November 13, 2006

Libertarians May Be Why the Senate Turned

Filed under: Taxes & Government — TBlumer @ 7:51 am

Don Luskin has the details from John Fund’s OpinionJournal.com (no link available; state elections links added by yours truly):

In 2000, it was Democrats who were furious at Ralph Nader’s Green Party for winning 92,000 votes in Florida and thus “costing” Al Gore the hyper-close race in that state.

Now it’s the turn of Republicans to be miffed at the Libertarian Party for “costing” them control of the U.S. Senate. In Montana, Libertarian Stan Jones won over 10,000 votes (2.5% of the vote — Ed.), far exceeding the 3,000-vote margin by which GOP Senator Conrad Burns trails his Democratic opponent. In Missouri, the contest wasn’t close enough in the end to be affected, but even there, the Libertarian claimed 41,000 votes in a race that GOP incumbent Jim Talent lost by 47,000 votes.

Contrary to what Fund says, the Missouri site shows the Libertarian with 47,504 votes and the Progressive with 18,274. Talent at the moment is down 46,811 to winner Claire McCaskill. It’s possible that if the Libertarian didn’t run and the Progressive stayed, we’d be looking at a months-long nailbiter of a recount in the Show-Me state.

Both Senate seats in the GOP column would move the Senate from its new 51-49 Dem majority to a 51-49 GOP majority. A 50-50 Senate would have remained in GOP control because VP Cheney would break any tie votes.

2 Comments

  1. Yup, Tester in Montana got my money. I’ll bet that the Repubs have lost that seat for 12 to 18 years. Republicans got fat, happy, and corrupt.

    Comment by Mike — November 15, 2006 @ 5:23 am

  2. #1, yes, many of them did. It will be interesting to see how the new majority handles the corrupt William Jefferson (D-LA), Murtha, Mollohan (WV), Reid, and several others.

    Comment by TBlumer — November 15, 2006 @ 8:24 am

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