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Lawmakers this week tabled a pair of bills that would make it harder for third-party and independent candidates to land on the ballot ahead of Montanas 2024 U.S. Senate race.

The House State Administration Committee voted to table Senate Bill 566 on a nearly unanimous voice vote Wednesday. Two days earlier, the same committee though with less agreement tabled Senate Bill 565.

Critics saw the bills, both sponsored by Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, as attempts to consolidate support behind Republicans as they marshal resources to challenge U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, Montanas only remaining statewide elected Democrat and a key piece in the fight for partisan control of the Senate.

I have had a lot of my folks from back home reach out to me and ask me to vote no on this, Rep. Gregory Frazer, R-Deer Lodge, said of SB 566 in committee Wednesday before making a motion to table the bill. A lot more than I thought. And with all due respect to the sponsor, because I know that hes worked very hard, but as the conduit of my constituents, Im their voice. Im going to oppose this bill.

Tester announced his reelection bid in February, ending speculation that he might abdicate the seat. A Republican has yet to formally declare their intent to run, but the party has several potential candidates in the state. Moreover, Montanas other U.S. senator, Steve Daines, chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP organization that helps elect Republicans to the U.S. Senate.

Senate Bill 566 was particularly controversial, generating national headlines and outcry from the Montana Libertarian Party, the only third party in the state to consistently make the ballot. The bill would change how U.S. Senate primaries are run in the state, replacing partisan primaries with a top-two contest in which the two candidates with the most votes would advance to the general election, regardless of party. But the bill would sunset in 2025, meaning that it would only apply to the closely watched race for Testers Senate seat.

Such a shift would unlikely hurt Testers chances of advancing from the primary. But it would almost certainly prevent a Libertarian or other third-party candidate from making it to the general election. In theory, that would then allow a Republican challenger to Tester to consolidate support, as Libertarians are generally seen as more closely aligned with the GOP than Democrats. Tester has won several close races with a Libertarian on the ballot.

While the assumption that eliminating a Libertarian candidate from the general election would necessarily help Republicans has some mathematical and social-scientific flaws, critics pounced on the bill as an attempt by the national GOP to rejigger Montanas elections with a single outcome in mind.

Republicans in the Montana Senate Monday revived and endorsed previously stalled legislation that would provide for a top-two primary in the 2024 race for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Jon Tester.

The bill primarily affects third parties that already have ballot access, Sid Daoud, a Kalispell city council member who chairs the Montana Libertarian Party, said in opposition to the bill during a Senate hearing earlier this month. In an effort to knock Sen. Tester out of the next Senate race, Sen. Hertz is attempting to remove the potential Montana Libertarian Party candidate from taking a percentage in what is expected to be an extremely tight race.

Hertz repeatedly defended his bill as an experiment in democracy that would ensure that the eventual winner of the Senate race would have majority rather than plurality support from Montana voters.

It always bothers me that sometimes our statewide elected officials dont end up with the majority vote, he said earlier this month.

An earlier version of the bill applied the top-two primary system to other statewide races. But on March 26, lobbyist and former Montana GOP Executive Director Chuck Denowh who has worked for previous campaigns of both Daines and U.S. House Rep. Matt Rosendale, a likely challenger to Tester wrote Hertz and legislative drafters to request that the bill be modified to apply only to the U.S. Senate race and sunset in 2025. Hertz approved of the changes.

And when the New York Times got ahold of the story, it reported a text exchange between Republican lawmakers and Senate Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, in which Fitzpatrick said the bill came from Daines and Jason Thielman, Daines former chief of staff who now serves as executive director of the NRSC. Fitzpatrick later acknowledged to the Times that he believed the bill came from national Republicans.

Senate Bill 565 attracted less attention but had a similar purpose, proposing to increase the number of petition signatures required for third-parties to hold primaries.

In my short political career of about 15 years here, what Ive noticed is both major parties are weaponizing our third-party candidates, Hertz said on the Senate floor this month in support of his bill, pointing to instances in which Democrats propped up Libertarians and Republicans backed Green Party candidates.

Critics of the bill seized on its partisan implications and the fact that as with Senate Bill 566 it was gaining steam relatively late in the session.

These are huge changes to our elections, and if were gonna make such a big change, we shouldnt make it at the last minute, Bozeman Rep. Kelly Kortum, the ranking Democrat on the House State Administration Committee, said this week.

