Third parties were the first electoral parties to push a number of then-fringe issues into the mainstream over the years in the United States. From the abolition of slavery and universal suffrage to social security and prohibition, third parties have pioneered many issues that became law or nearly so. This article at The Atlantic suggests that the Libertarian Party in 2012 might push the legalization of marijuana into the mainstream.

The new reality: 70 percent of Americans favor legal medical marijuana, and half think the drug should just be legal. As Gallup notes, “Support for legalizing marijuana is directly and inversely proportional to age, ranging from 62% approval among those 18 to 29 down to 31% among those 65 and older.” Eventually, the drug warriors are going to lose, and the country is going to win.

All of which brings us to Gary Johnson.

Widely expected to emerge from this weekend’s Libertarian Party convention as its presidential nominee, the former New Mexico governor has announced that he wants Judge Jim Gray to be his running mate.

The article suggests at the end that Johnson and Gray are great spokesmen for the issue since they are not the stereotype of marijuana users–Johnson is an athlete and businessman and Gray is a juror and veteran.

For lying during the application process about a previous criminal history, a Libertarian Party candidate for office has been dumped by the state party in Indiana.

During the application process, potential candidates are asked if they have any prior criminal history. Bowman indicated he did not.

Upon further investigation by the party, it was discovered Bowman did have a criminal record which includes felony indictments in Tippecanoe County.

Bowman will not longer be receiving the endorsement of the state party, but it is unclear whether he will continue his race or not.

Bernie Quigley comments on what he thinks would be a formidable and workable third party over at The Pundit’s Blog at The Hill.

Ron Paul has brought a sea change in American politics. Without Paul there is no Tea Party of substance. It is merely a populist howl without vision or direction and we have heard it all before. But Paul brought substance: states? rights, constitutional government and sound money. Ideas which hadn?t been broached in either party this past century. These ideas have been amplified by Texas Gov. Rick Perry in his important book, Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington, and on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s pioneering show on constitutional law, “Freedom Watch.? The Judge is, as he calls himself on occasion, the “night watchman” ? an angel devoutly guarding our freedom as we sleep. That his show actually ran on prime time every night of the week for the past couple of years is tribute to the changes occurring in America. But for the moment, those times have stalled.

The article ends up suggesting a third party called The Federalist Party should be formed by Judge Napolitano, Governor Rick Perry, and Governor Sarah Palin.

A former Democratic Congressman from Pennsylvania, Joe Sestak, has endorsed an Independent candidate for U.S. Congress in that same state.

Former Congressman Joe Sestak, who served in the United States Congress from 2007 to 2011, has endorsed Karen Ramsburg for Congress. Ramsburg is running as an independent in Pennsylvania?s 9th Congressional District, an area that has been held for over forty years by just two Republican men, Bill Shuster, and his father Bud Shuster. The 9th District, which includes the towns/cities of Holidaysburg, Chambersburg, Indiana, Somerset, and Altoona, is seen as a safe bet for Republicans since a Democrat hasn?t held the seat since 1939.

The Libertarian Party Platform Committee met today to consider proposed revisions to its December report in light of responses from the Platform survey earlier this year.  The changes were as follows, with votes in brackets:

• 1.0 Personal Responsibility — tweaked both the main proposal [13-0] and the alternative (the “pending amendment”) [9-3] to clarify that rights don’t depend on predicting the future.
• 1.6 Self-Defense — dropped two words from this proposed new sentence: “Private property owners should be free to establish their own conditions regarding the possession or use of personal defense weapons on their own property.” [12-0]
• 2.4 Government Finance and Spending — added the word “eventual” in the proposed plank rewrite, like so: “PlatCom Meeting notes We call for the federal government to be scaled back to its Constitutional limits, which would allow the eventual elimination of income, payroll, and many other taxes.” [11-2]  PlatCom also streamlined the laundry list that begins the proposed rewrite. [10-0-1]
• 2.7 Labor Markets — modified its proposed rewrite like so: “Libertarians believe employment and compensation agreements between private employers and employees are outside the province of government, and these private contracts should not be impeded by government-mandated benefits and social engineering requirements. Libertarians believe it is a private matter between employers and employees to negotiate compensation and other terms of employment. The role of government should be limited to enforcing contractual obligations, and it is outside the province of government to mandate benefits or impose social engineering goals.” [14-0]
• 2.7 Labor Markets — further modified its proposed rewrite like so: “we oppose government recognition of public employee unions”. [10-3]
• Without object, made simple grammar fixes to 2.7 and 3.5.

This page shows how all the PlatCom recommendations would change the Platform. The wiki history of that page shows the exact text changes adopted today.

There has been a good bit of conflict in the Libertarian Party of Oregon over who is the real set of officers and who controls the future of the Libertarian Party in that state. Now, Marc Montoni has reported that the Credentials Committee of the Libertarian Party has ruled in favor of the Reeves delegation over the Wagner delegation.

It is unclear, as of yet, why the Credentials Committee made this decision and what factors were considered.