Healey: alt-parties whistling in the wind

Renaissance Man Robert Healey, the leader of the Cool Moose Party in Rhode Island, knows just how tough it is to build an alt-party. In 2002, I wrote about the challenges facing alternative parties.

Healey, 45, who is still hailed by strangers on the street as "Cool Moose" and "the Moose Guy," is currently running for lieutenant governor on a platform of abolishing the office. Regardless of the outcome, this will mark the last campaign of the Cool Moose Party since state law requires that a party must receive five percent of the presidential or gubernatorial vote, or a petition with the signatures of five percent of those who voted in the last gubernatorial election, to remain on the ballot.

Without a dramatic shift in the fabric of American politics, Healey doesn't expect third-party candidates to make significant inroads in his lifetime, "but that doesn't mean you should stop trying."

So while voters, at least according to a RIC poll released this week, have caught up with his idea of abolishing the LG's office, it's not particularly surprising that Healey sees Ken Block's Moderate Party as facing less than a highly impactful future.

Asked about this during a taping this morning of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers, Healey praised Block for getting involved in the civic process, but when pressed, he acknowledged that alt-parties are whistling in the wind.

House Minority Leader Bob Watson and Terry Gorman of RIILE also appear on the show, which will be broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12 and at 10 am on Fox 64. (Ramon Martinez from Progreso Latino was invited to appear, but couldn't make it.)