Topic: Election 2008
LP: An Opportunity in Montana The LP will not win many races this year. The best opportunity may be in Montanaby rtbohan
(Libertarian)
Sunday, June 15, 2008
In 2006, Stan Jones, the blue skinned Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate, won over 10,000 votes in Montana and was credited with, or blamed for, the election of a Democrat to the Senate.
Jones, whose greyish-blue complection is the result of taking a homemade antibiotic containing silver, is a sixty-nine year old businesman from Bozeman and a prominent member of the Libertarian Party. He has previously been nominated by the Libertarian Party for Governor and for Senator. In 2006, he received over ten thouusand votes in a race where the Democratic candidate, John Tester, defeated two term Republican Senator Conrad Burns by less than three thousand votes. This year he has been nominated again for Senator by the party. This year he might well lead the Libertarians to an impressive showing and could bring other Libertarian candidates with him.
Mr Jones will be opposing Democratic Senator Max Baucus, who is seeking his eighth term in the Senate. The Republican Party, in a crowded primary, nominated Bob Kelleher, an octogenarian who has been running for office in Montana for the past forty years. Mr. Kelleher began his political life as a Democrat, has run as a candidate of the Green Party and in the last few years has sought office as a Republican. With six candidates in the race, Mr.Kelleher, who supports a single payer federal health care program but takes conservative positons on other issues, won with 36% of the vote.
Republican party officials have said that they will support Kelleher as the party's nominee, but have indicated their lack of enthusiasm. On June 11, Patty Lovaas, one of the candidates defeated in the primary, announced that she was circulating a petition to be on the ballot as an independent candidate. Informed that the government says that it is too late to qualify for the ballot, she has talked about instituting a lax suit.([link edited for length]). She has not indicated whether she will run as a write-in candidate if she is denied a place on the ballot.
And then, on Saturday, State Representative Michael Lange, who finished third in the primary, appeared with Anton Pearson, one of his opponents in the primary, to announce that he was launching a write-in campaign for the Senate seat and Mr. Pearson would be acting as his campaign manager. Things keep looking better for Mr. Jones.([link edited for length])
Can Stan Jones defeat Max Baucus this year? Probably not. Probably nobody can. But he can probably finish ahead of a Republican candidate who says that Baucus is too conservative and a gaggle of primary losers running as write in candidates. He could easily be the candidate who finishes second. The Republican Party in Montana is in obvious disarray, the party's candidate for president is not popular with the party, although he did win the primary after he had achieved a majority of the delegates to the national convention. But in that primary, Ron Paul won 22% of the vote. If the national Libertarian Party gives some support to Stan Jones, and if the national candidates campaign with him, the Libertarian Party might establish itself as at least the second strongest party in the state.
As a Libertarian, Stan Jones is not everybody's ideal. He is a Conservative Libertarian, primarily focused on economic liberty. He makes no secret of his opposition to abortion and to same sex marriage. All of this limits his chances of having universal support from Libertarians. Conditions in Montana, however, are ripe for an advance, if not a victory, for the Libertarian Party. Let's see if they can attract, for Jones and for Barr, the votes of the Ron Paul supporters. It could be an important moment in Libertarian Party history.
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Posted By: Michael P. Weinheimer
Date: 2008-06-15 18:49:34
I think Stan Jones could do very well in Ravalli County, where the Republicans and the Democrats at the local level have all but stripped the property rights of land owners.
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