Political Parties (San Antonio, Anton: title, residential, money)

[SA Duckhunter]

Can someone here in San Antonio tell me why we need political parties? I truly believe they do more harm than good.

[Bo]

Unless this discussion is about local politics, it belongs in the Politics and Other Controversies forum. Since our city elections are officially non-partisan, I'll warn you that it's going to be difficult to keep it on-topic for this forum.

Maybe it would be a better fit for the Texas state forum?

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by SA Duckhunter

Can someone here in San Antonio tell me why we need political parties? I truly believe they do more harm than good.

I can give you 1 reason,
I don't know the details, but I believe a political party has to get at least 10% of the national votes for them to be eligible to get public funding.

I believe that it's all about funding and "networking"
you can try to run for president by yourself... but you'll never beat Mr. X who is getting money from his political party plus their public support and will campaign for him/her.

http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/p....shtml#General
Minor party candidates and new party candidates may become eligible for partial public funding of their general election campaigns. (A minor party candidate is the nominee of a party whose candidate received between 5 and 25 percent of the total popular vote in the preceding Presidential election. A new party candidate is the nominee of a party that is neither a major party nor a minor party.).
The amount of public funding to which a minor party candidate is entitled is based on the ratio of the party's popular vote in the preceding Presidential election to the average popular vote of the two major party candidates in that election. A new party candidate receives partial public funding after the election if he/she receives 5 percent or more of the vote. The entitlement is based on the ratio of the new party candidate's popular vote in the current election to the average popular vote of the two major party candidates in the election.