Over the last several months, the Whigs have seen a significant increase in membership and support. The Whig message of a moderate pragmatic approach to government highlighted by focusing on logic, reason, and collaboration over ideology continues to gain traction across the nation. Political developments like the government shutdown this past year and the historic election of the first Whig in almost 160 years has also helped to drive this growth. (There have been Whigs elected to public office, and we currently have several Whigs serving in elected and appointed office, but this election was the first time a member running as a Whig on the ballot won).
Currently the Whigs are in the process of consolidating and implementing new committees which will substantially, increase the efficiency of the National Executive Committee and national operations. Hundreds of volunteers have are helping out in this process, many with relevant professional and political experience. New state chapters are being formed in Idaho and Hawaii, and state chapters are growing in many states. There are new state leaders coming on board in Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Arizona.
The Whigs are looking at having over one dozen plus candidates for local, state, and federal offices in 2014 from all around the nation.
Policy efforts the Whigs are targeting early in 2014 are veterans’ issues, higher education costs and primary election reform. The Whigs will work to formulate comprehensive approaches to these issues with input from all Whig members in Whig Roundtables, independent experts, and all interested Americans whether they are Whig members or not.
PD
The crappy thing about Mass is that even after you qualify as a political designation or party you still have to collect a huge number of signatures to get candidates on your own party’s primary even when they are the only ones running. Those numbers are difficult enough to prove daunting to many Greens and Libertarians and even some Republicans.
As a political designation you at least can get signatures from any Mass registered voter and get somewhat better weather to collect signatures in. As a party, you cn only collect signatures from those enrolled with your party or unenrolled voters and your deadline is earlier, leaving less decent weather to petition in. Rainbow-Greens and Libertarians have been on the list of parties before, and there is debate within those parties whether that is a net plus or net minus given the practical applications of Mass election law.
Before the Whigs can get to 3% you’ll have to collect quite a few more signatures to qualify your statewide candidates than you have had to get so far. If and when that happens you can then be in a position to decide whether you consider political party status to be a net benefit.
As a follow-up, the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s Election Division, having sent the wrong petitions several times, finally did send us the correct one, and the signatures are being verified. Though only 50 were required, we have more. This will place the Whig Party on the list of state recognized political designations. When a statewide candidate chooses to appear on the ballot as “Modern Whig Party,” and that candidate receives at least 3% of the total number of votes cast in that race, Modern Whig Party would become a political party. As a new party, the Modern Whig Party would need to continue to receive at least 3% of the votes cast for a statewide office in future elections, or else lose its party status. That the Green or Libertarian parties are still on the list as designations, rather than parties, shows that they’ve really not been making the right kind of effort here.
Readers from elsewhere may want to note that MA signatures are all on candidate petitions, except for the 50 needed to qualify a Political Designation.
The Whigs in Massachusetts are incorporated, now, and we’ll be out collecting signatures as soon as it warms up a bit. Right now I am planning a first statewide meeting.
But in a lot of states they could put whole slates of candidates on the ballot just by qualifying the party, and in some of those states that is really easy.
In MA parties have nothing to do with putting people on the ballot, except in the sense they may put up a bit of money or some volunteers. In MA, except for President if you are a major aprty, everyone gets on the ballot the same way, by collecting signatures.
True.
I can see that. But building a big team is the hard part. Over the years I’ve heard so many people say “I’d vote third party, but they’ll never win…”. My response is, they won’t win unless you vote for them. I think most people naturally want to support something they think will win. We need to flip their thinking and ask.. do you feel you’re winning right now? How’d that last vote turn out for you? Things like that.
I think there’s room and reason for both kinds of candidates to run. Best of all is when your local winnable races are on a ballot with a lot of your candidates for all kinds of offices up and down the ballot because then it makes the voters believe you are part of a big team and that accrues more votes and more media both up ticket and down ticket.
Yeah, Florida was pretty awesome about supporting smaller parties. When I was organizing the Florida Whig Party back in 2006 there was a gentleman at the Div. of Elections who was very helpful. I really think the key lies in running not only Whigs, but other Indie/3rds in the local elections. Most Indie candidates want to run for Gov. or Congress, something like that. You need a ton of votes and even more money. And then, after all that time you end up with 1% of the vote (ha, 1%ers 🙂 ) To win a city council ward or district you only need votes in the 100s and you don’t need as many signatures to get on the ballot. Plus, actually winning an election will not only give someone credibility but also the necessary experience and networking to run for higher office. One of my projects for this year is to write a Handbook for Citizens, informing and empowering people about how their government works and how to participate better in it. Hopefully that will give more people a chance to get involved and maybe start chipping away at the Duopoly’s stranglehold over the government.
You could start by qualifying some easy states such as Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida where the requirements to get on the ballot are minimal.
@Jed
Slowly but surely we are adding new candidates to the ballot each year. The Party has always been realistic in our goals… we’re in this for a marathon, not a sprint. We’re not looking to displace one of the major parties. We simply want to offer a place for those nomads who are wandering the political wilderness. I think over time we will have a lot of success at the local level because that’s the most reasonable place to challenge the establishment and have a mathematical chance of winning.
Oh yeah, that’s right. LOL.
T.J. O’Hara. He got 1 write-in vote.
http://www.modernwhig.org/announcements/press-release/modern-whigs-support-tj-ohara-president-united-states-2012
I don’t remember them endorsing a presidential candidate. Who was it?
That’s very helpful, Jeremy. Thanks! And I echo Paulie’s question as to whether the Whigs are trying to become ballot qualified & recruit candidates in Florida, or other states. I know the party won a local race in PA & endorsed a Presidential candidate in 2012, but I haven’t seen a great deal of other activity from the party.
Given that’s it’s really easy to get on the ballot in Florida, are they trying to do so?
@Jed
To answer questions you may have about the Florida Whig Party, originally it was not affiliated as it was created a year or two before the Modern Whig Party. When I was chair I did affiliate but after I moved back to Indiana a new Exec. Comm. took over and their philosophy was different from the Moderns so they unaffiliated (that party is now defunct.) There is now however a Modern Whig Party of Florida I believe that is still on the books. So yes, they weren’t, then they were, then they weren’t. Hope that helps 🙂
Florida is another state where it is easy to qualify.
What does that entail though? Do they get to place candidates on the ballot in Massachusetts? There were only 4 parties on the ballot in major elections in 2012.
To become a minor party (“Political Designation” in Massachusetts, they need a paper with 50 signatures on it.
I’m surprised more parties aren’t ballot-qualified in Mississippi. No petitions needed, just file a list of state party officers. Apparently the climate isn’t great for minor parties there, but one would think more parties could find at least enough people to start a state chapter & get their presidential ticket on the ballot at the very least.
In some states the requirements are very easy.
They may not have the resources for statewide petition drives. They could conceivably get candidates on the ballot for congress in some states with the Modern Whig label, or run candidates as write-ins.
It’s a point of contention whether the Florida Whig Party was ever affiliated with the national MWP (some sources say yes, others no), but that party got at least one candidate on the ballot for U.S. House.
Good point, Richard.
I’ll be interested to know when and where the Whig Party does its first petition drive to create a ballot-qualified party.