On June 3, Andy Dawkins, who was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor representative from St. Paul, Minnesota, for 15 years, said he is now a Green Party member and that he will be the party’s candidate for Attorney General this year. He submitted more than the required 2,000 signatures. If he gets 5%, the Green Party will regain its ballot-qualified status, which it lost in November 2004. See this story. He served in the legislature 1986-2002.
In 1994, while Dawkins was in the legislature, he said that he would like to be not only the DFL nominee, but the nominee of the New Party, a forerunner to the Working Families Party. When the New Party sued Minnesota to force the state to let two parties jointly nominate the same candidate, the party’s complaint mentioned that it wanted Dawkins to be on the November ballot both as the DFL nominee and the New Party nominee. Dawkins said in a declaration that he would accept both nominations, but he did not become a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit. The lawsuit won in the 8th circuit but then lost in the U.S. Supreme Court. Thanks to Jim Ivey for the link.
In Minneapolis under both Top 2 and IRV, candidates were free to list their party affiliation or slogan (of 3 words or less).
A Green city councilor was elected under Top 2, even though his opponent received a majority in the primary.