Florida’s Republican Governor Charlie Crist is running for U.S. Senate this year as a Republican. However, polls show him losing this year’s Republican primary to a more conservative Republican. The Washington Post has this column, featuring poll results that Christ would do better as an independent. Thanks to Third Party Daily for the link.
One reason Crist might not want to run as an independent is that in Florida, independent candidates are put at the bottom of the list of candidates. Also, they don’t have “independent” next to their names; they have “NPA”, which is a meaningless abbreviation to almost everyone. It means “non-partisan”.
In Michigan, they also use NPA — but here, to be precise, it stands for “No Party Affiliation”. . . .
If someone like Charlie Crist were to run for U.S. Senator as “NPA” or even “Independent,” he would poll a substantial vote because of WHO HE IS and because of his name recognition – not to mention the fact that hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions would be spent promoting him for that office. The labels “NPR” or “Independent” would not hurt his chances of election – other than his not being a major party nominee. Voters who want to vote for him would do so whether they understood what “NPA” stood for or not.
3rd partisans and independent candidates have a problem with being “in love” with their ballot labels. They need to get over this. There is nothing magical about having “Libertarian,” “Constitutionalist,” or even “Green,” by the name of the candidate. People vote for people – not labels.
Great point by Alabama Independent. According to the FEC, Gov. Crist raised $2 million in the last quarter of 2009 and currently has $7.5 million cash on hand. The NPA label certainly won’t be a deterrent if he decides to run as an independent.
While having “NPA” next to his name certainly wouldn’t stop Crist from garnering a significant percentage of the vote, being placed at the bottom of the list of candidates might be enough to cost him the election.
I seem to recall reading about several studies which stated that poor ballot placement can potentially cost a candidate a few percentage points.
“Mike Indiana” needs to clarify better when he writes that Crist as “NPA” or “independent” would be “…at the bottom of the list of candidates…” Florida uses an “office box” ballot and Crist would be listed AFTER the Democratic and Republican nominees. However, I understand that all NPA’s and independents running for the same office are listed in the order they file with the Secretary of State. So I doubt that Crist, even being listed as 3rd – or even 4th – with the war chest he has, would have little problem in having people find his name on the ballot. If voters want to vote for him, they’ll find his name.