Gloria La Riva, presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, is on the ballot this year in states that cast 26.8% of the national popular vote for president in 2004. The party is new, and had never run candidates prior to 2008. All of its twelve petition drives this year succeeded.
Wow, 12/12 in petition drives is quite the accomplishment, especially for a new party.
Yeah, PSL definitely has to be given credit for that. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like candidates down-ballot were met with as much success. Their congressional candidate in Florida is running as a write-in candidate (non-official even, if I remember correctly), and their state rep candidates in Illinois are running on the Green ballot line.)
Congragulations to LaRiva, I am glad Nader got the Peace and Freedom endorsement but congragulations to LaRiva and the PSL for meeting their goal.
I agree, they did quite a good job. It will be interesting to see how many votes PSL, SPUSA and SWP get.
It’s definitely going to be an interesting mix. My guess is that New York will be a good help to the SWP and PSL, as NY seems to be the most populous state that any socialist presidential ticket is going to be on. The SP-USA is probably going to file for write-in status there, but New York is notorious for not counting write-in votes. Beyond that, all three candidate are on the ballot in Florida, though only the SP is on the ballot in Ohio, which seem to be the two next most populous states with a socialist presidential ticket.
What might make the difference overall is official write-in status. I don’t know if PSL or the SWP bother to file for official write-in status, but the Socialist Party does. That’s what pushed us into first place overall in 2004, it seems, so that might make the difference again this year.