Evan Falchuk's Mission To Change Mass. Politics

There were actually two winners in the Massachusetts governor's race this week. Of course, Charlie Baker won the race for the corner office by capturing 48.4 percent of the vote. Evan Falchuk was a distant third with 3.3 percent of the vote, but that was a victory for him.

If these preliminary results are certified as is, that would be just enough to establish his United Independent Party as an official party in the state, which means the party will be able to hold a primary with designated nominees in 2016.

But in order to keep that designation, the United Independent Party will have to either sign up 43,000 voters or get 3 percent of the vote on another statewide ballot in 2016. Both are challenging, particularly the latter because the only statewide race in 2016 is the presidential race.

The Green-Rainbow Party also appeared to win official political party status on Tuesday. Three of its candidates won 4 percent of the vote in the secretary of state, treasurer and auditor's races in preliminary results.

The last time the Green-Rainbow Party won that designation was after the 2010 auditor's race, when Nat Fortune won 5 percent of the vote. However, the party's 2012 presidential candidate Jill Stein did not get enough votes to keep the official party status.

Evan Falchuk, founder of the United Independent Party. He tweets @efalchuk.

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