Presidential candidate who? Look at your ballot. She’s there, along with Obama and McCain and six others in Iowa — Gloria LaRiva, nominee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. She had the time to give Iowa Independent a 45 minute world exclusive interview last Friday — something I failed to obtain from her Republican opponent, U.S. Sen. John McCain, the next day.

Presidential candidate Gloria LaRiva addresses a crowd of about 20 on the University of Iowa campus.

It’s hard to picture the serious LaRiva, visiting Iowa City as part of a driving tour that took her to Louisiana, Tennessee, and Chicago, as a Letterman or Leno guest. She says she is never asked the kinds of personal questions about things like family or musical tastes that the major party candidates are asked about. “They ask me ‘president of what?’” she says, and then voters, and LaRiva, quickly move on to the issues.

LaRiva, whose day job is as president of the Typographical Sector of the Northern California Media Workers Union, Communication Workers of America, says she’s in an unusual position for a third party candidate in that she actually represents majority opinion, citing health care as one example.

“When you hear Obama and McCain talk about health care, McCain is obviously for privatizing health care because he speaks to the rich. Obama’s audience is the working class, but it’s hard without a leftist or progressive explanation to know what he’s saying. What did he say the other day in the debate? He said ‘we will make it more accessible for people to buy insurance from all the plans that Congresspeople are entitled to. And if millions of more people buy insurance, it’ll lower the price of the premiums.’ Says who? There’s no discussion about limiting how much insurance companies can charge you for health care. There’s no solution to the health care crisis with Obama or McCain.”

“What do we say? End the war now. Use the military budget to provide health care. It should be provided by government. That should be the role of government, to make sure everybody has the right to see a doctor and have preventive care simply because they’re human.”

This is LaRiva’s second presidential bid. She was the nominee of the Worker’s World Party in 1992, was their vice presidential candidate four times, and has also run for state and local office in California. “Since I’ve run so many times, I’ve learned that people take elections very seriously.”

The new Party of Socialism and Liberation was founded in 2004, and this is their first time on the presidential ballot. “We’ve accomplished quite a lot in our four years of existence,” said LaRiva. “The fact that our first time out we are on the ballot in more states, twelve, than other socialist parties, is quite a feat. It’s an endeavor to get on any state ballot.” Iowa requires 1,500 signatures to get on the presidential ballot. LaRiva and volunteers gathered the names during June, when they also helped sandbag flooded areas.

“The fact that third parties have to go from state to state to get on the ballot, while the Democrats and Republicans are on automatically, shows that the game is locked up for them.”

Ballot access is one barrier for third parties of the left, but LaRiva says the Democratic Party is also a barrier. “They have historically been the party that captivates and co-opts the movement.”

LaRiva lives in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco congressional district, and helped antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan get on the ballot against Pelosi. “There were a lot of progressive people saying, ‘Why are you doing this, (Pelosi)’s the best hope we have’ –even though she voted for the war budget and against impeachment.”

“He’s raised a lot of good ideas,” LaRiva says of Democrat Dennis Kucinich. “A lot of people are still wedded to the Democratic Party but very unhappy, or think it’s the only viable option.” But she added even a Democrat like Kucinich had trouble getting media access.

“Even though the Democrats, when they were running in 2006 said ‘elect us and we’ll end the war,’ they used it simply for political purposes,” said LaRiva. “Both parties have financed every dollar. It’s interesting to even now hear Obama say ‘I was against the war from the beginning,’ when every vote for emergency funding has been unanimous. So they’re both guilty,” she said of the major parties.

“A lot of the people we’ve met, from New Orleans to Tennessee, Iowa, everywhere we’re going, there’s a strong sentiment for Obama. Which is fine. I mean it’s understandable, because all they see is two choices,” said LaRiva. “But they are very open to what we think.”

“The financial crisis is due to the deregulation of the last 20 years,” is what LaRiva thinks of the bailout bill. “The right wing always talks about less government, less government, but what they really mean is less government on the right of capital to exploit.” She is calling for the prosecution of those responsible. “They’re getting rewarded and given a free ride. Congress can’t even find the guts to limit executive pay.” Then LaRiva corrected herself: “Not pay — pay is when you work for it.”

