I like third parties. They spark new ideas. For the gubernatorial election on the June 2 ballot, I spoke with three “Third Party” candidates.
From the Peace and Freedom Party, Ramsey Robinson is a school social worker in San Francisco. From the Green Party, Butch Ware is a professor of Africa and Islam at UC Santa Barbara. And Tom Woodard is a retired CEO on the ballot with the Libertarian Party.
Check them out now, because they are almost certain to be shut out of the Nov. 3 ballot. Since California adopted the top-two primary system in 2012, it has exclusively elevated Republicans and Democrats to the general election finale. Woodard said, “All voices should be heard” in November. Robinson said, “It’s very undemocratic.” Ware said, “It’s a scam by the two major parties to rubber-stamp one red and one blue candidate, in perpetuity.”
And for Ware, you’ll have to write in his name because the California Secretary of State’s office knocked him off the ballot. “We’re in federal court,” he said. “We’re very likely to get remedied, but the remedy will come after the election.” It’s not clear how that might work out for him.
Although I’m inclined toward Woodard’s small-government ideas, I told them all I mainly was interested in what practical solutions each might advance for all Californians, especially independents.
Woodard surprised me by saying he had actually suspended his campaign and endorsed Republican Steve Hilton. Too bad, because I was considering giving Woodard my vote — and his name will still appear on the June ballot.
“It was going to be very difficult for us to gain final traction,” he said.
Woodard said Hilton has adopted Woodard’s proposed strategy of restoring 12 million acres of California forest lands. That would “fix three times the atmospheric CO2” as the combined “restrictions, taxes, fees and standards” that have closed refineries. With that fixed, California could reopen the refineries and therefore reduce costs to Californians.
Great idea, if that math works. But why go to all the trouble of running for governor, only to drop out?
Robinson and Ware called for taxing billionaires to pay for more education, health care and housing. They endorsed a one-time tax on billionaires on the November ballot. And they backed single-payer health care.
Although I oppose these ideas, they demonstrate how third parties energize change. Once on the fringe of the political left, such ideas are now mainstream in Democratic politics.
On the high cost of living in the Golden State, Robinson backed a $30 minimum wage. How could small businesses afford that? He said their costs would be cut because the state would pay for “universal and free health insurance that covers everything.” Employees also would benefit from freezing rents.
Ware said he favors “solidarity beyond identity and ideology. I don’t do identity politics.” He’s looking beyond the Republican-Democratic divide. And he blamed the health care companies’ bureaucracies for the high cost of health care. “So if you just take them out of the equation, we can cover people’s healthcare needs.”
On the high cost of housing and the homelessness crisis, Ware explained, “My policy is, housing first.” He blamed private equity firms for buying up much of the real estate and “then keeping thousands of properties vacant in order to manipulate markets.” He would put a high tax on Blackstone and BlackRock, which then would sell their properties to the state for “pennies on the dollar.” The state would rent the properties as “social housing operated at cost,” modeled on what’s done in Vienna, Austria.
The takeaway here is that those ruling the Golden State, especially the Democratic Party, had better enact real reforms or face a social revolution. That already happened last year in New York City with the election of socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The more squeezed people feel, the more these kinds of ideas will bubble up and become accepted.
Ware warned, “No one wants their tax dollars spent on things that we all know don’t work. The tax base is essentially being used as a public trust from which the Democrat establishment feeds their cronies.”
On that we all can agree.
John Seiler is on the Editorial Board of the Southern California News Group.