People who say third parties won’t make a difference in this year’s elections must be suffering from some kind of political amnesia.  So many races I could name (and we did recall a few in this story) and then:  how about John Ensign v. incumbent Senator Reid back in 1998?

Total voter turnout was 416,872, and Reid won by just 428 votes.  The Independent candidate got 8,125 votes; the Libertarian candidate got 8,129; and the Natural Law candidate got 2,749.

If one of those “other” parties had not existed, or if even six percent of the larger two voter blocs had voted for Ensign…!!

The fact is, independent voters and third party candidates can be a huge factor.  And in close races, they always are.  Democrats and Republicans alike should remember this and take nothing for granted.

And that new Tea Party guy?  “Real deal” or not, you can bet your bottom dollar he’ll get some kind of traction and pull votes from the GOP nominee in November.  And if it’s enough, Harry Reid might defy his lagging poll numbers and win by a hair.  Again.