Former Tea Party Republican Gets Libertarians Their Highest Ever Federal Senate Percentage [UPDATED] - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:
November 11, 2016 - "Joe Miller earned the Libertarian Party (L.P.) its highest-ever vote percentage in a federal Senate race this week, with his 30 percent in Alaska.
"Generally when an L.P. candidate gets into double digits it is because one of the major party's isn't contesting the race at all. But Miller impressively got this 30 percent L.P. total coming in second place against a Republican (winning incumbent Lisa Murkowski, 44 percent), with a Democrat (Ray Metcalfe, 11 percent), and an independent (Margaret Stock, 14 percent) far behind him. Miller beat the combined total of the Democrat and the 3rd place independent.
"Miller pulled this off possibly despite the Libertarian label more than because of it; he was well-known to Alaskan voters, having been the official GOP Senate candidate in 2010. In that race he famously was beaten by the incumbent Murkowski, who Miller exceeded in the primary.... Yet in the general election she triumphed via write-in....
"Miller did not start off this election season necessarily intending to contend with his old foe Murkowski again, but in September the L.P.'s original candidate for the Senate seat, Cean Stevens, dropped out and the Party substituted Miller, after what Associated Press reported as failed past attempts on the L.P.'s part to recruit him.
"Miller's ability to win what must have been normally Republican votes is a vivid sign of major party disenchantment that the L.P. should try to further capitalize on, said Jon Watts, the Alaska state L.P.'s chair, in a phone interview this week.
"It's an example of how 'moving forward there's a huge opportunity to enlarge our tent,' Watts says. 'As much as we talk about open borders,' Watts says (Miller's Tea-Partyish belief in border walls was a sticking point with many Libertarians), 'we want folks to come in to our Party, to assimilate and actually become libertarians and understand the non-aggression principle and self-ownership and negative individual rights and the whole platform'....
"Despite Miller's early high polling, the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) declined to help Miller's campaign with money; LNC member Daniel Hayes noted in an LNC business email list post that he's 'not looking to enable a Republican retread just looking for ballot access that plans to caucus with the Republicans' though admitting he hadn't done a deep dive into Miller's specific beliefs....
"Miller for his part said in a phone interview this week that he's been, even when he was a Republican, 'talking about the corruption of the two-party system since the '90's' and is mostly happy with his new Libertarian Party home. Miller's web page, though, mostly refers to him as the 'liberty candidate' without explicit L.P. branding."
Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2016/11/11/former-tea-party-republican-gets-liberta
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November 11, 2016 - "Joe Miller earned the Libertarian Party (L.P.) its highest-ever vote percentage in a federal Senate race this week, with his 30 percent in Alaska.
"Generally when an L.P. candidate gets into double digits it is because one of the major party's isn't contesting the race at all. But Miller impressively got this 30 percent L.P. total coming in second place against a Republican (winning incumbent Lisa Murkowski, 44 percent), with a Democrat (Ray Metcalfe, 11 percent), and an independent (Margaret Stock, 14 percent) far behind him. Miller beat the combined total of the Democrat and the 3rd place independent.
"Miller pulled this off possibly despite the Libertarian label more than because of it; he was well-known to Alaskan voters, having been the official GOP Senate candidate in 2010. In that race he famously was beaten by the incumbent Murkowski, who Miller exceeded in the primary.... Yet in the general election she triumphed via write-in....
"Miller did not start off this election season necessarily intending to contend with his old foe Murkowski again, but in September the L.P.'s original candidate for the Senate seat, Cean Stevens, dropped out and the Party substituted Miller, after what Associated Press reported as failed past attempts on the L.P.'s part to recruit him.
"Miller's ability to win what must have been normally Republican votes is a vivid sign of major party disenchantment that the L.P. should try to further capitalize on, said Jon Watts, the Alaska state L.P.'s chair, in a phone interview this week.
"It's an example of how 'moving forward there's a huge opportunity to enlarge our tent,' Watts says. 'As much as we talk about open borders,' Watts says (Miller's Tea-Partyish belief in border walls was a sticking point with many Libertarians), 'we want folks to come in to our Party, to assimilate and actually become libertarians and understand the non-aggression principle and self-ownership and negative individual rights and the whole platform'....
"Despite Miller's early high polling, the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) declined to help Miller's campaign with money; LNC member Daniel Hayes noted in an LNC business email list post that he's 'not looking to enable a Republican retread just looking for ballot access that plans to caucus with the Republicans' though admitting he hadn't done a deep dive into Miller's specific beliefs....
"Miller for his part said in a phone interview this week that he's been, even when he was a Republican, 'talking about the corruption of the two-party system since the '90's' and is mostly happy with his new Libertarian Party home. Miller's web page, though, mostly refers to him as the 'liberty candidate' without explicit L.P. branding."
Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2016/11/11/former-tea-party-republican-gets-liberta
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