A September poll for the race for U.S. Senate in Kansas show Independent candidate Greg Orman leading incumbent Senator Pat Roberts. Significantly, the poll by Public Policy Polling includes Democrat and Libertarian candidates. Democrat Chad Taylor is seeking to remove his name from the ballot. In a survey taken September 11th through September 14 With all 4 included, Greg Orman (Ind) is leading with 41% to 34% for Senator Roberts (Rep); Chad Taylor is the choice of 6% and 4% back Libertarian candidate Randall Batson.
In the same poll, Libertarian Keen Umbehr is the choice of 7% of respondents in the race for Governor
The poll involved interviews with 1,328 likely voters. Results @ http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2014/09/orman-davis-lead-in-kansas-races.html
Poll after poll in state after state shows this, yet media article after media article and commentator after commentator keeps saying we “steal” Republican votes.
http://ivn.us/2014/09/19/kan-supreme-court-says-democrat-chad-taylor-will-removed-senate-ballot/?utm_source=house&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter-2014-09-23
whoops – Chad Taylor, that is!
FWIW Chard Taylor (D) is now off the ballot.
Kansas and Alaska have given me a new respect for Independents. I was always rather dismissive of them, not because they can’t win (Two of our current senators would disagree) but because I don’t really see the impact they can have on a movement level. each Libertarian, Green, or even Prohibitionist candidacy stands for something bigger than itself. An independent might be very popular and get elected time and time again, but when they finally retire, chances are high that voters will go back to picking one of the two major parties to replace them.
But these few races where independents have taken off have changed my mind. In both, the Democrats more or less cooperated with the Independents to make races competitive the otherwise would not have been. I can’t see them or the Republicans cooperating this way with an actual third party, for the very reason that the greater the party’s success, the more risk that it could become an actual competitor to one of the two majors. An independent seems to not have this option.
Overall I still favor actual third party candidacies, but I do wonder if we may see this sort of thing become more common in the future. If so, it gives prospective candidates an advantage in running as independents.
Geez Nick… your tongue must hurt from being so firmly in your cheek! 😉
But Art, that poll data doesn’t support the proposition that Libertarians pull more votes from Republicans. How is this even possible, the news has told me that Libertarians steal Republican votes?
Here’s what the poll says about the governor race:
Republican 38%
Democrat 42%
Libertarian 7%
without the Libertarian:
Republican 39%
Democrat 45%
Gene and a few other people: I am not sure if you all read the group emails. Warren asked us to include an image with each article.
I seen his TV ad when I was traveling a few weeks ago.