CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : Spoiling to Be a Spoiler : Like other minor party gubernatorial hopefuls, Libertarian Richard Rider says a vote for him will send the big guys–in his case, the GOP–a message.
Richard Rider would love to have Gov. Pete Wilson’s job. He dreams of hacking away at bureaucracy, crushing all new tax legislation under a huge rubber stamp that reads “VETO.” He’s even imagined the sound this would make: whoooomp!
Rider, the Libertarian candidate for governor, is a realist, however. The 49-year-old stockbroker from San Diego knows that a minor party candidate such as himself has no hope of being elected governor Nov. 8. Still, he thinks he can help defeat Wilson (whom Rider deems a “wimp” and a “Benedict Arnold” masquerading as a Republican), which is why, not long ago, he wrote Democrat Kathleen Brown a letter asking for $500,000.
“I’m the Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate. Normally that might elicit nothing more from you than a yawn. But I can get you elected,” Rider wrote. “What you need is a third candidate to drain votes from Wilson. I can do that. . . . Dollar for dollar, there is no better use for your campaign funds than in my race for governor.”
Rider’s pitch must have sounded presumptuous coming from a man unknown to most Californians. Like the other minor party candidates for governor–Jerome McCready of the American Independent Party and Gloria La Riva of the Peace & Freedom Party–Rider was not invited to participate in the recent televised debate between Wilson and Brown. He lacks money, exposure and governmental experience.
But Rider has one very powerful thing going for him: a dissatisfied electorate. A recent Times poll shows that California voters are unhappy with Brown and Wilson and that three out of every five are planning to vote for the “lesser of two evils” for governor. If just a tiny fraction of those people vote for a so-called third party candidate, political analysts say, it could alter the race.
“In this state, where elections are won or lost by 1 or 2 points, third party candidates can decide elections,” said Bill Press, chairman of the California Democratic Party, who has followed Rider’s candidacy with interest. “If I had an extra $500,000, I would give it to Richard Rider and it would be money well spent. . . . Every vote he gets is one vote Pete Wilson doesn’t.”
Taken together, the four minor parties that have qualified to appear on the California ballot–American Independent, Green, Libertarian, and Peace & Freedom–represent 456,000 voters, or about 3% of the state’s electorate.
The American Independent and Libertarian parties, though they differ on many principles, are both committed to strictly limiting the power of government and to cutting taxes. Conventional wisdom says that to vote for one of these parties’ candidates is to take a vote away from a Republican candidate.
The Green and the Peace & Freedom parties, though also very different from one another, both seek social justice and equality. These parties are more likely to appeal to voters who might otherwise cast ballots for Democrats.
These minor parties’ candidates face an uphill battle. Virtually ignored by the press and by their more mainstream rivals, they have trouble raising the money needed for expensive broadcast advertising and direct mail flyers. As a result, minor party candidates can campaign tirelessly, making speeches and walking precincts, and still remain largely unknown.
La Riva, the Peace & Freedom candidate for governor, is a printer and labor organizer in San Francisco. McCready, the American Independent nominee, runs a shop that sells pre-hung doors and other construction materials in Castroville. Rider, who closed his financial planning business at the end of last year, is the only minor party candidate who has campaigned for governor full time.
Nevertheless, Press, the Democratic Party chairman, believes that politicians who ignore these alternative candidates do so at their own peril. This year, he has gone so far as to donate his own money to keep a Green Party gubernatorial candidate from competing with Brown.
Leading up to the June primary election, three candidates were vying for the Green gubernatorial nomination–despite widespread concern within the party that a Green nominee would siphon votes from Brown in the general election. Then, one Green leader launched a campaign urging Greens to vote for “None of the Above”–an option that allows Greens to choose no candidate.
Eager to safeguard Brown voters, Press sent a $500 donation to the none-of-the-above campaign, dubbed Friends of Nobody. Then he sent letters to his friends asking them to do the same.
“I raised $5,000 to $6,000 or more for their campaign,” Press said proudly, recalling that the effort to gain more votes for no one than for any of the candidates was successful. “Nobody won. Which I considered a victory.”
