West Virginia Bill to Ease Definition of “Political Party”

West Virginia Delegates Pat McGeehan (R-Chester) and Isaac Sponaugle (D-Franklin) have introduced HB 4356. It eases the definition of a qualified political party. Current law says that is a group that polled 1% for Governor. The bill would say that it is a group that polled 1% for any of the statewide state offices, and alternatively that it is also any group with at least 5,000 registered members. Thanks to John Buckley for this news.


Comments

West Virginia Bill to Ease Definition of “Political Party” — 1 Comment

  1. I am not sure why Delegate McGeehan’s bill has a 5000 voter registration threshold when the Libertarians are currently at 2700. Delegate Doug Reynolds (D-Huntington) told me the other day that he had drafted my proposed legislation which has a 1/10th percent total registration threshold (currently approximately 1300) which would automatically qualify both the Libertarian and Mountain parties. Also, I proposed including statewide federal candidates – U.S Senate and President – which are missing from the McGeehan/Sponaugle legislation. No bill number has yet been assigned to Doug Reynolds’, but it should be showing up soon.
    Also, I met with Senator Charles Trump (chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee) at his Berkeley Springs law office last fall and he indicated his support. The history on this legislation is that, since 2007, it has been introduced by former state senator Clark Barnes and former delegate Mike Manypenny and every year until 2014 it always got stuck in the judiciary committees. Hopefully things will be different this year, but we need lots of people to make telephone calls and help lobby for this important legislation!

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