ndication, most of todays third parties will probably not be around in another 10 or 20 years. One factor that increases the chance of long-term survival for a third party is not relying too heavily on any one individual. The Libertarian Party is the only one of the five parties to have run more than one person for President, and they have run a different candidate in each of the past 7 Presidential elections. In 1998 the Libertarian Party ran more candidates (833) at all levels than all other third parties combined. The Natural Law Party ran 141 candidates, and the Greens ran about 120 candidates in 1998. The number of Reform and U.S. Taxpayers candidates is believed to be lower. (If you have a list of candidates for these parties, please send an email to jc@libertycoalition.org.)In 1998 the Libertarian Party became the first third party since 1948 to receive over 1% of the total U.S. House vote. (They received 906,808 votes, or 1.36% of the total U.S. House vote cast.) They also received more total votes for their U.S. Senate candidates than any other third party. The Libertarian Party has the most current officeholders. There are 261 Libertarians holding elected or appointed (mostly non-partisan, local) public offices. The Greens are in second place with 59 officeholders. The remaining parties have very few. (The Reform party has 6 elected officials.)The Reform and Libertarian parties were the only two third parties that succeeded in getting 1996 Presidential candidate ballot access in all 50 states (plus DC). The Natural Law Party was on the ballot in 43 states (plus DC), the U.S. Taxpayers in 40 states (plus DC), and the Greens in 23 states (plus DC). (There were 14 additional third party and independent candidates, each having ballot access in less than 15 states.) The Libertarian Party is the only third party in American history to achieve 50-state ballot status two presidential elections in a row.The Libertarian P...
