of behalf of the Libertarian, Green, Constitution and Justice Party tickets, but I think the American people just might be ready for a second revolution — one that nobody anticipated.”
No, you don’t. Not if you say that “ballot access means nothing.”
And if it means nothing, then why bother even getting on the ballot in 3 states? Just felt like throwing a little time & money away?
Darcy: “She’s real.”
Yeah, she’s real loony. Her 2011 TV show on Lifetime “Roseanne’s Nuts” got it right. At least during the 2 months before it was canceled.
“A little bird tells me that two IPR folks just signed on to the
Roseanne Barr/Cindy Sheehan/Peace and Freedom Party presidential
campaign — Darcy Richardson as campaign manager and Tom Knapp as
press secretary.”
Tom Knapp is working for Roseanne Barr and Cindy Sheehan?!?!?!?! WTF??? If this is true, Knapp must be hard up for money.
“Believe it or not, Roseanne is very serious about her candidacy and feels strongly about the decimation of the working class in this country over the past three decades or so.”
If she’s so serious about her candidacy, why didn’t she make a greater effort to get on the ballot?
Thanks Darcy, I believe you to be a man of your word and conviction. I just dont see me voting PFP. There is nothing wrong with the party it just isnt for me.
@43 “As far as Roseanne goes, I’m disappointed she is not formerly supporting the Green Party…”
Roseanne is formerly supporting the Greens in her new role as a standard-bearer of the real left-wing alternative in American politics.
Words. They can become such a nuisance in political dialogue.
JD – Write to Roseanne’s campaign. We’ll respond. 😉
I have to admit that I am very disappointed in the campaign effort by Virgil and the CP. I like the candidate and the party but there is terrible disfunction afoot. I participated in a CP conference call in late September and everyone was shocked that I was on their because I am not a CP member. The call was advertised in their newsletter and it was not by invitation only because the number and access code were provided. I called and participated. The two reps from Indiana stayed on the line afterward and spoke with me. I basically told them I was investigating the party to decide on whether or not to join. I had to get off the line because my phone was dying but I assured them I would be in contact.
I wrote an email a few days later to the state office thanking them for their time. I asked them a question about student rates for membership and provided them with info about alternative media in Evansville. I received an auto response from the former state chair. To date I have received no actual response and it has been well over a week.
At the same time I emailed the state party I also emailed the national office and thanked them for the conference call. I made it very clear that I was interested in the party and that I did not mean to “flash mob” the call. I apologized for any inconvenience and again thanked the office. I have received no reply.
I am so upset by these developments that I have stopped making payments to Virgil Goode’s campaign and I am actually considering voting for Gary Johnson. To add to the trouble though I emailed the Johnson campaign and asked a very simple question to see if I got a reply. I asked “Does Governor Johnson support the continued enforcement of the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act?” That was last week. No reply. If I do not receive an answer from one of the campaigns I have contacted I will not be voting for either of them. If that be the case I will go with my third choice T.J. O’Hara.
As for the Constitution Party, for an outsider looking in, the party appears to have stopped functioning. It is definately number 5 out of the FEC big 5 and may not even be worthy of that distinction.
New Federalist @ 17. Thanks.
Well, I tried. I hope we’re not shut out in the Keystone State…my siblings and most of my friends there are all voting for Obama.
They’ll never learn.
Then again, they’re the kind of folks who sit through the second game of a Pirates doubleheader after the Bucs, nursing a seven-game losing streak, were swamped 10-0 in the opener.
@43. “She doesn’t know how to speak in the public relationese or legalese that the American people are used to hearing from their leaders.”
I appreciate your comments, but that’s whole problem. The American public has become so accustomed to listening to the meaningless — and deceptive — rhetoric or jargon of their “leaders” that words no longer have any real meaning to them.
Charisma, I suppose, is in the eye of the beholder. Anderson strikes me as a guy who drinks too much coffee and Gary Johnson always looks like he needs a good night’s sleep.
Roseanne might not be the greatest public speaker, but her words ring true. People get it, especially when she’s talking about things like the guillotine.
She’s real.
Paulie @ 33. “Who do you think counts the votes or reports them, the Archangel Michael?”
I think Gabriel will be counting them in this election cycle, so we ought to be in pretty good shape.
