• Home
• Opinion
• Press Editorials

One of the lessons of this year's election may be this: New Jersey voters are not enamored of the two major parties or the way business is done in Trenton - and may be willing to vote for the right independent candidate if they think he or she has a remote chance to win.

In most other states, independent or third-party candidates may be underdogs, but they are viable underdogs. They have won major races, serving as U.S. senators and governors. In New York, a third-party candidate in the 23rd congressional district just got 46 percent of the vote.

But in New Jersey, third-party candidates don't have a prayer. The system is stacked against them. That should change, but it won't if it's left to Republican and Democratic lawmakers whose prime motivation is preserving their own power.

And that leaves the courts.

Independent candidate Chris Daggett and Libertarian Party candidate Kenneth Kaplan sued in September to try to get a position on the ballot that didn't require voters to search for them among a sea of third-party candidates, all relegated to a two-deep horizontal stack that stretched from rows C to G. Rows A and B are reserved for the two recognized parties. And the standards for gaining recognized-party status in New Jersey are nearly impossible to meet. Parties must garner 10 percent of the vote in the previous statewide Assembly race. Compare that to New York, which grants that status to any party that receives 50,000 votes for its gubernatorial candidate.

Independent candidates could never get that status in New Jersey - even if they raise enough money to qualify for public funds, as Daggett did. Daggett, in fact, raised this sensible point: Why were New Jersey taxpayers paying $1 million for his campaign if other laws made it impossible for him to win?

Superior Court Judge Theodore Bozonelis declined to hear the case before this week's vote. But he left the door open for Daggett and Kaplan to pursue the matter further after the election.

Daggett, who got just 6 percent of the vote after polling as high as 20 percent during the campaign, said on election night that he would continue pursuing more fairness for independents in court. That's encouraging - and we urge him to take the case to the state Supreme Court, if necessary.

The courts in New Jersey have struck down other obstacles to third-party candidates. The position on the ballot is a big one.

There are other ways, too, that independent or third-party candidates are at a disadvantage. Example: The slogans that appear over their names on the ballots are limited to just three words; Republicans and Democrats are allowed six words in their slogans.

What sense does that make? Only this, and we can say it in two words:

Preserving power.

1 comment:

• BeginaNewSociety (1) posts 3:08 pm

  I congratulate the Press of AC on this Editorial. However, the Press's actions speak louder than their words. In the last Congressional election cycle the Press excluded all 3rd Party and Independent candidates from the debate which they co-sponsored. They also did the same when they excluded them from the Student Mock Elections which they sponsored in a number of SJ schools. This, despite the fact that all NJ schools as well as school boards are NON-PARTISAN as opposed to BI-PARTISAN. One of the reasons why Daggetts poll numbers dwindled is because of the marginalization of the corporate media. I still have a copy of the Press Editorial from 3/30/00 "A win for democracy," like this one it showed promise. But as time passes I haven't forgotten that actions do indeed speak louder than words. Rich Raimonde,Vineland.

PressofAtlanticCity.com offers everyone the opportunity to comment on published stories. However, it is impractical for editors to screen all comments.
If you believe a comment is offensive, please click on the abuse-reporting link and your objection will be considered by an editor. We encourage participants to use their real names, but inoffensive screen names are acceptable. Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them.
Please post responsibly. Do not post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy.
Be polite. Don’t hate. Users who don’t play by the rules may be blocked from participating.

View our full terms of service and privacy agreement

Click here to report a comment as abusive.

You must login to post a new comment