This is NOT an Endorsement_ 3 Third Party Candiates

There is one presidential candidate who has previously lost to Mitt Romney; she is Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate from Boston who was arrested in Texas this week for trespassing while protesting the development of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline.

Stein only got four percent of the vote when she ran with the Greens for the governor of Massachusetts in the 2002 race won by Romney, but it was only a five percent differential which allowed him to eek out a victory over Shannon O'Brien, the Democratic candidate who had been the state's treasurer.

Stein is on the ballot in 47 states; the three states where she is not are Oklahoma, Nebraska and Nevada_ the Silver State is the only one of those three which is considered a swing state. In fact, political experts say the city of Elko, Nev., was the jurisdiction which was most helpful towards George W. Bush's victory over John Kerry in 2004.

Cheri Honkak, a Native American activist is Stein's running mate, and she was also arrested during the protest.

Rocky Anderson, who is ironically the only Utah native in the race (Romney is a Mormon, which is the main religion in Utah), the Justice Party candidate, is openly agnostic and he is known for his progressive stances on immigration, climate change, gay rights and military defense. Anderson served as the mayor of Salt Lake City from 2000 to 2008. His vocal opposition to the Iraq War made him known nationally.

In 2011, Anderson left the Democratic Party for the newly formed Justice Party. Anderson's running mate is novelist Luis J. Rodriguez.

At 28, Peta Lindsay is far and away the youngest person running for president in this election cycle. Ironically, she and far right Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode were both born in Virginia. Lindsay is the candidate for the Socialist Party, which is actually the oldest third party. Lindsay, who is also an alumnus of Howard University in Washington, DC, is a feminist and African-American rights activist. Her running mate is Yasi Osorio; neither candidate has previous political experience.


http://www.jillstein.org

http://www.gp.org

http://www.voterocky.org

http://www.howard.edu

For information on three other third party candidates, go to our other blog "The Daily Vampire:" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Know Your Mayors (Entry 17 of 21)- Ralph Becker of SLC, Utah

Today we continue our long-running series on American mayors with a profile of Salt Lake City, Utah's mayor Ralph Becker (b. 1952) who has been mayor of the Utah capital since 2008.

Becker (D) was preceded by outspoken liberal mayor Rocky Anderson, who served from 2000-08. Anderson established SLC's Green Program. He was also surprisingly friends with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. The two worked together in bringing the Winter Olympics to SLC.

Becker was a member of the Utah House of Delegates from 1996-2007, and he served as the House Democratic Leader.

Though Utah is among the reddest states in the union, SLC usually votes Democratic.

Becker's career has been mostly in Urban Planning, though he also worked for the National Parks Service in his younger years. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Utah.

Becker is also an avid skier, which might be a hard thing for Mayor Mufi Hannemann (he is the mayor of Honolulu!). But, I presume that Becker is not much of a surfer either.