CAPITAL REGION Don’t like McCain or Obama? Ballot has many other options BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Bob Conner at 664-2508 or bconner@dailygazette.net.
If you don’t want to vote for Barack Obama or John McCain for president on Tuesday, there are plenty of other options. There is, for example, perennial candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader, running this year on the Populist line. Matt Funiciello, a regional coordinator for Nader, said the Populist line was picked as Nader’s platform on the New York ballot but doesn’t really exist as a party. It may actually come into existence as a result of this campaign, he said. Nader has been running for president since 1996, with his best showing in 2000, when he had the Green Party line. That year, he may well have cost Al Gore the presidency by siphoning off votes in Florida that would otherwise have gone to the Democratic nominee. New York, however, is a safe Democratic state in normal election years, meaning it’s highly unlikely that Nader or any other independent could affect the national outcome here. This year, the Green Party presidential candidate is a former Democratic congresswoman from Georgia, Cynthia McKinney. Funiciello, who is on the national and state committees for the Green Party, is backing Nader over McKinney but thinks it a good thing that they’re both running. His theory is that the more progressive campaigns there are, the merrier. He said Nader decided not to run as a Green after 2000 because the party’s convention is held in July, leaving too little time to run an effective campaign. Funiciello also thinks the Libertarian Party is running a progressive campaign, although its candidate, Bob Barr, is a former Republican congressman. According to the Libertarian Party’s New York chairman, Eric Sundwall, it has run a presidential candidate in this state in every election since 1972. This year, Sundwall said in a news release, “Bob Barr will offer New Yorkers a choice from extended foreign occupations, bad government debt and corporate bailouts” — meaning the candidate opposes those policies. Barr’s stance does line up with at least two of Nader’s positions. Funiciello said Nader wants U.S. troops and corporations out of Iraq and opposed the $700 billion bailout for the financial system as “socialism for the rich.” One Republican line of attack against Obama has been to accuse him of being a socialist. But if you want actual parties that proclaim their devotion to socialism, then the New York ballot has options for you, too. Those would be Roger Calero, running on the Socialist Workers Party line, and Gloria La Riva, who is the presidential candidate of the Party of Socialism and Liberation. In 1970, the Conservative Party elected James Buckley to the U.S. Senate by defeating the Republican and Democratic nominees. Since then, though, the Conservatives have usually aligned themselves with the Republicans, and they are backing McCain this year. The Independence Party of New York is unpredictable. It was Nader’s ballot platform in 2004, but this year, McCain has the Independence line. Obama has the Working Families Party line.
Monday, November 3, 2008 One final request before the election Well, there's less than 24 hours until the election is up and running, less than 36 hours until we will have the results.
I just wanted to remind people that personally, I am voting for John McCain because he is the one of the 2 of the major party candidates that are still in the race. The reason that I will not vote for a third party candidate (i.e. Bob Barr) is that with the way that the election for president is set up in the United States, it does not truly give a chance for a third party candidate to be elected to the Presidency.
Also, did you know (and you can go out and do your own research to verify this...
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