Here in Virginia, the recent governor's race was decided -most likely- by votes siphoned off by the "libertarian" candidate. I used the scare quotes because the candidate's positions were decidedly NOT libertarian, leading a lot of people-including me-to believe that he was a Dem plant whose sole purpose was to siphon off votes from the people who are information challenged, yet go "woo hoo" when they see the Libertarian label next to a candidate. Imagine a pile of dog poo on the ballot with the Libertarian label. I will guarantee you that it would get 1%-2% of the vote. To be fair, a pile of poo would be preferable to many political candidates these days.

The guy in NC appears to be an actual libertarian, so that's fine. As for siphoning off votes? That statement presupposes that the votes belong to the GOP. They do not. They belong to the voters. Politicians have to earn those votes, A lesson the GOP has failed to learn. And that could spell ruin for them, even in a generally positive political year such as this one.

I said it a few weeks ago and I'll repeat it here: I think that the GOP will not take the Senate this year.