Alfonse D'Amato

Third-party candidate choices let voters down

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Gary Johnson? Who is this guy, you ask?

He is the most prominent of the alternative candidates who will be joining Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton (or Bernie Sanders — wouldn’t that be something?) in the run to be our next president.

This election features the two most unpopular major-party candidates in history. This has frustrated voters dreaming about a possible third-party candidate who could save them from having to decide between Trump and Clinton.

Johnson isn’t exactly who these voters had in mind.

I know what many of you are thinking: Hillary can’t put Bernie away, so why doesn’t he run as a third-party candidate? Sanders keeps telling the public that he’ll continue running, and has even threatened a brokered convention, regardless of what will have happened in New Jersey and California by the time you read this.

But given Clinton’s large advantage among superdelegates and the fact that she will continue to gain noteworthy endorsements, Sanders won’t win, unless, of course, Clinton is indicted. At the end of the day, Sanders is a Democrat, and his run has made him a star among the left wing of the party.

If the Democrats take back the Senate, Sanders will chair either the Budget Committee or the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. This would be a prominent role for the senator from Vermont, and would give him influence over executive appointments and a good chance to shape legislation.

So let’s look at who we have. It’s no secret that the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol has been one of the leading conservative advocates for an alternative to Trump. Kristol has a deep-seated hatred for Trump that goes way back. He has been very open about possible third-party candidates, floating the names of Mitt Romney and Senators Ben Sasse and Tom Cotton as possible candidates, to name a few. All have declined.

Kristol also pushed David French, who served in Iraq and was awarded a Bronze Star, and is now a lawyer and a writer for the conservative National Review. But French, who had no real name recognition outside the neoconservative movement, said no as well.

There was a day when Kristol was more relevant in the conservative movement, but that day has come and gone. These third-party offerings are little more than his attempt to reinvent himself. Sadly, he is nothing more than a tired political journalist who is no longer cutting edge and is seeking to regain his influence.

The Libertarian Party nominated Johnson, a former New Mexico governor, as a third-party candidate. Johnson, a Republican, led New Mexico for four years. The fact that he is now running as a libertarian is puzzling, because he is the antithesis of a libertarian. He is really nothing more than an ultra-liberal political has-been who will have little to no impact on the race. Johnson also ran in 2012, and received just 1 percent of the popular vote. I would be impressed if he could match that number this time around.

Third-party candidates are not, however, a total waste of social media space. Had former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg entered the race as an independent, he would have been a threat to Clinton, though not so much in electoral votes.

Unfortunately, for all you voters out there dreaming of a third candidate to save the day, I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think there’s room for anybody else to enter the race.

Equally distressing, on a local level, Long Beach City Councilman Anthony Eramo has formally announced his candidacy for the open 20th Assembly District seat recently vacated by newly elected State Sen. Todd Kaminsky.

Eramo has been one of the biggest supporters of giving rich Manhattan developer iStar a $109 million tax giveaway to build on Long Beach’s Superblock, which would inevitably force the taxpayers of the City of Long Beach, its school district and Nassau County to pick up the tab.

Time and time again, Eramo has attempted to push this deal through without listening to the voices of the taxpayers. He is the opposite of transparent government, and now he wants to be an assemblyman? That would be a taxpayer’s despair.

Al D’Amato, a former U.S. senator from New York, is the founder of Park Strategies LLC, a public policy and business development firm. Comments about this column? ADAmato@liherald.com.