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On 19/04/2006, at 11:15 PM, Beth Wolszon wrote:
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<div style="margin: 0px;">You could be describing Perot and Ventura
with that sentence, too, which is a big reason why the Independence
Party of Minnesota returned to its roots after its brief affiliation
with Perot's national party.</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">THAT will make us look like a coherent
and organized party and attract supporters in droves!</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">And that, of course, could also describe
the Democratic Party, or, as it's legally called here in Minnesota, the
Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party.</div>
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<div>The relationships of political movements to the names they choose
is full of curiosities. Some years ago (1989) the Australian Capital
Territory (similar to the District of Columbia in the US) was given
self government and set out to elect an Assembly. For reasons that
could only have made sense in a city of around 300,000 where the main
industry is government, it was decided to adopt a "Modified D'Hondt"
electoral model. Apparently the unmodified D'Hondt system was a
Belgian invention and, as befits a country whose national symbol is the
Brussels Sprout, it was totally incomprehensible. How it was modified
to adapt to the Australian polity is another of those mysteries that
are destined to remain unsolved.</div>
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<div>However, it did encourage a vast range of groups to chance their
arm in a bid to become part of the nascent government. Apart from
those parties that infest the rest of the nation (Labor, Liberal,
National, Democrat) and a slew of independents, among the candidates on
offer were those who represented such bodies as the Party! Party!
Party!, the Disabled & Redeployed Workers Party, Abolish
Self-Government Coalition, Fair Elections Coalition, Home Rule
OK, Residents Rally, A Better Idea, Socialist Workers Party, Family
Team, Christian Alternative Party, Sleepers Wake, No Self Government
Party, The A.C.T. Community Party, Canberra First Party, Surprise
Party, and the one that would certainly have attracted my vote, had I
been eligible, the Sun-Ripened Warm Tomato party.</div>
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<div>Around 150,000 people voted (88% of the enrolment) and, as far as
I can recall the electorate was treated as a whole and 17 members were
elected based on a preferential and proportional system (if such it can
be called). Of the major parties Labor had 5, Liberal had 4 while a
local residents group, Residents Rally also had 4 - so no majority for
any group. The remaining 4 seats went 3 to No Self Government Party
and 1 to Abolish Self-Government Coalition. Thus almost a quarter of
the seats were held by members who opposed the whole idea of self
government. From memory, the Labor party came to an accommodation with
the Residents rally and governed for a while.</div>
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<div>But the really interesting fact was , with only 150,000 votes to
count, it took from March 4 (polling day) to May 8 for the final
election results to be announced. However, to prove that even
bureaucrats are not as silly as they seem, before the next election the
Modified D'Hondt system was abandoned as a method of determining the
wishes of the electorate and taken out to sea and sunk as a hazard to
shipping.</div>
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<div>My only regret is that the Sun-Ripened Warm Tomato party was not
involved in government, even though they outpolled most of the other
also-rans and independents.</div>
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<div>More details from <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.elections.act.gov.au/result89.html">www.elections.act.gov.au/result89.html</a></div>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"
face="Helvetica" size="3">Barry Williams</font></p>
<p style="margin: 0px;"><font
style="font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"
face="Helvetica" size="3">the Skeptic of Oz</font></p>
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