As the Indiana Senate race grows closer, there is growing attention on Libertarian Party nominee Lucy Brenton and whether she could tip the race from Republican Mike Braun to Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly.
A Survey-USA poll released Tuesday showed Donnelly eking out a 41 to 40 percent lead over businessman Braun, with Brenton drawing 8 percent of the vote.
Republicans almost always fear Libertarians more than Democrats do, believing that the anti-government message and “Leave Me Alone!” philosophy will draw more votes from likely Republican voters than it does Democrats.
Sen. John Thune, R.-S.D., once insisted to this reporter that he would have won an earlier 2002 race than his actual election in ’04 had Libertarian Kurt Evans not drawn 31,000. Thune lost in ’02 to Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson by 524 voters.
“No doubt about it,” Thune said of Evans being a “spoiler” for him. “He ran to the right of me.”
In Indiana in 2012, Democrat Donnelly defeated Republican Richard Mourdock for the Senate by 131,575 votes. Libertarian Andrew Horning drew 146, 453 votes (5.8 percent), or more than enough to make the difference between the two major party candidates. (Brenton, like Horning in ’12, has been included in the televised debates).
“What you have to remember is that third party candidates always fade by the time of the election,” Ed Feigenbaum, editor of the much-read Indiana Legislative Review, told Newsmax. “I don’t see Brenton drawing more than 3 percent.”
Whether that 3 percent is enough to spell the difference between Donnelly and Braun may be the defining story of the Indiana Senate race of 2018.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.