Election 2010: Independents Face Obstacles

July 8, 2010 -- Forget the Tea Party. To the extent there is a third party in American politics, it is no party at all.

More Americans call themselves independent than Republican or Democratic, according the newest ABC News/Washington Post poll.

And yet no Congressmen and only two Senators call themselves independents. There are have been no independent Governors since Jesse Ventura, the professional wrestler turned Minnesota politician who left office in 2003.

A small but notable bundle of candidates aims to change that this fall.

Backlash against President Obama's policies among conservatives helped create an energized base for the grassroots Tea Party candidates, who have won Republican primaries over more establishment and politically moderate candidates in races around the nation.

Two politically-moderate refugees from the energized conservative base of the Republican party are mounting high-profile campaigns for statewide office this year. In Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist pulled out of the Republican primary there rather than lose to the more conservative Tea Party-favored Marco Rubio, former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. And in Rhode Island, former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chaffee, who was defeated in a 2006 bid for reelection to the Senate, is now running for governor as an independent.

Meanwhile in Massachusetts, Tim Cahill, the State Treasurer who was elected as a Democrat, is now running for governor as an independent.

Of the three, Crist probably has the best chance of winning. He already has a bully pulpit as governor, and is barely ahead in polls in a three way race in Florida. Chaffee, given his Rhode Island political pedigree – he would be a third generation governor – is thought to have a chance there.

But don't look for a new era of political independence, say political scientists. For starters, there are procedural hurdles to building name recognition and fundraising outside of the party system.