January 1998
Election '97 Highlights
Besides the record-setting 34 election wins, Campaign '97 also produced considerable good news for Libertarians. Here's a sampling of election highlights:
- The LP didn't go head-to-head with Ross Perot's Reform Party this year -- but did generate more votes in comparable races, according to Richard Winger, publisher of Ballot Access News. In Virginia State Representative races, LP candidates won 13.82% of the vote (on average), while Reform candidates won 13.52%. And in New Jersey State Assembly races, Libertarians won an average of 3.94%, compared to 3.34% for the Reform Party.
- The Libertarian Party also walloped all other third parties when it came to election wins in November. According to Ballot Access News, both the Green Party and the leftist New Party won three elections - compared to 34 for the Libertarian Party.
- He decided to run only a few days before the filing deadline, and had the support of a local LP affiliate that had only existed for only a few weeks. But Bill Bradley won an eye-opening 41% of the vote for mayor of South Haven, Michigan, running against the incumbent. He blamed his loss on a "low-budget, low-profile" campaign -- but "next time I'll know better," he said.
- Murray Sabrin wasn't elected governor of New Jersey -- but he did get an official state security detail after Governor Christie Todd Whitman sent a two-man police squad to guard him on election night. Why? Because it's a tradition in New Jersey for the incumbent governor to send a state police detail to the headquarters of any challengers who may win and become governor-elect. "This is an unprecedented sign of respect," said Sabrin Campaign Chair Hal Turner. "More than anything else, it shows that Murray was a viable candidate."
- The Murray Sabrin campaign also generated a boom in media for the LP. Because of the high-profile nature of the race -- and because Sabrin was considered a potential spoiler -- he earned coverage in numerous national publications, such as the New York Times, Time magazine, and USA Today. The result: According to the Libertarian Party's clipping service, the party was mentioned in publications with a combined circulation of 52,000,000 in November -- an all-time high.
- After 26 years, Idaho has finally been added to the list of states where Libertarians have been elected to public office. Ron Wittig was victorious in his campaign for New Meadows City Council, winning with a "low-budget campaign [that relied] on word-of-mouth and knocking on doors," said State Chair Chris Struble.
- In New Jersey, Dr. Janice Presser was one of only a handful of LP candidates to win an endorsement from a major daily newspaper. Presser, running for 8th District State Assembly, was endorsed by the Cherry Hill Courier-Post, which wrote: "Presser is informed, motivated, and full of ideas . . . We need more [candidates] like Presser."
- The five LP candidates in Guilford, Connecticut, didn't win any elections -- but they did earn an average of 17% of the vote for their efforts. "I'm very satisfied with our performance when you consider that we organized the party 11 months ago," said Hugh Baird, Chairman of the Guilford LP.
- And the party's momentum from Election '97 seems to have spilled over into the first special election after November 4th. On November 9th, LP candidate Mary Anderson won an impressive 23% of the vote against an incumbent for the Richland County Council, District 10, in South Carolina.
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