State of the 3rd Party races

[sparkey]

Has anyone been following the races for Presidential nominations for 3rd parties? Here's my impression from what I've read so far. Corrections welcome:

Constitution Party
The main question now is whether or not former Indiana Congressman John Hostettler will jump into the race. Of those currently in the race, the frontrunner is probably Darrell Castle, the CP's VP nominee in 2008, and the runner-up to Virgil Goode in the CP's Presidential nomination last year. If Hostettler does seek the CP nomination, the nomination could go very similarly to 2012, when a congressman defeated Castle for the nomination. Outside of Hostettler and Castle, I've seen very little attention paid to any of the other 12 announced candidates, other than an article or two about the progress J.R. Myers has made in advancing the CP in Alaska, although I could be missing something since I haven't exactly researched these 12.

Green Party
2012 nominee Jill Stein is running again, and appears to be the solid frontrunner, with the only serious competition coming from musician and documentary producer Darryl Cherney, who is notable for being with activist Judi Bari when a pipe bomb exploded in their car (did the FBI do it?!). Professor William P. Kreml and activist Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza-Curry also register in an unofficial poll.

Libertarian Party
2012 nominee Gary Johnson has said that "unless something catastrophic happens," he will run again in 2016, but has yet to officially announce. If he does announce, it seems that the nomination is all but his for the taking, as a poll taken on August 31 shows him as the overwhelming favorite. Johnson's biggest competitor in 2012, R. Lee Wrights, has decided against running. It's tough to guess who would win if Johnson decides against running, considering that the same poll had all officially announced candidates losing to NOTA. My money would be on businessman and Libertarian Republic editor Austin Petersen, who announced 3 days after that poll was published, and has received more attention already than the others who announced before him (Marc Feldman, Cecil Ince, Steve Kerbel, Darryl Perry, Derrick Michael Reid and Joy Waymire).

The elephant in the room for the LP is Jesse Ventura, who recently said that he may join the LP convention to seek its nomination, but won't join the party. He may have a tough time competing against Johnson with that attitude, but you never know with a good debate performance, and I could definitely see him winning if his only competition is the likes of Petersen.

Other parties
There are a lot of other parties, so I will skip the tiny communist parties, racist parties, etc., and just talk about those that I think will get some attention. It seems that Roseanne Barr will be running for the Peace and Freedom Party again, and I think we can expect similar things from her as from 2012, provided that she is nominated over the likes of Gloria La Riva. Also of note is McAfee Antivirus founder John McAfee, who is running on his own "Cyber Party" banner. Ballot access will be tricky for McAfee, whose platform so far is anti-NSA spying, pro-cyber security, and generally seems to be straddling left-liberalism and libertarianism (but he's still fleshing it out).

2012 saw the Justice Party and Americans Elect make some headlines, but I don't know of anyone seeking the Justice Party nomination this time, and Americans Elect is pretty much dead.

[/]

It's funny how the third parties generally rally around the same person over and over again (Stein, Johnson, Barr, etc.) It just goes to show how they probably don't care about winning that much.

[°Leprechaun]

I am not following them much, but it will be interesting to see how they might do if someone unpopular wins either (or both) of the major party nominations.
If Trump, Bush, or Carson (the leaders at this time) win, there might be a few Republicans willing to look at alternatives.
Can the same be said of Democrats unhappy with Clinton or Sanders?

[Coolface Sock #42069]

I'm about as Republican a person as you'll ever find, but if Donald Trump is the nominee, I'm probably going Libertarian.

[Bismarck]

I'm about as Republican a person as you'll ever find, but if Donald Trump is the nominee, I'm probably going Libertarian.

Yep i wont vote for someone who says vaccines cause autism and opposes free trade.

[Vosem]

I would enthusiastically vote for Gary Johnson if Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee.

[Comrade Funk]

I would enthusiastically vote for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein if Hillary Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee.

[Zioneer]

I think Rocky Anderson said he's not running for President under the Justice Party nomination again, which means the Justice Party is basically defunct (since it was his thing).

[VPH]

This 'Cyber Party' sounds interesting. Kinda like the pirates.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Huh. Didn't know that Wrights wasn't running again.

[°Leprechaun]

It's too bad "none of these candidates" isn't an option anywhere other than Nevada.
I believe that most people don't chose that option because Nevada is a crucial swing
state. Maybe more people will if Trump is the nominee.
The closest to that is to vote third party.
One good thing is that there will be at least one third party option in most states.

[sparkey]

Huh. Didn't know that Wrights wasn't running again.

http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2015/09/lee-wrights-addresses-the-question-of-running-for-president-in-2016/

[All Along The Watchtower]

It's funny how the third parties generally rally around the same person over and over again (Stein, Johnson, Barr, etc.) It just goes to show how they probably don't care about winning that much.

Why should they care about an impossibility?

[history nerd]

I would love to see a Ventura Vs. Johnson Libertarian debate hopefully it gets broadcast on CSPAN or something if it happens. Each represents a wing of the party. Johnson is more conservative but also more sane while Ventura represents the disturbingly large conspiracy theory wing.

What ever happened to the draft Stockman movement in the constitution party? Did Hostettler suck up all his support? http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2015/04/draft-steve-stockman-effort-underway-in-constitution-party/

Also I though Rosa Clemente (VP candidate in 2008) was thinking of contesting the green nomination.

[sparkey]

In case anyone is interested in the Austin Petersen candidacy (admittedly, I seem to be the only one to even care so far), here's a podcast where he discusses his candidacy at length: http://thelibertarianrepublic.podbean.com/e/why-i-am-running-for-president-as-a-libertarian-podcast/

In it, he makes it clear that he expects to run against Gary Johnson, and that he will flank Johnson from the right on the issues of food labeling and abortion. He also seems to be just as far left as Johnson on immigration, and possibly farther left on foreign policy issues. He sounds quite knowledgeable and articulate to me, but it will obviously hurt him that he's not really qualified to be President and will likely run against a former governor, or possibly even 2 former governors. He's also pretty clearly on the same wing of the LP (pragmatist, right-leaning) as Johnson. I personally still favor Johnson for the LP nod, and might even prefer Ventura to Petersen on the grounds of experience alone, but I can definitely sense some good vibes from Petersen.

[cwt]

The Party for Socialism and Liberation has already announced their 2016 ticket: Gloria La Riva and  Eugene Puryear

http://www.votepsl.org/

[Senator Spiral]

What ever happened to the draft Stockman movement in the constitution party? Did Hostettler suck up all his support? http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2015/04/draft-steve-stockman-effort-underway-in-constitution-party/

Stockman quietly turned down a run before the Hostettler buzz surfaced. His record in Congress would have given him enough goodwill to have a fighting chance, although his Senate campaign would have been an ominous sign regarding his seriousness. The nomination is Hostettler's if he wants it seeing as how his record is just what the CP is looking for. Hostettler has also been involved with the party since at least 2008 when he endorsed Chuck Baldwin for president.

[Senator Spiral]

Also, about Jesse Ventura: He keeps repeating that he wouldn't join the Libertarians if he sought their nomination, but this is in their bylaws:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Someone should tell Jesse, because he's wasting everybody's time, including his own.

[Leinad]

Jesse Ventura can NOT be the Libertarian nominee. It would certainly be the death of the party's credibility. That's why I think it should be Johnson, even though I think Austin Petersen is probably closer to me politically. Credibility is key, and nominating a successful two-term governor should help with that.