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Statewide Libertarian candidates gathered for a third party meet and greet at Muggswigz coffee and tea company recently in Canton. For the first time in 50 years, candidates will be on the primary ballot in May. Dr. Marc Allan Feldman, center left, holds a copy of the U.S. Constitution during his talk. (Paul Tople/Akron Beacon Journal) View larger version>>
When Jake Digman votes on Tuesday, he won't cast a ballot for Democrats or Republicans.
He'll vote for Libertarians.
''I think it's about time,'' said Digman, 27, of Cuyahoga Falls. ''We are a country founded on picking the best person for the job. People need to know they have other options.''
Ohio voters will have more choices than they've had in decades in this primary.
Besides Democrats and Republicans,
voters can request ballots for minor parties — Libertarian, Constitution, Green and Socialist. They also ask for nonpartisan or issues-only ballots.
Digman compares this to selecting a soda, with the two major parties being Coke and Pepsi.
''I like to vote for RC Crown Cola,'' he said.
The Libertarians have a full slate of statewide candidates, while the Greens have a gubernatorial candidate and the Constitution Party has someone running for attorney general. The Constitution and Socialist parties have U.S. Senate contenders.
In the Akron area, the minor parties have candidates running for Congress, the state legislature and appeals court judge.
Most of the minor-party candidates have no competition in the primary, which means they will advance to the November election and face off against the Democrats and Republicans.
Not all see minor parties being on the primary ballot as a positive. They think it is a waste of money for elections boards, especially when most third-party candidates face no challenge.
Richard Winger, a national expert on ballot access, is among those who think parties that don't get at least 10 percent of the vote should have nominating conventions — not primaries.
''It's terribly wasteful for states to give primaries to small, qualified parties,'' he said.
Leaders in minor parties, though, are pleased to be on the ballot and to offer an alternative for frustrated voters.
''I think it's good for Ohio at this time in history,'' said Dennis Spisak, the Green Party's gubernatorial candidate. ''We are seeing a lot of dissatisfaction with the two parties — the Tea Party movement, dissatisfaction on the progressive left. And, we are seeing an easing of allowing Ohioans to have a broader say in who they want to represent them.''
Fight for access
Minor parties have long fought for ballot access in Ohio.
They scored a major victory in 2006, when a federal appeals court ruled the state's laws for political party formation and ballot access unconstitutional.
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner issued a directive to county elections boards in December, instructing the boards to grant the four minor parties ballot access this year. She knew that a sweeping election reform bill, approved by the House and pending in the Senate, wouldn't be passed before the filing deadline for the primary.
John Green, director of the University of Akron's Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, said there's an increase in minor-party candidates this primary because they are being granted ballot access, with party labels, and because of the current dissension.
''When the economy is bad and there is division and debate, you tend to see an upsurge in minor-party candidates,'' he said.
Green said most don't know one minor party from the other or have a clue about their platforms. For example, the Constitution Party opposes women in the military, the Green Party would make the morning-after pill available without a prescription, the Libertarian Party supports the legalization of drugs and the Socialist Party would make prostitution legal.
Green said the minor parties lack funding to get their message out and most often are shut out of debates and excluded from media coverage.
Russ Buckbee, spokesman for the Green Party in Ohio, who lives in Summit County's Reminderville, has experienced this frustration firsthand.
''We don't get coverage,'' he said. ''I've done all kinds of things to try to get it.''
Buckbee said being in the primary will provide exposure to the party and its candidates.
''We just need the recognition that we're a party,'' he said. ''We exist.''
Differing backgrounds
A pastor called to run for office by God. A horticulture student and stay-at-home dad. A grandmother who peddles antiques and lives on an ecologically friendly farm.
These are among the stories of the minor-party candidates in the Akron area.
Daniel Cartwright, a pastor at Covenant Bible Fellowship in Garrettsville, said God called him to run for the 68th House district in Portage County on the Constitution Party ticket.
''I considered running as a Republican, but I think both parties are the problem,'' he said. ''Both are moving away from the Constitution, as opposed to toward it.''
Cartwright, 28, of Hiram, likes how the Constitution Party is ''100 percent pro-life and 100 percent Second Amendment.'' He quotes the Constitution on his campaign Facebook page.
''I am truly lifting up our county to the Lord,'' he penned.
''This is the last stand on earth,'' he wrote in another. ''If we lose freedom here, all hope is lost for mankind.''
On his Web site, Kurt Liston, a Libertarian candidate for the 44th Ohio House district in Summit County, advises that it's ''time to bring liberty, justice, humanity, tolerance and respect back to government.''
Liston, 33, who is finishing his horticulture degree at Cuyahoga Community College, decided to run for the legislature because he wants ''to have an impact on the whole state.'' The stay-at-home dad in Akron's Highland Square is a former Republican.
''I started shopping around,'' he said. ''This is what I've always believed in. I want government out of my face. I want my rights protected. I don't want other people to tell me how to live my life.''
Elaine Mastromatteo, a write-in Green candidate for the 17th Congressional District, which includes parts of Summit and Portage counties, compares herself to a different blend of ice cream.
''How free are you, if you can only choose vanilla or vanilla lite?'' she asks on her campaign Facebook page. ''I'm here to give you pistachio!''
Mastromatteo, 50, a grandmother and sometimes antique dealer, moved to a farm in Bristollville north of Warren three years ago to live a simpler and more ecologically friendly life. She felt she had to run when no other Greens stepped forward.
Because she's a write-in, Mastromatteo needs 25 votes to become the official Green candidate and appear on the November ballot. She has the support of five family members and has been campaigning to get the other 20 votes.
''I think I can make it,'' she said.
Impact at polls
Some claim voters who support a third-party candidate are throwing their votes away.
The Bliss Institute director, however, thinks minor-party candidates can have an impact — even if they don't win. Green points to Ross Perot, a third-party presidential candidate in the early '90s, who ''put balancing the federal budget on the national agenda.''
Green said minor-party candidates also can influence close races, such as Ralph Nader, a Green Party presidential candidate who is credited with drawing enough votes from Al Gore in the 2000 election to give Republican George W. Bush the win.
''Most minor parties have a realistic view,'' Green said. ''They don't think they will win. But, there's always a chance one will catch on fire.''
Buckbee, the Green Party's spokesman, jokingly said Spisak, the party's gubernatorial candidate, might have a chance if the Republican candidate hurt a child and the Democratic candidate died.
''We are officially on the ballot,'' he said. ''We're not a write-in.''
Green wonders if the now popular Tea Party, a protest movement that shares some views with the Constitution and Libertarian parties, eventually will evolve into a minor party. He said many minor parties started as protest movements.
''It is attracting interest and does have a following,'' he said.
Thirty-eight percent of those polled said they had a favorable view of the Tea Party in a recent poll by Quinnipiac University, based in Hamden, Conn.
Mastromatteo, the Green candidate for the 17th Congressional District, hopes people will consider casting a ballot Tuesday for the minor parties on the ballot — even if they aren't voting for her.
''That makes a statement that you are tired of the same old thing,'' she said. ''Support this new opportunity that we have — this new choice. We worked hard to get four parties on the ballot.''
