A few days ago on Twitter, an elected Republican BPOU chair pointed out the Minnesota Libertarian Party’s 2013 Voter Guide, which discusses the candidates who were endorsed by the Libertarian Party of Minnesota (LPMN) this year.
Why isn’t the @mngop posting a thoughtful analysis like this? Instead, they’re like, “vote for who we say”. #Rude http://t.co/lG1nOufSFD
— Corey J. Sax (@coreyjsax) November 5, 2013
LPMN has recently experienced a resurgence of sorts, earlier this year electing Chair David Arvidson, who ran as a Republican for state legislature in District 46 in 2012. Arvidson also served as a Republican Vice Chair in his Senate District, but eventually resigned, only after he ascended to leadership in the LP.
Arvidson, who lost his 2012 race by 40 points, is now in charge of “Candidate Recruitment and Support” for LPMN.
So how did the Libertarian endorsed candidates fare in 2013? I analyzed the results of the races in which there were LPMN endorsements.
Vote totals all come from the MN SOS website, and are unofficial. Some figures have been rounded for readability.
- BLOOMINGTON – CITY COUNCIL, AT-LARGE, Zavier Bicott (R): Bicott lost this race 26% to 74% in a head to head matchup.
- BROOKLYN CENTER – SCHOOL BOARD, Mary O’Connor (L): O’Connor placed 5th out of 5, receiving 35 votes, or 7% of the total votes cast.
- MINNEAPOLIS – CITY COUNCIL, WARD 3, Michael Katch (L): Katch finished 3rd out of 4 candidates, beating the Green Party candidate by 6 votes in this RCV race. Both had roughly 6% of the first choice total. However, in the second round, Katch trailed the Green party candidate by 800 votes.
- MINNEAPOLIS – MAYOR, Christopher Clark (L), 1st Choice: LPMN’s first choice for Mayor received 188 votes, placing him at 20 out of 35 candidates. Clark received 24 votes more than the infamous shirtless candidate, and 71 more votes than “write-in”.
- MINNEAPOLIS – MAYOR, Kurtis Hanna (P), 2nd Choice: LPMN’s second choice, who is also the Executive Director of Minnesota NORML (a group that advocates for Marijuana legalization), ran under the Pirate Party banner. Hanna did a bit better than LPMN’s first choice, garnering 200 votes in the first round.
- SAVAGE – CITY COUNCIL, Shaun Alexander (L) and Jeremy Seykora (L): LPMN endorsed two candidates in this race, for two available seats. Alexander finished 3rd of 6 (1st runner up) with 20% of the vote, and Seykora finished 4th of 6 with 16% of the vote.
- ST. PETER – CITY COUNCIL, Roger Parras (L): In a head-to-head matchup for the Ward 1 seat, Parras lost 41% to 59%.
- ST. PETER – MAYOR, Joel Brinker (L): Brinker fared a little less well than his council counterpart, losing 38% to his opponent’s 62%.
- DULUTH – CITY COUNCIL - LPMN’s endorsed candidate was eliminated in the primary election, but he personally endorsed Ryan Stauber and Skip Sandman in the race, who came in 3rd and 4th in a 4 way race.
I am confident that in the years to come, LPMN will continue its track record of participating in races.
