Third-Parties Keep Truckin' In New Jersey: 2018 Senate Election

In a midterm election that saw a heavy turnout from Democrats and Republicans, scores of New Jersey residents chose the path less traveled in 2018… a third-party candidate.

Polls and debates during New Jersey’s U.S. Senate race often focused exclusively on the frontrunners – projected victor Bob Menendez, a Democrat, and the GOP’s Bob Hugin. Together, the two have nabbed a combined 2.72 million votes and counting as of Wednesday afternoon, according to unofficial results from Politico.com.

But when the smoke cleared on Tuesday, a field of six independent and third-party candidates in New Jersey still managed to scrape together tens of thousands of votes. With 6,257 of 6,346 precincts reporting, here are the unofficial results according to the Associated Press:

• Madelyn Hoffman (Green Party) – 21,625 votes (0.8%)
• Murray Sabrin (Libertarian Party) – 19,021 votes (0.7%)
• Natalie Lynn Rivera (For The People) – 17,157 votes (0.6%)
• Tricia Flanagan (New Day NJ) – 14,268 votes (0.5%)
• Kevin Kimple (Make It Simple) – 8,086 votes (0.3%)
• Hank Schroeder (Economic Growth) – 7,922 votes (0.3%)

A particularly nasty race in New Jersey between Menendez and Hugin – which included millions of dollars of attack ads from both camps – left many Garden State voters feeling glum about voting red or blue, according to a Nov. 2 poll from Stockton University.

Heading into the weekend before the election, only 23 percent viewed Menendez "favorably," with 44 percent holding "unfavorable" views. Only 25 percent had favorable views of Hugin as opposed to 34 percent unfavorable, Stockton University pollsters said.

>> See related article: Real-Time Results: Election 2018 In New Jersey

THE 'TWO-PARTY DUOPOLY’

In a nationwide Gallup poll taken last month, 57% of Americans said there’s a need for a third major political party, while only 38% of Americans said they believe the current two-party system does “an adequate job of representing the people.” The stats shouldn’t be shocking, pollsters said… the results have been consistent since 2013.

Gallup wrote:

“The latest results come from Gallup's annual Governance survey, conducted Sept. 4 to 12, as many midterm election races for governor, the U.S. House and U.S. Senate feature pitched battles between Republican and Democratic candidates. Typically, majorities of Americans have supported a third major political party. However, there have been a few major departures from the trend. These include 2008 and 2012, both presidential election years.”

But according to the New Jersey Libertarian Party, until as recently as 2001, New Jersey voters weren't allowed to register with third-parties. To this day, third-parties are still prohibited from holding primaries or occupying the first two columns on the general election ballot.

As of May 2018, there were only two officially recognized political parties in the Garden State… the Democrats and Republicans.

“We need dedicated service in Congress that serves all of New Jersey,” said Tricia Flanagan, a former big pharma executive who ran under the New Day for New Jersey platform.

“Our current leadership is heavily-weighted to the establishment uni-party of Democratic and Republican bureaucracy,” Flanagan charged during her campaign. “That leaves a significant portion of New Jersey's constituency underserved and unrepresented.”

Kevin Kimple, a small-business owner from Edison who ran against Menendez and Hugin under the Make It Simple banner, told NJ Spotlight that he’s a fan of the phrase “Country Over Party.”

“We need to look for leaders to elect into representative roles, leaders who will act such that priority will be given to our country over a political party,” Kimple said.

The uphill battle also extends to most political polls and debates, which almost always ignore third-party and independent candidates, critics of the two-party system charge.

In October, the Green Party of New Jersey said that they "took issue" with the latest Stockton University poll, calling it "seriously flawed" because it only mentioned a single third-party candidate by name – Sabrin – and snubbed their own candidate, Madelyn Hoffman.

"In order to be the most useful and accurate, all political polls like this one should name all candidates for the position sought," the GPNJ stated. "This is not the first poll on the U.S. Senate race in New Jersey that has not named all the candidates in the race. The Quinnipiac poll from Aug. 15 to 20 made exactly the same error. So have all the polls conducted by Gravis, Fairleigh Dickinson and Monmouth University… This practice is unfair both to the candidates and to the voters."

