A letter to the Towerlight:
Omission of 3rd party inexcusable

Ryan Williams

7 November 2002

For the first time in 35 years, a third party gubernatorial candidate [appeared] on Maryland ballots.  Supporters of Spear Lancaster, the Libertarian candidate for governor, spent 18 months gathering over 36,000 signatures in order to have Mr. Lancaster’s name appear on the ballot.  He is still glaringly absent from The Towerlight’s coverage of the 2002 elections, however (Nov. 4).

Spear Lancaster’s name is never mentioned in the article by Sarah Breitenbach and Jennifer Hykes.  There are, however, references to the Maryland Green Party, apparently a more acceptable political party to the members of The Towerlight staff.  While the Web addresses for the Green Party, Republican Party, Democratic Party and their respective candidates are given, no mention is made of the Libertarian Party’s homepage, www.lp.org, or to the homepage of Spear Lancaster’s campaign, www.spear2002.com.

The staff of The Towerlight did an unacceptable job in covering this year’s elections.  Independent and Third Party candidates are viable alternatives to casting a vote for the status quo and, if not represented equally in the media, should at least be mentioned.  Hopefully, the staff of The Towerlight will learn from their mistakes in this campaign season and offer a less biased, constricted view of future political races.

Ryan Williams

Member, College Libertarians

This letter was published in The Towerlight

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