Darcy,
I’m sure you mean well and Roseanne means well. But if third party folks united behind Roseanne, it just makes it easier to write their concerns off as lunatic fringe. Having Roseanne associated with the Green Party and get media attention for it is awesome, her being seriously considered as the presidential candidate is not so awesome.
All you have to do is check a few clips on youtube to see Roseanne is not a ‘politician’. She has plenty of charisma but little experience in public speaking. She doesn’t know how to speak in the public relationese or legalese that the American people are used to hearing from their leaders.
See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U04jbx-bWtQ
If you were calling for unity around Rocky Anderson or even Gary Johnson then we might be getting somewhere. These guys have charisma and excellent public speaking skills and their resumes command universal respect. They have experience crafting and honing talking points.
As far as Roseanne goes, I’m disappointed she is not formerly supporting the Green Party as she indicated she would at the start of her campaign.
Deran @ #23. I understand Paulie’s comments (#24), but we’re hoping to get write-in status in Washington. If we do, I hope you’ll consider writing in Roseanne’s name.
This has been a really tough election cycle for me personally. One of my close friends — Stewart Alexander — is also running for President and is on the Florida ballot and I really like Rocky Anderson and Jill Stein.
It’s almost like a smorgasbord for alternative voters on the Left here in Florida…several options to choose from for those looking for an alternative to the center-right candidacy of President Obama and his — what is he this week? — Republican challenger.
@ 9: This is because the American Independent Party (AIP) in California sold out the liberty movement for 30 pieces of silver by denying Vigil Goode and the Constitution Party the ballot. And we are worse off for it. I believe in justice and one day the Constitution Party will be on the ballot in California and like a bad habit the AIP will not be on the ballot. And forever more the AIP will be known for their treachery.
As to Virgil Goode’s claim that he can be elected President that claim is similar to one made by Ed Clark in 1980. In one of Ed Clark’s commercials the “voice” asks if Ed Clark can be elected President. Ed Clark answered something like, “If everyone hearing my message who believed in it voted for me I would be elected President.”
This is the approach to take. I am glad Virgil Goode understands this and is taking this approach.
Johnson still might, but it’s been ten years and NM is a battleground state.
Goode is not well known in most parts of VA.
Also, given the amount of money available for advertising and the amount of news coverage, it is likely that there are many people there who know who Gary Johnson is but don’t know he is a candidate for president right now.
Then why are they making so much effort trying to knock Johnson and Goode off the ballot and putting together boiler room operations to convince people not to vote for them?
Trust me, it makes a huge amount of difference to them.
Anyone willing to vote for Johnson or Goode despite all the lies and propaganda such as Rev Rick Hundley above send a message they hear loud and clear. Every single one is a slap in their face, a nail in their coffin, a prisoner grabbing a key off a guard’s belt.
It’s disappointing that favorite son status is just dead in the modern states. Virgil and Johnson can’t even get 5% in their home states when they held real positions. How sad.
I think he would feel the same way if the GOP had nominated Bloomberg.
I hope you are joking. You don’t SERIOUSLY believe there’s any real difference between Omni and Robomba, do you?
Let me know the details. What does it take to get write in status in all those states and what are the deadlines?
We should organize a debate or several with her with other presidential candidates for starters.
@22. No, but I certainly don’t have anything against Mr. Ogle.
Well, if you aren’t playing by their rules, why are you voting in their elections?
Who do you think counts the votes or reports them, the Archangel Michael?
You can make a “statement” that no one except you and the poll worker counting ballots knows about, sure.
In quite a few states the deadlines for registering write-ins have passed. In some states you need a full slate of electors (55 in California). Or signatures – 500 in NC to become a write-in candidate who is counted, and the deadline has passed.
Then you have to educate people HOW to correctly write in. Most write-in votes are dismissed on technicalities such as not checking the box exactly correctly or misspelling the candidate’s name, etc.
Of course, a lot of people know who Roseanne Barr is. But how many of them know that she is a presidential candidate, what she believes in, that she’s not (or is, in three states) on their ballot, or how to properly write her name in, and so on? How many media outlets will be reporting her vote totals?
Ms. Barr is, if I’m not mistaken, a multi-millionaire.
If she really wants to get vote totals that are not even more invisible than the parties with serious ballot access, she’ll need to spend millions of dollars. If she decides not to, it is her money, but then she can’t say that she takes this seriously, because she doesn’t.
