Libertarian Party History and Bob Barr

It might be time for the Libertarian Party to rewrite the page of their web site on their history. On a tip from The Rothenberg Political Report I found a curious item in their history. Among their claimed accomplishments for 2002 is this item:

The “Incumbent Killer” strategy was used to control elections the LP could not yet win. It led to the defeat of Republican Congressman Bob Barr and Democratic Senator Max Cleland. It was also credited with controlling the outcome of the governor’s races in Alabama, Wisconsin, and Oregon, and the US Senate race in South Dakota.

I’m not sure that anyone outside of the Libertarian Party has ever given them credit for defeating incumbents such as Bob Barr and Max Cleland. Besides the questionable validity of this claim, do they really want to brag about having defeated the person who they nominated as their presidential candidate this year?

2 Comments

  1. 1
    Tom P. says:

    Bob Barr was defeated because of redistricting, pure and simple, and not because of anything the libertarians did.  Unfortunately, the LP is run by a bunch of dilettantes who actually believe such nonsense, though the average libertarian is well aware that those claims are untrue.

  2. 2
    June says:

    When Barr was redistricted he ran in a primary against another Republican.  He was defeated in that primary partly because be was targeted by the LP as a drug warrior.  Whether or not the LP campaign was significant is far less important than the fact that the loss caused Barr to do a lot of soul searching which has ultimately led him to reverse his position on the drug war and join the Libertarian party.

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