“They’re guilty of war crimes,” in Iraq, LaRiva says of President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and others in the administration, hoping they will eventually be prosecuted. “The progressive movement, of which we’re very much a part, has over the years had tribunals, indictments, and people’s prosecutions. It’s very necessary for the historical record.”

In Iowa, five of the nine candidates on the ballot can generally be described as “left.” But as for the thought that the multiple candidates of the left split the vote, LaRiva disagrees. “It’s a question a lot of people new to the movement ask; why not just have one candidate? But if all the left got together, we’re still not big enough. We really work together in many ways. We don’t spend our time fighting each other. We all have our different areas and outreach, and together it adds a lot.”

La Riva describes one of her opponents — though she certainly wouldn’t characterize Green presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney as an “opponent” — as a “great friend,” and it doesn’t sound like the My Great Friend platitudes major party politicians pile on each other (usually the pile gets deeper the less they like each other). “We support each other very much,” she said. “And Ralph Nader has a right to run and a right to be considered a legitimate presidential candidate.”

LaRiva doesn’t indulge in the vanity of some obscure contenders who rhetorically pretend they’re going to be elected. “I know where we’ll be” at noon next Jan. 20, said LaRiva. “We’ll be in Washington at a counter-inaugural.”

“It’ll be interesting in 2009,” she said of the next inauguration. “Probably Obama will win, if things continue as they are with the economy. And if he wins, it’ll be thoughtful for us to figure out how to have a counter-inaugural in the wake of a historic development of the first African American president. We will want to take note of that and recognize the achievement and what it means for the African American community and all of the United States. At the same time, we know that that will not make a change in terms of the end of the war, employment for people. And Obama will be the head of an imperialist government in a capitalist country.”

As one considers the minor arcana of dogma that separates these groups from one another, it’s easy to recall this scene from Monty Python’s Christ parody, “Life of Brian.”

REG: Right. You’re in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the Judean People’s Front.
PEOPLE’S FRONT OF JUDEA (a grand total of five people, including the new member): Yeah… Splitters!
FRANCIS: And the Judean Popular People’s Front.
PFJ: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters. Splitters…
LORETTA: And the People’s Front of Judea.
PFJ: Yeah. Splitters. Splitters…
REG: What?
LORETTA: The People’s Front of Judea. Splitters.
REG: WE’RE the People’s Front of Judea!
LORETTA: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
REG: PEOPLE’S Front!
FRANCIS: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
REG: He’s over there (indicates one man sitting alone).
PFJ: SPLITTER!

It’s a lot like academic politics or student government. The bitterness of the disputes are inversely proportional to the stakes.

The same dynamic occurs on both ends of the spectrum, as Erich Hoffer noted in his 1951 classic, The True Believer. Hoffer argues that movements are interchangeable, that fanatics will often flip from one movement to another, and movements resemble each other in style and method, even when their stated view are diametrically opposed.

This was evident last month as Congressman Ron Paul, erstwhile Republican presidential candidate and the internet phenom of November-December 2007, made his endorsement. Paul remains a sitting member of the House GOP caucus, but has explicitly NOT endorsed John McCain.

A few weeks ago, Paul hosted a press conference of several third party contenders and endorsed a generic, vote for any third party stance. But Paul’s presumed favorite, Libertarian nominee Bob Barr skipped the event and held his own event instead. Paul, who was himself the Libertarian candidate in 1988, retaliated by endorsing Chuck Baldwin of the relatively obscure Constitution Party instead.

By third party standards, Libertarian nominee Barr is a relative celebrity, a former member of Congress who had a high media profile back in the Clinton impeachment era. In contrast, Baldwin is a classic third party contender–an leading activist in a tiny movement with no profile among the broader voting public. Third parties are often torn between nominating a longtime loyalist like Baldwin or a celebrity newcomer like Barr.

Electorally, they’ve done better with the big names, like Jesse Ventura, who went through some party splintering himself. He was elected governor of Minnesota in 1998 on Ross Perot’s Reform Party ticket, then split after Pat Buchanan’s hard-right hostile takeover. Ventura started his own Minnesota Independence Party, which has lived on past his governorship. No, it’s not advocating that Minnesota become a country, like the Alaska Independence Party that First Dude Todd Palin affiliated with for a while.

