Lessons learned during the 2008 election cycle

From Libertarian Wiki

There were many lessons learned during the 2008 election cycle.

Bob Barr

Lew Rockwell opines that, given the disappointing returns in the Bob Barr campaign, we may as well nominate a plumb-line libertarian next time. (Harry Browne got a higher percentage in 1996 than Bob Barr got in 2008.) A candidate like Phillies or Ruwart might have excited the radicals, including the Ron Paul fans.

Daniel Bjorndahl asserts that our sub-par returns are a direct result of this close and historic election, in which many voters did not want to "waste a vote" on a 3rd party. Barr and Root spoke sensibly on the campaign trail and attracted some disaffected Republicans who want change but not revolution. My opinion is that we don't need a "plumb-line" candidate; we need brilliant minds like Paul, Barr and Root as our representatives.

Nathan Larson

Nathan Larson reports discovering that a little money goes a long way; you can reach a lot of voters on less than $500, if you do your own ballot access petitioning, set up a website, answer all candidate surveys, return reporters' calls, go to TV interviews, and participate in all debates you're invited to.

Jack Woehr

In 2008, running for Colorado House District 25 was my fifth run for public office, the third time I'd run as Libertarian. I ran a no-money campaign, taking no funds, spending no funds. If the candidate is not going to go all-out to win, it's much easier that way. Why waste money that might otherwise go to more strategic campaigns? Libertarian campaigns for city and county offices are really more important at this time: that's where the state representatives will "graduate" from as Libertarians move up the electoral ladder.

Instead of raising money and convincing myself I had a chance of winning, I spent the time meeting people and talking about the good-cop, bad-cop game the Demopublicans and Republicrats run every election. My main message was, "The Dems and Repubs together gave you the War on Drugs, the War in Iraq, the horribly misnamed USA-PATRIOT Act, the FISA immunity, and the Big Bailout. Haven't you had enough yet? The Two Party system is failure mode and democracy hangs in the balance."

While many Democratic and Republican voters told me that they were going to vote, I was most moved by one Republican woman who told me she was thinking of voting for me. She was troubled by what I had said; it struck her as true and visibly shook her in the core of her Republican faith. That's the kind of voter we need!

I had a very courteous and happy time with my opponents and with other candidates on the election circuit. Something amusing usually happened at each event: my favorite was an exchange with District 1 DA incumbent candidate Scott Storey at Lake House in Evergreen.

In the course of that event, if I didn't prove I was the better candidate, I certainly proved I was the more dynamic public speaker. Several of the speakers expressed mock dismay at having to follow my riveting comments and presentation of my candidacy as reform knocking at the door of the corrupt and failing two-party system. In the course of one comment, I pointed out the explosive growth in imprisonment in Colorado as a drain on Education money and laid the blame partly on the War on Drugs.

As I took my seat again after this comment, Scott Storey leaned over and told me, "It's really not like you think. We're not putting people in prison for a bag of pot, or even for a pound. You have to go through the judicial system maybe seven times before you end up in prison for drugs these days."

I smiled and put my arm around his shoulder. "Despite my veneer as a reformer, Mr. D.A., I too am a politician, and I too, like you guys, oversimplify the issues!" He laughed heartily at that!