A mystery: Parties collapsing in the Vermont Senate

Published by Skeptikos on Aug 15, 2013

Party discipline is verging on collapse in the Vermont Senate, according to a new analysis of rollcall votes from the state.

Like New Hampshire, I used W-NOMINATE and DW-NOMINATE, computer programs developed by political scientists, to analyze state rollcall votes and place legislators along the left/right spectrum.

Here is a graph of the results for the Vermont Senate, where up is farther left and down is farther right. (I added violin plots on top of the boxplots, in order to show the distribution of ... Read more

Tags: NOMINATE Vermont

The Vermont Progressive Party – a model for New Hampshire Free Staters

Published by Skeptikos on Aug 12, 2013

What's the most successful third party in America?

In terms of total votes cast, it's the well-known Libertarian Party. But in terms of elected officials, it's Vermont's Progressive Party, and their methods are perfectly suited to Free Staters in New Hampshire.

Most third party candidates run against the two main parties. Progressives, on the other hand, usually cross-file as Democrats. Since their positions largely overlap with those of the Democrats, they go on to win their ... Read more

Tags: Libertarianism Free State Project Vermont New Hampshire