Libertarian Party candidates for upcoming 2014 elections

With the elections coming in a few weeks, I notice an extreme absence of topics about any specific candidates.

Many members here swing to the Libertarian views as an alternative to traditional Democrat or Republican.

The 2014 elections are very important mostly because the entire House of Representatives and about 1/3 of the Senate is up for election, as well as local elections.

Republicans are trying to take a majority in the Senate and retain or gain majority seats in the House.

Democrats are trying to keep what they have.

The campaigns seem very dull and thin so far.

Many people know the differences between D and R are mainly just rhetorical with little substance.

But why aren't we seeing any heavy support for Libertarians?

Here's a candidate list from the Libertarian website....

The candidates listed below will appear on the ballot, but are not necessarily endorsed by the national LP or the state affiliate.

If you don't see any candidates in the districts where you live, please visit this page to see how Libertarian candidates make a difference, and consider joining our team of Libertarian Party candidates in future elections.

Libertarian Party Candidates

Where's the Libertarian Support Base ???

Is Everybody Completely Fed-Up ???

Have YOU "Had IT" ???

a reply to: xuenchen

More than half of Americans don't even know there are elections in November.

I highly doubt a midterm election will garner anything other than the status quo. In a general election maybe, you could get more libertarians in and make some waves.

But during a time like this? Americans will vote how they always have, which is to vote what feels familiar to them.

Doesn't seem to matter how pissed off they are. Besides "Patient Tests Positive For Ebola" is a better headline than "Mid Term Election Results"

~Tenth

a reply to: tothetenthpower

I agree here. Most Americans could care less about the mid-term elections. We'll mostly just see the usuals voting along party lines. There may be a few seats that change hands though, but nothing too significant in my opinion.

Does anybody think that maybe now would be a good time to press the Libertarian policies?

Why "wait" for 2016?

What difference would that make.

Why not get a foothold in Congress and local levels right now.

The voter turnout might be lower in 2014.

Good chance to move ahead.

I'm surprised at the lack of support.

I never miss a change to vote for any 3rd party candidate

a reply to: xuenchen

I'm planning on voting.

originally posted by: xuenchen
Does anybody think that maybe now would be a good time to press the Libertarian policies?

Why "wait" for 2016?

What difference would that make.

Why not get a foothold in Congress and local levels right now.

The voter turnout might be lower in 2014.

Good chance to move ahead.

I'm surprised at the lack of support.

I'm not surprised. Many voters go to the polls just to get the pretty 'I Voted' sticker. As LP supporters we need to talk it up with friends, neighbors and co-workers. I have found that nearly everyone I talk to doesn't even know the LP exists, let alone what it stands for.

That being said, when voting for LP candidates, we have to be careful not to fall into the same bad practice of simply voting for someone because of their party affiliation. There are wingnuts in every political club.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: xuenchen

I'm planning on voting.

Well good !!

btw, are any Libertarian candidates listed in your area?

a reply to: xuenchen

I've looked at the Libertarian alternative and I liked a lot of what I saw, but...I don't see them having much luck in elections at the National level. The problem for the Libertarians is that they don't enough clout to to gather up the financial resources necessary to elect enough people to the House of Representin' to steal enough money to fund future elections. The Repubs and the Democrats are "big machine" political entities. The parties themselves select who's going to run and crush any opposition that might arise within their own parties.

Another significant problem for any third party candidates is that as far as the House is concerned, 3/4 of the members are elected from "safe" districts. So safe in fact that many run unopposed. So, for all practical purposes, many of the House Districts are "one party" jurisdictions and once that happens, its near impossible for anyone else to win an election.

Nothing's going to change until this thing blows up and change is forced on the remnants of the system.

a reply to: xuenchen

Shawn Quinn - Governor
Lorenzo Gaztanaga - Lieutenant Governor
Leo Dymowski - Attorney General

The rest of the Maryland candidates are outside my area. But it's not surprising. I live in Baltimore. This town is bluer than the ocean.

a reply to: TonyS

That makes some sense.

But don't you think it's about time we stopped finding excuses for failure?

We get enough of those from the Ds & Rs don't we.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: xuenchen

Shawn Quinn - Governor
Lorenzo Gaztanaga - Lieutenant Governor
Leo Dymowski - Attorney General

The rest of the Maryland candidates are outside my area. But it's not surprising. I live in Baltimore. This town is bluer than the ocean.

There.

Now how would people get convinced to vote for those candidates?