If she gives a damn she needs to put her money where her mouth is, because very few people will know that she is running or what she stands for otherwise, much less that they should write her in or how to do so.
And if she cares, why didn’t she spend money to get on the ballots while she still could? Every dollar spent getting on the ballot is worth quite a few dollars educating people about a write-in campaign and explaining how to write in properly.
Had she spent a fraction of what she would need to spend to get noticed, it would have generated quite a bit of free media just by being on a lot of state ballots.
For that matter, where has her media tour and speech tour been? If she cares, why didn’t that happen in the last two or three months? Is it going to start happening now, and if so, when and where?
Paulie @ 21. I’m not sure why Roseanne asked for my help with so little time remaining, but I eagerly agreed to do it. At the very least, I figured we could create a little mischief while giving her a chance to add her voice to the dialogue.
Believe it or not, Roseanne is very serious about her candidacy and feels strongly about the decimation of the working class in this country over the past three decades or so.
That was enough for me; I think we’re headed toward a disastrous period of austerity under either Obama or Romney — the result of which will have devastating consequences for the U.S. economy while wreaking havoc on poor and already struggling working-class Americans.
Roseanne is absolutely right when she talks about the United States becoming a nation of wage and debt slaves for the banks and the wealthy.
Make no mistake about it. That’s where we’re headed.
Moreover, Roseanne wants to nationalize the Federal Reserve — a position I took against President Obama in a handful of Democratic primaries earlier this year.
The thing that really won me over to Roseanne, however, occured during a simulcast about six weeks ago.
While giving a speech from her home in Kamuela, Hawaii, Roseanne stopped in mid sentence to ask about her young grandchildren who were playing in the next room. Her grandkids had suddenly become very quiet and Roseanne was worried. “That’s not a good sign,” she said. “Something must be wrong. Are they alright?”
It wasn’t until her daughter, sitting on an adjacent couch during the broadcast, informed her that she had just given them something to eat — that’s why they weren’t making any noise in the next room — that Roseanne continued her speech.
If she’s that worried about her grandchildren while giving a “live” speech, I think she’d be a pretty damn good President.
That’s somebody I could definitely support. She reminds me of my own mother who raised ten kids and several grandchildren.
Roseanne is a really cool person and I’m honored that she asked me to help.
We’re only on the ballot in three states — California, Colorado and Florida — so our only option at this late juncture in the campaign is to try a write-in effort nationally.
Unfortunately, many of those deadlines have passed, but we’re hoping to qualify for write-in status in more than two-dozen states — possibly as many as 29.
It’s a longshot, to be sure — a national write-in effort has never been tried before — but we’re planning a major media blitz, including most of the New York (national) media in late October.
We’ll keep saying, “Don’t Write Her Off, Write Her In!”
It’s worth a shot. We really don’t have anything to lose.
Nor does the country…
He couldnt even win re-election..As one man told me once politics is mostly about EGO from a man who ran for a local office once. This is about EGO from Goode. Or else he is being paid off. I respected Goode for over 30 years. Been voting for him as a conservative for years but this is a slap in the face of Conservatives who believe we need to get obama out of office or lose the country we love. Goode really cant after his years of faithful service to Va say anything that would make any sense of this. His sly smirk in the paper shows contempt for what needs and should be done. I have talked to a lot of conservatives and they have a hard time with this too….The only thing this is good for is an Obama victory and Goodes ego or his pockets…its really the only thing that makes sense about it. Somebody has swelled his head or made him mad… This is a stab in the back to other Republicans and independents that have called him friend.
“Anonymous” tip from a very reliable source via email:
A little bird tells me that two IPR folks just signed on to the
Roseanne Barr/Cindy Sheehan/Peace and Freedom Party presidential
campaign — Darcy Richardson as campaign manager and Tom Knapp as
press secretary.
It’s true.
If ballot access did not matter, why are Republicans hiring boiler rooms of people to try to convince people to not vote for Gary Johnson?
Fundraising letter today from Carla Howell:
Libertarian Party Fights Back Against
NEW Republican Party Attacks
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Dear Fellow Libertarian,
Today, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Senior Judge James Gardner Colins is expected to rule on the Republican Party’s final attempt to nullify the Libertarian Party’s hard-won ballot status for 2012.
How did the Republicans try to nullify LP ballot status? They falsely claimed that we falsified thousands of petition signatures.
