Look who's running for president

Seven candidates on Wisconsin ballot
 
by Gregg Westigard
Leader staff writer
 Wisconsin voters will not be limited to choosing between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney for President in November. Five more Presidential tickets will be on the ballot for voters who want more options. They are the candidates of the Constitution Party, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party,   the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Socialist Equality Party.
 Virgil Goode and Jim Clymer are the Constitution Party candidates for President and Vice President. The party’s national platform says “The goal of the Constitution Party is to restore American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations and to limit the federal government to its Constitutional boundaries”. The Constitution Party, together with the Republican and Democratic Parties, are the only three parties with automatic ballot status in Wisconsin.
 Gary Johnson and James Gray are the Libertarian Party ticket. The party says it is for individual responsibility and choice. It says “Government’s only role is to help individuals defend themselves from force and fraud”. The Libertarian Party also has candidates for the Senate, Congress, and several legislative seats this November.
 The Green Party candidates on the Wisconsin ballot are Jill Stein and Ben Manski. The party advocates for issues to save the environment and works for grass roots social issues. The Green Party is also running one candidate for the assembly.
 Gloria La Riva and Filberto Ramirez are the ballot candidates for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which calls itself a true Marxist party. The actual candidates of the party are Peta Lindsay and Yari Osario but both of them are under age and not eligible to be on the Wisconsin ballot.
 The Socialist Equality Party is running Jerry White and Phyllis Scherrer to lead the nation. The party says it bases its policies on views of Leon Trotsky and is part of the international socialist movement.
 While the Constitution Party has automatic ballot access, the other parties each had to collect over 2,000 signatures to get on the Wisconsin ballot.
 That accounts for seven of at least nineteen parties running Presidential candidates this year. Wisconsin voters who support any of those other candidates, with choices ranging from the Grassroots Party (legalize drugs) to the Prohibition Party, including the whites only American Third Position, the Ayn Rand based Objectivist Party, two types of Reform Party, and two more Socialist parties, will have to write-in their choice.
 Information on the full array of candidates and parties can be found on the web site politics1.com. There may be just the right party out there for everyone.