The unknown candidate

Below is a Tallahassee Democrat article. I didn't know there was a reform party candidate running for governor in Florida. His name is Max Linn. I never heard of him before today.

Most Floridians probably don't know Mr. Linn either. I am not enamored of any of the four candidates for governor.(Hint click those last four words for examples) Right now its coming down to who dislike the least. If I knew more about Mr. Linn, The Tallahassee Democrat article is thin on details, I could consider voting for him. Even if Linn has no chance come November.

Open Post- Bright & Early, Basil's Blog,

Willing to bet $1 million that Florida is ready for its first third-party governor in 90 years, Reform Party nominee Max Linn formally began a 94-day campaign Sunday with a comic-strip analogy.

"It's like Lucy and Charlie Brown and the football," Linn said, comparing political promises by the big parties to the long-running Peanuts gag about the little boy who stubbornly convinced himself the girl wouldn't snatch away the ball when he ran to kick it. "After the election, whether the Democrats or Republicans win, we voters wind up flat on our backs - fooled and hurt again."


Linn, 46, said he will spend $1 million out of his own pocket running for governor. Financial records in the Division of Elections indicate that the retired Treasure Island financial adviser last month made a $250,000 loan to his campaign.

He said he has consulted advisers from the Reform Party campaigns of former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and Texan Ross Perot, the two-time renegade candidate for president. His campaign manager is Doug Friedline, a Ventura veteran, and his director of operations, Russ Verney, worked in the Perot organization.

Linn also said he has been traveling the state for seven months, defending the eight-year term limits for state officeholders and fighting legislative efforts to limit the use of public-initiative petitions to amend the Constitution. He said his campaign platform will include a minimum $50,000 salary for teachers, creation of a two-track education system for college preparation and job training and strengthening of the public-initiative system.

Asked how he would pay for a teaching pay raise, Linn said "things will be cut" in the state's $70 billion budget. He said he would lay out specific plans as the campaign progresses.

"I'm the best-qualified candidate to manage the state's budget, having been a certified financial planner for 20 years," he said. "In financial planning, you put your priorities first and education will be our first priority."

The Reform Party won a court fight in 2004 to keep its spot on the general-election ballot.

"We have a base throughout the state," Lynn said after a kickoff rally at his St. Petersburg headquarters. "Our polls show that voters are definitely ready for some alternatives."

Even with his own money, Linn acknowledged that he will have a hard time competing with well-financed Republicans and Democrats who have been campaigning for a couple of years.

"The other parties have to raise big money because they're doing such a terrible job," he said. "We're going to prove to be the exception to the rule."

Florida has not elected a third-party governor since 1916, when Sidney Catts lost a Democratic runoff and ran as the Prohibition Party nominee.