In House Battles, Minor Parties Have Voice

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Third-party candidates aren’t getting much attention in House races this year.

But with an increasing number of House races becoming competitive in the final days of the election cycle, several minor-party candidates could have an impact in close elections.

In at least three highly competitive races, third-party candidates have registered 5 percent or more in recent polls. An overview of close races with significant third-party candidates discovers that some of these contenders are more likely to help Republicans, some will help Democrats, while others will draw evenly from both parties or simply attract new voters to the polls.

One race where a third-party candidate may aid the Democrat is the rematch in Indiana’s 9th district between Rep. Mike Sodrel (R) and former Rep. Baron Hill (D). Libertarian candidate Eric Schansberg, a college professor, has been registering about 5 percent in most polls — and Hill led Sodrel by 2 points in an independent poll released last week.

On the biggest issue this election season, the Iraq War, Schansberg calls for “immediate plans and imminent withdrawal.”

“Ideally, we get out tomorrow,” he wrote in an e-mail, “but a planned and orderly withdrawal are in the best interests of our troops and does the best we can to set up Iraq for success.”

Alhough Schansberg said he is the “only candidate who has consistently said anything definitive and passionate about getting our troops home soon,” he largely has avoided the heated rhetoric of most anti-war, third-party candidates throughout the country. He even makes a point to note on his Web site that he “empathize[s] with President Bush who made a difficult decision with limited information.”

Such a stance is unlikely to attract anti-war voters from the hard left. What’s more, Schansberg presents himself as a fiscal conservative who opposes abortion rights. So he may skim some Republican votes from Sodrel’s column, especially in a year when Indiana voters are so sour on the GOP.

However, in Arizona’s 5th district, the Libertarian candidate could hurt state Sen. Harry Mitchell, the Democratic challenger to Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R).

The top issue for Libertarian Warren Severin is the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq (Mitchell supports taking steps to “ensure success in Iraq” even though he thinks it was mishandled). Severin also is a staunch opponent of the USA PATRIOT Act and supports a guest-worker program to bring immigrants into the United States legally. With Mitchell’s relatively moderate positions, Severin provides an alternative to Mitchell for anti-war liberal voters.

Severin disagrees, arguing that he is likely to take more votes away from Hayworth.

“Historically and statistically, Libertarians appeal more to right-of-center voters than left-of-center voters,” he said. “I expect that applies here.”

Yet, in a recent article on “The Libertarian Vote” in the CATO Institute’s Policy Analysis, authors David Boaz and David Kirby wrote “that in House races, the libertarian vote for Republican candidates dropped from 73 percent in 2000 to 53 percent in 2004, while the libertarian vote for Democratic candidates increased 23 to 44 percent.”

In an interview, Boaz said that while libertarians are disenchanted with the Republicans’ management of the economy and their emphasis on social conservatism, “the most immediate cause [for them to abandon the GOP] is the war.”

Republicans have argued for months that the presence of a liberal Independent candidate in Illinois’ 8th district could spoil the re-election plans of freshman Rep. Melissa Bean (D) in a suburban Chicago district that votes Republican in presidential elections.

“With an anti-war pro-union lefty nipping at her heels it makes her job much more difficult,” said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Jonathan Collegio.

But a poll in The Chicago Tribune last week showed Bean leading the Republican nominee, investment banker David McSweeney, by 19 points. Bill Schuerer, the Independent, took just 4 percent in the poll.

Sarah Feinberg, press secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said she feels “very comfortable” with Bean’s position in the race and predicted that across the country, third-party candidates won’t play much of a role in the November results at all.

“Third-party candidates, at least so far in this campaign cycle, don’t seem to be affecting our candidates,” she said.

But Minnesota has a more established third party than most states do — the Independence Party, which was associated with former Gov. Jesse Ventura. And in the tossup 6th Congressional district race, it is unclear how the Independence nominee, college student John Binkowski, will affect the outcome.

A Minneapolis Star Tribune poll released last week showed child-safety advocate Patty Wetterling (D) leading state Sen. Michele Bachmann (R) by 8 points, with Binkowski registering with 4 percent. But many political pundits expect the race to tighten in a conservative district that gave President Bush a 15-point victory in 2004.

Binkowski, who has participated in all of the candidate debates, is a wild card when it comes to his stances on important issues. While he said the “process for withdrawal [from Iraq] has to start now,” he also supports eliminating the Internal Revenue Service and wants to institute a “nationwide sales tax” — a position supported by many conservatives.

Binkowski believes his candidacy attracts new voters to the election process — and takes away votes from the major-party candidates evenly.