Author Archive | Bob Johnston

Joe Buchman, the Libertarian Party candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Utah’s third district, debated four other challengers on July 11. A special election is being held on Nov. 7 to replace Jason Chaffetz (R), who resigned his seat effective June 30. In addition to Buchman, three Republicans and one Independent American Party candidate participated in […]

Steve McCluskey, a member of the Mississippi Libertarian Party, was elected mayor of the town of McLain on June 6. Mr. McCluskey won the three-way race with 52 percent of the vote, defeating the incumbent mayor. He is the first Mississippi Libertarian to be elected to office in the state’s history, according to Richard Winger, editor […]

A U.S. district court in Arizona has upheld that state’s prohibitive petition-signature requirement for the Libertarian Party’s access to primary election ballots. From an article in the Arizona Daily Sun: A federal judge has rebuffed a bid by the Libertarian Party to kill an Arizona law even its sponsors concede was designed to make it […]

The Arkansas Libertarian Party (LPAR) has qualified for the 2018 elections, as the Secretary of State approved their petitions on July 7. This makes the fourth straight general election cycle in which the LPAR has successfully gotten onto the ballot as a party, going back to 2012. The LPAR submitted over 15,000 signatures towards the 10,000 […]

IVN reported this week on lawmakers’ conversions to the LP, including an interview with Libertarian state senator Laura Ebke (Neb.). From the July 5 article: Getting elected as a third-party candidate is no easy feat in the United States. In fact, the deck is so stacked against alternative candidates — courtesy of  gerrymandered voting districts that favor […]

Libertarian National Committee chair Nicholas Sarwark was interviewed recently by Planet Forward (at GWU) for a July 5 article about the US removing itself from the Paris Climate Accord. From the article: When asked about the removal, Libertarian chairman Sarwark did not focus on the substance [of] the Accord but the amount of power that the president […]

Mark West, a former LP candidate for the U.S. House, will be running for governor of Arkansas in 2018, according to Arkansas Online, the digital edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the state’s largest daily newspaper. From the article: “West said he is running for governor ‘to try to put an end to the bullying form […]

Cliff Hyra, the 2017 Virginia Libertarian Party candidate for governor, will appear on the ballot this November. The Virginia Department of Elections has confirmed that the campaign had submitted more than 10,000 valid signatures from registered voters, with at least 400 signatures from each of the state’s 11 congressional districts. Hyra will be the only choice on the […]

The Maine Libertarian Party is now recognized by the state, as bill LD 1571 became law last week. To get on the 2016 ballot, the party needed to have at least 5,000 registered voters by December 2015, which it accomplished. Under the old law, however, the party needed to have at least 10,000 of its […]

In response to a growing partisan divide, civic engagement platform icitizen conducted a poll on how interested U.S. adults would be in a third party as a viable alternative to the two-party system. Highlights include: 70 percent of Americans believe the two major parties do not represent them well and a third party is necessary (16 […]

Glenwood City (Iowa) Councilman Jeremy Rodman switched his voter registration to the Libertarian Party on June 12. Rodman, who serves in Ward 1 and is a former Republican, was elected to the position in November 2015, and his term started in January 2016. The term of the office is for four years. “The values I grew […]