Third-party Senate candidates seeking votes for future

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The phone jangles at Daniel "digger" Romano's home in St. Louis. He answers cheerfully: "Senator's office!"

Well, not exactly. At least not yet. But Romano, U.S. Senate nominee of the Green Party, is eternally hopeful.

"Really, that's my little joke around here, saying it's the senator's office. Do I expect to win? No, not really. But I sure hope to get some votes," Romano, 47, said in an interview. "Gotta get some votes."

That's a shared goal for both of Missouri's third-party Senate candidates on Nov. 5: accumulating enough votes statewide to meet the state's requirement for parties to have automatic ballot positions in future elections.

Otherwise, their activists must circulate petitions in hopes of gathering some 10,000 signatures to put party nominees before voters in 2004, a presidential election year.

The other third-party Senate hopeful is Tamara A. Millay, the Libertarian nominee and by now a campaign veteran. She was her party's unsuccessful 1998 Senate nominee, drawing 31,876 votes. Incumbent Republican Kit Bond won re-election with 830,625 votes.

"It's true that my most basic goal is keeping the Libertarian Party on the ballot in the future," Millay said Tuesday.

"But with the Senate expected to vote on a war resolution and the Republican and Democratic candidates so supportive of going to war in Iraq, I believe voters are looking for another choice, so maybe they will consider me," she said.

In contrast to calls for wartime unity behind President Bush by Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan and her GOP challenger Jim Talent, both Millay and Romano staunchly oppose U.S. military action against Iraq.

Millay was even arrested Oct. 1 on a misdemeanor charge of blocking a public street in St. Charles, where she and about 35 other anti-war demonstrators were taken into custody. They were protesting outside a Boeing bomb and missile plant. She was handcuffed, fingerprinted, hauled to jail and has no regrets.

"I do believe that war with Iraq is not only not in the United States' best interests, it is also morally wrong," said Millay, 35, of St. Louis. "Voters can see that I am willing to put my money where my mouth is. I will stand up for my principles."

Romano also oppose military action in Iraq. In fact, he and Millay oppose just about any scenario for sending U.S. troops overseas.