The Georgia contingent of the Libertarian Party held its annual convention on Saturday in Marietta. The conclave covered a range of issues but the big events of the day were the Senate candidate debate and the 2016 Libertarian Presidential Candidate Forum.
It remains unclear but a extra attention may be turning in the Libertarian direction this year. Disenchanted voters of both parties, many frustrated with the leading candidates, may start looking around for other options as November approaches. The Libertarians might be one of those options.
Brett Larson, Chairman of the Libertarian Party, says “he’s never excited to see our nation deteriorate and that the Thursday debate was an embarrassment to see on the national stage, but the party is always ready for new members.” Larson’s statements echoed those of another member of the Party’s Executive Committee, Matt Godwon. “I wish it didn’t take this to gain interest but here we are,” he says.
Asked about the toughest challenges for the Libertarians, Larson pointed to the perennial thorn in the side of Libertarians and other third-parties: ballot access. “Republicans and Democrats act as one party to try and limit competition,” said Larson. Both the two main parties and their individual candidates will seek any method to try and eject candidates and that can make it more difficult for a third party candidate. One of the breakout sessions at the convention was focused on ballot access and particularly for local candidates trying to get in city council or county commission races.
Georgia’s ballot access rules are particularly difficult. Statewide is not quite as restrictive but for congressional or local races the access requirements are that candidates must get 5% of registered voters.
Richard Winger, in a 2015 edition of his Ballot Access News wrote: “The worst ballot access law in the U.S. is the Georgia law on how an independent or minor party candidate gets on the ballot for U.S. House.” According to Winger and the LP Georgia website, no non-establishment party candidate has made the ballot for the US House since 1943, when the current petition law was set. No independent candidate has been on the ballot for the US House since 1964.
In Georgia, Libertarians met the threshold for statewide access a number of years ago, thus the party always fields a governor or senate candidate. As noted above, down-ballot races are rare and local races are very rare. Not having down-ballot candidates makes it difficult for a third party to get a foothold. Having statewide candidates is great but it can be difficult for them to gain traction without much political experience or name recognition.
According to Libertarian Party of Georgia Executive Committee member Nathan Wilson, the second biggest challenge for Libertarians is owning their own brand. Often identified with recent readers of Atlas Shrugged and forever plagued as “pot-smoking Republicans,” getting the Libertarian message out there can be difficult. The recent political pandemonium, though, may have sparked some interest in finding out what they have to offer. Who knows what that may mean for the politics of the future.
