Purple PAC makes a media buy for Libertarian in Virginia Governor's race

A Libertarian With Campaign Money

• The Purple PAC plans to spend at least $300,000 promoting Sarvis’s candidacy with TV ads.
• The Purple PAC was launched in 2013 to promote "purple" candidates - "red" when it comes to economic policy, "blue" when it comes to social policy.

The Purple PAC, a ”Super PAC” launched earlier this year, announced that it is making a significant ad buy promoting Libertarian Party candidate Robert Sarvis for governor of Virginia.  The ad will run from Thursday, October 24th, through the end of the election in media outlets across the state.

“Both the Republican and Democratic candidates are right about each other,” said Edward H. Crane, president of the Purple PAC.  “Ken Cuccinelli is a socially intolerant, hard-right conservative with little respect for civil liberties.  Terry McAuliffe is a big government liberal with little respect for economic liberties.  Both have been engulfed in scandal.  Fortunately, Robert Sarvis offers an alternative, an agenda grounded in free markets and social tolerance,” reports Uncovered Politics.

In a press release announcing the media purchase, Crane noted that a majority of Virginians — 59 percent, according to a recent poll — describe themselves as fiscally conservative and socially tolerant.

“It’s time that the two major parties made room for those voters — a majority of the electorate — or risk losing them altogether,” he said.

“Robert Sarvis is running surprisingly well in Virginia despite having little money to spend and no exposure in the gubernatorial debates,” continued Crane, a former national chairman of the Libertarian Party and founder and president emeritus of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank.

“A strong showing by Sarvis will tell the political class that purple voters cannot be ignored or taken for granted lest campaigns be put at risk.  And there’s no better set of campaigns to put at risk than the desultory campaigns of Ken Cuccinelli and Terry McAuliffe.”

Crane, who serves on the board of the Center for Competitive Politics, told the Washington Post that Purple PAC plans to spend at least $300,000 promoting Sarvis’s candidacy.

The 30-second television spot can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/77629652

According to its latest filings with the Federal Election Commission, the Purple PAC had raised $575,000 as of June 30th.  Its two largest contributors were Kentucky horse breeder Richard Masson and CATO board member and options trader Jeffrey S. Yass, managing director of the Philadelphia-based Susquehanna International Group.  Masson and Yass, a longtime libertarian financier, had each contributed $250,000 as of that semi-annual filing.



 Terry McAuliffe (D) and Ken Cuccinelli (R)
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The voters like real choices on their ballot.  But the big money business and union supporters of the two major Virginia candidates for governor have spent almost $50,000,000 to tell the voters that they have only two choices.  Nobody gives huge contributions for nothing.  Naturally these big money backers will want pay back in one form or another from the state treasury.
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In recent history some voters have bucked the big money trend to buy politicians and elected third party and independent governors in states such as Alaska (see below), Connecticut, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Maine.
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See more at Third Party Officeholders in the United States.

 

William F. Buckley
Conservative Party Candidate for New York Mayor

Cuccinelli is far from the best choice for Virginia



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Columnist George Will supports Cuccinelli but he also understands Libertarian Sarvis.

Here is some of Will's column:


When William F. Buckley, running as the Conservative Party’s candidate for mayor of New York in 1965, was asked what he would do if he won, he replied: “Demand a recount.”

Robert Sarvis, Libertarian Party candidate for governor of Virginia, will not need to do this.

William Buckley won only 13.4 percent of the 1965 mayoralty vote, but he energized a growing constituency and legitimized the practice of voting outside the confines of traditional political choices.

Five years later, the New York Conservative Party’s U.S. Senate candidate — Buckley’s brother Jim — was elected with 38.8 percent of the vote in a three-way race.

Third-party candidacies are said to be like bees — they sting, then die. Still, Sarvis is enabling voters to register dissatisfaction with the prevailing political duopoly.

For the full George Will column go to:  Washington Post

The Eternal Question

Every two years it is the same question.  Do I vote for what I believe in?  or do I cast my vote for someone I don't like in order to stop another guy that I dislike even more?
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In 1965 not enough people voted for 3rd party William F. Buckley.  But only five years later piss off voters elected Conservative Party candidate Jim Buckley as a New York Senator.

Results  -  1970 New York Race for U.S. Senate

US Senate - New York - General election results
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Lane Buckley	2,288,190	38.95
	Democratic	Richard Lawrence Ottinger	2,171,232	36.96
	Republican	Charles Goodell	1,178,679
	Liberal	Charles Goodell	225,793
	total	Charles Goodell	1,404,472	23.91
	Communist	Arnold Johnson	4,097	0.07
	Socialist Workers	Kipp Dawson	3,549	0.06
	Socialist Labor	John Emanuel	3,204	0.06

See more at:  Senate election in New York, 1970