Why do third party candidates get so few votes...

[Brandon H]

I think a stragedy for third parties would be to go for Nebraska or Maine since they split the electoral vote by congressional district. Also possibly the small states with 3 or 4 electoral votes. If the new percentage based electoral vote in Colorado passes, that could be worth considering, though a candidate would have to get about 10% of the states popular vote to get a single vote.

[Brandon H]

Thanks for the Welcome.

Another key thing that seperates most third parties from the Big Two is that usually their Candidates have never held office before. If they could win a seat in Congress or a Governorship then they would be taken a little more seriously. But in one of the debates they said running a Presidential Candidate helps all other candidates.

I think the best example of this is Jesse Ventura. He went from a Mayor, to a Governor, and is strongly considering running for President in 2008. He would media attention because he has already held a major office (besides the fact that he was already a celebrity).

Is it too early to start talking about 2008 or does that have to wait until Nov. 3?