Libertarian Robert Sarvis Pulls 6.6 Percent in Virginia Governor’s Race, Almost Five Times Better Than Gary Johnson Last November

In a race where he was polling with a
double-digit lead
just last week, Democrat Terry McAuliffe
won the Virginia governor’s race in a squeaker tonight, with a
margin of victory of
just over 2 percent, receiving 47.6 percent to Republican Ken
Cuccinelli’s 45.42 percent. For libertarians the bigger news might
be that Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis pulled 6.6 percent, or
more than 142,000 votes, five times the vote total Libertarian
presidential candidate Gary Johnson won last November, despite a
significantly lower turnout. Democrats
tried to make the election against Cuccinelli a referendum on
“Tea Party extremists,” and by that measure they lost; Cuccinelli’s
margin of defeat being about two-thirds the size of Mitt Romney’s
last year.

Cuccinelli supporters called Sarvis a spoiler before the polling
places even opened, with Ron Paul going so far as to say it would
be “insane”
for anyone to vote for Sarvis because he expressed support for the
idea of a mileage tax, something the Reason Foundation’s Adrian
Moore believes is worth a try. At campaign rallies, Sarvis pointed
out the tax doesn’t require GPS tracking—a standard odometer
already tracks mileage. Scott Shackford pointed out last week that
Sarvis
drew support both from Democrats and Republicans, something
that suggests libertarianism’s potency as a catalyst for
coalition-building around issues of freedom. Nevertheless, some
Republicans disappointed by such a close loss are sure to blame
Sarvis anyway, believing his votes “belonged” to the GOP, an
argument Nick Gillespie rightly took down
last week too.

In the other governor’s race tonight, Libertarian Kenneth Kaplan
won .6 percent of the vote, the same as Gary Johnson last year, in
an election that saw Republican Chris Christie win re-election in a
landslide in the traditionally blue state of New Jersey.

Read Brian Doherty’s interview with Sarvis from last month

here, and an overview of the Sarvis and Kaplan campaigns from
just yesterday
here.