11/02/06 The Outsiders, Third-party Candidates Fight For Chance To Be Heard In An Election Campaign That Focuses On Two Parties.

WNPJ member group Wisconsin Green Party featured in this article

The Outsiders
Third-party Candidates Fight For Chance To Be Heard In An Election Campaign That Focuses On Two Parties.

Wisconsin State Journal
Thursday, November 2, 2006
ANITA CLARK aclark@madison.com 608-252-6138

You won't be seeing political ads on television from these candidates.

They're the third-party office-seekers in Tuesday's election, and they lack the campaign wealth that buys advertising and bolsters public recognition.

While under-funded and little-known, in part due to lack of media attention, energetic third-party candidates are stumping the state with the fervor of true believers. They don't even admit the likelihood of defeat.

"I'm planning to win," said Rae Vogeler, 50, of Oregon, the Wisconsin Green Party candidate running for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Herb Kohl. "Now, winning has many components." One is going to Washington, D.C., she said; another is uniting people dismayed with the current political system.

Statewide, the Wisconsin Green Party is running 10 candidates in races for governor, U.S. senator, Congress and other posts. The Libertarian and Constitution parties are each running two candidates, some of them write-ins.

Third-party candidates often raise issues and offer perspectives not addressed by major-party candidates, said John Coleman, a professor of political science at UW-Madison.

Exactly, say several of the third-party candidates.

"I see all these things that are happening," said Nelson Eisman, 62, Madison, the Green candidate for governor. "I'm just disgusted by it. I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't sleep. I said to myself, If I don't do something about this, who will?'"

He took a mostly unpaid leave from his state job in the Department of Administration to run against incumbent Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, and Republican Mark Green. Eisman is running on a platform of restoring honest government, expanding health care to everyone and balancing the state budget with a new income tax system.

Are people listening?

But the value of a third-party perspective depends on whether voters actually hear it, Coleman said.

Eisman has reported raising $24,472, compared to campaign war chests bulging with $10 million for Doyle and $6.3 million for Green.

"He's in a classic position of not being able to speak above a whisper, simply because of money," said Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

It's a vicious circle for third-party candidates: Lack of money means lack of public visibility, which means lack of polling impact that leads to lack of media coverage.

"A third-party candidate really is caught in a Catch-22," McCabe said.

Wisconsin has a long tradition of third-party activism, from the Progressives who split from the Republicans in 1900 to Ralph Nader's popularity in the 2000 presidential race and Libertarian Ed Thompson's presence in the governor's race in 2002.

But that raises the issue of whether a vote for a third-party candidate is a wasted vote, or a boost for one of the major-party candidates in a tight race. Some Democrats still blame Nader for President Bush's victory in 2000 over Al Gore.

"It's a terrible dilemma for any voter who wants to vote for a third-party candidate," said Coleman.

He noted that, with recent polls showing a tight race between Doyle and Green, Eisman could be a factor in the outcome.

"That's where this election is getting kind of interesting, I think," Coleman said Wednesday.

Eisman said voters who choose the lesser of two evils are "still voting for evil."

Not a wasted vote

Vogeler calls her race, which Kohl is likely to win, "a unique opportunity" for voters to vote their conscience, not their fears. Other candidates in the Senate race are Republican Robert Lorge, independent Ben Glatzel and Dave Redick, a Libertarian running as a write-in after a kidney-stone attack foiled his effort to gather enough signatures for the ballot.

Redick, 71, of Madison, a semi-retired telecommunications consultant, is campaigning against the war in Iraq, federal spending and big government. "I never give up," he said, even though people who like government "handouts" don't like his message.

A longtime community activist, most recently with the Madison Area Peace Coalition, Vogeler said she's been driving 1,500 miles a week listening to people all over the state. They have three top concerns, she said: health care, family-supporting jobs and education for their children.

Campaigning is intense, hard work, even for well-funded major party candidates. For all their passion, third-party candidates insist they're normal family and community members when not on the campaign trail.

"My kids think I'm nuts," Redick admitted cheerfully, but noted he spent Monday evening carving pumpkins with his grandchildren. Eisman is president of Friends of Lake View Park on Madison's North Side; Vogeler is the mother of sons ages 9 and 14.

Eisman admits campaigning is a tough slog.

"It's tough," he said. "Sometimes you just have to do the right thing, and I'm doing what seems to be the right thing. The rest of it's up to the voter."