Dear Supporters:
After a campaign season that started with petitioning in the early Spring, it seems difficult to believe that the Redpath for US House campaign is over.
The Virginia State Board of Elections says that I received 4,606 votes for US House in Virginia’s Tenth Congressional District, for 2.21% of the vote.
While, of course, I would have loved to have won the election and would have liked to have received many more votes, with the help of so many people, I think we put together a strong minor party campaign for Congress.
To all of the campaign’s contributors and volunteers, thank you very much for everything.
In particular, I want to thank Kristin Pavelski, my Campaign Manager, without whom my campaign would have been a pathetic shadow of what it turned out to be. Once again, my webmaster was Chuck Eby, who has done consistently superb work for several Redpath campaigns over the years. And, thanks very much to Kevin McKenna, who has served as Treasurer for Redpath campaigns over the years and kept both himself and me out of the hoosegow.
I saw nothing this campaign season that altered my 25+ years old observation that both the Democratic and Republican parties are engines of ever expanding government. The only political party that stands for smaller, limited government is the Libertarian Party.
If you liked the message of my campaign this year, please help us by joining the Libertarian Party and the state Libertarian Party wherever you live. The website of the Libertarian Party is http://www.lp.org, and website of the Libertarian Party of Virginia is http://www.lpva.com.
I also think electoral reform in the United States is crucial for there to be more viable political choices in the United States. I think Instant Runoff Voting (sometimes called the Alternative Vote) is important for single winner elections. On May 5, 2011, there is going to be a national referendum in the United Kingdom for adoption of Instant Runoff Voting for single winner elections.
Click here for more information on Instant Runoff Voting.
Such a reform would end the so-called “Wasted Vote Syndrome” the adversely affects minor party candidates. Many people remarked to me that they liked what I had to say this Fall, but they felt they had to vote for Frank Wolf to prevent Jeff Barnett, the Democratic candidate, from being elected. IRV would end that feeling of being boxed into voting for “the lesser of two evils.”
I also think some form of proportional representation should be adopted for legislatures in the United States. That is what would make candidates from outside the two older parties truly electable.
Websites with information about alternative voting systems that would make US election much more robust and competitive include that of Fairvote, at
http://www.fairvote.org,
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