Third party candidates are familiar with this kind of circular reasoning. They see no shame in losing, as long as they have introduced new ideas into the race. And they believe that every vote cast for a minor party candidate puts a little more pressure on the major parties to shape up.
That is why a conservative such as Rider is working so hard to help a Democrat such as Brown. Rider is probably the only Brown supporter who wants to do away with state income taxes, abolish the workers’ compensation system and phase out all welfare payments. He wants to repeal the law that requires motorcyclists to wear helmets. He believes the Endangered Species Act will result in the nationalization of all property. And he supports the death penalty–which Brown opposes, though she pledges to enforce it as governor.
“Obviously, I’m no fan of the Democrats’ pipe dream of a socialist utopia. . . . Kathleen Brown would make a terrible governor,” Rider said.
But Brown would do less damage than Wilson, Rider added, and a Brown victory would send a clear signal to the GOP. If he could do that, Rider said, he would feel like a winner no matter how badly he lost.
And, he said, Wilson is not a true Republican.
“Brown is a very ineffective Democrat. Wilson is a very effective Democrat. It’s time the Republican Party stopped running stealth Democrats for governor,” Rider said. “If I pull enough conservative votes to cause Wilson to lose, then Republicans will have to start running real limited-government candidates such as Ron Unz.”
Rider is a big fan of Unz, the 32-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur who challenged Wilson for the Republican gubernatorial nomination last spring. Before the primary, Rider endorsed Unz, knowing full well it might cost him some votes. Then after Unz lost, while winning 34% of the Republican vote, Rider began presenting himself as the next best thing.
Unz recently wrote letters that were published in the state’s major newspapers urging his supporters not to launch an Unz write-in campaign Nov. 8. Although he stopped short of endorsing Rider, Unz asked the 700,000 people who voted for him to support “candidates up and down the ticket who are true to the core values of the Republican Party–smaller government, lower taxes and fewer regulations.”
Rider said that is as good as an Unz endorsement. After all, Rider proposes cutting 90% of all state regulations. And he so abhors taxes that he closed his financial planning office in large part to avoid paying them.
“I was working until July 19 for the government,” he said. “For a Libertarian, that’s unacceptable.”
Rider has made sacrifices to run for governor. To enable him to afford campaigning full time, Rider and his wife pulled their two sons out of private school. (“May God forgive me for that,” he said.) The campaign, headquartered in one of his spare bedrooms with a “Rider for Governor” bumper sticker taped to the door, is truly no-frills.
His phones are answered by two volunteers–retirees who refer to Rider as “Guv.” When Rider is on the road, he often sleeps on supporters’ couches. Recently, when he heard about a promotion for a time-share condominium, he and his wife went and sat through the pitch. The reason: In exchange for their time, they received free plane tickets to San Francisco, a city where Rider wanted to campaign.
Most of the $40,000 Rider has been able to raise has gone to buy cable television time for his lone commercial, which features the candidate in a butcher’s smock, whacking a sausage with a meat cleaver and exclaiming, “Wilson won’t cut taxes, but I will!” By Nov. 8 this spot will have aired in the state’s five major media markets, and Rider hopes that combined with his frequent talk-radio appearances, it will get people’s attention.
Wilson campaign officials do not appear worried. With the latest Times poll showing the incumbent 9 points ahead of Brown among likely voters, Rider is barely a blip on the radar screen.
But against all odds, Rider perseveres. He knows that some people see voting for him as a waste.
“We’ve been taught since childhood that third parties are dangerous or crazy or both,” he said, recalling that when he first heard about the Libertarian Party in the 1970s he thought it was a “left-wing, commie group.”
“And yeah, sure, we’re not going to win,” he said. “But the success of a third party is in changing the direction of the country. . . . You vote to send a message to whoever’s in power that this is the direction you want to go.”
Meanwhile, the fund-raising message Rider sent Brown has yet to yield a single penny. Brown campaign spokesman John Whitehurst said he was unaware of the letter asking for $500,000.
Rider is not bitter. If Brown is not farsighted enough to see that a hefty donation to Rider for Governor could result in her own election, he said, it is her loss.
“I keep checking the mail,” he said. “Without my effort, they’re dead meat.”
