It's Time to Start Thinking about which Primary to Play In

I finally recovered from Saturdays roadtrip.

One of the most interesting things about last Saturdays SWGA Politics forum was not the event in the forum but the conversations in the parking lot afterward. Throw 35 politicians into a situation where they are focused on their primary opponents instead of their arch rivals in the other major political party and all sorts of surprises occur.

One such surprise was the number of democrat and republican candidates that inquired which way the LP was planning to play in the upcoming primaries. I have often stated my opinions on this blog that the best match up for Governor we could hope for would be democrat "King" Roy Barnes opposite republican Nathan "Stinky" Deal facing off with our guy, Libertarian John Monds. There is no starker contrast available. I had not even considered the effect we could have on the down ballot races. Our political opponents have.

Politicians fighting for a spot in the run off are constantly recalculating the odds and the Libertarian Party of Georgia is suddenly a wild card, sort of an Ace in the Hole and it seems that we're this months popular folks. Every candidate I chatted with wanted to know how to get some libertarian voters to the polls to help sort out thier primaries.

I want to know that as well. Georgia's primaries are open primaries. If you're a registered voter, you can vote in either the republican or democrat primary without having to vote for the same politician in the general election. In other words, us Libertarians could significantly influence which candidates wind up facing our guys and gals this fall. The concern among our republican and democrat counterparts seems to be that fundraising has been difficult, primary turnout is expected to be low and with the vast herd of candidates to pick from a couple of thousand votes garnered from the LP might make the difference between success and failure. I agree with that analysis.

So where do the Libertarians of Georgia want to play? In the Insurance Commissioners race I have a suggestion, vote for Maria Sheffield in the republican primary. That would pit me against democrat Mary Squires and republican Maria Sheffield in November and make me the only guy in that race. Is Georgia ready for a female Insurance Commissioner? I hope not.

This is a big topic and I would welcome any input the readership might be able to provide.