As the PR Director for Richard (Dan) Ward, Libertarian for Colorado CD-8 and Ross Klopf, Libertarian for Colorado CD-7, I can say with full confidence that our target demographic was never the Republican or the Democrat voter. To the contrary. Our demographic, from beginning to end, was the unaffiliated voter. When we were contacted by someone who was affiliated with the Democrats or the Republicans, we urged them to work out their differences with their party. We explained that we did not want them voting for our candidates because they felt our candidates were the “lesser” of the two evils. Our candidates wanted their votes because they felt our candidates gave them a voice. If this was not the case, please do not vote for our candidate. Withholding their vote gave them the strongest voice.

We believe the reason Richard (Dan) Ward made such an impact is because he had a strong ground game. He met one-on-one with hundreds of voters and actually listened to them. He knew how they felt about issues and they knew what he would bring to Congress. I don’t want to ignore the need to “blame” someone for losing, but Dan’s winning proves there are ignored voices out there. By saying Dan’s 4% was a “protest” vote, you are doing what everyone keeps doing to these disenfranchised voters: you keep saying they don’t matter. We said (during the entire election) there is an entire block of voters who DO NOT want to be Democrats and DO NOT want to be Republicans and the media continue to ignore them.

The Klopf for Congress and Ward for Congress campaign did not ignore these voters. Dan benefited from the message and Ross did not. Meh. That’s politics. Some people click with the voters and some do not. But our message clicked with everyone. This we know because the voters told us.

Patty McMahon

Littleton

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