The truth? According to legal testimony and documents filed with Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, Pennsylvania Republicans hired Reynold Selvaggio, “a private investigator to pose as an FBI officer and visit people who had gathered signatures for the Libertarian Party, offering them $2,000 in exchange for saying in court that the petitions they had gathered were falsified.”
Bribery? Suborning perjury to knock the Libertarian Party off the ballot?
That’s what we’ve been up against. That’s what we have to overcome.
Do you think that’s the end of the Republican Party’s Dirty Tricks to undermine and sabotage the Libertarian Party during this 2012 Election?
Not hardly.
Republicans have mounted a targeted stealth campaign to neutralize, compromise, and con our voters into staying home – or voting for Mitt Romney.
Which voters? Libertarian Party members, Ron Paul supporters, fiscal conservative independents, and True Blue Tea Party loyalists in razor-close Tipping Point states – New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Nevada, Colorado – and even Montana.
Hundreds of these stealth Republicans, pretending to be Libertarians or Ron Paul activists, are regularly calling into Talk Radio shows, and telling listeners why they just can’t, can’t let Obama win – why they must, must vote for Mitt Romney.
These Republican Judas Goats are trying to use ‘Social Proof’ – a manipulation strategy – to trick liberty lovers into voting for Big Government Mitt Romney for President.
We have reports from Colorado and Montana of boiler room telephone operations – with fakers, counterfeits, and imposters pretending to be ‘tormented,’ ‘struggling,’ and ‘torn’ over whether to vote for Gary Johnson or Mitt Romney…and deciding that they must, must vote for Republican Mitt Romney.
Are YOU torn between voting for Libertarian Presidential candidate, Governor Gary Johnson – and Republican Mitt Romney?
Me neither!
Then there’s the direct mail flood from “Libertarians” for Romney, “Ron Paul Activists” for Romney, “Tea Partiers” for Romney. All trying to wear you down. Trying to convince us that Big Government Mitt Romney is really on our side. Trying to plant doubts, undermine our resolve, weaken our efforts – so we give up and stay home, or, vote Republican.
Talk Radio, phone calls, direct mail – and, of course, all over the Internet and Social Media.
Lies, half truths, and cons to talk our supporters out of voting Libertarian. To shut us up, grind us down, and demoralize us during these last 4 weeks before Election Day.
Republicans are working hard to drive down voter turnout for Libertarian Party candidates up and down the ticket.
The Mitt Romney Republicans will say anything and do anything to silence your voice for liberty. Your vote for liberty. And the votes of everyone that you and I win over to the cause of freedom.
Especially to push down the votes and turn out for our Libertarian Presidential Ticket: 2-Term Governor Gary Johnson and 25-Year Superior Court Judge Jim Gray.
Fight back. Help us fight back. We only have 28 days left.
Are you able to donate $10,000 or $5,000 to help us cancel out the Republican lies to Libertarian voters? Will you please step forward and donate now?
Or, are you a libertarian who can contribute $2,500 or $1,000 to help us revitalize Libertarian supporters and voters this election? Will you please donate it now?
Or, do you have a budget that would allow you to give a one-time $500 or $250 donation now to make sure that hundreds of thousands of Americans hear our freedom message? Will you, please?
Or could you possibly give $150 or $85 or $50 or $25 today – to take advantage of this only-once-every-four-years opportunity?
Please either click and donate now or mail your donation to the address below with “Fight Back 2012” in the memo.
Thank you.
Yours in liberty,
Carla Howell, Executive Director
Libertarian Party
P.S. Don’t let the Republican Dirty Tricks Gang get away with it. We only have 28 days. Please help our Libertarian Party candidates get publicity, get news coverage, and get votes – NOW. Will you please donate $25 or $50 or $150 or $1,000? Your donation is our budget.
Or, for that matter, celebrities from past decades.
Why do they bother if ballot access doesn’t matter?
From my message to the LNC today. This message is equally applicable to other alt parties.
Quite simply put, if the Libertarian Party is not big enough, well funded enough, running enough candidates, etc., to attract those crossover politicians we are also not big enough to do whatever else it is that we want the Libertarian Party to be useful for.
We aren’t getting our message to enough eyeballs and ears, we aren’t putting enough bodies in chairs or on streetcorners or going door to door, we aren’t putting ads on the air or op eds and LTEs in newspapers, and so on.
All those things increase when our ballot access is good.
