James Werner knows winning the governor's race is a long shot, but it's not because he doesn't have any good ideas.
"Had I been in the debate, I would have materially affected the outcome of this election. And possibly cost Gov. [Rick] Perry his victory," Werner, the Libertarian gubernatorial candidate, said.
Third-party candidates are often kept out of debates and rarely get media coverage. For example, News 8 Austin included Libertarian Michael Badnarik, who is running for Congress, in our candidate forums. Werner was not invited.
The exclusion policy is based on past voter support for individual candidates or their parties. A similar policy kept Werner out of the gubernatorial debate.
"It's a catch-22 situation. We would get far more than a percent of the vote, if the voters in Texas had a chance to listen to our candidates," Badnarik said.
The discussion hit the Internet where some blame the media and others blame the party.
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Libertarian candidates
Libertarians say not being able to get press coverage is hurting their chances of getting votes.
 
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Libertarian Rock Howard is a candidate in this year's election and while he doesn't blame his party, as a member of the Libertarian Reform Caucus, he recognizes it can do better.
"We've already done most of the work. We've cleaned up some of the platform issues. So that some of the ones that have been there for 20 years and aren't relevant anymore have been cleaned out," Howard said. "Many Libertarians are completely against the notion of public schools. I've been very skeptical about the success of public schools, particularly here in Texas. But I have learned through careful study, that there have been programs that have radically improved schools in Texas."
Norman Horn helped put a forum together for The University of Texas' Libertarian Longhorns.
"Is it likely that all of our candidates are going to get elected? No. We know that. But that's not necessarily the point. Half of what we're interested in is to getting you, the person down the street, your next door neighbor and anybody else in Texas talking about what these principles are behind our country, getting back to the constitution," Horn said.
Werner has a similar view. Success is not only getting elected, he said.
"No. 1, that would be success. No. 2, if we materially affect the outcome of an election that would be success. Then the mainstream parties would have to take us seriously. They'd get a little bit scared. They understand that our presence in a race can cost them an election," Werner said.
The Texas Libertarian Party has 168 candidates running in this year's Texas elections.
