es in third or fourth place to repeatedly contest elections, whereas proportional representation systems, which are widely used in other industrialized democracies, do. Similarly, ballot access requirements make it difficult to run in some states. Third party candidates for the U.S. Senate in Florida, for example, need to gather almost 200,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot, whereas their counterparts in New Jersey need to gather only 800. Campaign finance laws that favor incumbents or competitive challengers and open-seat contestants, most of whom belong to one of the two major parties, also decidedly work against the prospects of third party candidates. Contribution limits are especially harmful to these candidates because they do not have large donor pools from which to raise significant funds. Election laws are not the only obstacles. The media is often hostile to third party and Independent candidacies. They focus on the most "electable" candidates - almost always Democrats and Republicans - to the detriment of all others. When minor party candidates attract media coverage, it is usually distorted and contemptuous. One need not look any further back than the last presidential race for evidence of this. During that election, The Washington Post featured a story titled "There's the Ticket... A Selection of Running Mates for Ross Perot" that listed Binti, the gorilla who rescued a toddler who had fallen into her cage, as their first choice to share the Reform Party's ticket. The Post's picks for other potential running mates included Prince Charles and Jack Kevorkian. With media coverage like this, there is little reason to wonder why many third party and Independent candidates feel like the Rodney Dangerfields of electoral politics: They "get no respect."Despite the fact that some notable minor party or Independent candidates have won races from governor of Minnesota and Maine to the U.S. House from Vermont to seats in state le...
