A major political magazine says that Libertarian Party candidates have cost Republicans control of the U.S. Senate -- but LP leaders say that if Republicans kept their
small-government promises, they would also keep their jobs.
On March 19, the National Review Online posted an article that claimed the "most underreported political phenomenon of the last two election cycles [is that]
Libertarian Party candidates are seriously hurting Republicans." A version of the article al so appeared in the April 16 print edition of the magazine.
The article, written by political reporter John J. Miller and Senior Editor Ramesh Ponnuru, noted that LP candidate Jeff Jared may have cost Republican Slade Gorton
his U.S. Senate seat in Washington state in 2000, while Michael Cloud may have knocke d Republican John Ensign out of his U.S. Senate seat in Nevada in 1998.
In both cases, the Libertarian candidate won more votes than the losing Republican's margin of difference. If not for those two defeats, Republicans would have a
52-48 majority in the U.S. Senate, instead of the current 50-50 split with Democrats.
"Libertarians have put Republicans on the brink of losing the Senate," wrote Miller and Ponnuru.
In addition, two Republican U.S. House candidates lost close races in 2000 by less than the number of votes won by LP candidates, which winnowed the Republican
majority in that house of Congress.
In an era of near-parity with the Democrats, the Republican Party leadership needs to start paying more attention to its "Libertarian problem," the article concluded. In
fact, National Review reported that Republicans had met in Washington, DC to dec ide what to do about the Libertarian threat.
"In this age of Senate power sharing and a razor-thin GOP House majority, Republicans can't ignore the Libertarians," wrote Miller and Ponnuru. "If they do, it may cost
them dearly."
LP National Chair Jim Lark agreed. "We have clearly hurt the GOP in some important races and are regarded as a danger," he said.
But instead of worrying about Libertarians, Republicans should start worrying about their voting records, said LP National Director Steve Dasbach.
"It's good to see that some Republicans are recognizing that their failure to 'walk their talk' about reducing government could be causing them to lose elections," he
said. "I hope we're drawing votes away from any politician, of any party, who isn't working to reduce the size, power, expense, and intrusiveness of government."
The GOP's real problem, said Dasbach, is that there are very few Republicans who genuinely support a smaller-government agenda.
"I wouldn't need a calculator to count the number of 'good' Republican office-holders -- that is, those who are actually trying to shrink government," he said. "For
example, in the 106th Congress, Congressman Ron Paul was the only member of Congress whose bills, if enacted, would have reduced the overall cost of the federal
government."
Lark agreed that if Republican politicians had consistently voted for a pro-liberty agenda, voters would not have deserted them.