This afternoon, once I got out of class, I was handing out pamphlets for Cal Skinner (rather ironically, right outside the State Of Illinois building, which considering Skinner's "cut taxes / trim government" message could have found more sympathetic ears elsewhere!) ... who is the Libertarian candidate for Governor here in Illinois, and our best bet for getting "major party" status.
Illinois has some fucked rules for getting on the ballot ... if you're not a "major" party you need like 50,000 signatures to get on the ballot, for EACH race you're looking at ... the "majors" just need like 5,000. Sound like it's "fixed" by the Elephant & Donkey folks? A-yep! Anyway, you need to get over 5% to be "major" and the latest polls show Skinner at 6% ... if that holds (and we're hoping for a lot of protest votings against the JIM/ROD choice) we'll be able to field candidates for races all across the state next time (as it is, we have candidates slated for all the big state-wide gigs, plus US Senate, 6 US House seats, 14 State Senate seats, 16 State Rep seats, and 14 or so Township seats).
Our local Congressional candidate, Frank Gonzalez ... http://hometown.aol.com/votelibertarian/ ,,, was down at the Thompson Center all day pushing Skinner, along with a handful of others cold-resistant volunteers. I put in 3 hours between class and having to get Daughter #1 from her theater rehearsal. At various points we also had Lt. Governor candidate Jim Tobin on hand, and the lovely Sheree Stevens (Frank's S.O.) of http://www.ballotsbulletsbabes.com/ and the cable TV show of the same name.
I really hope that everybody will at least consider voting Libertarian this time out ... check out that link for your local candidates. Every year the choice between the shameless Democrats and the insufferable Republicans becomes more and more odious, and there IS A BETTER CHOICE!