By whose standards, exactly?
29 Oct 2004
WASHINGTON -- With the Bush-Kerry race too close to call, the Badnarik for President campaign has launched a final flurry of TV advertising aimed at disgruntled Republicans in four swing states.
"Millions of fiscal conservatives have been left politically homeless by the GOP, so we're rolling out the Libertarian welcome mat," said Barbara Goushaw, campaign manager for Badnarik. "If George Bush thinks these people have no place to go, he's in for a big surprise."
The TV spots, titled "Send a Message," are running in Nevada, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Arizona, four states where most analysts agree that the Libertarian has a chance to attract enough small-government votes to tip the balance against Bush. The Badnarik ads are also running nationally on the Fox News Channel and CNN Headline News.
"Our national ads took a shotgun approach in pointing out that George Bush is no conservative," Goushaw said. "Now we're taking the rifle approach, and we have this big-spending Republican in our crosshairs."
In Wisconsin, which Goushaw termed "a very Libertarian-friendly state," the party's gubernatorial candidate, Ed Thompson, garnered 10.5 of the vote in 2002 and was credited by some analysts with helping Democrat Jim Doyle break the four-term Republican hold on the statehouse. Bush narrowly lost the state in 2000, and is deadlocked with Kerry in most polls.
"There's a much stronger Libertarian base in Wisconsin than people realize, and Thompson is extremely popular," she said. "And while Nader is on the ballot, the Democrats' are expected to rally around Kerry as a result of their all-consuming desire to defeat Bush."
In New Mexico, Gore defeated Bush by just 366 votes in 2000 while Libertarian Harry Browne attracted 2,058 votes.
"We picked New Mexico because it was a swing state in which our previous candidate held the margin, and Badnarik was polling at 5 percent recently after running a flurry of TV spots designed to build name recognition," she said.
In Nevada, Badnarik also ran ads earlier in the campaign, which caused his poll numbers to rise to 2 percent, nearly enough to tilt the outcome. The party has also been able to elect local officeholders in the state.
Though Arizona is considered a "safe" Bush state with the president holding onto a 4- to 6-point lead, Nader is not on the ballot, Goushaw noted.
"Arizona is only a 'safe' Bush state because he is considered the lesser of two evils," she said. "Badnarik is actually much closer to the actual beliefs and attitudes of residents in the land of Libertarian icon Barry Goldwater. We believe that costing Bush this state isn't likely, but it's possible -- which is why it's one of our four targets.
"If Badnarik can earn enough votes to tip the balance in just one state, the Republicans would realize they would have to deliver small government quickly, or step aside and let the Libertarians do it. There's no point to both major parties running on a big-government platform."
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The LP in it's own words...tools for the left.
Good grief...do I really have to explain this to you? By screwing the Republicans, you've screwed yourselves. That's pretty much all you guys are known for.