Third Parties
Getting to 15 Percent: Two Different Paths for Dean Barkley (’08) and Tim Penny (’02)
Independence Party nominee Dean Barkley’s U.S. Senate candidacy was of great interest to the media and political junkies leading up to the 2008 election. Could Barkley launch a Ventura-esque come-from-behind victory? Would his presence on the ballot hurt Al Franken…
Read MoreGreen Party Sets Personal Best in Minnesota’s HD 61B Contest
In Minnesota’s House District 61B election on Tuesday, Green Party candidate Farheen Hakeem received 30.3 percent of the vote – the highest mark ever reached by the Green Party in a House contest. The Green Party has run 29…
Read MoreThird Party Impact on the 2008 Minnesota Legislative Vote
Third party candidates in the Gopher State made a slight comeback in 2008, and had some impact on Minnesota legislative races on Tuesday. Two races were decidedly impacted by third party candidacies. In the open DFL House District 51A, Republican…
Read MoreIndependence Party Sets New Records in Election 2008
Although the number of candidates the Independence Party of Minnesota has been able to field in state legislative elections has fallen sharply during the past few election cycles, the Party enjoyed some personal bests in the 2008 elections. At the…
Read MoreLive Blog: David Dillon, Independence Party 3rd CD Candidate
12:00 p.m. In the fourth of a series of candidate forums sponsored by the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute, Independence Party 3rd Congressional District candidate David Dillon is giving a…
Read MoreDean Barkley Trying to Make History in MN U.S. Senate Race
A new Rasmussen poll of the high profile U.S.Senate race in Minnesota was released today with some surprising resuts, as Norm Coleman (48 percent) and Al Franken (47 percent) amassed 95 percent of the support of the 500 likely voters…
Read MoreWhy Isn’t Dean Barkley Derailing Al Franken’s Candidacy?
The first two polls released since Dean Barkley won the Independence Party primary last week still show a very close race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken, with Barkley receiving 13 percent (Minnesota Poll) and 14 percent (SurveyUSA) support among…
Read MoreLibertarian Ballot Option On the Rise in Wisconsin
Whether it is because the Libertarian Party has a well-known nominee in the Presidential race in Bob Barr (though not necessarily well-regarded in Libertarian leadership circles), whether it is because the Libertarian base has been fired up due to…
Read MoreThird Parties Garnering Support In Key Statewide Races
A recent report by Gallup indicates muted support for third party candidates thus far in the 2008 presidential race. In an open-ended question asking likely voters for which candidate they would cast their presidential ballot, only 2 percent cited third…
Read MoreSmart Politics Study: Independence Party Need Make No Apologies to the DFL
The DFL has pointed to the Independence Party gubernatorial candidacies of Peter Hutchinson (2006) and Tim Penny (2002) as part of the reason for Republican Tim Pawlenty’s two plurality wins in the Gopher State. The fear, among the DFL,…
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