Perhaps the fairest way to measure a minor party’s showing in U.S. House races, across the nation, is to calculate the median percentage for that party’s nominees.

In the 2006 election, the median percentage for Libertarian candidates for U.S. House was 2.04%, when all the races with only a single major party nominee have been eliminated. That contrasts with the same figure for the Libertarian Party in 2004 of 1.66%.

Also in the 2006 election, the median percentage for Green candidates for U.S. House was 1.41%, when all the races with only a single major party nominee have been eliminated. That contrasts with the Green 2004 figure of 2.41%.

Also in 2006, the median percentage for Constitution candidates for U.S. House was 1.43%, when all the races with only a single major party nominee are set aside. That contrasts with the Constitution 2004 figure of .90%.

And, in 2006, the median for Reform Party nominees was 2.25%.

“Median” means, when any particular party’s candidates are listed in order of what percentage of the vote they got, the median is the percentage in the middle of the list (or, if there is an even number of candidates listed, the median is the halfway point between the two candidates closed to the midpoint).

The number of races in 2006 that each party ran for US House (excluding the races with only one major party nominee) were: Libertarian 102, Green 40, Constitution 26, Reform 5.