Allen Buckley, 56, the Libertarian candidate who made Georgia’s U.S. Senate race a three-way contest, was using brute strength in the three days leading up to Tuesday’s election, pounding about 100 yard signs a day into the unforgiving ground up and down Ga. 400, and from Rome to Cartersville.
“The problem is it hasn’t rained, so the ground’s hard as a rock,” said Buckley, as he watched returns at an election night gathering at the Mellow Mushroom restaurant south of Buckhead.
Breaking into state politics has been equally tough for Libertarians, about 30 of whom had gathered at the pizza place. When Buckley’s poll numbers rose into the double digits last month, it seemed his message may have found more forgiving soil.
As Tuesday evening began, Buckley said his aspiration was to force a runoff: “I’d like to see a run-off, with me in it.”
By 9 p.m. that outcome was unlikely, with Buckley receiving 4 percent of the vote compared to Republican Johnny Isakson’s 65 percent and Democrat Jim Barksdale’s 32 percent.
“It’s discouraging,” Buckley said. “I mean, I tried my best. There’s only so much I can do.”
A U.S. Senate candidate twice before, Buckley said he may have lost his appetite for the race. Would he run again?
“Probably not,” he said. “It’s hard to climb that hill against the two major parties.”
Faring better Tuesday was newcomer Eric Hoskins, running as a Libertarian in the Public Service Commissioner’s race, and earning 25 percent of the vote by 9 p.m. against Republican incumbent Tim Echols.
“I’m overwhelmed,” said Hoskins, shouting over the noise. “I hope it has something to do with people identifying with the Libertarian party.”
The gathering was informal and diverse. The smell of aromatic smoking materials drifted in from the sidewalk outside. More radical viewpoints were represented by Matt Ryan, 21, a student at Kennesaw State who was voting in his first presidential race. Ryan described himself as an anarchist — a viewpoint that Buckley doesn’t embrace.
But the Libertarian ideal of less government was a move in the right direction for Ryan. “One step at a time,” he said.
David James, 40, brought his two grade-school-age children, and his son David II, 10, slept in a chair as Tehilla, 7, pranced through the crowd and ate cake.
Brett Carson, party chairman, said coordinating fund-raising is a challenge for a party that attracts an independent attitude. “It’s like herding cats.” But the party is gaining steam, he said, offering as an example the get-together Tuesday, which was many times the size of the 2012 gathering.
Votes for Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, which hovered at 3 percent, fell short of Carson’s hopes for 5 percent showing, but were better than vote totals from four years earlier. “It’s going to be a critical mass at some pont,” Carson said.
As the evening wore on and more states were being called for Donald Trump, members of the crowd cheered, perhaps sensing a kindred spirit in a candidate that eschews the philosophy of both major parties.
Before the pizza restaurant closed at 10:30 p.m. Buckley slipped away quietly, leaving behind Hoskins and his wife Miranda.
Hoskins, 37, an IT manager from Lawrenceville, and his wife have four children under the age of 7, but Tuesday is their customary date night, so they had a sitter at home. They stayed until the doors closed.
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