Everyone has been writing their prediction of who will win tomorrow in the big races and what it will mean for our state and our country. However, there is a theme that is perhaps being overlooked that is worth exploring. What role will minor party candidates play this time around.

There are several interesting aspects to this. First, there are the minor party candidates for statewide office. In the Gubernatorial race, Dan Malloy and Tom Foley face a third candidate, Tom Marsh, who is running on the Independent line. I saw my first Marsh lawn sign today. He had started off as a Republican and switched to the Independent party. With the race between Malloy and Foley being very close, Marsh may not get that many votes. If Malloy wins, and Marsh gets more votes than the difference between Malloy and Foley, there are going to be some upset Republicans calling Marsh a spoiler and traitor.

The U.S. Senate race looks even more interesting. Besides Dick Blumenthal and Linda McMahon, John Mertens is running on the Connecticut for Lieberman line and Warren Mosler is running on the Independent line. Both have run spirited campaigns. When it was looking especially close between Blumenthal and McMahon, Mertens and Mosler faced the same fate as Marsh in the Gubernatorial contest. This has been especially a concern amongst progressive Democrats who wanted to see the Connecticut for Lieberman line on the 2012 ballot, but don’t want to see Blumenthal’s chances threatened. I’ve now seen some Mertens lawn signs by the side of the road as well.

There is also the Brian K. Hill write-in campaign for U.S. Senate. It is not clear what sort of impact he will have. I’ve seen a fair amount of Hill lawn signs, and he has been trying to reach out on Facebook.

For Secretary of State, Treasurer, Comptroller and Attorney General, the Green Party and the Independent party both have full slates. The Libertarian Party has candidates for Secretary of State and Comptroller.

However, the minor party to watch is the Working Family Party. I’ve now received requests from two different organizations urging me to vote on the Working Family Party line. They have cross endorsed the Democrats on all of these lines and it will be interesting to see what percentage of the vote they get.

It gets even messier when you go further down the ballot. In a press release from the Secretary of the State’s office, Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz notes that “There are as many as nine political parties running candidates for the various seats on the ballot, depending on the town and legislative district.”

This has presented some interesting ballot logistics. Fifteen communities will have double sided ballots and most of the ballots look like complicated bingo cards.

Looking at the State Representative races provides all kinds of interesting information. The Republicans are running 126 candidates and the Democrats are running 136. There are 16 open seats, 12 Democratic and 4 Republican. 9 Republicans are unopposed, as are 9 Democrats. In addition, there are 12 Democrats that appear on the ballot as both Democrats and Working Family Party candidates and have no opposition. The district with the most party lines is the 100th district where Democratic Incumbent Matt Lesser is on the Democratic and Working Family Party lines and Republican challenger John Szewczyk is also on the Connecticut for Lieberman, Libertarian and Independent lines.

Besides the 100th district, the Connecticut for Lieberman party has candidates in six other districts. The Libertarians have no other State Rep candidates.

The Independent party is running candidates in thirteen different State Rep races. In two of these races, they are cross endorsing with the Connecticut for Lieberman party. In six of the races, they are cross endorsing Republicans.

The Working Family Party has 59 State Rep candidates. With one exception, all of these are cross endorsed Democrats. The exception is David Stevenson in the 107th district where the Democrats did not nominate a candidate.

The Green Party has four candidates, none of whom are cross endorsed. In the 67th district, the Green Party candidate is the only challenger to Republican Incumbent Clark Chapin. Four other parties are fielding just one candidate. The Christian Center Party is running Daniel Traceski as the only opponent to incumbent Republican Penny Bacchiochi. The Buckman for Connecticut party is running Brien Buckman in a crowded race for Denise Merrill’s seat. The We the People Party is running David Parian in a crowded race against incumbent Chris Donovan and the Common Sense Party is running Bruce Siennick against Republican Incumbent David Scribner, whose only other competition is the aforementioned David Stevenson.

Rounding out the State Rep races, there are six Petitioning Candidates. Two are running against Democratic Incumbents that face no other opposition.

There are also six registered Write-in candidates for State Rep. Three of them are running in the 6th district where Democratic Incumbent Hector Robles is running unopposed. This afternoon, the Hartford Police Department terminated Officer Robles for various violations of the Hartford Police Department’s Code of Conduct.

How will all of these races turnout? We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.