Historically, third-party candidates in Utah have had some success. The Socialist party elected more than 100 Utahns to a variety of offices during the first two decades of statehood, according to Utah historian John Sillito. And the American Party had some success in the very early 1900s, campaigning against the influence of the LDS Church in Utah politics. Recent voting history, though, reveals an electorate fairly uninterested in third-party candidates. In 2004, for example, the Constitution and Personal Choice candidates for U.S. Senate and governor received less than 2 percent of the vote.

This year's candidates all harbor a hope that this is the year that enough Utah voters will be fed up with the status quo, even the status quo of the traditional challenger. "To continue to vote for the lesser of two evils in America today will lead to national suicide," says 2nd District Constitution Party candidate W. David Perry. His Green Party rival agrees: "I believe that to vote for the 'lesser of two evils' and to betray one's principles is to throw away one's vote."

Senate candidate Bradley tells people that "if there were divine intervention" he would win on Nov. 7. Personal Choice Senate candidate Price thinks if he can let enough people know what he stands for, "I could maybe surprise people" with a victory. Libertarian candidate Seely thinks "if the voters that usually do not vote, out of frustration or anger, would vote Libertarian, we could have a peaceful revolution." Julian Hatch doesn't think he himself has a prayer, although, as an agnostic, "prayer" is probably not the word he would use.

Third-party candidates generally don't win elections (although let's not forget Abraham Lincoln's win, says 1st Congressional District candidate Hudson of the Constitution Party). But they do "help make the existing parties rethink and shift what they are saying," says political science professor Shaun Bowler of the University of California Riverside, who has studied the ins and outs of third-party politics in America. "So, it may be a case of third parties losing the (electoral) battle but winning the war of ideas."

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E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com