That’s why Republicans are so desperate to knock us off the ballot, and not only in swing states either.
Because it DOES matter.
They are well funded and experienced political professionals and they know what they are doing, even though from my perspective what they are doing is bad. But they’re good at it. And they know that it’s a game of inches and that every state where we get on the ballot and every vote we get is one more nail in their coffin.
You may take the position that we are better off with libertarian activist candidates such as Michael Badnarik and David Bergland than with crossover politician candidates such as Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Gary Johnson.
Let’s take ideology off the table and look at other parties.
The Constitution Party is not doing as well with ex-Congressman Virgil Goode than with their past candidates who never held elective office. The Green Party did not do as well with ex-Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney as they are doing with non-politician Green activist Dr. Jill Stein or a similar candidate in 2004, David Cobb.
So, your point is not without some merit.
However, I notice that Stein and iirc Cobb have better ballot access than McKinney did. I also notice that Goode’s ballot access is dramatically down from Chuck Baldwin, et al.
So once again my point stands, regardless of whether we run party activists or crossover politicians —
BALLOT ACCESS MATTERS.
Richard Winger is exactly right. Ballot access matters.
If it didn’t matter, why do you think the Republicans went to such lengths to try to get Gary Johnson off the ballot?
Republicans have still been pulling out all the stops to keep Gary Johnson off the ballot, ranging from swing states such as Pennsylvania, Iowa, Virginia and Ohio, to likely Democratic states such as Michigan, to solidly Republican states such as Oklahoma. In Michigan and Oklahoma they appear to have succeeded, overturning long-standing legal precedents that sore loser laws don’t apply to presidential candidates and that state parties trump national parties when determining candidates on the ballot.
Deran
Make sure you are VERY informed about write in laws in your state and county.
And consider also that a write-in vote is highly unlikely to be reported even if it is counted, so it won’t register in what people “know” went to non-duopoly candidates to the extent that they pay attention (with the exception of very large and well-organized write-in campaigns that are deemed newsworthy).
Well, since we’ve broken ranks on thread discipline. Other than this mpnths Ballot Access News, I can’t find any info on which states Ms. Barr will be a write-in candidate? I’ll probably vote for Johnson (even though I’m a socialist, I support political reform, and I tend to vote for the third party/independent candaite likely to get the most votes – or I write-in Gracie Allen!), but I have to say I am tempted to write-in Barr if she has registered to be an official write-in candidate in WA State.
Thanks.
Ogle has written similar things about Roseanne. Are Darcy and Ogle teaming up?
How may people know that she is actually running for president or take that seriously?
If she wants to spend some real money on advertising it might make a dent.
I mean millions of dollars, not thousands.
What TV shows are you booking her on?
You have four weeks, so (sincerely, believe it or not) good luck getting a lot of people to notice that she is running for president – much less taking it as something other than a joke or knowing what her views are.
Also, she is not very famous with young people. Granted her show can still be seen in re-runs, but that’s only if you watch TV the old fashioned way by flipping through channels, rather than by recording the programs you want to watch or watching them online.
“Congratulations on your appointment as Roseanne’s campaign manager.”
Are you joking, Paulie or is this true?
I understand your point, but I would not say NO ONE has heard of them. Some people have, although not enough.
I’m also not entirely convinced that they will receive zero electoral votes. There is a distinct possibility of faithless electors this year.
But let’s grant that few people have heard of them and that they will get zero electoral votes.
It still matters that they are on the ballot.
Few write-in votes are counted accurately at the precinct level. Many are simply discarded or undercounted. Then, when precincts count them, counties sometimes don’t. And when precincts and counties do, states often screw it up. Even when a write-in vote makes it through all these stages and does not get discarded, it is very difficult to get a report of how many write-in votes a candidate received, ESPECIALLY on or shortly after election day.
Many write-in votes are discarded because the voter’s handwriting is not read correctly by the opti-scanner or poll worker. Others because they did not fill in the oval next to the candidate’s name or put a check mark instead of an x or vice versa. Or because they spelled it “Rosanne” or Rose Anne or Rose Ann etc. Or because they did, or didn’t, write in the VP name in the same oval. Or because the election worker was lazy.
Here in Alabama, we had a very difficult time finding out how many votes Loretta Nall got.