Back over on the left, the strained relationship between Ralph Nader and the Green Party has led to electoral results less than the sum of the parts. Ralph Nader did much better running with the Greens in 2000 than he did running against the Greens, and their obscure party activist nominee, in 2004. Of course, there were other factors, like the Florida results of 2000. But the resources of the left, and the willingness of the media to cover lesser-known candidates, hurts both Nader and 2008 Green nominee Cynthia McKinney.

The candidates of the libertarian and right spectrum are likely to have a bigger impact than the left, as Barr may be a factor in several close states. Perhaps not so much Iowa, which is looking stronger for Barack Obama by the week. But Barr could be significant in some of the Rocky Mountain states, where Libertarians have run well, and in his native Georgia, which Obama is trying to put into play. (McKinney is also a Georgia native, but her African American base seems solid for Obama.)

But Paul’s decision to back the obscure Baldwin, rather than the better-known Barr, is a classic case of the third party movement crumbling late in the game. It probably gives McCain a small boost in a few close states, but one would need special scientific instruments to measure it.

Most third parties qualify for Iowa’s presidential ballot by getting 1,500 signatures. But the Socialists held a “party meeting” provision, and used it very loosely.

“Recently the Secretary of State ruled that the 250-person meeting requirement may be satisfied by holding a meeting at an outdoor location,” writes Ballot Access News editor Richard Winger. “The Socialist Party set up its meeting at an outdoor spot on the campus of the University of Iowa. That spot had lots of pedestrian traffic. Persons walking by were asked to sign, and that person was considered an attendee.”

“Good going on the homework and implementation for these folks,” said Karen Kubby of Iowa City. Kubby is no longer active in the Iowa Socialist Party, but while she was, she served 11 years on the Iowa City council. “They deserve some attention for this, Kubby said. “I hope it doesn’t result in Iowa tightening any definitions.”

The Constitution Party started as the US Taxpayers Party, an umbrella group of several single state conservative parties. It changed names in 1999. Baldwin was the 2004 vice presidential candidate. He’s running under different labels in some states.

The Socialist Party is the lineal descendant of Eugene Debs’ campaigns a century ago and has elected, as Alice Cooper duly noted in “Wayne’s World,” three Socialist mayors of Milwaukee. The party faded almost to non-existence in the 1960s but has been an off and on presence on Iowa’s presidential ballots since 1980.

Nine presidential tickets is about average for Iowa in recent presidential cycles. The most crowded ballot was in 1992 with 14 candidates.

The big news in Congressional filing was the non-filing by Democratic primary loser William Myers in the 4th Congressional District. There will be three-way contests in the 3rd and 5th Districts, and a four-way race in the 2nd. The U.S. Senate race is a two way contest between incumbent Democrat Tom Harkin and Republican Christopher Reed.

But he said it is not for lack of signed petitions.  Those, he said, he “surrendered” to “Democratic leaders.”

Nor is it for lack of interest.  In a statement sent yesterday afternoon, Meyers noted his intention to stay “very much in this race.”

Why he surrendered his nomination papers to Democratic leaders remains unclear, and Meyers was unwilling to reveal the identities of the recipients of the nomination papers when asked. His statement implied that the recipients had broken a promise to him.

Here is the full text of Meyers’s press release:

DEMOCRATS BREAK PROMISE TO 4TH DISTRICT CANDIDATE

Meyers Surrenders Nomination Papers to Democratic Leaders

“I’m not on the ballot, but I am very much in this race.” Said William J. Meyers, an Independent candidate for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District. Earlier this week, Meyers surrendered his required signature petitions for ballot access to Democratic leaders. In previous public announcements, Meyers said the only reason he was running on an independent ticket was to make a stance on party policies, which needed to be “set in stone” in the form of rules that could be strictly enforced.

