Press Release from Andy Craig for Congress:
Wisconsin’s 4th Congressional District will feature a two-party race, but unlike most of the state, the two parties involved will be the incumbent Democrats and the state’s Libertarians.
Andy Craig has secured a place on the ballot, in an election the Republicans left uncontested. He hopes that a breakout year for the Libertarian Party can help boost the first of its candidates into the House of Representatives.
“Gwen Moore has had over a decade in Washington…. that’s long enough. In this district, a fiscally conservative, socially liberal coalition has a path to victory where the traditional GOP does not,” says Craig, who recently returned from the party’s national convention in Florida. There, he worked with the team that helped secure the nomination of Gov. Gary Johnson (NM) for President and Gov. Bill Weld (MA) for Vice President.
The Johnson-Weld ticket is already polling as high as 16% in some states, and 12% in neighboring Michigan. Craig thinks those numbers will grow, and with them the fortunes of the party’s down-ticket candidates, particularly in elections without a Republican or Democrat running.“The last time two Governors ran together on a national ticket, was in 1948,” he notes. “That also happens to be the last year a third-party candidate was elected to the House.”
“For the first time, we’re looking at the possibility that Libertarians will be represented on the national debate stage, as the ‘honorable alternative’ to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. For all the principled progressives who’ve been rolled over by a corrupt party machine, and all the sane conservatives horrified at the hostile takeover of their party by a screaming bigot, the Libertarians offer the way out.”
At his campaign website, Craig says the fiscal conservatism of #NeverTrump and the anti-establishment, civil libertarian ethos of Bernie Sanders supporters– both of which won the primary in Wisconsin– have the potential to unite behind a pragmatic, reform-focused Libertarian message. “Almost 6 in 10 voters identify as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, but Congress is entirely controlled by two parties that don’t offer that perspective. That’s why we need third-party representation, and Milwaukee can lead the way.”
“In 2014, I ran for Secretary of State on the goal of meeting the vote test to re-establish ballot access for the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin. We more than doubled that goal with almost 60,000 votes on a shoestring budget. This year, our goal is to reach the 130,000 votes it takes to win outright.”
Other Libertarian candidates who have secured a place on the ballot in Wisconsin include Phil Anderson for U.S. Senate, John Arndt (5th) and Jason Lebeck (1st) for U.S. House, and Matthew Bughman, Jordan Hansen, and George Meyers for State Assembly.
Yes, at the time the 5th was a Milwaukee district. Due to renumbering and redistricting, the entire city is now in the 4th, and the 5th is a very different GOP district in the west-of-Milwaukee conservative suburbs.
I know this is the 4th not the 5th district but is this largely the same area that Victor Berger represented in Congress as a Socialist for several terms?