Greens: In races to win in 2014

The state Libertarian and Green parties will be on the ballot again in 2014, and officials from both parties say they will campaign to win.

Officials from both parties said they expect to benefit from discord between Republicans and Democrats - both in Washington, D.C., and in Arkansas - while continuing to educate voters about issues that are sometimes passed over by the major parties.

Hal Bass, a political-science professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, says the chances of electoral success for Greens and Libertarians remain slim in Arkansas.

“They have an awfully, awfully steep hill to climb. The system’s biased against them. They have to work like the dickens just to get on the ballot,” Bass said.

The state Libertarian and Green parties received notice from the secretary of state’s office earlier this month that both would be recognized for the ballot in 2014.

The Libertarians submitted 12,487 valid signatures to the secretary of state’s office Oct. 15, while the Green Party submitted 11,166 valid signatures Oct. 21. A new political party is required to collect 10,000 signatures to get on the ballot.

The Green Party used volunteers and spent several hundred dollars on canvassing to gather signatures. The Libertarians used paid and volunteer canvassers and spent about $40,000.

Both parties will nominate candidates for office at their respective conventions in February, officials said.

In 2014, the Libertarianswill be on the ballot for only the second time, while the Greens will be on the ballot for a fifth time.

No third-party candidate is currently serving in any statewide office, including the state’s constitutional offices. There are no third-party state senators and only one state representative.

Rep. Fred Smith of Crawfordsville was elected as a Green Party candidate last year after a judge disqualified him from participating as a Democrat in the primary. Smith resigned from office in 2011 after learning he had been found guilty of theft of property, but the charges were later dismissed.

Dekalb Township Constable Frank Gilbert was the first Libertarian elected in the state in 2012.

While other states, such as Vermont and Minnesota, have elected third-party candidates to statewide office, the Green and Libertarian parties haven’t gained much traction in Arkansas, Bass said.

The parties’ candidates most likely won’t be contenders in 2014, he said.

“It’s highly, highly unlikely. It’s not going to happen,” Bass said.

University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor Art English said the Green Party’s candidates did “extremely well” in races for state constitutional offices in 2010 when they competed against a Democrat and didn’t have a Republican opponent.

In 2010, the Green Party candidate for treasurer, Bobby Tullis, received 32.5 percent of the vote, or 230,594 votes. The party’s candidate for auditor, Mary Hughes-Willis, received 29 percent of the vote, while its attorney general candidate, Rebekah Kennedy, got 27 percent.

But the Green Party’scandidate for governor, Jim Lendall, received only 1.86 percent of the vote, or 14,513 votes, in his loss to Gov. Mike Beebe, who tallied 503,336 votes.

English said Greens and Libertarians could draw votes away from the major parties’ candidates, but he agreed that 2014 may still be too early for someone other than a Democrat or Republican to be elected to statewide office.

“I don’t think so. Not in this state. Can they affect an election? Maybe, if there’s money there,” English said.

Mark Jenkins, the treasurer for the Green Party of Arkansas, said all of the Green Party candidates in 2014 will campaign to win, on a platform of drawing attention to issues affecting the environment and corporate influence in government.

Jenkins said he thinks the party will receive a boost from discord between Republicans and Democrats.

“I see a lot of people every day who are disgusted with Republicans and Democrats alike and are looking for an alternative. We feel that the Green Party is no longer thealternative but the necessary element,” Jenkins said.

Libertarian Party of Arkansas Chairman Jessica Paxton said her party also has benefited from “politicians acting like immature children, not getting any work done,” which has caused people to move to the Libertarian Party.

Paxton said the party will have candidates expecting to win races, especially at the local level, as well as candidates running to draw attention to specific causes.

“It takes all sorts [of candidates], and so we have all kinds of different candidates running for different reasons,” Paxton said.

Jay Barth, an associate professor of political science at Hendrix College, said new political parties can sometimes change the conversation of an election by introducing new topics. He said an alternative party’s position on an issue could make the major parties’ candidates explain their own positions in more detail, or even revise their positions.

Patrick Burgwinkle, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Arkansas, saidthe party campaigns based on its candidates, its record and specific issues that he said are popular with Arkansans. Burgwinkle also played down political discord between the major parties.

“The issue isn’t discord between Democrats and Republicans - it’s discord between Republicans and Republicans,” Burgwinkle said.

Holly Wilson, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Arkansas, said the country is based on a two-party system with each party representing differing views. But she said her party is not seeing people leave for the Green or Libertarian parties but is instead “growing overwhelmingly.”

“Most often Green Party and Libertarian Party candidates are not a factor in campaigns throughout the state. In some races they may attempt to draw [ Republican] supporters to their candidates, but Arkansans are smart enough to know that supporting Green or Libertarian candidates could elect a candidate that does not represent their values,” Wilson said.