[A CA Guy]

Democrats love them. They take away some conservative votes from Republicans so Democrats can win.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

There's no such thing as "taking away" votes.
If the Republican candidate stinks to high heaven, that's his problem, not the Libertarian running.

[ansel12]

In U.S. Senate races, third party candidates played King Maker in 7 races from 1998 to 2006.

For instance, Washington State Democrat Maria Cantwell eked out a 2,229-vote victory over Republican incumbent Senator Slade Gorton in 2000 as Libertarian Jeff Jared siphoned off nearly 65,000 votes.

A Republican incumbent was similarly burned by a Libertarian in Montana’s 2006 U.S. Senate: Democratic challenger Jon Tester upended Republican Conrad Burns by 3,562 votes as the Libertarian Stan Jones won over 10,000 votes.