Meyers, a former Marine Corps Terrorism expert, is outraged by the party’s actions, “I just wanted to ensure that future candidates did not have doors closed to them as I had on me. This is a mass movement, which needs to be accepting to all comers. Now, the minute I surrendered my petitions, they closed the doors again. I had a feeling they would do this, but trusted a certain individual. Democrats had a real opportunity to establish something real and lasting, but once again they shoot themselves in the foot. I will continue my mission into November……..people have asked why I didn’t attempt to change the rules from the inside, well….sometimes you stroke a donkey and give it a treat, but then there are times like this when you have to grab it by the tail and give it a hard kick in the rear end.” Meyers is without enough time to obtain signatures again, so is asking supporters to use the write in option on November’s ballots. That is unless, of course, Democratic leaders deliver his nomination papers to the Secretary of State for him.

Meyers is also leading the fight against Iowa’s newly enacted smoking ban, as he recently launched a new website, REPEALTHESMOKINGBAN.ORG, which has become the focus point for citizens infuriated by the ban.

Undeterred, Meyers also recently launched a new campaign Web site that features Whitesnake’s seminal 1980s rock anthem, “Here I Go Again (On My Own).”

Barth joins Democratic incumbent Dave Loebsack, Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and independent Brian White in the race.

In other paperwork filed with the Secretary of State Wednesday, Barth was also listed as the Green Party’s vice presidential candidate. The Greens later replaced Barth with the party’s actual vice presidential candidate. Use of a stand-in for petitioning purposes is common in third party ballot access efforts.

In state legislative races:

Bob Barr was a Republican in Congress, but now he’s the Libertarian presidential nominee. Cynthia McKinney, a former Democrat, is the Green candidate.

Barr is showing up as a 2 to 3 percent blip in national polls, drawing support from disgruntled Republicans and former Ron Paul supporters. Paul, still serving as a Republican congressman, hasn’t endorsed Barr — but he hasn’t endorsed John McCain either, and speaks often and highly of Barr.

First elected in the 1994 Republican landslide, Barr had a high profile role in the 1998 House impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Barr lost his seat in a 2002 primary, when redistricting paired him with another Republican incumbent. He surprised people by working with the American Civil Liberties Union on privacy issues, and left the Republicans last year.

National polls have excluded McKinney, preferring to ask about Ralph Nader instead. McKinney was first elected in 1992, and lost a 2002 primary where she was targeted by pro-Israel groups for her pro-Palestinian views. She won the seat back in 2004, but lost again in 2006 after getting a lot of negative attention over a physical confrontation with a Capitol police officer who failed to recognize her as a House member.

McKinney will compete with Nader, who qualified for the Iowa ballot as the “Peace and Freedom” candidate last week, for a similar group of voters. Nader is the better known name, but the Green Party has more of an organization than Nader’s loose network. The Greens had hoped to increase their support from minority voters by nominating their first African-American candidate, but the Democrats seem to have had the same idea.

Greens and Libertarians earned a place on Iowa’s voter registration forms on Jan. 1 this year as “political organizations,” the new law’s term for third parties. Voters can register as Libertarian or Green, but the parties still have to petition to get their candidates on the ballot. The deadline is Friday.

In the 2nd Congressional District, independent Brian White of North Liberty, a self-described moderate, followed through on his announced candidacy and filed. He joins Democratic incumbent Dave Loebsack and Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks. But 5th District candidate Victor Vara of Sioux City is an unexpected addition to the race between Republican incumbent Steve King and Democrat Rob Hubler.

Socialist Workers Party (SWP) candidate Frank Forrestal filed in the 3rd Congressional District, where he’ll face Democratic incumbent Leonard Boswell and Republican Kim Schmett. The SWP also filed for president on Tuesday. But the presidential candidate Iowa voters will see on their ballots isn’t the party’s official nominee.

The SWP, a regular fixture on Iowa ballots in presidential years, has nominated Róger Calero, who also ran in 2004. But Calero is constitutionally ineligible for the presidency, just like Arnold Schwarzenegger, as he is not a native-born U.S. citizen.

“The SWP was for many years the leading voice of Trotskyism in the USA,” writes ballot completist Ron Gunzburger of politics1.com. “Since the 1980s, the SWP has drifted away from Trotskyism and moved towards the brand of authoritarian politics espoused by Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s style of Marxism.” The SWP is the group that actively sells The Militant newspaper.