Both bills could conceivably be revived in committee. The House State Administration Committees set to meet again on Friday.

House Bill 234 has driven intense debate over in-school materials that some parents view as inappropriate or sexually explicit. But an amendment tacked on in the Senate could clear up confusion and alleviate the concerns of some critics.

The Montana Legislature has advanced a Republican proposal to determine how the state will allocate as much as $700 million in rural broadband funding in the coming years, leaving a Democrat-sponsored proposal that passed the House earlier this year in the lurch.

Republicans largely endorsed Gianfortes revisions, but none of the governors changes won approval from the groups that the bill would affect: transgender, nonbinary and two spirit Montanans and their families and much of the states medical community.

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Bills targeting third parties ahead of Montana's 2024 U.S. Senate ... - Montana Free Press

GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has filed his income tax return. So have most of the men who have said they might want his job starting in 2024.

We mention this because today is tax day, a focal point in the debate that has raged widely these past few years: Should top elected officials and candidates for those offices be required to release their tax returns?

You may recall that presidential candidatesannually released their returns not necessarily before tax date but soon after all the way back to former President Richard Nixons 1969 return. Franklin D. Roosevelt also released his returns from 1913 to 1937. President Joe Biden may have released more returns than H&R Block.

But that ended when former President Donald Trump never fulfilled his promise to do so, although an order by the Supreme Court in November released six years of his returns to Congress. Those returns were opened to the public in December.

Along with that release, the House also passed legislation to require the IRS to release the returns of presidents, but that tradition of transparency and it is untested legislation in a few states has extended to governors mansions in a very haphazard manner.

Cooper has released an income statement this year as he has every year since taking office in 2016, but those who might succeed him in 2024 have a mixed response to questions about the idea or how they might view this option.

Among the five confirmed or highly likely candidates to seek a run for governor next year, only three disclosed their tax status or expressed opinions about the issues. The two who did not both already hold state office, and at least one has had a sketchy history of tax payments.

That would be Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the states highest-ranking Republican, who last year wasfound to be behind on some property taxesin Guilford County, where he and his wife make their home. He also has faced federal and state liens against unpaid tax bills.

A spokesperson for Robinson, who is widely expected to fulfill the foregone conclusion that he will run for governor during a rally Saturday in Alamance County, didnt respond to several emails from WGHP seeking answers to questions.

Neither did the spokesperson for the only confirmed Democratic nominee, Attorney General Josh Stein, whose office is responsible for enforcing tax laws. Representatives from the state Democratic and Republican parties did not respond, either.

But a confirmed GOP candidate, state Treasurer Dale Folwell, did offer his position, as did another presumed Republican possibility, former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker of Greensboro, and the Libertarian candidate, Gaston County financial adviser Mike Ross.

Those queries to Cooper and the candidates asked whether they had met the tax filing deadline, whether they would release their returns and how they in general viewed the idea that returns by top candidates should be made public.

Yes, the Governor has filed his taxes, Jordan Monaghan, Coopers deputy communications director, wrote in response to WGHPS query. Additionally, each year, the Governor files aStatement of Economic Interest that shows sources of income and ownership interests which can beviewedthrough the NC State Ethics Commission website.These are filed by April 17th, and this years should be posted soon.

Folwell, the state treasurer since 2017 who announced in March that he wouldseek the GOP nominationto succeed Cooper, is a CPA by trade, and he said late last week that he was filing by Monday.

I file an SEI and insider trading form, Folwell wrote to WGHP. I have never thought about releasing [the returns] but will think on it.

Thats similar to the response of another Republican who has said he isconsidering a run, Walker.

Well, I am not a declared candidate, but if we do engage and, if other candidates are in agreement, Id be happy to share bottom line numbers on taxes paid state and federal, charitable giving, etc., Walker told WGHP.

I always do my taxes. To be exact, Ive only used two accountants in three decades, and Ive never been delinquent on any of my federal or state taxes. Before I agree to release prior years returns, I need to make a final decision on our political path forward; but Im not opposed to it.

Ross,the Libertarian who also announced his candidacy last month,has filed his income taxes by the deadline this year and every year (including extensions, required payments, and filing by the later deadline, as applicable sometimes) noting that he does so under protest of the legitimacy of the government stealing your money arbitrarily, Rob Yates, his spokesperson, told WGHP.

