Spring 2005

We are admonished by Scripture that "they who compare themselves among themselves are not wise". Thus we don't want to take too much comfort in the comparisons I make with other minor parties. Rather we must keep our eyes on the goal of restoring Constitutional government, Biblically based jurisprudence, and a public policy that acknowledges and follows Christian principles. Nevertheless, such a comparison is useful in giving historical significance to what we are doing and helps us view progress over a period of time rather than focusing on the short term frustrations of the vicissitudes of the political process.

So with that background, let's take a look at how we measure up with the other minor parties who are our contemporaries. Here is the unvarnished report.

By almost all measures, the Constitution Party (CP) is showing the most sustained growth of all of the minor parties and is clearly in second place, behind only the Libertarian Party (LP) in terms of overall national strength. Let me give some statistics to support and illustrate that claim.

1. The CP achieved ballot access in 36 states in 2004 which is more states than those achieved by Ralph Nader, the Green Party or any other minor party except for the LP which made it in 48, plus the District of Columbia.

2. The CP is first among the minor parties in numbers of those registered by party affiliation, ahead of the Greens in second place and the LP in third with the Reform and Natural Law parties trailing far behind.

3. The CP has permanent ballot access on 15 states (measured by having already qualified for statewide ballot access for the 2006 general election) which is tied with the Green Party and behind only the Libertarian Party.

4. In 2004, the CP came in second among the minor parties in total presidential votes, behind only the LP. This does not include Nader who ran as an independent and led the pack, although his performance was much worse than in 2000.

5. The CP was second, again behind only the LP, in (a) the number of U.S. Senate candidates and votes received for all U.S. Senate candidates, (b) gubernatorial candidates and votes received for all gubernatorial candidates, and, (c) state senate candidates and votes received for all state senate candidates.

6. In total state house races, the CP was third, behind the LP and the Greens both in number of candidates and in vote totals. This is because the Green party is very strong in certain pockets where they rack up high vote totals in state representative districts.

7. In races for the U.S. House of Representatives, although the CP was second in the number of candidates, it came in third in number of votes behind both the LP and the Greens.