Three Party Elections Hurting Democrats.

Are three party elections letting the Republicans win?

Daily Kos: CA-48: The Number That Matters Most: 40:

Forty. That's the percentage of the vote that John Kerry won in CA-48 last year. And that's the number that matters most for Democrats in today's special election. Read on and I'll explain.

New Mexico's third CD was (and still is) heavily Democratic: In 1996, it went 52-38-6 (Clinton-Dole-Perot). In January of 1997, Bill Richardson resigned to become UN Ambassador. A special election was held in May with the following results:

Bill Redmond (R): 43
Eric Serna (D): 40
Carol Miller (Green): 17

Thanks to a strong third-party challenge from the left, the Republican Redmond pulled off an extremely unlikely upset in a Democratic bastion. Could the same thing happen in CA-48? I think so.