Six third-party foes of McCain, Obama try to get message out

By David Skolnick

Two of the candidates for vice president have ties to the Mahoning and Shenango valleys.

They include a well-known consumer advocate, two former members of Congress, a minister, a real estate agent, and a health care executive recruiter.

And some of them could play a role in determining who will be the next president of the United States.

The six are presidential candidates on the ballot in Ohio, a key swing-state that could determine the outcome of the race between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.

A recent Ohio Newspaper Poll has Mc- Cain leading Obama by 2 percentage points, well within the poll’s 3.3 percent margin of error. The six other candidates have the support of 4 percent of those polled with 3 percent undecided.

Nearly all of third-party and independent candidates acknowledge they’re not going to win.

Getting on the ballot and picking up a few percentage points are their goals.

“We don’t have a chance in hell,” said Brian Moore, the Socialist Party’s presidential candidate. “I’d be lucky to get one-tenth of one percent ... We’re running to raise awareness of our positions.”

Those positions include the “abolition of every form of domination and exploitation.”

If a revolution by workers to take control of their workplace is needed, so be it, Duncan said, although he hopes it can be done “through social upheaval.”

Being a Socialist isn’t easy, he said.

“People think of me as a Communist or a traitor,” Moore said. “But we have a noble cause. We want to help our fellow man and take power away from the government and end all wars.”

Most of the third-party and independent candidates are on the ballot in multiple states.

But Richard Duncan of Aurora, a real estate agent, will be on the ballot only in Ohio.

Duncan ran as a write-in candidate in 2004, obtaining 17 votes.

With his name on the ballot, running as an independent, he expects to do better.

Duncan took an unusual route to find a vice-presidential running mate.

Duncan received a list of independent voters from the Pennsylvania Department of State, and started making calls asking people to be his vice presidential running mate.

Duncan chose Pennsylvania because it borders Ohio and said his running mate could concentrate on the eastern part of Ohio.

After about 500 calls — “a lot of them didn’t take me serious” — he found Ricky Johnson of Farrell, Pa.

When Duncan first asked about being his “VP,” Johnson said he thought he was being asked to be the vice president of a company.

“It took a few minutes to register and then when it did, I realized how serious it was,” Johnson said. “I’m excited to do this.”

Johnson isn’t the only vice presidential candidate with local ties.

Boardman veterinarian Donald K. Allen is among several running as write-ins in Ohio this time around.

Rosa A. Clemente, the running mate of Cynthia McKinney on the Green Party ticket, has family in Youngstown.

Her mother, Maria, moved to Youngstown when she was about 10 years old, grew up on Willis Avenue, and lived there for about a decade.

Among Maria’s 15 siblings is Harry Arroyo, the former lightweight boxing champion.

McKinney served six terms as a U.S. House member as a Democrat. But this is the first time Clemente is running for office.

“She just called me out of the blue,” Clemente said of McKinney’s asking her to be her vice-presidential running mate. “It wasn’t a big leap for me.”

Clemente is a community organizer, freelance journalist and a self-described hip-hop activist.

In the latter position, Clemente said she helps politically organize members of the hip-hop generation, blacks and Latinos born after 1969.

Clemente said she joined the Green Party in 2000 because “a two-party system isn’t fundamentally democratic.”

As for her expectations for the presidential race, Clemente said, “I would be happy if we got 5 percent ... I also want to bring young dissatisfied voters to the political process. I’m excited about building a movement of young people.”

McKinney isn’t the only ex-member of Congress from Georgia running as president.

Bob Barr, a former Republican, is the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee.

Barr said he never had any intention of running for president, but felt compelled to do so after seeing that the major party nominees were Obama and McCain.

Barr criticized Obama for being liberal and for supporting big government.

Barr, a former Republican, saved his most stinging criticism for McCain.

“He portrays himself as an outsider and a maverick, but he’s every bit the Washington insider and protector of Washington power,” Barr said of McCain.

Barr said he started to move away from the Republican Party after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

That’s because the party permitted President Bush to dramatically increase the power of the president, particularly the approval of the Patriot Act, he said.

Barr supported the act, but said the Bush administration “deceived me that it would be used to investigate terrorism and it would not be expanded and abused, which it has been.”

Barr said he’d like to attract more than 5 percent of the vote in the election.

“We can have a major impact in the election,” he said.

Some political pundits say Barr will draw support away from McCain. But Barr disagrees.

“There isn’t much overlap between a small-government Libertarian and a pro-large government Republican,” he said. “On the Democratic side, we anticipate picking up the Reagan Democrats and 2nd Amendment supporters not inclined to vote for a liberal.”

Chuck Baldwin, a minister, radio talk-show host and columnist, is also a former Republican.

Baldwin joined the Constitution Party and is its presidential nominee.

“I became totally fed up with the Republican Party and their total loss of conservative convictions,” he said. “The Bush administration is an abysmal failure. He’s nothing more than a liberal in conservative clothing.”

Baldwin doesn’t expect to win enough electoral votes to be elected president but isn’t deterred in his effort to run a strong campaign.

“We’re a party that wants to return the country to its constitutional structure,” he said. “We’re trying to convince the people that the two political parties are the same.”

Numerous attempts to reach Ralph Nader, a consumer advocate, lawyer and author, who is running for president as an independent, and Matt Gonzalez, his running mate, were unsuccessful.

skolnick@vindy.com