What we got from the state was a multi-megabyte file containing scans of individual write-in ballots. Some counties just reported the aggregate write-in totals, not breaking them down by candidate. The votes were much higher per capita in some places than others; not because we had any big advertising campaign, most likely because they were drastically undercounted in some places.
There was no vote tally. If you are really interested you can do your own tally off that book length file.
Eventually, someone did.
But the numbers seem awful low, given that I run into random people – for example, people signing other petitions for me selected from the general public at random, friends of mine who are not even ideologically libertarian, and so on – who tell me without even being asked that they voted for her. I have a sneaky suspicion that a lot more people voted for Loretta than the state’s .pdf file would lead one to believe.
Certainly, no news stories about the election could report her vote totals, as they were just not available. You think the reporters are going to sit there and do their own tally off the state’s pdf file? Good luck.
I do know for a fact that after that election, the election workers were complaining about how many write-in votes they had to count and demanded a new law that write-in candidates should have to pay to have their votes counted. So what do you think the chances are that a lot of her votes were not counted regardless of what the law says?
Hi Darcy.
Congratulations on your appointment as Roseanne’s campaign manager.
Given that this is Virgil Goode we are talking about here, I don’t think there is much in the way of ideological common ground with Roseanne Barr, but I’ll address your argument in my next comment or several on its other merits.
Darcey @ 11… Wow! What passion! I personally don’t like Roseanne Barr on a lot of levels but you almost convinced me. Good job! But then again you are a pretty good wordsmith 😉
“Johnson, a popular two-term governor, attractive, articulate, bootstrap business success story, good personal narrative, and we’re running low single digits in polling.”
Gary Johnson was Governor of a low population state 8 years ago. He was out of the spot light for most of the 8 years since he was Governor. He was barely a blip on the radar screen in the Republican Presidential Primary.
Yep. Media, donors, and activists all tend to dismiss a candidate who is not on all or almost all ballots.
Well, since it’s pretty clear we won’t be able to maintain thread discipline here, what the … why not.
YES to all the above! Already on my agenda for LNC, which I’ll keep pushing for as an alternate even though I will lose the At Large election next month.
As for LNC meetings online I’m for it, but the LNC is too set in its ways to seriously consider it.
However, I think we can raise enough money for all those things with project based fundraising.
I could use some ideas on how to suggest incorporating such things in the budgeting process, which tends to rely on assumptions about what we will be able to raise and then locks us into spending categories based on that.
Paul, or paulie. The i and the e are a package deal.
My point exactly.
The constitution party is too fragmented right now to be taken seriously. Goode is being outworked by the other “outside” candidates and there is almost no marketing persona for Goode.
Distribution Channels=Electoral college
Advertising=Branding
Telling people you are in business is nothing when no one knows you are in business. If you are not going to advertise stop bothering with your campaign.
Gary Johnson is working hard at branding himself and letting people see him. From what I know right now, Virgil Goode has not made any appearances here in Missouri and this is one of the best state affiliates they have.
His campaign should’ve taken off by now if he had any kind of spark. I hate to say it now because I expected more from him, but he was a mistake.
@ #9. You’re right, Peter, but it really doesn’t matter how many electoral votes a minor-party candidate is theoretically eligible to receive since none of them, including Gary Johnson, Jill Stein or Virgil Goode — three candidates nobody ever heard of — will receive even a single vote in the Electoral College. They’re good people, but they’re not exactly household names.
It’s pretty clear that none of the existing nationally-organized third parties can make a serious run at the White House this year.
They’ll be footnotes in history, lumped together as a so-called protest vote, or simply listed as “others.”
In the end, the only thing that really matters is the type of “protest vote” that’s actually cast at the ballot box on Nov. 6th.
The most powerful — and empowering — vote, one could argue, might be a write-in vote for somebody like Roseanne Barr, a kind of “pox on all of your houses” defiance tailor-made for a frustrated and angry electorate.
Roseanne is a household name, probably better known to most Americans than Barack Obama was in 2007 when he declared his candidacy, or the flip-flopping Mitt Romney this year.
Think about it.
Ballot access means nothing. Boasting about getting on the ballot in more states than other minor parties — something the Libertarians and Greens have been repeatedly engaged in this year, as if that’s some sort of accomplishment — is like a North Korean prisoner celebrating the fact that he or she hasn’t been subjected to the same kind of starvation, torture, betrayals and executions meted out on other less fortunate inmates.
