Mr. Kunza Podcast 1: Those Other Presidential Candidates

http://mrkunza.podbean.com/feed/

Another election year for America and a presidential one at that. Doesn't it seem like these things are happen every four years?  

I know it is a bad joke. But cut me a little slack here. I am just trying to break the ice.

Anyway, for this election year, 2012 for those of you living the in future, I, Mr.Kunza, have decided to take it upon myself and at the request of no one, to list, give a little information about, analyze, and give my opinion on the Presidential candidates. However, I am going to do something different. This Podcast is going to completely avoid the major party candidates, the current President Obama and the presumed republican nominee Romney.

To be honest there is just so much information out there on them that adding my voice to the melee- that would be no different than adding a drop of water into the ocean.

Instead, I will focus on what are commonly called the third party or independent candidates. You may even hear these people referred to as an 'other' candidate. As if they are some type of other worldly being. Hey they may as well be. Odds are that these people and parties are completely unknown to the general public. With little hope of that changing between now and the election.

Due in part to that. It is not very likely that these people or parties will have much affect on the general election. In past Presidential elections third party and independent candidates have had an impact. Ross Perot and Ralph Nader are the most recent examples of this.

But this current crop of Presidential hopefuls are no Ross Perot or even a Ralph Nader. For many of these candidates simply getting one to two percent of the vote would be beyond anyones expectations. To the frank, for the 2012 Presidential election at lest, third party and independent candidates are non factors.

This is nothing new for America. You can find some debate on the matter, yet general consensus is that no third party has ever won the American Presidency. There has been two independent American Presidents, George Washington and Andrew Johnson. However, George Washington was by choice and Andrew Johnson was by political necessity.

There are a few simple reasons as to why Independents and third parties do not win they Presidency.

The first reason is ballot access. Each state has there own laws, meaning that no standard exists. One state may ask for costly filing fees and thousands of signatures. While another may ask for the same number of signatures but the signatures can be declared invalid if the signer votes in a primary.

Moreover one state may require a residency requirement for petition circulators. Also, a state may require that this petitions can only be circulated on odd number years before the election. To say that the system is easy to understand, democratic, and fair would not even be a good joke.

A massive investment of resources both money and people is needed just to get on the ballot. It is not a simple matter. Unless the candidate is knowledgeable on the ballot laws for every single state one can only imagine the lawyer fees.

Which some what nicely brings me to my next point, and that is money. Now you cannot necessity buy an election. Ross Perot gave it a good college try. But money is must for an candidate and the more of it the better off they are.

Money means a campaign can hire people on, it can buy ads, and it can support a infrastructure dedicated to getting the candidate elected. Third Party and Independents simply do not have the same money that a major party does. According to the Federal Election Commission almost Half a Billion dollars has already be raised by the two major parties for the 2012 Presidential election. The most a Third party has raised is a little over 700,000 dollars. Only around 428 times less than Obama has in his war chest.

But all of that money is for not if a candidate does not get media coverage. The National media overlooks third party candidates.

I can only guess this is because they do not see them as legitimate candidates.

There in-lies the problem. If the national media does not cover a candidate the public will not easily know that a candidate is even running for office let alone what they stand for.

While the internet is helping in the matter. It still requires the will of the individual to look beyond the major party candidates.

One would think that with 24 hour news networks more time could be given to third party and independents but this is not the case.

Exposure is essential for a candidate and the national media evidently does not want to give it to anyone outside of the major parties.

Those are just three reasons as to why third parties and independents do not win. A whole host of more exist but I do not want to get to bogged down. As I said before this is nothing new. The Anti-Monopoly Party, Know-Nothings, Populists, and the Progressive Party. Are just a few examples of past third parties that suffered the same fate that Independents and Third Parties of today.

For some reason appears that Americans just like having two choices.

Yet, despite this third Party and Independents still run. Election after election they are to be found on the ballot.

I can only assume that this candidates are not fools. After all Running for President is time consuming, costly, and very exposing for the candidate. They have to know that the odds are against them and that many ways on a fools errand.

But they still do it. They put in the same time and effort to into their campaigns as other candidate. These people deserve respect it would be easier for them if they simple sat it out however they try. It is almost poetic. The lone hero against the intrenched hordes.

Before I begin going into detail on the Candidates I want to make it clear that I will try to be as objective as I can be.

But when it comes to the opinion podcasts on the candidate, well no asked for it so skip it over if you want. Just bear in mind I will try to be honest and yes I swear like a sailor.

I will try to use reputable sources for whatever information I can. However this may not always be possible due to the obscurity of some of these candidates and parties. Be skeptical of anything I say, I know that I am

These podcasts are by no means a comprehensive guide to every candidate. I will only cover a select number of candidates, right now 27 in total likely to be around 30 when all is said and done.

I used Federal Election Commission, FEC filings and Wikipida to find third Party Candidates.

All the of the third party candidates had to fit a simple criteria:

They had to be parties nominee. Those that are currently undergoing primaries I will cover on a later date.

Also, the Party had to have a official website.  

As for the independent candidates I only used Federal Election Commission filing to find them. The Candidate had to have a website and they had to have at lest one dollar on their FEC report.

So without further delay here we go on our third party adventure...