Constitution Party Candidate for New Jersey Legislature Polled Over 10% in Race with Both Major Parties

On November 8, 2011, New Jersey held elections for legislature. In the 24th legislative district, Constitution Party nominee Rose Anne Salanitri polled 10.2% of the total vote cast, even though she had opponents from both major parties. Here is her campaign web page, which says she is a Constitution Party nominee. She is somewhat well-known for having launched a campaign to recall U.S. Senator Robert Menendez. Her ballot label was not “Constitution”, but “Tea Party Proud.”

Generally, minor parties candidates in New Jersey poll rather small percentages of the vote, because in almost all counties, all candidates who aren’t Democrats and Republicans are put in a far right-hand column on the ballot under the uninspiring ballot heading, “By petition.”

The 24th district is in Sussex County, in north rural New Jersey.


Comments

Constitution Party Candidate for New Jersey Legislature Polled Over 10% in Race with Both Major Parties — 16 Comments

  1. IMO, I think if the CP drops their name and adopts something more populist sounding, then their candidates in other states would do better.

    I’ve had this view for a long time, and its looking more justified every election cycle.

  2. What a shame to hear that Americans are so turned off by the mention of and association with our founding document! “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” – Samuel Adams

  3. Pingback: Constitution Party Candidate for New Jersey Legislature Polled Over 10% in Race with Both Major Parties | ThirdPartyPolitics.us

  4. Yes Jeff. That’s what our nation’s society has become, and if we are to change the hearts and minds of the American people about our founding laws and principles, then it must be through a better and more appealing name that they can better identify with.

  5. Cody,

    I might even agree with you, coming from years in the American Independent Party, but we can’t go changing the name of the party every 10 years. This name change issue ranks second only to the so-called “Tampa/Nevada” controversy as far as distracting and setting back the party from its real mission is concerned. That was probably a few years before you became interested in the party. I was on the Rules Committee at the St. Louis Convention where this all came to a head. The issue was exhausting and divisive right up to the last moment. We don’t need that distraction now.

    We, of course, support state autonomy and your state can keep whatever name it wants and obviously it does well with that name. Who knows what the future holds? Right now, however, that issue coming up and setting everyone at each other’s throat is exactly what we don’t need.

  6. I agree with you on the second part.
    However with a lot of the delegates to the 1999 convention either passed away, or no longer in the CP, I highly doubt another name change would be just as nasty of a fight.

    Which leads me to answer #7; I believe the best way to settle this in a quick and simple manner without it being like it was in St. Louis- is for any delegate or state delegation of the national convention to submit a proposed title for the name of the national party, afterwards there would be a vote on each of the submitted titles. The top two titles that receive the most votes would then go to a runoff vote and whatever title receives the most votes wins and automatically becomes the name of the Party- problem solved.

  7. In defense of the current name, I think our party should place more emphasis on specific U.S. Constitution solutions to our various problems. “We the people” has become a bit too generic. We the Constitution Party need to show the publik-skooled American Idol/Dancing With the Stars masses exactly where the answers are found in that document, issue by issue with very brief sound-bite explanations.

  8. Rose Anne Salanitri polled 3,153 votes. 62,085 votes were cast. Her percentage was not 10.2% but 5.1%. Regardless, a good showing for a CP candidate in NJ.

  9. #9- You still did not answer my question. You told me how to build the watch but not what time it is.

  10. #12, the reason you have a different calculation than I do is that we use different meanings of the word “vote.” You use the number of votes cast, whereas I used the number of voters who voted in the election. I realize the precise number of voters who vote is not precise, but I have always believed that adding up the total number of votes cast in a multi-winner election, and then dividing by the number of seats to be filled, yields more meaningful results. New Jersey elects two from each district. If this were a district that elected ten members, then people would be winning with approximately 5% to 6% of the vote, using the method you use, which is wacky.

  11. #10 -we already do that, in fact we made our platform that way back in 2008.

    #12 -I think anything with both, or either the words “American” or “Independent” in it.

  12. How about “Independent American Party” or maybe “American Independent Party”? 😉

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