By Roy Varney
Libertarianism was once considered a fringe party in Texas, but thanks to improved leadership, prolonged public exposure and indirect benefits from the decline of the state Democratic Party, Texas is now the top producer of Libertarian candidates.
The Texas Libertarian Party, according to state chair Patrick Dixon, aims to have 200 candidates on the 2014 general election ballot. That would top the previous high of 173 in 2008 – 29 percent of all Libertarian candidates nationwide that year. In the 1992 Texas general election, 58 Libertarians received a collective 4.85 percent of votes. In 2012, 102 Libertarian candidates received 9.74 percent of votes.
Libertarianism has long espoused values generally popular in Texas, such as limited government and low taxes. But voters’ lack of knowledge about the party, and its support for issues such as legalizing marijuana and phasing out Social Security, have added to the sense that it is not mainstream.
Read the full article here.
I think the incumbent politicians like it that way.
That graph is kind of misleading, so I want to clarify. I wish our candidates often got 10%, but they don’t really. In Congressional races that have a Democrat, a Republican, and a Libertarian, the Libertarian averages 2-3%. (For state rep. races, the Libertarian averages 3-4%.)
That graph mixes everything together, including races where the Democrats or Republicans sit out. (When there is no Republican or no Democrat, the Libertarian averages around 15%.)
Texas Libertarians successfully lobbied the legislature to make some improvements in the ballot access laws on several occasions. The most important improvement was spearheaded by Honey Lanham and Margaret Wherry in 1986. They persuaded the Texas legislature to change the vote test, from 2% for Governor, to 2% for Governor OR 5% for any statewide race. I wish the Massachusetts Libertarian Party would turn its attention to improving the Massachusetts ballot access laws. It is easy to make a case for reform in Massachusetts. No state outside the south has such a large proportion of its state legislative contests with only one person on the general election ballot. For primary ballot access, Massachusetts requires more signatures for US House than any other state.
Way to go, Texans! Keep up the good work!. Our tricameral legislature has 160 State Representatives, 40 Senators, and 8 Governor’s Council Members, but to run all of them we would need 44,000 signatures, every four years, just like the Democrats and the Republicans.