... including the Libertarian Party. I am reminded of a Cold War era joke: Seeking to impress and intimidate the Americans, the Soviet politburo orders one gross of three-foot-long condoms from a company in Texas. The Texians fill the order, packing the condoms in a crate marked "medium." There are 173 Lone Star Libertarians running for office this election season. One way you can tell that the LPT is doing well is by the fund-raising numbers: The Libertarian Party of Texas (LPT) has reported $81,765.81 in contributions for the first six months of 2008. That is up from $54,204.57 for the first six months of 2007, and $55,454.24 for the first six months of 2006. Equally important, however, is the urgent requests of Texas Republicans that Libertarians get out of their races, as reported in the Austin-American Statesman : The Libertarian Party of Texas is not ready to be king, but it expects to be kingmaker — or spoiler, depending upon your point of view — in the state's m...

Now the Austin American-Statesman is reporting that GOP Speaker of the Texas House Tom Craddick's staff came hat in hand to Pat Dixon of the Libertarian Party of Texas, effectively begging the LPT to drop out of close races that Republicans might lose: In the past, Libertarian candidates might only get 5 percent of the vote, but that’s enough to determine the winner in a close legislative contest. With the House closely split between Republicans and Democrats, a handful of legislative races could affect the partisan outcome and perhaps Craddick’s chances to remain speaker . So after years of supporting the Constitution-shredding policies of Dubya's administration, while simultaneously pursuing an utterly reactive social conservative agenda, the Texas GOP is suddenly seeking common ground with Lone Star Libertarians. For the second time in the same week.... Here's a thought for the Texas GOP and Speaker Craddick: How about the LPT agrees to drop its House candidates in al...

Dixon as quoted in the Dallas Morning News : On Monday July 28 I received a call from the office of speaker Tom Craddick. It was an invitation to meet with chief of staff Terrell Smith to discuss issues of common interest. I am always happy to engage in respectful discourse whenever possible and happily accepted the invitation. Our executive director Wes Benedict accompanied me to the meeting at the speaker's office on Monday, August 4. The meeting could not have been more respectful and professional. We did discuss our honest differences of opinion and commitment to grow our party. We stated that while we have some common ground on economic issues, we feel that the Republican Party has departed from the principles of the free market and that we intend for our candidates to do their best to grow the Libertarian Party. In response to this, my counterpart in the Democratic Party, state chair Boyd Richie, is now proclaiming that the speaker is using unethical tactics by using his offi...

The Dems and the GOPers have congressional campaign committees to funnel money into selected races. So does the Libertarian Party: it's called the Libertarian National Congressional Committee . The website of the LNCC (which does not list any Libertarian candidates--instead promising, as it has since 2006 , that "Eventually this page will have links to every Libertarian running for State Representative, State Senate, U.S. Congress, and U.S. Senate." From the Federal Elections Commission's point of view it has been in existence for nearly three years, has raised $21,745.83, and has never disbursed a penny to support the election of a single Libertarian congressional or state legislative candidate . The FEC reports that in 2005 the LNCC raised $2,000, spent $79.95 on operating expenses, and had a debt of $4,132.15. The FEC reports that in 2006 the LNCC raised $9253.87, spent $5960.83 on operating expenses [presumably a large portion of which retired the previous yea...