That kind of arrogance is exactly what the two parties have in mind for all of America’s minor parties.
Richard Winger’s influence in the third party community — particularly his overwhelming focus on ballot access and endless lawsuits, coupled with his almost maniacal devotion to the “big three” of the third parties (Libertarian, Green and Constitution parties) — has limited everybody’s ability to imagine what might be possible.
The American people — four weeks from now — could make U.S. ballot access laws virtually irrelevant with a simple stroke of the pen. It’s as simple as writing somebody’s name on a piece of paper.
Yes, it’s possible.
C’mon, why the hell should we play by their rules?
Voters in 43 states can still write in whomever the hell they want for President of the United States. We still have at least that much freedom in this country. Let’s not forsake it.
It’s later than you think.
The fact is that third parties in this country have been given a raw deal.
Let’s stop playing by the distorted and grossly unfair rules mandated by the powers-that-be.
Let’s stand up in an act of defiance to their arbitrary and petty ballot access rules. The American people didn’t make these discriminatory rules.
Let’s fight back.
A true citizens’ rebellion requires individual action, not unlike the 56 men who courageously signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
We should encourage citizens to take a pen or pencil to the voting booth on November 6th.
It’s the perfect expression of discontent in a country that’s completely lost its way. As a matter of fact, it could be our only salvation from the two-party tyranny to come… Our individual rights are being eroded each and every day — and it’s going to get worse.
Seriously, do you think any Democratic or Republican lawmaker in the nation’s capital will give a hoot if Gary Johnson polls a million or two million votes, particularly if he doesn’t affect the outcome? Trust me, they could care less.
They will take notice, however, if a candidate who’s not even on the ballot in 47 states receives an unexpectedly large protest vote. It’ll be a signal that the American people have had enough and are ready to take things into their own hands…
It’ll be like a firebell in the night, far more disturbing to our nation’s lawmakers than either the Tea Party or Occupy movements.
After all, who really cares about Libertarian, Green or Constitution Party bragging rights when the country loses its freedom, trashes its constitution and neglects the environment? At that point, we’re all doomed.
That’s precisely what’s coming in the post-Citizens United world.
It’s much later than you think.
We have to resist now. There’s no tomorrow…
Pen or pencil power, it’s the only way.
Let’s all pull together before it’s too late and cast the largest — and most powerful — protest vote in history. We have a month to do it. There’s still time to convince half the country to write in Roseanne’s name.
Seriously.
Unlike Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, everybody knows who she is.
There’s not enough time to inform the American people about Johnson or Stein. They’re just two unknown names to a majority of Americans.
Love her or hate her, Roseanne is a known quantity.
It can be done in a flash.
The next American Revolution will almost certainly begin with a pen or pencil, not unlike those nervous moments when our Founding Fathers — facing an almost certain death or imprisonment if they failed — signed that important document in Philadelphia some 236 years ago.
Roseanne Barr might not be the perfect candidate, but I’ll tell you this. She gives a damn. She really does. And her candidacy isn’t some sort of publicity stunt, as several Greens have disparagingly suggested. She’s also pretty knowledgeable on the issues.
Roseanne, whose name is on the ballot as the Peace & Freedom Party’s nominee in California, Colorado and Florida, really cares about where this country is headed.
Moreover, it would be great to have a “professional” comedian in the White House for a change.
If you’re looking to make a statement against the duopoly — and keep in mind that we might not get many other chances — you’ll never have a more recognizable and forthright candidate than the former sitcom star. You’ll also never have a more dynamic spokesperson. She’s a hell of a lot smarter than most people realize…
We should all be rallying to her cause.
Forget labels, let’s fight for America’s better self — let’s fight for somebody who is as well-known as her major-party rivals, someone who is deeply committed to the cause of open politics yet refuses to play their silly ballot-access games.
Want to stand up to the two-party monopoly?
Here’s your chance. It’s easy to spell.
ROSEANNE BARR.
It’s easier than anybody imagined.
It’ll be the eight-second Revolution.
The fact of the matter is that the pundits, TV talking heads and the operatives in the two major parties expect the usual number of votes for Johnson, Stein and Goode, as well as a scattering of votes for the fledgling Justice Party’s Rocky Anderson. They don’t really expect anything beyond that.
I appreciate all of the time, money and energy spent of behalf of the Libertarian, Green, Constitution and Justice Party tickets, but I think the American people just might be ready for a second revolution — one that nobody anticipated.
