McVay’s Puzzle
Jul 10th, 2010 by David Anderson
I wish I were able to make William McVay’s unusual filing in the three top parties for 32snd state representative. The Kent County Libertarian chairman has been campaigning hard all year and found that he has appeal across party lines so he decided to send a message to both parties by forcing a primary for both of them by seeking the Republican and Democratic nominations to fuse with his Libertarian Unlike Karen Weldin Stewart or Terry Spence (as well as many who lost) he is not a major party candidate seeking to fuse with a third party. He is a third party candidate offering voters a chance to put him on their ballots. It is a simultaneously brilliant and quirky strategy. He is showing voters that Libertarians have a message which crosses both party lines. It is one of freedom.
If he wins both primaries, he will be on three ballot lines and unopposed. If he loses both he will still be the Libertarian candidate but actually have a base from which to draw in both major parties. I do not know that McVay will win anything, but his objective of broadening the appeal of the Libertarian Party in Dover will certainly be accomplished. If the party nominees do not defend themselves, one could actually lose and he would be a fusion candidate who could win.
Some will be tempted to consider this some sort of crisis that needs to be addressed in the next General Assembly. I disagree. All the gentleman from Dover is doing is offering voters choices and sending a message to the major parties. He is telling you that if you keep messing with the laws governing third parties, the third party adherents will have to play in the two party system. Maybe that message should be received and the GA should leave them alone.
I’m with you, David. As someone who went to great lengths to make sure that fusion remains a viable option in Delaware, I think this is a great thing!
While I am not big on the use of fusion tickets, I am a fan of anything that shakes up and wakes up the party establishment to the wants and needs of the voting citizens of the state and nation. It will be interesting to see if the General Assembly does committ political suicide by trying to block this in the future.
I do favor more freedom for the minor parties. Fusion is something that shouldn’t go away. William McVay has a great idea. I will be interested to see what happens.
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The only people who will care if the GA tries to “fix” this will be the bloggers, Libertarians, IPOD and Working Families folks. Far from political suicide.
I agree that there’s nothing to fix, however. When the parties turned their primary elections over to the state, they both lost the cost and lost control. State law doesn’t prohibit this, so it’s acceptable. The parties can’t now come running in whining saying it’s wrong.
Thank you for your kind words. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about my campaign or the Delaware Libertarian Party.
You go Will. You are a ray of hope to the Citizens of our community, both locally and nationally. I hope you win all three races and then lose in the General to the other Will McVay.
Yeah. I hear that OTHER Will McVay smells funny…
Do you have inside info? As of Friday that was not the story from the department of elections. Obviously even the candidate seems not to have heard this. We shall see. If the AG office issues such an interpretation, I wouldn’t be surprised to see superior court see the case.
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