Hardly surprising, the “American Independence Party” is, in the state of California, the third largest political party in terms of voters’ membership.  It has more voters on the registrar than the Libertarian Party or the Green Party — and note there that the Green Party was early on irking the Democratic Party ticket of Clinton / Gore in 1996, four years before 2000.
The political party is a product of the 1968 George Wallace campaign, and has bumped off to some splintering and fusion with the Constitution Party — most notable platform item of which is the idea that “Abortionists” should be put to death, or perhaps most notable at the moment for being the old stomping grounds of Nevada’s current Republican Senate candidate.  I can say with utmost confidence that the “American Independence Party”‘s status as the third largest political party in California in voter registration is the product of an inflation from Unaffiliateds, or “Independents”.

But at least it’s a political party with a core set of principles and constituency.

The Independence Party of New York is an interesting contraption.  It’s become a vaguely defined but valuable ballot spot for Fusion Voting purposes.  It is a little difficult to ascertain the current state of affairs — and whenever I deign to look over and read the press copy of party infighting I see contradictions, but the party has been dominated, controlled, or infiltrated by a cadre of dedicated post-Marxist politico sex-therapy (“Friendosex”) cult members.  It is such a state that Ross Perot, Michael Bloomberg, Ralph Nader, and Pat Buchanan have all had to kiss the ring of this Politico Sex Therapy Cult.
Interestingly enough, Pat Buchanan’s marriage fell apart as the Buchananites and the “Natural Law Party” Transcendental Meditators duked it out on who would infiltrate the party for the crass ballot access and federal funds Ross Perot had earned in 1996.

I guess things are more respectable in Minnesota, their party coming off as an outgrowth of the sucessful gubernatorial campaign of Jesse Ventura.  At the very least, Dean Barkley garnered a respectable 20 percent against Franken and Coleman and Lizard People, and is a sane man.  I think I can take a stab on what the Independence Party of Minnesota stands for.

Regarding Oregon’s Independent Party…

C’MON!
Of the three models discussed, I imagine the Minnesota Party is the most likely model to aspire to.
Okay, leaving aside the question of how nature abhors a vacuum, and the party having plenty of vacuums — a large voting pool of people who don’t know they’re members and are thus uninvolved in party politics, and a valuable asset that gives candidates “Independent” credo –  such that I wonder what safeguards are in place to keep it from being taken over by post-Marxist politico sex cults…

Okay, that’s not a fair question.

Okay.  The best light I can give them is that the voter registration inflation that comes from its inflated number of Unaffiliateds is a feature, and not a bug.  In a world where Green Party candidates are just as often as not propped up as Republican Party tricks, and where the Democratic Party gets into that act this season with various “Tea Party” affiliates — which harms the integrity of these candidacies, an easy ballot line should be grabbed.  The Independent Party is an amorphous blob of a ballot spot, readily available to someone who can amass a following — whether a Ralph Nader or an Alan Keyes or a Dean Barkley — and evade some restrictive ballot laws and the nature of party politicing in “3rd Party Spoildom”.  In the meantime, the party has to justify its existence.

A legislative agenda of clean government, you say?  Good.  A Bi-partisan political action committee would serve just as well.

They’re going to get John Kitzhaber on the ballot.  Which is a little odd, considering that John Kitzhaber is already on the ballot, which means that the original founding purpose of this party is either void or a ballot line in waiting.

I’ll be sure to put up a blog post on the accuracy or inaccuracy of my prediction that John Kitzhaber will win the Independent Party nomination, and the startling repurcussions and meaning of such a thing.  Sal Peralta justifies himself over here.

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