The media this week is reporting that the Libertarian Party is the season’s hottest trend, which means the media will likely lose interest next week. But that won’t change the fact that the party is experiencing an uptick of public interest and awareness and that the party’s candidates are feeling that uptick on the ground this year in Colorado – the independent-minded western state where the party was founded in 1971 and where the names of 26 of the party’s state and federal candidates are already slated to appear on ballots in November.

Congress and cockroaches

“We’re definitely getting more attention,” said Matthew Hess, who is running for state House District 28 southwest of Denver, a swing seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen. Hess ran as a Libertarian for governor in 2014 and for a Douglas County commissioner seat in 2012. He hasn’t won an election yet and he thinks the attention the party is getting this year is long overdue. “The country has set a record for the level of dissatisfaction with the two major parties – they’re as popular as Congress and cockroaches,” he said.

Kim Tavendale is running to represent state House District 33, which is north of Denver and now represented by term-limited Democrat Dianne Primavera.

“I’ve seen quite a lot of change recently,” Tavendale said. “There’s just much more interest in what libertarianism is all about and they’re quite open to the message – Democrats and Republicans.”

In April, the members of the El Paso County Republican Strategy Forum endorsed Libertarian Party U.S. Senate candidate Lily Tang Williams. Group chairperson Sheryl Glasgow told The Colorado Independent that the field of candidates still battling in the Republican primary for the chance to run for the seat failed to impress. “We are Republicans,” Glasgow said, but “[what] matters is that the person stands for self-governance, limited government and freedom.”

Libertarian Party State Chair Jay North says evidence of the spike in interest over the last weeks is coming into focus.

“I can tell you that we’ve seen a lot more searches of the party site, a lot more people filling out our forms online and there have been registered Republican and Democratic voters calling up to offer to volunteer for us.”

He said he anticipates party registration has grown significantly this month – in the weeks since Ted Cruz dropped out of the GOP presidential primary race, Bernie Sanders lost crucial contests on the Democratic side and the Libertarian Party held its convention in Orlando and nominated former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld as its candidates for president and vice president. North says he won’t know officially what kind of gains the state party may be experiencing until July, when the secretary of state posts new registration totals.

In Colorado, the Libertarian Party is home to the third-largest number of registered voters – a far distant third, but third nonetheless. And, for what it’s worth, in May, according to records kept by the Secretary of State, the party gained members at the most rapid pace compared to those added by Republican and Democratic voters. The Libertarian Party added three times the number of new members over the month before, albeit just a fragment in actual numbers of the tallies racked up by the two major parties.

In May, the number of registered Republicans in the state grew by 10,262 to 971,517; the number of registered Democrats grew by 14,711 to 957,910; and the number of registered Libertarians grew by 1,148 to 26,301.

All three parties are likely benefitting from interest among the state’s most populous voter bloc: unaffiliateds. In May, the number of Coloradans registered as unaffiliated voters dropped by 9,465 to 1,020,443.

Hat tip to Hillary and Donald

As poll after poll has indicated, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will be two of the least popular presidential nominees in history, which is the backdrop to the fact that the Libertarian Party has become suddenly newsy.

The attention is translating to growing support – of a kind.

After the party’s convention at the end of May, The Boston Globe editorialized that the Libertarian presidential ticket “offered a credible alternative to Trump.”

“It’s quite a role reversal,” the editorial read. “Usually one of the main impediments to third-party offerings is that voters just can’t imagine those candidates actually serving as president. Now it’s a major party that seems to have nominated a protest candidate, while a minor party has nominated candidates capable of governing.”

In reporting results of a survey conducted by the Lansing-based Glengariff Group in swing-state Michigan last week, The Detroit News in an almost celebratory tone told readers that the “unpopularity of both leading presidential candidates could create an opportunity for a third-party candidate to pick off votes” equally among moderate Democrats and Republicans.

“When voters were offered a third choice in Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson,” the story continued “support for both Clinton and Trump eroded.” Clinton support came in at 37 percent. Trump notched 33 percent. Johnson hit 11.5 percent.

The Detroit News story reads “trendy,” even click-baity, but the Michigan poll numbers come as no real surprise. In Colorado, Trump failed to win even one pledged delegate to send to the national Republican Party convention. To say that support over the last year among Republican leaders in the state was lopsided in favor of primary candidates other than Trump would be a comic understatement. So-called movement conservatives are at a loss. And at the state Democratic Party convention, Sanders supporters waved harsh signs that mocked Clinton as a corporate shill and shouted down pro-Clinton speakers. Many of the Sanders supporters were new to the Democratic Party and won’t be won over to the Clinton candidacy easily, much less convinced to volunteer for her campaign.

“People are turned off,” said Tavendale. “They see Trump’s authoritarian style. They see the big Clinton machine. It makes it so much easier to argue the libertarian case – that libertarianism is a real alternative, that Republicans and Democrats have grown the government, there’s too much cost, too much regulation, too much taxation. I – you know, Libertarians are for small government and we’re socially accepting … People I talk to, you can see them thinking abut it.”

Hess said that bumbling Republican and Democratic politicians could be made to serve as a kind of advertisement for the Libertarian Party, at least for its serious candidates.

“People are open to our ideas,” he said. “Candidates from the other parties steal our ideas all the time but, of course, they get the implementation all wrong … We just need to keep talking and making sense and I think play down some of the more extreme ideas of some of our members.

Anticipating Johnson

North jokes that he’s waiting for donations to begin streaming into the party’s coffers.

“It’s a chicken and egg story: You have to have money to win elections and winning elections attracts more money.”

He says what the party can give its state candidates in lieu of money is something also essential to winning campaigns: eager volunteers.

“People are already calling in to volunteer for the Johnson campaign,” he says, his voice lifting to hang in the air like ellipses.

Johnson’s Twitter account has been a hub of activity since his nomination. It includes links to a rapidly growing list of national media appearances he has made and shoutouts to a first-round of #notHillary and #notTrump celebrities and elected officials throwing their support to the Libertarian ticket.

“I had the pleasure of meeting Gary Johnson in Colorado Springs in March during the state Republican Party convention,” said Tavendale. “I would very much welcome him to come back to Colorado.”

The Johnson campaign has visited swing states Ohio and Michigan recently. There are no future events listed at his website. At press time, his campaign had yet to return messages. On Sunday, his campaign voicemail box was full.

– john@coloradostatesman.com