I've been out of touch with politics for awhile...

[StateBoiler]

...how did all these bizarre strong third party/independent candidacies for senate and governor occur? And can someone give the background for each individual race with these candidates?

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

not all of the bizarre candidates are from third parties.

[Dgov]

...how did all these bizarre strong third party/independent candidacies for senate and governor occur? And can someone give the background for each individual race with these candidates?

Let's see:

Florida:  Crist is encouraged to enter the Republican primary by the NRSC to keep the seat safe, and Dems basically put up a sacrificial nominee.  However, Marco Rubio surges in the primary and general, and around April Crist decides that he's got no shot whatsoever at beating him, so he enters as an independent, hoping to get enough Democratic voters to put him over Rubio in the general.  However, Meek has done a decent job at keeping the Democratic base, which has left Rubio up a bunch against two candidates battling for the Center-left.

Alaska:  Incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowsi lost a close primary to Joe Miller, and after flirting with assuming the Libertarian party line, decided to just conduct a write-in campaign instead.  Like Florida, this basically kills the Democrat's chances at winning, as the Independent takes more of the Democratic vote than the Republican vote.

Massachusetts:  Deval Patrick is running for re-election against Charlie Baker, and former Democrat Cahill has entered the race as an independent, though seems to have faded recently.  Don't really know much more on this one.

Colorado:  Republican Dan Maes has serious ethics problems (though so did his primary opponent) and is getting killed in 1-on-1 polls with Denver Mayor Hickenlooper.  Tom Tancredo, a former Republican congressman from South Denver suburbs, threatened to enter the race if Maes didn't step aside and let the GOP nominate someone better, but Maes refused and Tancredo has followed up on his promise.

Delaware (maybe):  Incumbent Congressman Mike Castle ran for Senator, but was beaten by Christine O'Donnell, turning a likely GOP pickup into a likely Democrat hold.  Castle has been talking about running a write-in campaign, which might take enough votes from Chris Coons to give O'Donnell the edge.

Minnesota Governor:  Don't know much about this one to be honest.  SOmeone else can tell you more

Maine Governor:  Same as above, although Tea-Party favorite LePaule looks like he would be winning even without a split Left.

That's all I can think of aside from a few Democratic plants in the form of "Tea Party" candidates, who are there to suck off Republican votes.

[GMantis]

That's all I can think of aside from a few Democratic plants in the form of "Tea Party" candidates, who are there to suck off Republican votes.

It's always nice to see that there are idiotic conspiracies on the right as well.

[??????????]

That's all I can think of aside from a few Democratic plants in the form of "Tea Party" candidates, who are there to suck off Republican votes.

It's always nice to see that there are idiotic conspiracies on the right as well.

No, that's actually been proven.

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2010/08/25/news/politics/doc4c747e0c9265e469532863.txt

[??????????]

http://www.rpof.org/article.php?id=983

[minionofmidas]

Alaska:  Incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowsi lost a close primary to Joe Miller, and after flirting with assuming the Libertarian party line, decided to just conduct a write-in campaign instead.  Like Florida, this basically kills the Democrat's chances at winning, as the Independent takes more of the Democratic vote than the Republican vote.

I don't think so... it's just that she would have to take far more of the Republican vote in order to create a Democrat's chance at winning - which isn't happening.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Is there any evidence of that?

[ilikeverin]

Minnesota Governor:  Don't know much about this one to be honest.  SOmeone else can tell you more

In Minnesota, the Independence Party is the functional equivalent of the "None of the Above" option.  Support for the IP is a marker of how much people dislike the DFL and Republican candidates.

[GMantis]

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2010/08/25/news/politics/doc4c747e0c9265e469532863.txt

http://www.rpof.org/article.php?id=983

Accusations are not proof.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Alaska:  Incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowsi lost a close primary to Joe Miller, and after flirting with assuming the Libertarian party line, decided to just conduct a write-in campaign instead.  Like Florida, this basically kills the Democrat's chances at winning, as the Independent takes more of the Democratic vote than the Republican vote.

I don't think so... it's just that she would have to take far more of the Republican vote in order to create a Democrat's chance at winning - which isn't happening.

     Right after the primaries, Miller was only leading by 8% or so in the polls. If Murkowski were indeed taking more Republicans than Democrats by any meaningful margin, McAdams would have a chance created for him.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Is there any evidence of that?

     It's mostly just conjecture from ultra-conservatives, backed up by the bizarre observed tendency for independents to be taking more from the party that they were not formerly a member of (Lieberman, Cahill, Crist).