🚀 go-pugleaf

In a previous article, dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) wrote:
>This makes theoretical sense, but facts are facts.  And THESE are the
>facts:  People will NOT vote for 3rd party candidates, so the two rightist
>parties in our country, the Republicans and Democrats run the same tired
>candidates over and over again.  Even IF a candidate were to gather
>strength who was not part of the machine, s/he would either be gunned
>down...or simply outspent.  As constructed today, there is no way to elect
>anyone who is not part of the Machine.  (There is no substantive
>difference between either major party.  They're both owned by big

You may remember about 6 years ago when the state of Arizona impeached
homophobic Governor Evan Mecham.  At the time, he was the only public official
holding statewide office in the country to have ever faced a recall.

One of the things that came out of that election was a special provision in our
state election codes.  It seems that, because a third candidate ran as an
independent, Mecham won with 40% of the vote.  As a result, the voters amended
our state constitution requiring that any candidate for statewide office (except
U.S. Senator) must receive more than 50% of the vote.  Should no one receive a
popular majority, a special runoff  election would be held between first and
second place.  The most significant result of this election would be that groups
who supported the third-place candidate could throw their support to one of the
other two.  To win this support, one of the two candidate (at least ideally)
would have to modify his platform making him a more paletable choice for that
office.