James Harris will serve as the SWP’s stand-in candidate in Iowa, just as he did in 2004. Harris will appear alongside the official vice presidential nominee, Alyson Kennedy. It’s not clear what will happen if the Яevolutioи occurs and the SWP wins, but it will have to improve on its 374 votes in 2004 in Iowa (out of 1.5 million cast) for the question to matter.

Announced SWP U.S. Senate candidate Diana Newberry did not file Tuesday. The deadline is Friday and 1,500 signatures are required.

In state legislative races:

The big news in the second week of filing with the Secretary of State was Ralph Nader’s qualifying for the Iowa ballot in the presidential race. Nader joined a half dozen state legislative candidates filing last week:

• Democrat Deb Ballalatak of rural Albia, a full-time mom, was nominated in Senate District 36 against Paul McKinley.
• Ken Vaske of Algona filed in Senate District 4 on the “Grassroots for Life” ticket against Senate president Jack Kibbie.
• In House District 49, based in Ft. Dodge, Republicans nominated Michael Littzen to take on incumbent Democrat Helen Miller. An independent has announced, but not yet filed, in this race as well. Miller has been unopposed the last couple cycles.
• In House District 63 in West Des Moines and Urbandale, Republican Rep. Scott Raecker has drawn a Democratic opponent, Nita Garvin. Raecker was unopposed in 2006 and a two to one winner in 200.
• Democrats switched candidates in House District 50 after Kristin Roberts dropped out following the primary. 2006 nominee Lynne Gentry will now make a second run against Republican incumbent David Tjepkes, who won with 56% last time.
• Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, who represents Ed Fallon’s old House District 66 in central Des Moines, is being opposed by Green candidate Chris Moeller.

Last week’s filing leaves 31 legislative races still officially uncontested.Independent and third parties need 50 signatures to file for a House seat and 100 for a Senate seat. Democrats and Republicans need to hold conventions to nominate late candidates. Time is running out for such conventions, and with Democratic party rules requiring a week’s notice, it may already be too late.

Candidates nominated by convention are rarely successful, but there are exceptions. Democrats had to nominate by convention in the 2nd Congressional District in 2006 after their nominee fell short on signatures to get on the primary ballot. That failure was just one more reason a lot of observers wrote off that candidate — but that race turned out OK for Dave Loebsack.

The first presidential candidate to file in Iowa was Gloria LaRiva, representing the new Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSL).

Ron Gunzburger of the priceless resource Politics1 says the PSL was founded in 2006 by a breakaway faction of the communist revolutionary wing of the pro-Cuba/pro-China Workers World Party. LaRiva was the Workers World presidential nominee in 1992 and has been a frequent candidate for other offices since the 1980s.

The electoral impact of the left of the left of the left is well below the Mendoza line of scattered Mickey Mouse write-ins. Bill Van Auken of the Socialist Equality Party won 176 votes in Iowa out of 1.5 million cast in 2004. Yet every cycle, at least one of the Marxist parties manages to get the 1500 signatures to qualify for the Iowa ballot. Perhaps a signature is enough to make an aggressive newspaper seller go away.

With two weeks to go before the Aug. 15 deadline, Iowa’s U.S. Senate and five congressional races are still, officially, two candidate, Democrat vs. Republican contests. Democratic primary loser William Meyers had not yet filed as an independent in the 4th Congressional District, nor had independent Brian White or Green Wendy Barth in the 2nd District.

The Republicans and Democrats have not, as yet, filled any more of their gaps in the 36 state legislative races that remain uncontested by one of the major parties. However, two other legislative candidates have filed.

In Ottumwa, independent Rick McClure will challenge Democratic Rep. Mary Gaskill. “I am a true Independent. I am not sold out to either party or any special interests. Like a baseball umpire, I call ‘em like I see ‘em,” McClure says on his MySpace page. He has two friends; Tom is not among them. Dan Cesar of Keosauqua filed in House District 90 as a candidate of the “4th of July Party.” He’ll face incumbent Democrat John Whitaker in the fall. There is no Republican candidate in either contest.