On October 22, Rupert Boneham announced that he will seek the Libertarian Party nomination for Indiana Governor in 2012. The announcement has resulted in substantial publicity for the party. This article is typical of many.

Different states in the United States have different political cultures. One of the variables is that some states have had many relatively strong minor party and independent candidates for important statewide state office, whereas others have the opposite tradition. Indiana is a state with no strong minor party or independent candidates for either Governor or U.S. Senator in a century. No one has polled as much as 5% for Governor of Indiana, besides the major parties, since 1912. No one has polled as much as 6% for U.S. Senator from Indiana, besides the two major parties, since 1914, except that in 2006 no Democrat ran, so Libertarian nominee Steve Osborn for U.S. Senate got 12.6%. But in 2010, the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate, Rebecca Sink-Burris, running against both a Democrat and a Republican, did get 5.41%.

No independent candidate for Governor of Indiana has ever appeared on a government-printed ballot, even though Indiana has used government-printed ballots since 1889. Nor has any independent candidate for U.S. Senate from Indiana ever appeared on a government-printed ballots. The only other states that have never had either an independent for Governor, or an independent for U.S. Senate, on a government-printed ballots are New Mexico (which didn’t have procedures for independent candidates to get on the ballot until 1977), North Carolina, and South Carolina (which has only had government-printed ballots since 1950).