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).

The Louisiana Secretary of State’s web page has election returns for the state election of October 22 here. Scott Lewis, the Libertarian candidate for Governor, polled 1.22% in a race with ten candidates. Although that is not especially noteworthy, it is far better than the only other instance when the Libertarian Party ran a candidate for Governor. That other time was in 2007, when the party’s candidate only polled .20%.

In the October 22, 2011 election, the Reform Party candidate for Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner, Belinda Alexandrenko, polled 5.69% in a race against a Republican and a Democrat. The Secretary of State’s web page has her listed with “(R)” after her name, but on the ballot she was on as a Reform Party candidate.

As expected, on October 22, the Nevada Republican Party moved its caucuses from January 14 to February 4. This clears the way for New Hampshire to set its presidential primary on January 10.

The entire rationale for the two major parties to single out four particular states and let them go first has always been weak. But one of the rationales was the all four regions of the nation were represented by the four favored states, which were supposed to be Iowa for the Midwest, New Hampshire for the East, South Carolina for the South, and Nevada for the West. But, for 2012, it doesn’t work out that way. Nevada will be fifth, behind the three other favored states and also behind Florida.

The western states have long been disadvantaged in presidential politics. The Democratic Party has never nominated anyone either for President or for Vice-President who was from one of the thirteen western states.