Green Party or Libertarians- which is the bigger third party?

[funkyflathead]

I gotta say Libs cause they have been around longer.

Of course it depends on where you live.

[jfxgillis]

1. Shockingly enough,

The Greens have almost always outpolled the Libertarians

[KittyWampus]

3. I Would Have Guessed Libertarian, Myself

:)

[durutti]

2. Greens Are Bigger

I remember reading it somewhere. The Nader campaign attacted a lot of new voters.

[Some Moran]

4. Hard to say...

The Reform Party, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, the Prohibition Party, and the Constitution Party all claim to be.

Only the 1st 3 even merit consideration as such though.

[Touchdown]

5. The numbers between them are so small

as to not find a definitive ranking. The Libs always brag that their the 3rd largest, but at roughly less than 1% of the electorate, they never came close to The Reform Party's numbers in '92 and '96. The Greens had bigger numbers in 2000 as well.

The Libs also brag about their influence, which is true. They are given a platform in the media (largely through CATO inst) and their message of Freidmanesque Social Darwinist economic theories gets plenty of airplay. They also kicked out Ann Coulter, who wanted to run for some office in RI as a Lib, because she had a vendetta against the incumbant, but she refused their pro-choice platform.

As far as electability is concerned, they're nothing. The Communists held US House seats in the early 1900s, a party that they are diametrically opposed. I think the Libs have about 12 to 19 elected Dog Catchers in the US though.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. I think the Libs hold

about 500 offices nationwide.

Greens maybe hold a few less.

But we are talking mostly municipal seats like school boards, water and soil supervisors, that sort of thing.

Might get slightly higher numbers if we switch to ranked voting, but I do not envision a wave of third party candidates crashing into the Hill by any means. In fact I would think the Senate would remain largely Dem and Repub. The House, however, would have more folks from smaller parties elected. Say a Green or Socialist from the district San Fran is in, a Libertarian from a New Hampshire district. That sort of thing.

[Baconfoot]

7. Libertarians have the most in office. n/t

[Touchdown]

8. How much would that be?

It'd be intersting to find out the details of what offices they hold, and how many.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Here are

some pages you can see the offices on:

http://www.greens.org/elections/

Not sure if the Libs have something on their homepage or not:

http://www.lp.org/

[Touchdown]

10. Found it here.

http://www.lp.org/organization/officials.php

It's listed by state, and takes quite a download. Currently 596 office holders, including a mayor of a mountain village in Colorado.

The LP is also starting a, get this, recall effort to oust the Democratic Governor in Wisconsin. That's on the first page. Who says that Libs are that different than Repugs?:eyes:

EDIT: Here's the Greens...

205 office holders across the US. They also have a mayor in a village in New York.

http://greens.org/elections/