California Libertarian Hispanic-Surnamed Candidates Exceed Normal Libertarian Vote

In 2010, the California Libertarian Party ran two candidates for U.S. House who have unambiguously Hispanic surnames.  They are Edward Gonzalez, an elementary school director in San Jose; and Carlos A. Rodriguez, an immigration lawyer in San Fernando.  Each had opponents from both major parties.  Gonzalez, running in the 16th district, polled 7.88%.  Rodriguez, running in the 28th district, polled 8.05%.

These two showings are the highest percentages received by California Libertarian candidates for U.S. House (excluding races in which only one major party ran anyone) since 1992.


Comments

California Libertarian Hispanic-Surnamed Candidates Exceed Normal Libertarian Vote — 6 Comments

  1. This is a typical pattern in Texas. The number of voters who will vote for a Hispanic-surnamed candidate despite his being a Libertarian candidate, is larger than the number of voters who will not vote for a Libertarian candidate if he is Hispanic.

    In the two House seats, the Republican candidates had uncommon (and unusual) names as well.

  2. P.R. = REAL Democracy = Total Votes / Total Seats

    Difficult ONLY for SCOTUS and the brain dead media since 1964 ???

  3. Being typical California, ANY Hispanic running on ANY third party ticket would get a higher then normal amount of votes compared to a non-Hispanic third party candidate.

    That’s how it is there now.

  4. #3, it turns out that is not true. The Peace & Freedom Party had two US House candidates with Hispanic surnames in 2010, but they did not do better than PFP candidates generally do. Gloria LaRiva got 2.46% in San Francisco’s 8th district, and Richard Castaldo got 1.31% in the 30th district in western Los Angeles.

    The last time PFP had run in the 30th district, it had run Adele Cannon, who does not have a Hispanic surname, and she had got 2.15%. And the last time PFP had run in the 8th district, it had run Leilani Dowell, who does not have a Hispanic surname, and she had got 3.53%, despite the presence of a Green Party candidate in the same race, Terry Baum, who got 2.02% even though she was not on the ballot, and was a write-in candidate.

    In 2010, the Green Party and the American Independent Party didn’t have any Hispanic-surname candidates for U.S. House.

  5. Reaching out to politically homeless Latinos is a brilliant move to boost any Libertarian state constituency. Texas is hoped to mimic this in the future to expand the Liberty base, following California as a trend. Arizona is also doing very well on their own. It would be neat to hear from an agrarian state like Georgia and another border state like NM. I’m very proud of our work.

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