The Libertarian Vote

The establishment TV and newspaper pundits missed one of the major election stories of the year. Analysis of the results shows a stunning increase in votes for the Libertarian Party candidates.

In several San Diego state legislative races, the Libertarian candidate received triple the maximum vote percentage earned in previous races. Two Republicans, Sunny Mojonnier and Jeff Marston, lost their races because many members of their party voted for the Libertarian choice.

What is remarkable about this story is the fact that the print and video media were oblivious to the trend.

Polls before the election were slanted against third parties. Anyone polled who was not voting for the two older parties was categorized as “undecided,” masking the swelling vote for Libertarians.

On election night, the three local TV network stations continued their biased coverage by displaying only the Democratic and Republican vote results except where there was no major party challenger. Channel 10 went so far as to say that the votes for the Democratic and Republican candidates constituted 100% of the vote in each race.

By winning 11% of the vote, Libertarian John Murphy left Mojonnier with 41%, while Democrat Deirdre Alpert received a winning 46%. Libertarian Ed McMillan had similar success in unseating Marston.

This election should be a wake-up call for both the status quo media and the two declining major parties. Voter dissatisfaction, combined with increasing interest in the lower tax, less government platform of the Libertarian Party, are changing the politics of California.

DICK RIDER, Chairman Emeritus, Libertarian Party, San Diego