Over the last couple of months, we have probably spent more time in this space discussing the Colorado Libertarian Party (LPCO) than we have over the course of the entire previous decade. Third parties in Colorado rarely take on much relevance because of their fairly small memberships and overall lack of organization; in fact, most of our discussions about third parties in Colorado are because of some relation to the Colorado Republican Party.
We’re discussing a third party again today because of the bizarre “alliance” that State Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams made with the LPCO earlier in the summer. The stated goal of this alliance was to prevent a Libertarian candidate from running in battleground districts because of the concern that a 2022 Libertarian challenger might have siphoned enough votes away from the Republican to ensure a CO-08 victory for Democrat Yadira Caraveo. The LPCO agreed to withhold support for a Libertarian candidate in 2024 should Republicans sign a wacky pledge promising to endorse a bunch of bizarre Libertarian positions. To the great joy of the LPCO, Williams began sending the Libertarian pledge — from a Colorado GOP email address — to all announced Republican candidates.
As far as we can tell, no Republican candidate has agreed to sign the LPCO pledge — including the GOP candidates running in the two biggest races of 2024 (CO-03 and CO-08). The pledge made even less sense in CO-03, given that there was already a Libertarian candidate in the race (Mark Ellworth, Jr); nevertheless, incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-ifle) refusal to sign the pledge has drawn the ire of the LPCO and added a second Libertarian candidate to the field of candidates.
A Libertarian challenger, James Wiley (@Redddevil89), has emerged and will seek the Party’s nomination for Congressional District 3 following @laurenboebert‘s failure to sign The Libertarian Party of Colorado’s (LPCO) Liberty Candidate Pledge.
— LPofColorado (Board of Directors) (@LPofColorado) September 16, 2023
There is a whole thread attached to that Tweet/X above detailing the decision to run (another) Libertarian candidate against Boebert, whose name is also regularly misspelled by the LPCO:
The Pledge, which simply commits the COGOP candidates to abide by the US Constitution and the principles of limited government, was a bridge too far for the Congresswoman. Considering Congresswoman Boebart won reelection by a razor thin margin, a Libertarian challenger…surely ends Boebart’s hopes for reelection.
And who is this brave challenger? Some dude named James Wiley, whose website is called — we couldn’t have possibly made this up — “Wiley4Vengeance.com“.
We don’t know much about Wiley — including what he looks like — because there is very little information about him online. There isn’t a photo or a bio on his website, but the LPCO does link to this amazeballs letter from Wiley:
The Libertarian Party of Colorado entered a Pact with the Colorado Republicans to not challenge their candidates so long as they would pledge to abide by Libertarian Principles. Since then, Lauren Boebert, aka Beetlejuice, has publicly denounced our pledge and defamed the principles we cherish as unworthy. This insult to who I am as a Libertarian compels me to eagerly fulfill the duties invoked by the Libertarian Pact and challenge her in her district which she so nearly lost by only 542 votes. 542 votes are not enough to stop me from being the cause of her defeat. [Pols emphasis]
In truth, I will be elected by the voters of CD-3 as their Libertarian representative to Congress because the land of our district is filled with Sovereign American People whose rights have suffered immeasurable damage by state actors. CD-3 needs activist leaders prepared and willing to demolish the federal government. These damages began to accumulate 247 years ago in the year 1776 and have now reached an abhorrent scale of violation too grand for a free People to submissively bear. An entire generation of elected officials will be replaced by radical American idealists prepared to reset and restore our federal governance to its most primitive and most powerless state of origin.
[Pols note: Boebert won re-election in 2022 by 546 votes, but fact-checking is for people who hate liberty.]
In short, Wiley is running for Congress because Boebert wouldn’t sign the LPCO pledge and because he wants to completely dismantle the federal government. We’re not sure that a Libertarian candidate would actually make the difference between victory and defeat for Boebert in 2024, but we’re very comfortable in predicting that James Wiley has no chance whatsoever at winning this race.
Regardless, that “alliance” concocted by GOP Chair Dave Williams seems to be backfiring. The “pledge” has succeeded mainly in handing the LPCO a specific reason to challenge a Republican incumbent such as Boebert — and it has made Libertarian candidate announcements more newsworthy than they have ever been in Colorado.
This wouldn’t be the first time that a Republican Party dalliance with a third party went awry. In 2010, the American Constitution Party (ACP) became a big topic when former Republican Tom Tancredo ran for Governor under the ACP banner. Colorado Republicans pushed Tancredo to run as the ACP candidate because they were worried that little-known Dan Maes — the actual Republican Party nominee for Governor — would have no chance against Democrat John Hickenlooper. Then-Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams even announced that Maes would not be supported by the Colorado GOP. Hickenlooper won that election easily, but playing footsie with the ACP nearly cost the Colorado Republican Party its “major party status” when Maes came dangerously close to dropping below 10% of the statewide vote (Maes finished with 11%).
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Not sure how I feel about this. Could see him taking votes from Boebert, but also from Frisch.
Are we going to have a Libertarian primary? I never heard of such a thing?
Wouldn't they have to run it themselves? After all, they are the people who think that government shouldn't be doing anything.
Libertarian primaries do happen, though they're sort of rare.
Just a quick peek into Wiley is a glimpse into an entire shitshow of people. Fucking embarrassing.
There's an actual picture of Wiley in Colorado Politics. He looks a bit like he could be distantly related to John Lydon of the Sex Pistols, aka Johnny Rotten.
https://www.coloradopolitics.com/colorado-in-dc/lauren-boebert-draws-libertarian-opponent-congress/article_81fe75d2-5669-11ee-987a-5388a20ce42b.html
He does resemble the younger Johnny, not the more corpulent cranky old man John of today. Wiley's linkedin page lists him as a "legal clerk" to attorney Gary Fielder, who recently served a one-year suspension for mishandling client funds. Wiley also lists himself as "Director" of Project Thaler, which appears to be an org that claims to be fighting human trafficking, but seems to be mostly concerned with one child case in Arizona.
I'm now wondering if Libertarian candidates are willing to sign "a wacky pledge promising to endorse a bunch of bizarre Libertarian positions."
So is this guy an Anarchist or a Royalist? He complains that our system of government since 1776 is the problem. We didn't have a Federal Republic until 1789.
But knowledge of history is for people that hate liberty as well, apparently!
When are we going to start requiring candidates for office to provide a certificate of sanity before their names are placed on the ballot?
"When are we going to start requiring candidates for office to provide a certificate of sanity before their names are placed on the ballot?"
You wouldn't have many candidates then. Let's face it – a certain degree of mental instability goes with the territory.
It's not just the mental hygiene issue but the intelligence issue as well. We have an ever-growing number of ignorant people in elected offices. If Trump gets back into office, implements Project 2025 and gets rid of civil service, we will have a lot more ignoramuses (or is it "ignorami"?) in appointed positions as well.
I'm reminded of the quote attributed to Adlai Stevenson who, when running for president, was approached by a woman who said, "Everyone with a brain is going to vote for you!" to which Stevenson said, "Madam, that won't do. I need a majority."