Third-party candidates shift votes

Hopefuls take on others by offering differences

By Michael Knock
Iowa City Press-Citizen

When Iowans cast a vote for president of the United States on Nov. 7, they will have more names to choose from than Democrat Al Gore or Republican George W. Bush.

Listed among those more familiar names will be those such as John Hagelin of the Natural Law Party, Harry Browne of the Libertarian Party and Ralph Nader of the Green Party. In all, nine parties will appear on Iowa's presidential ballot.

Though not household names, these candidates might hold the key to the presidency.

With polls showing the two frontrunners in a statistical dead heat, experts say a few votes thrown to a third-party candidate could change the outcome of the election.

The stakes also are high for the third parties themselves. Parties and candidates who receive at least 5 percent of the vote are eligible to receive general-election funding. That money comes from the campaign finance check-off that appears on federal income tax forms.

For example, Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan received $12.6 million in federal funds, an amount that was based on H. Ross Perot's performance in the 1996 election when he received 9 percent of the popular vote.

In Iowa, party status is given only to those parties able to win at least 2 percent statewide. Currently, Iowans only can register as Democrat, Republican or no party.

The latter factor is one of the reasons former Iowa City councilor Karen Kubby is supporting Ralph Nader this year.

"If Nader gets 2 percent of the vote in Iowa, I'll be able to register as a member of a third party," Kubby said. "I would be very happy to have a 'G' next to my name."

Generating support

Kubby said she first got involved in third-party movements in 1980 when she joined the Socialist Party USA. Issues were the deciding factor that led her to eschew the two main parties for a relatively small and unknown third party.

"I read their platform, and I knew that I had found my political home," Kubby said. "Their positions on civil rights and the economic system ... ending support for corporate welfare, making sure workers have a large say in their work life were all positions close to my own."

Kubby has written a campaign training manual and has held workshops for third-party candidates in Seattle, Madison, Wis., and Iowa City to help candidates get their campaigns off the ground.

"Many of them aren't used to raising money," Kubby said. "They don't know how to get out the vote."

In contrast, Christy Ann Welty of Solon said her stance on gun rights led her to join the Libertarian Party in 1997. She is the chairwoman for the Johnson County Libertarian Party and is challenging Democrat incumbent Ro Foege for State House, 50th District.

"I was never really involved in politics before," Welty said. "But it seemed like our gun rights were disappearing pretty fast. (Libertarians) stand for personal responsibility and personal liberty."

Other third-party supporters are newcomers.

Mei-ling Shaw, 20, of Iowa City, said she was drawn to the Libertarian Party by watching the news when she was growing up.

"In my formative years, there were things like Waco and Ruby Ridge,"

Shaw said. "They were played off as psychos by the media. But they were just living out there not hurting anyone. They were killed without a trial."

Others said they became members of third parties after growing dissatisfied with the two major parties.

Zach Rocker, a University of Iowa senior from Bettendorf, for example, said he originally was a Bill Bradley Democrat before switching to Nader and the Green Party.

"Gore has compromised himself too much on environmental issues," Rocker said. "He's basically centered himself."

Rocker was one of about 12 UI students who made the five-hour trip Oct. 17 to St. Louis to protest the presidential debates that featured Gore and Bush but ignored third-party candidates such as Nader and Pat Buchanan.

The bipartisan commission that governs presidential debates requires that a candidate's support in nationally recognized opinion polls be at least 15 percent before he or she can participate in the debates.

Rocker said that requirement was unfair.

"By showing up, a number of people can see that the Federal Elections Commission is a joke," Rocker said. "Fifteen percent is pretty high."

Can they win?

American history is littered with third parties whose flame burned brightly once, until it was extinguished by the two-party system. From the James Birney's anti-slavery Liberty Party of the 1840s to Henry Wallace's Progressives in 1948, only the Republican Party has been able to break through to major party status.

UI Professor Arthur Miller, director of the Heartland Poll, says there's a reason for that.

"We usually have third-party movements when there's a lot of angst in the population," Miller said. "Right now, there's no burning issues out there. People are doing quite well. Even in the Midwest where farm prices are low, people are doing fairly well."

Miller predicts that Nader will get between 1 percent and 2 percent on election day. But that doesn't mean third parties have no effect.

"Third parties do affect the agenda and get the other parties to address issues they might not normally address," Miller said.

Moreover, third-party members say they are sensitive to charges that a vote for their candidates is a wasted vote. The Green Party, which gets most of its support from the left wing of the political spectrum, has been hit especially hard by charges that voting for Nader will ensure Bush's election.

"Yes, Gore is the lesser of two evils," said David Cobb, leader of the Texas Green Party, during a September stop at UI. "But who says I should have to vote for any type of evil?"

Kubby agrees.

"I don't want to live my life in a fear based manner," Kubby said. "I want my decision to be hope based and not fear based."

Shaw said she knows Browne will not be elected president, but the work she is doing now might help build a foundation for change.

"If the media pays more attention, more people may realize they want actual change," Shaw said. "That's how anything starts. You can't start at the top."

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