The Constant Candidate

Every election cycle, there are a few things you can count on seeing: bumper stickers, lawn signs, television ads and Christopher Hansen.

Hansen and many others like him are what some call "perennial candidates," people who run for public office often but are never elected. The perennials are usually fringe candidates, running as independents or members of third parties.

Hansen is state chairman of the Independent American Party in Nevada and is running for governor. He has run in every election cycle since 1996 for various offices. Like many frequent candidates, Hansen's motivation for running is more than just getting elected. His number one goal, he says, is to keep the IAP on the ballot, and that requires at least 1 percent of the vote. This year the party is running more than 40 candidates throughout the state; six of them are Hansens, including Christopher Hansen's 26-year-old son Joshua, who is running in his third race.

"Just because we don't win doesn't mean we don't have influence," Christopher Hansen said. "We change the course of the election and the course of the debate."

In nearby Arizona, Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Barry Hess is hoping to do the same thing. Although local GOP leaders had approached him about running as a Republican, Hess insisted on running as a Libertarian as a "matter of personal integrity."

"There's no question I would have had the nomination in my hand right now had I chosen to run," he said of the Republican ticket.

Hess learned which party he belonged in while volunteering on the campaign of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Hess recalls Reagan saying to him, "Barry, you're not a Republican," and then told him he was Libertarian. "I thought the man was calling me names; I had never heard the word!"

Hess wants Arizonans to become as familiar with the term as he now is. This is his second bid for governor; he also ran for Senate in 2000 in what he calls "a calculated political effort to get my name out."

He doesn't consider himself a perennial candidate, however. A plaque on his wall, titled "Portrait of an Achiever," describes the political history of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln lost eight elections before he won the presidency.

"There's a mission here," Hess added.

Faye Walters, the Green Party candidate for the Fourth Congressional District of South Carolina, also sees running as a mission. This is her sixth consecutive run for the same office; she said she feels "intuitively driven to run."

She views her role as a third-party candidate as helping to break the gridlock that Democrats and Republicans create due to their dependency on special interests. "We need other people in," she said.

Walters also believes that she has a better chance than ever before to win the election and that her chances will only continue to improve in the future. Her frequent candidacy has helped her build a solid relationship with the press.

Hansen, too, recognizes the advantages that a constant candidate can have. "You learn the ropes, you learn the insides, you learn the outsides," he said.

"I'll probably run until I die," he continued. Or maybe he'll be elected president; Hansen is still two elections away from Abraham Lincoln's record.