November 8, 2010
Dear Friend of Liberty,
First of all I want to thank our over 800 candidates again for taking the time to run for office.
Now that we’ve all had a little time to catch our breaths after election day, we’re working to compile and analyze the results of our efforts.
While it looks like our percentages improved a little overall, I can’t report that we had any major breakthroughs that we always hope for. The few races we won that we’re aware of so far were for small local races, like soil and water district boards.
We’ve compiled the results for Governor, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House here.
Currently we have 15 Libertarians for U.S. House who received over 5% of the vote. (That only counts races where a Republican and a Democrat both appeared on the ballot.) That’s a big increase from past years. In 2008, three Libertarians for U.S. House got more than 5%. In 2006, one candidate; in 2004, two candidates.
In 2000, Libertarian Carla Howell ran for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts (against both a Republican and a Democrat) and got 11.88% of the vote. Since then, no Libertarian running for U.S. Senate (against both a Republican and a Democrat) has gotten more than 4%, until this year: Rebecca Sink-Burris got 5.33% in Indiana, and David Nolan got 4.68% in Arizona.
Those and other miscellaneous highlights are posted here.
We’re still compiling results for other races. We should have complete results next week.
I like to keep reminding Libertarians that even if we don’t win an election, our candidates help focus the debate on important issues. And many voters appreciate having a Libertarian candidate to vote for.
Our candidates also get a big bang for the buck. Preliminary reports I’m seeing show that Libertarian Party candidates for U.S. Congress spent about 50 cents per vote, while Republicans and Democrats spent twenty times that much (about $10 per vote nationwide).
Thanks again for supporting the Libertarian Party.
With the holiday season coming up, perhaps you’d be interested in the special offer that the store LPStuff.com is offering. See below.
Sincerely,
Wes Benedict
Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee
P.S. If you have not already done so, please join the Libertarian Party. We are the only political party dedicated to free markets, civil liberties, and peace. You can also renew your membership. Or, you can make a contribution separate from membership.