In September, Sabrin wrote in a letter to the editor that an earlier Stockton University poll on the Senate race was keeping voters in the dark about third-party and independent challengers.

"The mainstream media have excluded others and me when they report on the U.S. Senate race," Sabrin charged. "In effect, they are giving the two-party duopoly an in-kind contribution worth hundreds of thousands of dollars."

But the times are changing, and New Jersey voters are ready for a new option, third-party leaders say. In August, the NJLP announced that it reached a major milestone, becoming the first third-party in state history to reach 10,000 registered voters.

• See related article: Libertarians Standing Tall As Largest Third-Party In New Jersey

“People are looking for an alternative to the Republicans and the Democrats, who are both responsible for out of control federal spending, massive budget deficits, endless wars and massive spying on U.S. citizens,” Sabrin told Patch last summer.

“They are tired of the corruption of career politicians and Wall Street insiders,” Sabrin insisted. “People are frustrated because they correctly understand the government is working against them instead of protecting their rights.” (Story continues below)

6 INTERESTING IDEAS FROM NJ’S THIRD-PARTY/INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES

Check out six intriguing ideas from New Jersey’s third-party and independent U.S. Senate candidates in 2018.

MADELYN HOFFMAN ON MILITARY FUNDING - “Democrats and Republicans have both dug in their heels and find it very difficult to work with one another, except when it comes to one issue -- that issue is providing the money for U.S. wars overseas. All but 10 Democrats in the U.S. Senate just voted for a $717 billion military budget -- included in those who voted for that budget were both Sen. Cory Booker and my opponent, Sen. Robert Menendez.”

MURRAY SABRIN ON STUDENT DEBT - “Allow college graduates to use bankruptcy laws to eliminate the burden of student loans.”

TRICIA FLANAGAN ON GUN VIOLENCE - “It's easy and simplistic to blame the 2nd Amendment and the NRA for gun violence, but when we look at reality through the lens of data and outcomes, we see that although it may be tempting to underscore an emotional argument, it's a rational one that's necessary. Shifting away from placing square blame in the right place does no good for the goal of finding real solutions. We need better cross-communication of data sources - that's a data integration issue, not a 2nd Amendment issue. We need better mental health screening - that's a mental health issue, not a 2nd Amendment issue. We need more effective detention for the criminally insane - that's a law enforcement and legislation issue, not a 2nd Amendment issue.”

KEVIN KIMPLE ON TERM LIMITS - “The need for term limits is called for due to self-serving career politicians' desire to stay in office. The problem arises because these same self-serving career politicians are the individuals that will need to impose limits onto themselves. This is a serious conflict of interest.”

MADELYN HOFFMAN ON CAPITALISM - “Capitalism keeps us away from meaningful pursuits in order to produce wealth for the greediest of people. It drives the elements of white supremacy, imperialism, and poverty in our country and we need to build this country again on foundations of peace and solidarity. We need worker owned models of production that empower communities. We need more time with our families, guaranteed education, guaranteed jobs and homes.”

MURRAY SABRIN ON THE ‘WAR ON DRUGS’ - “My plan to win the War on Drugs is simple: End It. The federal government launched the War on Drugs in an effort to curtail people from using illegal substances. If anything, it has had the opposite effect. Since its inception, in 1971, incarcerations increased to 2.2 million, a 500% increase in the last 40 years! 64,000 overdose deaths occurred in 2015 alone, and the drug war costs American taxpayers over $50 billion annually, while simultaneously expanding the police state in America and destroying police/community relations. It has also disproportionately affected minorities in low income communities, increasing racial tensions in America. Most tragically, the drug war has worsened the opioid crisis in America. The leading cause of drug deaths is drug prohibition.”

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Main photo courtesy of the Green Party of New Jersey (protest in Jersey City, Oct. 15, 2018)