On November 4, fourteen independent candidates were elected to state legislatures.
Two were elected to State Senates: Harri Anne Smith in Alabama, and Edward O’Neill in Rhode Island. Both were incumbents running for re-election.
Twelve were elected to lower houses:
Alaska: Dan Ortiz of Ketchikan
Georgia: incumbent Rusty Kidd
Maine: incumbents Joseph Brooks, James Campbell, Ben Chipman, and Jeffrey Evangelos
Rhode Island: Blake Filippi
Vermont: Alyson Eastman, Barbara S. Murphy, Paul Poirier, Adam Greshin, and Laura Sibilia.
As already posted, eight Progressives were elected in Vermont, so that makes a total of 22 minor party and independent candidates elected to state legislatures this year.
Only 218 independent candidates ran for state legislative seats in November 2014, so 6.4% of them were elected.
These are good numbers, but would like to see them climb higher.
I know co-nomination is not the same thing as a straight-out Independent or 3rd partisan being elected, but I can live with a Democrat or Republican who is willing to accept my label and not ashamed to display such on the election ballot.
We 3rd partisans and Independent need to place ourselves in the minds of Democrat and Republican politicians. They fear us, if for nothing more than what they consider as “spoilers,” therefore they oppose any legislation making it easier for us to obtain ballot access.
However, if we can approach them and make them understand that we are not totally against them if they would only be willing to embrace us on some of our issues and also be willing to run under our label in addition the major party label they are also running under. If we’ll use this approach, we’ll break down their natural resistance to us.
I encourage 3rd party and Independent leaders in all states where such laws do not already exist, to ask for legislation allowing co-nomination. Let’s start with a reform that should not intimidate the major partisans, and we can grow from there.
I trust to have such legislation introduced into the 2015 Session of the Alabama Legislature. All Alabamans readers of B.A.N. who agree, I trust will join with me in this endeavor.
“However, if we can approach them and make them understand that we are not totally against them”
Don’t know where you’re coming from, but I am totally against them. I don’t want to work with or change the two parties, I want to destroy them.
(Con)Fusion voting, or as you call it, “co-nomination”, is a scam meant to strengthen the corporate parties & snuff out competition. Parties that engage in it are parasites of the lowest order.
Jed Ziggler:
Apparently you didn’t read the following part of my earlier reply;
“Let’s start with a reform that should not intimidate the major partisans, and we can grow from there.”
You find another way for 3rd parties and Independents to obtain a rightful place at the table of electoral politics, and I’ll consider joining you. We’ve had 3rd parties almost since the beginning of the history of our republic, and not one of them has ever became a major party.
The GOP did not start as a 3rd party as some content, as it just happened to be “at the right place and at the right time,” and only picked up the salvageable pieces of the old Whig Party when it imploded and became a major party practically at the same time it was organized.
Jed Ziggler:
Have not heard back from you, but what part of “…we can grow from there,” did you not understand?
According to this article, fifteen (15) “free staters” won in New Hampshire, though I don’t know what their political affiliations are: http://reason.com/blog/2014/11/05/free-staters-win-at-least-15-seats-in-nh
Jeff Blecker:
I read the article. It appeared to indicate that most of these “free staters” were Libertarian or libertarian leaning.