It’s later than you think.
Even those who write slowly, or suffer from arthritis, can scribble Roseanne Barr’s name on their ballot in about eight seconds. It’ll be the revolution nobody saw coming…
It’s our country and this might be our last chance to reclaim it.
ROSEANNE BARR.
Eight seconds to save the Republic.
“Don’t Write Her Off, Write Her In!”
Certainly is difficult to disagree with PeterO’s analysis of the situation.
to do by 2013:
Serious training for the affiliate leadership, including online web based.
Develope a paid field team that will cover contiguous regions in the USA. Get them to build the team.
Hire a marketing firm or marketing agent.
If need be, cancel a few LNC meetings (have them online) to save money to do the above.
Hi pauli @4 – I live in Northern VA and while I’ve heard of Goode, it’s only because I’m a third party junkie. Over the years he’s been mentioned once in a while in connection with something – most often/recently his defeat by Tom Perriello. There is no way that the average voter could pick him out of a lineup or would know who he is if they saw his name.
This is one of the things that many third party campaigns don’t seem to get – the ignorance (in the non-pejorative sense) of the average voter. We assume that if we just get our ideas out there that people will respond, but we under-estimate how hard it is to get our ideas out there, not just because of the media, but because most people simply aren’t as engaged as we are. It takes hundreds and hundreds of repetitions of a candidate’s name to even start to break through the clutter. Rob Sobhani is a good example of the kind of effort that Independents and third parties need to make, but simply do not have the money to do.
This is the wrong thread for it, but if you want to lay out exactly what you would like the national LP to do after the election in greater detail on a more appropriate thread I would be willing to post it to the LNC.
What we can see is that, most of the time, that home state advantage “thang” alone won’t bring much to the table in extra votes.
We can also begin to see just how far the LP can go without a sophisticated, professional advertising strategy. This November will demonstrate a long-term limit for where we can go without such advertising, without a serious strategic plan, without strategic vision, without organizing talent, and without a focus on party building and growth by the national leaders.
Johnson, a popular two-term governor, attractive, articulate, bootstrap business success story, good personal narrative, and we’re running low single digits in polling. Johnson is by all standards the most qualified and most electable LP POTUS candidate ever, so what will be his final vote percentage% – (I thought IPR might have a predictions thread by now) … This campaign has become a bit too fluid, and the Johnson campaign is making a tremendous effort, outside of advertising, so the potential on the upside for GJ is mounting.
In addition, there is the wild card of the Johnson superPAC. How much money – will they manage to bring in any large sums we haven’t heard about – and what and where will they advertise? This adds to the Johnson upside potential.
The superPAC seems to be focused as much or more on would-have-been Obama voters as well, and in non-battleground states could bring in a lot of votes.
Right now it looks like Johnson should break 2% in November, but he still has strong upside potential to reach that often mentioned advantageous 5% of the vote.
For Goode and Johnson, being in the debates would have changed everything – which, of course, is exactly why the phony Debate Commission excluded them.
With pary building and a strategic advertising plan – starting 2013 and running through Nov 2016 – the LP could change all this and beat that 15% in the early polls and make it impossible for the Debate Commission to exclude Johnson on a second try.
As to Congressman Goode, his campaign is winding down to a sputtering, hobble into November. He’s looking at 0.1% to 0.2% as a likely outcome.
His campaign has been rather invisible. He has money but is not spending it, and not really doing much by way of interviews, debates, youtube ads etc that even campaigns with very little money can do.
Outside of his former congressional district, how well known is he in Virginia? Do people in the DC suburbs or the Norfolk area, for example, know who he is? My guess is that he is not much better known statewide than he is in other states. Most people are lucky if they know who their own congressman is much less ex-congressmen from other parts of their state.
I kind of doubt that claim. But he’s got spunk!
This surprises me. Bigtime. Can’t believe Goode isn’t 5%+
http://www.ballot-access.org/2012/10/08/virginia-presidential-poll-includes-all-five-candidates-listed-on-ballot/
On October 7, Public Policy Polling released a presidential poll for Virginia that asked respondents about all five candidates who are listed on the ballot. The results: President Obama 48%, Mitt Romoney 44%, Gary Johnson 4%, Virgil Goode 1%, Jill Stein under one-half of 1%, undecided 2%.