Or is it impossible?

Which party (or perhaps bi-partisan coalition???) is going to fund the NIH? That is an issue for the upcoming election. It would seem their budget has been greatly reduced, as well as their research capabilities (*cough* ebola *cough*) due to budget cuts. The NIH is a front-line defender when it comes to diseases and pandemics in that it researches solutions, vaccines, medicines and treatments for the big bad nasty bugs we don't want infecting all of us here at home (and abroad). It would seem we forgot to fund the other branch of "Homeland Security." Which party will do that??? It needs to happen.

Not trying to derail here - it is a question for Libertarians, Republicans and Democrats for the mid-terms, I think.
Do Libertarians support the NIH?

- AB

a reply to: AboveBoard

Do Libertarians support the NIH?

Good question.

Questions like this need to be discussed.



Libertarians ????

Am I hearing crickets????

We really need to get this opened up if we are to get away from the D&R problem.

in 2012 I had to vote Libertarian... only because my candidate-of-choice,,, Mr Nader was not on the ballot

here in 2014 I can vote Senator & Governor from a Libertarian slate...
for a decade I supported Sen. Lindsey Graham...but that ceased by 2010...because he sold-out to the globalists...
I once also thought highly of AZ Sen McCain but her fell off my buddy-list even before 2004

I am announcing my Libertarian vote preference... so that others might be inspired to not "waste-their-vote" rhetoric from the 2-party cabal of elites...

if you can... Vote often as the rest of those pests do

a reply to: AboveBoard

A star for you. Great question and one I'll ask of everyone running in my district.

Thankyou for my new vetting question. (kinda wish you would have brought this up months ago).

In Kentucky we have a Libertarian on the ballot in the Senate race but you would never know it from the media attention being given to McConnell and Grimes. Heck, our public TV station changed the rules for their televised debate so as to exclude the candidate even though he gained ballot access so in tonight's debate there will be only the tired old rhetoric of the donkeys and elephants.
It makes me sick, just sick, when I get calls from polling agencies who only want to know about your preferences for the donkeys or elephants and act all surprised and aghast if you don't line up on one side or the other. Just last week I got one who asked, "Well, isn't Libertarian the same thing as liberal?" when I gave her my preference. Sad indeed.
I'm fortunate enough to be able to vote for a couple of independents in the local races and for a Libertarian in the Senate race. In my view, a homeless person dragged from under a bridge somewhere and given the opportunity to serve in Congress would be a step above either of the major party candidates in our Senate race.

a reply to: xuenchen

It is hard wired into human psychology to tend to put action into the collective. People who buck that psychological trend tend to do so consciously. The fall back is to conform to your neighbor.

Libertarians will not be a viable alternative until people are told so. For the same reason no one leaps to the aid of someone unless they see someone else do it first.

Human behavior tends to follow the same types of rules you see in other systems. It all ends up following predictable, repeatable patterns. Everything exudes this fractal nature of repetitiveness across all scales. A catalyst creating a cascade effect is just another example of this.

a reply to: xuenchen

My state doesn't even take Republican candidates for governor seriously. Do you honestly think they'll even give a Libertarian candidate a thought?

a reply to: xuenchen

Agreed. But...it seems to me that the best cure for the problems that ail this system is something on the order of a complete overhaul. In all honesty, I haven't given that a lot of thought in about 10 years. When we were discussing the overhaul, several solutions were put forward that showed some degree of promise, but getting everyone to agree on one solution seems near impossible. If I remember correctly, the system that offered the best promise was one where, 1) Political parties were outlawed, then 2) the Electoral system is overhauled to a proportional representation system, with 3) public funding of campaigns and private funding made illegal, and 4) a much shorter, say 90 day, election season. All of this would, of course, require Constitutional Amendment.

Oddly enough, we never completed analysis on another proposed overhaul because the results were so hard to model. That system was based on the idea of reverting the current system to its original "Republic" model which provides, among other features, that Senators are appointed by State Legislatures. The idea there was the return to the individual States all powers not specifically enumerated as residing in the Federal Government. Thus the idea was that by restoring States Rights and Sovereignty, power would revert to the local level and that would level the playing field for new parties such as the Libertarian party. That only works however, if you drastically reform campaign finance. The objections to this idea were numerous, including that its anti-Democratic and the poor history the States have had with issues such as civil rights. Those objections might be overcome, but only with a massive education system.

Its all something of a giant mess.