Talk:Reform Party of the United States of America
From Academic Kids
Would anyone object to this page being changed to Reform Party of the United States, as articles such as President of the United States of America dropped "of America" a while ago? -- Mattworld 20:25, 11 Nov 2003 (UTC)
I have no objection. RickK 21:11, 11 Nov 2003 (UTC)
Highest office win for a third party?
Is this statement in the article correct, and if so, by what criteria?:
"In 1998, the Reform Party received a victory by electing Jesse Ventura governor of Minnesota, the highest office win for a third party since the beginning of the century."
I'm looking this up and several governors have been elected on third party tickets during the 20th century including Lowell Weicker on the Connecticut Party ticket, Walter Hickel on the Alaskan Independence Party ticket, and Lynn Frazier of North Dakota on the Non Partisan League ticket. There may have been others. Are we using the population of the state to determine what's the highest office win or would any state be equal in this regard? Kaibabsquirrel 02:11, 23 May 2005 (UTC)
Kaibabsquirrel, I wrote that... actually it should have said "national third party" which would have been completely accurate. The Non Partisan League was a national party briefly (even though not really important natonally even then), but even when Lynn Frazier ran (1916) it fits the time frame I was thinking of when I wrote "beginning of the century". I didn't remember any specific dates so thats why I used the phrasing "beginning of the century". La Folette's governorship from the Progressive Party also was around the time I was thinking of (1906), and his party was actually more important nationally. And if you look at it another way, people have often referred Weicker who had a state-based party runs for instance as an Independent, because the party was a vehicle for his run and died after. There were always accusations that Perot was trying to do the same thing in manipulating control, but it was a real coalition, and regardless, when Ventura won people thought of it as a third party win more than they thought that way when Weicker won. ie it was a known national party with a national platform achieving a win; which didnt happen since the time frame I was thinking of (even though the Reform Party started breaking up after). Its important to say this. I'll change the phrasing to "national third party" though so it will be accurate, my mistake.
btw, refer to this page on third party/independent governors from the National Governors association: [1] (http://www.nga.org/governors/1,1169,C_TRIVIA%5ED_311,00.html) Walter Hickel is listed as an Independent governor. I haven't studied his case, this label here may be wrong, or it may have been that he accepted the nomination of the party while still considering himself Independent. In any case it fits into a similar category as Weicker's run, though the Alaskan Independence party existed before he ran.
- Okay, no problem, not a big deal. When I was making the edit yesterday I was about to change the date to 1990 (for Hickel and Weicker) but wasn't sure if that was appropriate. After all Minnesota is the biggest of the states in question. Hickel and Weicker were both widely mentioned in the media as "Independent" governors but Hickel did run on the AIP ticket. Kaibabsquirrel 08:34, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