Mike has no problem providing his tax returns, and further he believes in complete and utter transparency in government. That being said, we do not have plans to release them at this time, simply because we believe that it could create an unnecessary distraction for a burgeoning campaign.

Should tax returns become an issue, and the need arises to release them, we would do so immediately. Otherwise, the plan is to release his tax returns for the tax year 2022 and 2023 at the conclusion of the first debate between the Republican, Democrat, and Libertarian candidates.

And those positions and openness can be important in how voters understand a candidates record.

Any aspect of a candidates successes and failures should be open for voters to consider, Eric Heberlig a professor at UNC-Charlotte and expert on campaign finance, wrote in response to questions from WGHP. Financial issues may be important to some voters; careerissues may be important to others. Some are only concerned with parties or issue positions.

There are lots of different potential considerations and voters figure out how to weigh them relative to each other.

Robinson, a native of Greensboro and former student at UNC-Greensboro, and his wife, Yolanda Hill, last year were discovered by WRAL in Raleigh to owe $1,271.33 in vehicle property taxes in Guilford County, a mistake that Robinson said came about because of a change of address. Guilford County Tax Assessor Ben Chavis confirmed to WRAL that Robinson paid the bills within 48 hours after he learned of them.

When you start talking about taxes, if Im the guy doing them, somebodys going to jail, Robinson told WRAL. Im not very good at math.

Robinson, whose failed childcare business with Hill had led to personal bankruptcy filings, court records showed, also paid off federal and state tax liens that totaled about $15,000, which ended in 2012. Any outstanding issues we might have had with the IRS have been taken care of, he told The News & Observer in 2020.

Robinson is in his first elected position after rising to prominence when making a fiery speech about gun shows at a meeting of the Greensboro City Council. With some assistance from Walker, that clip on YouTube went viral, and he rode to fame on those millions of views, a strong affiliation with the National Rifle Association and a talent for gaining attention with Trumpian attacks on almost every social group in both speeches and social media.

I presume he says that [about math] because many voters also think they are bad with math, Heberlig said. The challenge here is that developing and implementing the state government budget is one of the governors core responsibilities.

The governor certainly has an expert budget staff to help with their math, but most people also wouldnt want the governor to treat budget issues cavalierly.

Said Robinson to WRAL: I now have a responsibility to the people who voted me into this office to show some restraint and to show, quite frankly, some leadership. We intend to do that. Those lessons that I learned in the past help me to maintain that.

But other than those comments, his views toward releasing his tax returns are unknown, and his spokesperson didnt respond to those questions in repeated emails.

In 2017, NC Sen. Jay Chaudhuri (D-Wake) filed a bill titled Tax Returns Uniformly Made Public Act, which was the T.R.U.M.P. Act, matching legislation filed in several other states. Senate Bill 587 referred only to candidates for president and vice president the last three vice presidents released their returns, as did the candidates for both those offices back until at least 2008 who would appear on the ballot in the General Election, requiring them to release their federal tax returns. The bill passed a first reading and went to the Rules Committee, where it died.

Chaudhuri didnt respond to questions about that bill, but it didnt address candidates for state office. Heberlig said that he hadnt heard about state proposals for candidates for governor to release their tax returns.

Because of the political context, Democratic states would be more likely to have such proposals as viable agenda items, Heberlig said. I dont know how many states have similar laws already. Such ethics laws tend to be passed in the wake of past scandals in the state.Some states may also have passed them in the Watergate era when there was a wave of ethics and campaign finance reform legislation.

In 2012, Republican Pat McCrory, a former Duke Energy executive and mayor of Charlotte who then was involved in a successful campaign for governor, declined to release his returns,saying they were my private records.

IF wouldnt ask you to release your records to be a newsperson either, McCrory told WWAY-TV. Listen: I own a house, 2,600-square-foot house. My wife and I own two used cars. Both are over 10 years old. They are paid for.

I have a 401k, and I have no pension. I own no other land. I wish I had some land here in Wilmington and on Wrightsville Beach or something, but I dont. Thats my wealth. Thats it. Im not independently wealthy.

And, as Heberlig said, that approach varies from state to state. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat in a state controlled by Republicans, made a social media announcement on Monday that he had released his returns.The entire time I have served in elected office, I have worked to be transparent with Kentuckians and to earn their trust, Beshear posted on his Twitter account, which is why I have released my tax returns for the seventh straight year. I challenge all public officials to do the same.

