Third-Party Candidates Could Join Governor’s Race

AP reports that several third-party candidates are eyeing the governor’s race and could get in — potentially altering the dynamics of the election.

Potential third-party contenders include Libertarian Party candidate Ken Krawchuk, an information technology consultant from the Philadelphia suburbs who is making his third gubernatorial bid, and Green Party nominee Paul Glover, a longtime activist and political organizer in Philadelphia.

Each man will have had five months to collect the signatures of at least 16,638 voters to get on the general-election ballot. Major party candidates need only 2,000 signatures to get on the statewide primary ballot; voters will then decide who the nominee will be.

Why make a doomed run? Because it’s the best way to get one’s ideas into mainstream circulation. “It’s a pulpit that nobody else has,” said Peg Luksik, who won 10 percent of the vote in each of her two runs with the Constitutional Party.