Dumb Libertarian Publicity Stunts

Former Republican Congressman turned Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party of Texas have filed a lawsuit to keep Barack Obama and John McCain off of the November election ballot in Texas. Barr et al. claim that the two parties missed the filing deadline to get their candidates on the ballot.

"Bob Barr, our Libertarian presidential candidate, is being kept off the ballot in at least two states (West Virginia and Maine) because of missed deadlines," said LPT executive director Wes Benedict. "When Ralph Nader tried to run as an independent in 2004, he was kept off the Texas ballot because he filed after the deadline.

"Texas law doesn't make any exceptions for absurdly late nominating conventions. Although Bob Barr should win Texas by default, I expect the Republicans and Democrats will get away with breaking the laws they made. They get away with breaking their promises to voters all the time. It's a travesty that we have a double standard, where Republicans and Democrats are above the law, but other parties and independents have to comply with every letter of the law."

A travesty? Hardly. While I'm all in favor of Barr getting on every state's ballot, quite frankly, I think a double standard is justified here. Like it or not, Wes, you Libs and Greens are minor parties with minor constituencies. But the Democrats and Republicans had a combined 4.2 million voters show up for their Texas primaries this year. (By contrast, your 2004 candidate, Michael Badnarik, drew a whopping 38,787 votes statewide.)

Wes, do you really think the court would want to disenfranchise 4.2 million voters in Texas? And if it did, would you think that's a good thing?

(The Secretary of State's office, by the way, has responded that the parties made filings before the deadline and then supplemented them.)

Bob and Wes, try building your party's strength by winning the battle of ideas, not legal maneuvers.