Beshear was attorney general from 2016 to 2019 and then elected governor. He is seeking re-election in November.

A Republican governor recently re-elected and who might campaign for another office soon, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis,released two years of federal tax returns in 2018, when he first ran for governor. Governors and candidates in Florida have done so historically, but its unclear whether DeSantis repeated that release for re-election last year.

Another sitting governor, Californias Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, was facing a recall election in May 2021when he released his tax return for 2019.

Newsom two years earlier had signed a somewhat controversial legislationthat required presidential and gubernatorial candidates to release five years of tax returnsto have their names appear on the California primary ballot. The state Republican Party sued to stop the legislation, and theCalifornia Supreme Court struck down the part of the law that applies to presidential candidates.

Jerry Brown, another Democrat who had preceded Newsom, had vetoed similar legislation in 2017. NRP reported that heexpressed concerns about the constitutionality of the requirement. He also said it could create a slippery slope.

Folwell said that Im generally in favor of more sunshine, and its the reason Ill be there best gov money cant buy.

Yates, speaking on behalf of Ross, takes that quite a bit further. Without transparency, it is impossible to hold elected officials accountable. Mike begrudges no one income of any amount, provided it is earned honestly, thus he is ambivalent in terms of disclosing pure income, as he doesnt believe anyone should have the amount of money s/he makes held against him/her, Yates said. He does believe in the transparency afforded the voters when candidates disclose their tax filings and he also believes that no one is above the law, especially the laws they create. So, until such a time as income taxes are eliminated, or become so simple that there is no concern about cheating, Mike supports candidates disclosing their tax filings.

Mike also wants to specifically highlight that, as governor, he would make his entire filing history public record. Further, he would put all of his holdings into an unmanaged index fund, and would not trade in any stocks, derivatives, or related securities asset classes of any sort the entirety of the time he was in office.

Walker served the 6th Congressional District for three terms (2014-19), during which he waschair of the Republican Study Committee, and lost in a primary for U.S. Senate last spring.

I believebeing transparent is crucial in making sure candidates rhetoric is consistent with how they live their own lives, Walker said.The very basis of someones character is honoring onesfinancialobligations.

As a conservative, how can you lead onfiscalresponsibility, if you cant manage your ownfinances? Hardships canoccur but if someone has a longhistory of defrauding people and institutions, they wouldnt be allowed to serve on a church finance committee, much less be considered a candidate for governor.

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Taxing questions: Will North Carolinas candidates for governor release their returns? - WGHP FOX8 Greensboro

The Montana Legislature is pushing through two house bills, both co-sponsored by area representative John Fitzpatrick, that fundamentally alter the way marijuana tax monies are allocated in direct opposition to the will of the voters.

HB 462 and HB 669 steal $15.8 million from wildlife habitat acquisition that Montana voters overwhelmingly approved when they passed I-190 in 2020.

Montana's libertarian lean is under attack by well-meaning but ultimately destructive politicos claiming to know what's best for Montanans and willing to take away our rights to push their agenda. As the saying goes, "God protect us from people who mean well."

Rep. Fitzpatrick and others bring out tired tropes in their advocacy, falsely linking recreational marijuana use to crime and addiction to more deadly drugs. They widely ignore the benefits to our economy.

Multiple studies show legal marijuana tied to significant reductions in deaths from opiate overdose.

But advocates of 462 and 669 falsely link rising hard drug use in Montana to legal marijuana rather than addressing the actual causes, economic disparity, and an underfunded border patrol.

Raiding Montana's wildlife habitat funds may be within the rights of our legislators. Still, hardly three years out from Montanans expressing their desire to fund that program with marijuana tax dollars specifically, it's a gross misuse of their power.

Montanans love our public lands. We love the freedoms granted to us in our federal and state constitutions. Continued efforts by the state legislature to centralize control in Helena and nanny Montanans are neither wanted nor needed.

Perhaps the next time Helena decides to raid voter-approved funds for ulterior purposes, they should think back to their $1 billion handout that decimated the state surplus.

