3rd Party - Fake Libertarian candidate spoils Virginia governors race

In a race that was closer than expected, Republican Virginia governor candidate Ken Cuccinelli (who was endorsed by Ron Paul) was defeated by socialist Democrat Terry McAuliffe by one point after fake Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis managed to garner around 7% of the overall vote.

From RCP:

The $50 million, scandal-laced, mud-slinging race for governor of Virginia came to a dramatic close Tuesday night, as Democrat Terry McAuliffe narrowly defeated Republican Ken Cuccinelli, 47 percent to 46 percent.

Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis garnered 7 percent of the support.

McAuliffe’s victory — which eluded him four years ago when he lost the party primary to Creigh Deeds — was expected, but came by a much closer margin than had been projected ahead of Election Day. Final returns from bellwether Northern Virginia counties near Washington, D.C., came nearly three hours after the polls closed, propelling McAuliffe past his opponent. Still, the Democrat made a bit of history by breaking a three-decade tradition of Virginia voters choosing a governor from the opposing party of the president.

Read the Rest

Don’t get me wrong, I fully support the idea of voting on principle. After all, in most elections, it seems like we’re always having to choose between the lesser of two evils.

However, in this particular case, we had a candidate who was bankrolled by a billionaire Obama campaign bundler, who says he doesn’t want to cut taxes, isn’t a fan of Austrian economics, who is in favor of the government tracking cars and taxing per mile, running as a capital ‘L’ libertarian. There’s something wrong with that.

Furthermore, one of his opponents, Ken Cuccinelli, embraced small government enough to be endorsed by Dr. Ron Paul. Paul even said that libertarians were “insane” to vote for Sarvis.

This election was a golden opportunity to elect a liberty-minded Constitutionalist.  However, the establishment Republicans in the GOP stayed on the sidelines, hoping for a Tea Party defeat.  

On the other end of the spectrum, a huge number of Libertarians threw away their votes on a phony and allowed the state to fall into the hands of someone who represents everything they stand against. 

If nothing else, this election clearly demonstrates that you can’t ever just vote for the person who has the right letter after his name, even if it is an L.

http://poorrichardsnews.com/