In 2006, when U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman ran as an independent for the U.S. Senate and won, his ballot title was “Connecticut for Lieberman Party”. Connecticut election law says that if a group polls at least 1% for any partisan office, it is then automatically on the November ballot for that same office in the next election.

Senator Lieberman wasn’t interested in the political party that his 2006 showing created, but some of his political opponents organized the party, and started running for partisan office under that party’s label. In 2010, the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate, John Mertens, did not poll as much as 1%, so the party ceased to be ballot-qualified for U.S. Senate. However, also in 2010, the party had six nominees for State House, and all of them polled more than 1%, so the party continues to be ballot-qualified in those six districts for 2012. Because Senator Lieberman is not running for re-election in 2012, it may be that the people involved in the Connecticut for Lieberman Party will lose interest in their party. But, one never knows, and it will be interesting to see if the party continues to exist.

In the 2010 election, Tea Party candidates appeared on the general election ballot under the “Tea Party” label, for federal or state office, in Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, and New York. Even though there were 18 Tea Party nominees in races with both a Democrat and a Republican also in the race, there is no instance at which the Tea Party nominee seems to have altered the outcome of the winner.

It is not necessarily true that every voter who voted for a Tea Party nominee would have voted for a Republican, if the Tea Party nominee had not been on the ballot. But assuming that it is true that every vote for a Tea Party nominee meant a lost vote for a Republican, nevertheless, no election outcome changed. In all the races with a Tea Party nominee, one of the major party nominees polled an absolute majority of all the votes cast in that race anyway. The only exception is the Florida U.S. House race, 12th district. But even there, the Republican nominee won, although with only a plurality.

The ballot-listed Tea Party had four candidates for U.S. House (three in Florida, and one in New Jersey), one for U.S. Senate (in Nevada), and 16 for state office (all in Florida, except for one in New York). Three of these races had only one major party nominee. The most impressive showing by a ballot-listed Tea Party nominee in a congressional race with two major party opponents was in Florida’s 12th U.S. House district, where Randy Wilkinson polled 10.71%. The 12th district is centered on Polk County, in the middle of the state. The 12th district has been represented by Republicans ever since it was created in 2001.

The most impressive showing by a ballot-listed Tea Party nominee for state office in a race with both major parties was in New York, where David J. DePietro polled 10.77% in the 59th State Senate district. The Republican nominee won with an absolute majority of the vote cast. This post was updated on February 13, 2011, to include the New York reference.

Kentucky holds its gubernatorial election on November 8, 2011. So far, it appears there are no minor party candidates running in this race. However, one independent candidate, Gatewood Galbraith, is running and is already collecting signatures. Galbraith has been invited to a Kentucky Press Association forum for the gubernatorial candidates, to be held on January 21. The primary is in May, 2011, and the announced Republican gubernatorial candidates, David Williams and Phil Moffett, will also attend. Incumbent Democratic Governor Steve Beshear is also expected to run, but he has declined to appear at this event. See this story.

Galbraith was the Reform Party gubernatorial nominee in 1999, when he received 15.42% of the vote. Galbraith will need 5,000 signatures to appear on the November 2011 ballot. The signatures are due in early August.