Jesse Mullen is the co-owner of Ponderosa Publications and the Seeley Swan Pathfinder

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Op-Ed: Nanny politics are a bad excuse to raid habitat funds - Seeley Swan Pathfinder

Frustrated by college diversity initiatives he says are fomenting radical and toxic divisions, Texas state Rep. Carl Tepper set out to put an end to diversity, equity and inclusion offices in higher education.

The freshman Republican lawmaker filed a bill to ban such offices. Three months later, he filed a new version of the legislation doing the same thing. The difference? Tepper switchedthe wording to alignwitha new model billdeveloped by the Manhattan Institute and Goldwater Institute, a pair of conservative think tanks based in New York and Arizona, respectively.

Republican lawmakers in at least a dozen states have proposed more than 30 bills this year targeting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education, an Associated Press analysis found using the bill-tracking software Plural. The measures have become the latest flashpoint in a cultural battle involving race, ethnicity and gender that has been amplified by prominent Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, potential rivals for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.

Many of the proposals root in one of a half-dozen conservative or libertarian organizations offering recommendations for limiting consideration of diversity, equity and inclusion in employment decisions, training and student admissions. Some measures mirror the model bills nearly exactly. Others copy key definitions or phrases while adapting the concepts to their particular states.

Theres a tremendous appetite on the right to deal with this issue, said Joe Cohn, legislative and policy director for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which in February addedits own model billto the swelling ranks of proposals.

The bills are an outgrowth of recent Republican attempts to limit critical race theory, a viewpoint that racism is historically systemic in the nations institutions and continues today to maintain the dominance of white people in society. Christopher Rufo, who now is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, helped propel conservative outrage in 2020 against what he has described as critical-race-theory concepts infiltrating governments and educational institutions.

Trump responded byissuing an orderin September 2020banning traininginvolving divisive concepts about race for government employees and contractors. Similar wording began cropping up in state-level legislation the following year.

Floridas so-called Stop WOKE law, which DeSantis signed last year, is among the most prominent measures. It bars businesses, colleges and K-12 schools from giving training on certain racial concepts, such as the theory that people of a particular race are inherently racist, privileged or oppressed. Courts have currently blocked the law's enforcement in colleges, universities and businesses.

DeSantis has continued to press the issue.He proposed legislation this yearto ban diversity, equity and inclusion offices as part of a broader agenda to reshape higher education. He also appointed Rufo and other conservatives to theNew College of Florida's oversight board, which then abolished the liberal arts colleges office that handles diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

DeSantis has been so vocal about the changes he wants to make in universities that it has probably spurred activity in other states, said Jenna Robinson, president of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, a conservative nonprofit based in Raleigh, North Carolina.

On their face, diversity, equity and inclusion may seem uncontentious. Higher education institutions, along with many businesses, have devoted resources to inclusivity for years.

"DEI is woven into the fabric of good universities, said Karma Chavez, chair of the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies and co-chair of the College of Liberal Arts diversity committee at the University of Texas.

Campus DEI offices often spearhead services tailored to students of various races, genders, sexual orientations, cultures and abilities. Some college administrators also consider diversity and equity when admitting students, providing scholarships or deciding which faculty to hire and promote. Applicants may be asked not only for resumes and references, but also for statements about how they would advance DEI efforts.

Tepper contends DEI initiatives are ideologically driven" on a Marxist foundation." Republican lawmakers in other states have used similar arguments.

Duringa recent Missouri House debate,Republican Rep. Doug Richey put forth a series of budget amendments prohibiting state funding for DEI initiatives in government agencies and higher education. He asserted the offices espouse "racist policies and Marxist ideology that is trying to strip away from us the concepts of the nuclear family, of merit, of character and of being judged by what you are capable of.

Provisions blocking spending on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts also have been added to budget bills in Kansas and Texas. Separate bills banning spending for DEI offices in higher education have been proposed in Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia, though some of those already have failed.

Other bills, such asin Ohioand South Carolina, would allow such offices but ban mandatory DEI training and forbid administrators from requesting DEI statements from staff and students.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbotts administration warned state entities in February not to use DEI factors in employment decisions. That prompted the state's largest university systems to pause such practices and led students at the University of Texas to organize in defense of DEI efforts.

It feels like an attack on my identity, said Sameeha Rizvi, a university senior who said she has benefitted from DEI initiatives as a Muslim woman of color with a disability. It is exceptionally hurtful and tiring to see this very hateful rhetoric being employed by legislators."

