A reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, Carolyn Lochhead, has this story about the U.S. Senate race in California, with a focus on whether Orly Taitz will finish second to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein in the June 5 top-two “open primary”. The link does not go to the Chronicle, but to another newspaper, which also carried the story.
The Socialist Alternative Party has qualified a candidate for the Washington state legislature this year. She is Kshama Sawant. Here is the party’s web page, describing the campaign. She is running in the 43rd district, place one, for State House. Because the only other person who filed is a Democrat, she is guaranteed to place second and will be able to run in November. Here is a community news blog about her campaign.
The Socialist Alternative Party is the U.S. affiliate of the Committee for a Workers’ International, which seems to have its strongest branches in Asia. As far as it known, this candidacy in Washington state is the first time the party has contested an election in the United States.
Because Washington state does not permit party labels to exceed fifteen characters, her ballot label is “Socialist Altern.”
Washington state has very few minor party candidates (for office other than President) this year. The only other ones who are members of actual organizations are one Reform Party member running for Governor, one Constitution Party member running for Lieutenant Governor, one Progressive Party member running for state legislature, and one Green Party member running for state legislature. The Socialist Workers Party nominated a candidate for Governor but she did not pay the filing fee to appear on the primary ballot.
On June 2, the Michigan Libertarian Party held its state convention and nominated candidates for presidential elector. Party representatives will hand-deliver the nomination documents to the Secretary of State on Monday, June 4. The party’s documents certify that the presidential elector candidates are pledged to Gary Johnson who lives in New Mexico. But the party’s documents also say that if the Secretary of State sticks to her position of refusing to allow that, and if no court intervenes, then in that case the party’s presidential elector candidates are pledged to Gary E. Johnson of Austin, Texas.
Gary Johnson, the national Libertarian Party presidential nominee, was on the ballot in the February 2012 Republican presidential primary ballot in Michigan. The Secretary of State is interpreting Michigan law to mean that, therefore, the Libertarian Party is forbidden to nominate Johnson.
Gary E. Johnson of Austin, Texas, is a long-time active Libertarian Party leader in Texas. He attended the recent national convention in Las Vegas and has said he consents to being the party’s nominee for president, in Michigan only, if necessary. However, if the Secretary of State doesn’t relent, first there will be a lawsuit. The Secretary of State’s position is very weak. The law hasn’t changed since before 1980, and in 1980 the former Secretary of State, Richard Austin, interpreted the state’s “sore loser” law not to apply to presidential primaries. Therefore, he printed John B. Anderson’s name on the November 1980 ballot in Michigan even though Anderson had run in the 1980 Republican presidential primary. The Secretary of State disavows this precedent on the grounds that in 1980, Michigan didn’t have procedures for independent presidential candidates, something that is irrelevant, and also not true. Michigan did have procedures in 1980 for independent presidential candidates; they were court-imposed, not statutory, but they still existed.
In all history, no minor party has ever had its presidential nominee kept off any state’s general election ballot on the grounds that the nominee had run in a major party presidential primary. Minor and new parties that have nominated presidential nominees who had run that year in a major party primary include the Progressive “Bull Moose” Party of 1912, the Farmer-Labor and Socialist Parties in 1924, the National Economic Recovery Party of 1988, and the Populist Party of 1988.
Ballot Access News
May 1, 2012 – Volume 27, Number 12
| This issue was printed on blue paper. |
Table of Contents
Thad McCotter, the incumbent Republican congressman in Michigan’s 11th district, won’t run for re-election in the Republican primary as a write-in candidate. His petition to appear on the primary ballot was earlier ruled insufficient. However, according to this story, other prominent Republicans will now enter the race as write-in candidates. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
The Weekly Standard has this fairly long description of the Libertarian Party, its national convention last month, the Gary Johnson presidential campaign, and the libertarian movement. The Weekly Standard general editorial stance is normally not very sympathetic to libertarian ideas, so given that, the article is reasonably fair. The author, Mark Hemingway, attended the national convention.