Libertarian Party Inside Baseball Politics Thread

[Badger]

Genuine question I've been trying to find out. Is there a single libertarian office holder in the country who has won a contested partisan race? That is they were listed on the ballot as libertarian and beat another candidate?

The libertarian party has a list of Nationwide office holders, including whether the office is partisan or not. But just dabbling around with some things such as a few elected Ohio mayor's it appears all the ones I found were running unopposed.

If so, I'd be interested in knowing if this was some sort of sour grapes run like where a republican incumbent narrowly lost a primary and then ran and won in the general as a Libertarian.

[Badger]

Genuine question I've been trying to find out. Is there a single libertarian office holder in the country who has won a contested partisan race? That is they were listed on the ballot as libertarian and beat another candidate?

The libertarian party has a list of Nationwide office holders, including whether the office is partisan or not. But just dabbling around with some things such as a few elected Ohio mayor's it appears all the ones I found were running unopposed.

If so, I'd be interested in knowing if this was some sort of sour grapes run like where a republican incumbent narrowly lost a primary and then ran and won in the general as a Libertarian.

Marshall Burt was just elected as a state legislator in Wyoming, defeating a Democrat in a 2-person race. Bethany Baldes also ran in Wyoming after narrowly losing in 2018 and this year lost by 32 votes in a 2-person race to a Republican.

The party over the years has had a handful of state legislators that won elections. After that, you're down to the elected officials in small towns.

If anyone knows, was Burt the de-facto Republican candidate? I wonder why the Republicans wouldn't have run a candidate of their own in a state is favorable to them as Wyoming.

For that matter, Bethany baldes ran against a long time Republican incumbent two years ago, a guy who previously served as House Majority Leader, and came within like 50 votes of beating him then. Would really love to know more about the inside scoop here. I tried looking stuff up 2 years ago but couldn't find anything that revealed why there was such a strong libertarian / Republican divide in that District.

[Badger]

So the Kentucky Libertarians have found themselves in hot water by conflating vaccine passports with the Holocaust

Now this sounds like the lp we have all come to know and roll our eyes at.

[Badger]

I'm finishing up listening to my state's central committee monthly meeting from October, and want to share an incredibly local item that occurred close to me that epitomizes the value of libertarianism. A lady had an electrical fire in the attic in her home in Bourbon, Indiana, that made it so she could not live in her home. House is a total loss. She worked out with the insurance company that in the interim she, her husband, and grandson would live in an RV on the property. More rural area but was still subject to a zoning board. Couple of her neighbors filed a complaint with the zoning board of an RV being on her property and she got cited. South Bend local TV affiliate reported on the story then at which point the Libertarian district area rep found out about it and contacted her. A fundraiser was organized and held on her behalf, $312 was raised and all of it given to her, this was publicized in Libertarian Party of Indiana circles, and some of our members including the State Party Chair attended the zoning board meeting where her variance hearing was and argued on her behalf.

You can listen to the full issue described here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hfQ1oFrO1A&t=9166s

South Bend local TV news story on it: https://www.wndu.com/2021/09/15/fire-destroys-bourbon-womans-home-zoning-board-says-no-temporary-home/

The local Democratic and Republican parties in contrast did not care that a woman was losing her right to live on her property she owns through no fault of her own due to government regulations. The zoning board members are all appointees of the elected County Commissioners.

 FWIW call while this is a good outcome, I'm not sure it's at all necessary to have an active Libertarian Party for this period one of the villages I represent as solicitor is there past such an ordinance on its own without an emergency on going just in case it should happen in the future. Primarily conservative republicans, but at least one Democrat as remember and another serving as clerk.

[Badger]

If you guys want to have legitimate, competitive, sane third parties in this country, institute ranked-choice voting. Until that happens, all the third parties will behave like this.

I don't think FPTP is to blame for the Libertarian Party's behavior.

It is completely to blame. I don’t even know why you’d write such a silly comment.

First past the post voting requires libertarian party to embrace extremism and general nuttiness. Okay, you go with that.

We're only wackos because the political system forces us to!