Minor parties undaunted by odds
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By Meg Kissinger. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. November 2, 1996. Everyone loves a winner. The Green Bay Packers. The New York Yankees. Howard Phillips. Howard Phillips? Well, OK, not Howard Phillips. In fact, Phillips, the presidential candidate for the U.S. Taxpayers Party, has about as much chance of winning as he does of flying to the moon without a rocket. But that doesn't stop Ed Frami, state chairman of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, who spends no less than 20 hours a week ringing door bells, writing letters and calling voters on behalf of his favorite candidate. To Frami, winning or losing one or two or three or four elections is meaningless. "That's part of what is wrong with America today," he says. "Everyone wants short-term gratification. We believe in ideas, and we'll just keep plugging away until it works or we die, whichever comes first." Others, too, have a long-term perspective. Just as the Atlanta Braves baseball team focused its efforts in the late 1980s on building a strong farm team system for winning teams five years later, today's Libertarian Party has an eye fixed firmly on the future. "This is a building process," says Bob Collison, chairman of the Libertarian Party for the Milwaukee area. "And, with any process, there are a lot of roadblocks." Like getting mistaken for the Librarian Party. Or being confused with Freemen fanatics. Like Frami, Collison spends several hours a week stuffing envelopes, attending his share of political forums and writing letters. Anything to get his candidate elected. Well, almost anything. "I draw the line at kissing babies," he says. "I don't know any Libertarians who stoop that low." Political activism is not simply getting behind the winner, says Tom Scott, chairman of the state's Natural Law Party. "If that were true, why would anyone vote for Dole?" he asks. To folks like Scott, presidential campaigns are the perfect occasion to get out their message, whether or not their candidate wins. But it's not easy finding respect along the campaign trail when you're a third party candidate. When she couldn't get into the presidential debates, Monica Moorehead, candidate for the Workers World Party, crashed Bill Clinton's 50th birthday bash at Radio City Music Hall in New York last summer. Several weeks later, uninvited, she took to the podium during a candidates' forum on C-SPAN, speaking for nine minutes before the police arrived and arrested her. Her running mate, Gloria La Riva, sneaked into a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser in New Jersey for the privilege of confronting Clinton. Third party candidates generally have to scratch and claw for whatever crumbs there are in the political arena. "I actually was on TV once in Vermont," brags Eric Chester, vice presidential candidate for the Socialist Party, in Milwaukee last week for a forum at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In the trenches, their campaign workers face the same struggles. Still, they carry on. To Phil Wilayto, a Milwaukee printer who has been stumping for the Workers World Party, the last several weeks have been worth the effort. "This is more of a political education campaign," he says. "We hope we will get people more politically active. That will make it all worth it." |
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