Post-Election Analysis: Constitution Party Rising Toward 2008 (Tom Kovach)

by Tom Kovach Constitution Party of Tennessee Communications Director

Even though I lost the election, several good things have come out of the process. Hence, this analysis.

This campaign for Congress was unique in the nation.

Although I’m the state PR coordinator for the Constitution Party, I ran on the Republican line.

The reason was because the CP does not yet have a ballot line in Tennessee. Thus, my Federal paperwork said Constitution Party, but my State paperwork said Republican Party. (I was unopposed in the Republican primary.) I chose the GOP primary, versus the Independent line, as the better long-term strategy.

As a result of that decision, I got the highest number of votes (49,036), and one of the highest percentages (28) of any Constitution Party candidate in the country. Rick Jore won a state legislative seat in Montana with 52% of his district, but a smaller number of actual votes (because a Congressional district is much more populous). The second highest number of votes in the CP was Ed Noonan, who ran for governor in California with 48,672 votes.

By the way, my numbers were achieved without one bit of support from the Republican Party (they could have afforded it, but didn’t), or the Constitution Party (they just can’t afford it). My total fundraising was barely over ONE thousand dollars (thus, I never had to file an FEC financial report).

When analyzed through those numbers, the effect of my campaign is truly realized. The national average cost per vote in a congressional campaign is over three dollars. My average cost per vote was about TWO CENTS. Therefore, I was able to deliver much more bang for the buck than an average candidate.

I believe that my campaign proves that a candidate that runs on Constitution Party principles, without compromise to "the forces of moderation", can do well -- even without a big budget. That fact, in turn, should encourage more TRUE conservatives to leave the GOP and join the Constitution Party.

For some of the hard numbers for CP candidates click here.

Given that foundation, the Constitution Party should be able to field a viable candidate in the 2008 presidential race. Obviously, that viability would be greatly increased if a prominent conservative Republican were to cross over to the Constitution Party in the wake of the Republican "spanking" of the recent election. But, even without that "crossover factor", the current post-election dissatisfaction of conservatives (whether Republicans, Independents, or members of another party), coupled with strong CP performance in several races nationwide, shows that the Constitution Party is the strongest of all the smaller parties. Couple that "magnet factor" with the "crossover factor", and the possibility exists that neither of the Big Two political parties will have an occupant in the White House in the next administration.

Tom Kovach, 2006 candidate 5th Congressional District of TN http://www.tk-05-tn.net Mount Juliet, TN CP National Veterans Coalition Executive Committee Member