Will Andy Horning play spoiler in the Senate race?
September 28th, 2012 at 2:50 pm by Jim Shella under Jim Shella's Political Blog
The most surprising finding in a new Senate poll is the showing of Libertarian Andy Horning and it raises the possibility that Horning will play the role of spoiler in November. The Howey/DePauw poll shows Democrat Joe Donnelly ahead by just 2%. Horning is at 7% and, if Donnelly wins, the presence of Horning in the race could be a big reason why.
Four years ago Horning was on the ballot for governor, his second attempt at statewide office. He won about 3% of the vote. We caught up with Horning by phone today in Ohio where he called the poll results unexpected. “I mean every election I’ve always polled higher, you know, early on than I have on Election day,” said Horning. “This is better than I’ve ever seen before and the race is tighter.
Pollster Christine Matthews tweeted that Horning’s support is coming from Republicans, presumably Lugar Republicans unwilling to support Richard Mourdock. Mourdock still hopes to win them back. “Since Labor Day we know that those Republicans who were certainly unhappy that Mr. Lugar was even challenged, those folks are coming our direction in big numbers,” says Mourdock.
Meantime, Indiana Libertarian Party Executive Director Chris Spangle enjoys the attention directed at Horning. “Absolutely it helps the party,” says Spangle. “We have made a conscious effort to take advantage of this year.” Yet both Horning and Spangle don’t agree that Horning might be a spoiler for Mourdock. “This isn’t their race.” says Horning. “It’s up to voters.” Horning does accept, however, that most of his support is coming from Republicans.
The possibility of a Libertarian spoiler is something that Democrat Joe Donnelly is familiar with. Two years ago Donnelly was re-elected to Congress in a race that he won by a little more than a percentage point. The Libertarian in that race received almost 5% of the vote.
Tags: Andy Horning, Chris Spangle, Joe Donnelly, Richard Mourdock
Jim,
I want to thank you for Chris Spangle’s promotion to Libertarian State Chairman. With your endorsement in hand he will be sure to win another
term at our 2013 convention and now I can retire in peace.
Sam Goldstein, Chair (perhaps)
Libertarian Party of Indiana
I supported Mourdock in the primary.
Now I support Andy Horning because he is the best candidate in the race to be my Senator.
The GOP needs to respect Ron Paul republicans and conduct itself with integrity and honor. Unfortunately, it does not.
I’ve got a feeling that enough of the liberty vote is going to Libertarian Gary Johnson to cause Romney to lose an election he might have won with those votes.
As nearly as we can figure it, Libertarian candidates receive votes about equally from Republicans & Democrats. We also bring some voters in who would not be participating otherwise. Personally, I view both of the old parties as the party of big government. Republicans mostly talk small government at election time, very few live up to the talk.
I will vote for Gary Johnson because only he will work to actually reduce the size of government. I consider it immoral to incur debt today, to be paid later by my grandchildren who have no vote, by deficit spending as practiced by Republicans and Democrats in recent decades. Gary Johnson actually vetoed 750 spending bills while Governor and got re-elected. Ronald Regan talked about cutting government and NEVER ONCE vetoed a spending bill while president. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
If Andy is really concerned about the direction this country is going, he will throw his support in this election behind Mourdock so the Democrats don’t continue to hold the Senate and keep pushing the country to financial ruin.
to “concerned” thats the exact problem with voters these days. to say that the libertarians should support the republican candidates in order to get banish dems out of office is the same ideology that has gotten us to where we are today….vote for the guy you like and agree with,not for the other guy because you dont want the current guy to be re-elected. as andy horning said “its the same politics we’ve had for over 100 years, hasn’t worked then, doesn’t work now,its time for voters to do something that’s never been done before. the last real president this country had that cared about the constitution and seen the central banks for the corrupt theives they are was jfk….we all know what happened to him when he instituted laws that would bring an end to the central banks,its time we honor him and continue the fight in todays society that has seen the biggest influx of infromation in history with the internet….NOW WE ALL KNOW ABOUT THE ABUSE LETS DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!