Online Forty Niner: v8n2: Third parties starting to gain support

Recently, however, a handful of third parties have been getting a lot of attention. Supporters of the Green Party and its candidate Ralph Nader, for instance, were a significant minority at the Democratic National Convention.

Many protesters outside the convention and at the nearby Shadow Convention prominently sported green buttons proclaiming "Nader & LaDuke in 2000."

The Reform Party made big headlines, at least in Southern California, with its recent convention in Long Beach that marked candidate Pat Buchanan's controversial split from the party.

And the Libertarian Party, who hosted an August convention in Anaheim, contentedly announced that its candidate, Harry Browne, will appear on the ballot in all 50 states, making it the first third party to ever do so for three consecutive presidential elections.

So does this mark the beginning of the end for the traditional two-party system that has been the hallmark of American politics?

No way, said Dr. A.J. Stevens, a political science professor at Cal State Long Beach.

"Third parties come and go," Stevens said. "In certain times they're really important, then they disappear."

Fed up with the system and the big money that seems to control the current political process, third parties are becoming more high profile and appearing on more, if not all, ballots.

But even so, most third parties aren't thinking about Washington D.C., they're thinking about Boston.

Boston is the first host city for the presidential debates, and a major goal for third parties is to get their candidates included. According to the

Green Party web site, the selection criteria for the debates are based on "unfair criteria that would exclude Ralph [Nader]'s participation in a forum that up to 100 million Americans watch each presidential election year to make a determination about whether to vote and for whom."

The problem, Stevens explained, is the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is composed of former Republican and Democratic National Convention chairpersons.

The commission changed the criteria for participation in January of this year. Participants are now required to have at least 15 percent support in public opinion polls.

The commission uses an average of five public opinion polls to determine eligibility: ABC News/Washington Post, CBS News/New York Times, NBC News/Wall Street Journal, CNN/USA Today/Gallup, and Fox News/Opinion Dynamics.

In three of the five polls, Nader averages 4.33 percent support. He has six percent support in the CBS News/New York Times poll, four percent in the ABC news poll, and three percent in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.

Pat Buchanan, the fourth name included in most polls, had an average of 2.33 percent in those same three polls.

July legislation introduced by Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Illinois) proposes to lower the required percentage to five percent.

This would mirror other election requirements, such as the federal regulation that grants federal campaign funding if a candidate has five percent support in the national polls.

But even getting into the debates does not give the candidates much of a shot at winning. The reason, Stevens said, is the Electoral College.

Because of the Electoral College, the presidential candidate is not elected by popular vote.

Instead, the candidate who wins the majority vote in a state wins that state's entire electoral vote.

That means a candidate has to get a majority vote in a majority of the states, or at least the states with the most electoral votes.

But even if the presidential was a popular vote, Stevens said, a third party victory is unlikely. That is not to say, however, that third parties lack major support.

Prior to the founding of the Republican Party, there was no two-party system. The United States has had presidents from numerous political parties, including the Federalists (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson) and the Whigs (William Harrison, Zachary Taylor).

Third parties have even had major showings in recent history. In 1968, George Wallace, under the American Independent Party, won 46 electoral votes.

In 1912 the Progressive Party won 88 electoral votes with candidate Teddy Roosevelt, who had been elected president in 1904 as a Republican.

A recent notable exception is Ross Perot, who ran for president on an independent ticket in 1992, winning 19 percent of the popular vote, but no electoral votes.

Even with the growing third-party movements, Stevens doesn't think that the United States will again become a three-party system.

"Our country is huge, with a diverse population. We are very heterogeneous." Stevens said. "If you had too many parties, it'd be difficult to run the country."

But even though their chances are slim, Stevens still thinks that third parties play an important role in American politics, by bringing attention to important but low profile issues.

In the late 1800s, for example, women's suffrage was brought to the public's attention by the Prohibition and Socialist Parties. In 1916, it was incorporated into the Republican and Democrat platforms, leading to the 19th Amendment in 1920.

This year, Stevens said, the influence of third party issues was obvious at the Democratic National Convention.

A major plank of third party platforms, and a top issue at the Shadow Convention, was campaign finance reform and the first thing Gore said he was going to do was sign the McCain-Feingold bill that introduces campaign finance reform, Stevens said.

"When ideas receive enough popular support, the major parties will incorporate those issues into their platform."