By Jason Tolbert

Under Arkansas Election Law, the deck is stacked against those wishing to form third parties or pursue office as an independent candidate. However this year, Arkansas will see a wide variety of both on the November ballot.

The Republican and the Democratic parties currently are the only parties in Arkansas that get an automatic spot on the ballot for their nominees.
Other groups or candidates must jump through a variety of hoops, including gathering signatures and submitting petitions to the secretary of state in order to gain ballot access.

The Green Party, with assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union, has sued the state over these election rules, insisting that it is too great of a burden on third parties. The state has maintained that the high standard is necessary to keep the ballot from being cluttered with candidates.

The lawsuit is not yet settled but the Green Party trudged ahead anyway by submitting over 14,000 signatures to get certified as a political party and the right to nominate candidates for this year’s election. They plan to hold a convention on July 24 where they will nominate their slate of candidates. Currently, it is uncertain how many candidates they will nominate, but it appears certain that the Mayor of Greenland, John Gray, will be their nominee for U.S. Senate.

Arkansas also will see a flurry of independent candidates. Ten independent candidates will appear on Arkansas ballots competing for a wide range of offices. Leading this group is the only statewide candidate, Trevor Drown of Russellville, who is running for U.S. Senate.

Drown’s conservative candidacy is fueled largely by those on the far right, much as Gray’s liberal candidacy is fueled by the far left. Both groups view the major parties as too centrist on many issues and are driven by the unrest of the extremists within the political process. Criticism from both seems to be fired at the political party with which each would line up more closely.

“This populist state, which many consider conservative, doesn’t trust the state Republican party,” states the June newsletter from Drown’s group. “They haven’t for years.”

Similarly, Gray and his Green Party supporters have been critical of Democratic incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln for not going far enough on issues such as the health care bill, which they say should have included the public option.

It will be interesting to see how these candidates shape the political debate during this election cycle. It would take an act of monumental proportions for any of these candidates to actually win, but they can have an impact on the dialogue.

The Tea Party movement provides the conservative independent candidates a chance to have a voice where in the past their candidacy would largely go unnoticed. It will force Republicans to pay attention to these upset conservative voters for risk of aliening them and driving their votes to independent candidates. At the same time, Gray has the opportunity to tap into the unrest that Bill Halter tapped into from liberal voters unhappy with Sen. Lincoln.

In that respect, third party candidates play an important role in the democratic process. While representing the extremes of both parties, they hold the major candidates accountable to their base and prevent a drift toward the center. In an environment where the extremes are growing increasingly frustrated with the status quo, I predict these candidates will continue to play a more substantial and significant role.

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Jason Tolbert is an accountant and conservative political blogger. His blog — The Tolbert Report — is linked at ArkansasNews.com. His e-mail is jason@TolbertReport.com.