I’ll Scratch Your Back…
Third parties try bridging differences for their own survival

By LYDIA DePILLIS
Contributing Writer

A year and a half ago, the Bellevue Public Library played host to an odd gathering: members of Washington’s minor parties, from Libertarians to Freedom Socialists, getting together to start a discussion about how they could help each other get noticed.

Major party status, earned by gaining five percent in a statewide vote, puts a group — at least officially — on par with the Democrats and Republicans as a force to be reckoned with. An Eastern Washington Libertarian called the meeting after his party lost that distinction, and people in attendance agreed that collaboration was needed to give voters more choices than just red or blue.

Nothing formal came out of the gathering except a list of names and email addresses. But in the months leading up to November elections, a number of third-party candidates are struggling to move out of the shadow of the Democrats and Republicans and are turning to each other for help.

“It’s been a really hard road for all of us,” says Linde Knighton, a Progressive Party candidate for state representative in the 43rd district, who has called the loose group the Third Party Coalition. “What’s really brought us together is that we’ve been treated so badly.”

Knighton barely qualified for the race, since she wasn’t aware that the Secretary of State had raised the number of signatures required for a spot on the ballot, and says that filing requirements have gotten more stringent every year. In the fall, she’d like to see a centrally located event where minor party candidates could tell the public what they’re all about. Representatives of the Green and Libertarian parties have indicated a willingness to participate, but solid plans have yet to materialize.

One obstacle is the difficulty of uniting people with such divergent views behind a common cause. Putting aside message to talk about a common strategy can prove challenging, says Libertarian Party activist Richard Shepard, a Tacoma attorney.

“On some level, there’s some hesitation to coordinate because it’s so easy to slide into discussion about message,” most third parties’ “stock in trade,” he says. “They don’t have influence, they don’t have leverage, they have a message.”

Also, some of those at the Bellevue meeting found it hard to trust those who called it.

“There was some meaningful engagement, but they were primarily interested in their own agenda,” says Green Party state chair Jody Grage of the Libertarian organizers. “It was not really a meeting-of-the-minds approach.”

In theory, third parties can agree on the need for a few election reforms: instant runoff voting (IRV), for example, where voters can rank their choices and therefore register their preference for more than one party. Greens and Libertarians collaborated to put IRV on the Pierce County ballot this fall. Also, since major news organizations rarely ask about third party candidates in their election polls, voters sometimes don’t even realize that they have more than two choices. Shepard notes that, when they are included, the number of undecided voters goes up as well: in a recent poll on the race for Maria Cantwell’s Senate seat, Green Party candidate Aaron Dixon garnered 2 percent, while 7 percent remained undecided.

“It dawned on the voters that they didn’t want to choose,” says Shepard. “As long as they’re lumped into this amorphous mass, they don’t get recognized.”

Third parties also struggle constantly with getting their candidates on debate platforms. 2004 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Ruth Bennett says this is key to attracting press coverage, which is one of the only ways to ensure a party’s legitimacy in the eyes of the electorate. For the first time ever, the Libertarians’ candidate for Senate, Bruce Guthrie, has a physical campaign office, and she’d like to get him on TV as well—even if that means debating among Greens and independents.

According to Seattle Green Party volunteer coordinator Mike Gillis, who’s involved in Dixon’s Senate race, that might be difficult: Although GOP candidate Mike McGavick’s campaign has indicated a willingness to share the stage, Democratic incumbent Maria Cantwell has been less friendly to the idea. And, he notes, the Greens will need help to open up the debates.