U.S. Left’s Performance in the 2014 Elections

1. Socialist Alternative’s Jess Spear was crushed by Democratic incumbent Frank Chopp in Washington’s 43rd Legislative District with 17.1% (8,143 votes) against 82.9% (38,430), a massive drop when compared to her predecessor Kshama Sawant’s showing of ~30% against Chopp in 2012. Socialist Alternative probably spent tens of thousands of dollars on this race since even in April 2014, Sawant was asking for help to retire $10,000 in debt from her successful Seattle city council race against Richard Conlin.
2. Green Party candidate and International Socialist Organization member Owen Hill won 27.0% (3,725 votes) against the Democratic Party’s Anne Haskel for the State Senate seat of Maine’s 28th district, a remarkable feat since Hill was a last-minute replacement candidate.
3. Eugene Puryear of the Green Party (and Party for Socialism and Liberation) got over 10,000 votes or 3.5% in a (16-way?) local council race in Washington, D.C.
4. Angela Walker (a “free range socialist“) won 21% (67,346 votes) in her race for Milwaukee County sheriff.
5. The Vermont Progressive Party elected seven of its members to the state legislature, the most in its history (three of them from Burlington), and three state senators. One member lost her state legislature re-election bid.
6. Howie Hawkins of the Green Party (and his running mate, Brian Jones of the International Socialist Organization) got 4.8% of the vote, or 176,269 votes, quite a jump from four years ago when Hawkins barely maintained the Greens’ ballot access with 59,000+ votes (or 1.3%). Hawkins’ result tracks closely with the 182,000 votes Democratic primary challenger Zephyr Teachout got in the primary against Cuomo.
7. Green Party results in general hovered around 1% with a total of 8 candidates. Socialist Party USA member Adam Adrianson won 1% in 9-candidate 2-slot race for Michigan Board of Trustees with 33,920 votes.
8. The left vote in Oakland’s mayoral race was split between independent Dan Siegal who received 12.9% in the city’s ranked-choice voting system (also known as instant run-off) while the Green Party’s Jason Anderson received 1.5%. Why the Green Party ran a candidate against Siegal, whose percentage made him a major contender, is anyone’s guess.