The American Association of University Professors, which has about 45,000 members nationwide, said the bills mischaracterize DEI initiatives.

"Theyre dog whistling that DEI initiatives are something sinister and subversive that people should be afraid of, and thats not true at all, association President Irene Mulvey said.

The Martin Center and Goldwater Institute releasedmodel legislationlast year describing mandatory DEI statements from students and staff as a prohibited political test. Lawmakers in Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma andTexas all filed billsthis year using the suggested wording.

Cicero Action, an advocacy group based in Austin, Texas, and the newly formed Do No Harm organization, based in Richmond, Virginia, also have provided guidance to state lawmakers drafting bills against diversity, equity and inclusion requirements in higher education. Similar bills in Missouri and Tennessee both follow Do No Harm's outline of barring mandatory DEI instruction for medical students and health care providers.

University of Missouri medical students have lobbied against the legislation, asserting it could jeopardize the school's accreditation and prevent doctors from learning about unique circumstances affecting the health of people from various ethnic, socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds.

Were not just hurting ourselves, were hurting patients if these bills get passed, medical student Jay Devineni said.

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GOP states targeting diversity, equity efforts in higher ed - Spectrum News NY1

Wisconsins rich history of multi-party politics goes back to the 1849 gubernatorial contest between Democrat Nelson Dewey, Whig Alexander Collins and abolitionist Warren Chase.

In those days, the Democrats and the Whigs were the major parties. But Chase, a member of the socialist Ceresco community who had been a delegate to the 1847 Constitutional Convention and won election to the first state Senate in 1848, made a credible showing for the Free Soil Party, which had been formed a year earlier, and which would eventually give way to the Republican Party.

Since the Republicans got started in Ripon in 1854, the competition has generally been between the Grand Old Party and the Democrats. But they've rarely been the only parties on the ballot. The Progressive Party, which briefly merged left-wing Republicans and Socialist Party activists into the most viable third party in the state's history, actually won three gubernatorial elections and two U.S. Senate races in the 1930s and 1940s. The Socialist Party never won a statewide race, but it was the second largest party in the state Legislature during the 1920s (displacing the Democrats) and sent Victor Berger to the U.S. House as the representative from Milwaukee through much of that decade.

For the past 50 years, the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin presented itself as an alternative to the Democrats and the Republicans. One of the oldest affiliates of the national Libertarian Party, the state party is holding its convention in Milwaukee this weekend, and its members had a half-century of history to celebrate. That history merits attention, even from those of us who may differ with the Libertarians on particular issues. You dont have to agree with the partys small government agenda to recognize that its healthy to have a diversity of opinions on the debate stage, and a diversity of parties on the ballot.

While the Libertarians have not won statewide elections in Wisconsin, they have elected a number of members to county and municipal posts over the years. And, at several turns, they have influenced the politics of the state.

In 2016, for instance, Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson won more than 100,000 votes, for 3.58% of the total far more than the margin that separated Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. That year, exit polls suggested that the Libertarians attracted votes from substantial numbers of Republicans and Democrats who were unsatisfied with the nominees of their own parties just as Green Party nominee Ralph Nader did when he won almost 100,000 votes in 2000. In 2020, Libertarian presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen got 38,491 votes almost double Democrat Joe Biden's winning margin in Wisconsin.

The most historic Wisconsin Libertarian finish came in 2002, when Tomah Mayor Ed Thompson, the brother of former Gov. Tommy Thompson, was the partys gubernatorial nominee. Running on a ticket with Democratic state Rep. Marty Reynolds, Thompson advocated for decriminalization of marijuana, lowering the drinking age to 18 and reducing prison populations by releasing nonviolent offenders.

Thompson's freewheeling campaign struck a chord, especially with young voters. He won 185,455 votes statewide and carried Monroe and Juneau counties. Thompson's double-digit finish won the Libertarians a place on the old Wisconsin State Elections Board, where its representative advocated for smart election reforms

The Libertarians have remained active in recent years as have the Greens and their candidates have won a fair number of votes in state and local elections. In so doing, they have lived up to their promise to offer voters an alternative to the broken two party system in America.

John Nichols is associate editor of The Capital Times.jnichols@captimes.comand @NicholsUprising.

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Opinion | Libertarians have produced 50 years of alternatives for Wisconsin - The Capital Times