The Natural Law Party was organized in the United States in 1992, and it ceased to exist as a national organization in 2004. All of its state units will be dropping off the ballot in November 2006, except for the Michigan unit. The Michigan branch of the party is the only one in the nation running any candidates. Because the Michigan procedures for parties to remain on the ballot are quite lenient, it is overwhelmingly likely that the Michigan Natural Law Party will still be ballot-qualified in 2008.
That is really wonderful news for the people of Michigan. If the Natural Law Party continues on the ballot in that state, it should seriously consider affiliating with a national political party. My personal favorite for it to join is the Socialist Party USA.
Interesting to hear the Natural Law Party of Michigan is the only state chapter of the party still holding a state ballot-line. Here in Michigan, the Natural Law, Libertarian, Green and Constitution (called U.S. Taxpayers) are the only 4 third/minor parties on the ballot, although we do have the Socialist, Communist and Independence Parties formally organized but with no ballot access (takes about 32,000 signatures collected within a 6-month-period to get ballot status in Mich.). In any event, the NLP comes in LAST ever year and has for the past 8 years I’ve been following mid-term and Presidential elections in the “Great Lakes State”. The Green, Libertarian and Constitution Parties are very competitive with each other depending on the gender of the candidate they run (females get more votes than males at least in statewide races), for what office (e.g. State Board of Education, et al) and, obviously, from what district (i.e., Greens typically get more 3rd party votes in urban areas and locations with universities). Anyway, another choice for the ballot of Michigan’s voters, but if the NLP fails to garner enough votes for ’08 access it wouldn’t be that significant of a loss!!