Noon on May 12 was the deadline for candidates for Congress in Florida. In the U.S. Senate race, 4 independents, but no minor party nominees, will be on the November ballot.
In U.S. House races, Democrats fielded a candidate in 24 of the 25 districts, whereas Republicans fielded a candidate in only 19 of the 25 districts. There are only two minor party nominees for U.S. House. The Constitution Party is running one in the 23rd district (he will be the only opponent to the Democratic incumbent), and a Libertarian is running in the 22nd district, but due to a paperwork glitch, he will be listed as an independent.
Also, there are bona fide independent candidates running in the 8th, 12th, and 16th districts. There are no mandatory petition requirements for minor party or independent candidates in Florida; but they must pay a fee, for Congress, of $9,726.
Filing for state office doesn’t close until July.
It might occur to someone, somewhere, that a $9762 filing fee for Congress is ridiculous and should be changed. (In Florida, Federal,State and County candidates pay 7% of that position’s salary as their ‘filing fee.’)
The filing fee for Congress in Ohio, for example, is $150.00.
Needless to say, this has a tremendous impact on political participation in Florida, and explains why so many races have only one, or many cases – absolutely no one – willing to oppose an incumbent.
While it is true that there exists an “alternative ballot method,” which involves collecting many thousands of signatures and then paying a small per-signature fee for verification, it has not been used very often at the Congressional level (former Representative Peter Deutsch being a notable exception).
Florida in this case as in so many others, is strictly a “Pay to Play” state, favoring as they say, the “downtown money crowd.”