Unfortunately, the blog post of May 16, saying that the Missouri legislature had passed SB 797, was mistaken. The bill had passed the Senate, and then on May 14 had passed the House, but the House had added something new to the bill, so it needed to be passed by the Senate again.
On May 16, the Senate concurred in the amendments, so it appeared that the bill had passed entirely. But in Missouri, that wasn’t enough; the Senate not only had to concur in the addition, but it had to pass the bill again as a separate action. Although the bill had no opposition, the legislature went home without doing that final action. Thanks to Barbara Woodruff for pointing out the original error. The bill would have corrected the typographical error in the law that was passed in 1993. Generally a group is free to circulate a petition for recognition in Missouri before it has chosen its nominees. But the glitch means that if the group wants to run a presidential candidate, it must list the presidential candidate on the petition. Fortunately the Secretary of State permits a stand-in presidential candidate, who can be changed later.
The ONE PARTY system doesn’t want any to run against them.
Yeah, I was listening, and Bray brought up the bill around 5:59pm in the session.
A bill or two got shot down before then due to disagreements, so it looked like she could have got it done if not for that.
Having grown up in ‘Misery’ I had no idea that American Politics came in flavors other than Democan and Republicrat. If Kansas is one party GOP state [currently in a temporary lapse with a Demcratic Governor] then like FLorida, the Democratic College/ Urban areas, the GOP boonies of Missouri just do[es] not recognize Independents and ‘others’!
Ha, yes. For about 40 years, there wasn’t a stable third party on Missouri ballots.
From 1954 to 1992, I think the only party to get on ballots in two years was the “American” party, which got extended access due to Wallace, and promptly lost it after 1970 (although they had a three-way Senate primary that year).
Kansas had some more third parties on the ballots before they changed the laws in the 1980s.
Speaking of Kansas, any idea if the Kansas Reform Party or any other reform party will nominate a Presidential candidate this year?
Anyone who believes that Nader denied the election to Gore should read Harvard Poli Sci prof Barry C. Burden’s analysis of Nader’s campaign.
The article is not available online. Here is the citation and the abstract follows.
Ralph Nader’s Campaign Strategy in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election
Burden American Politics Research.2005; 33: 672-699
“Those observing the 2000 presidential campaign agreed that Ralph Nader could not win the presidency but disagreed about his actual strategy. Many Democrats contended that he was playing the role of “spoiler” in an attempt to attract attention or affect the election outcome. Others argued that he was trying to earn 5% of the popular vote to secure matching funds for the Green Party in the next presidential election. Count models find that Nader’s travel schedule, unlike Gore’s, was unresponsive to the closeness of the major-party race. Nader’s appearances were driven primarily by opportunities for attracting a large number of voters, suggesting that earning 5% was indeed a central campaign goal. Data on television advertising produce a parallel result. This finding resolves an ongoing debate about Nader in particular, but also points to broader differences between major and minor-party campaign strategies.”
Burden is interviewed in the doc ‘An Unreasonable Man’
Sorry, that was intended for the “Cynthia McKinney Cinches Green Party Nomination”.
Missouri currently has four(4) ‘recognized’ political parties. Along with the Democrats and Republicans are the Libertarians and Greens.
While considered an ‘open’ primary system, it is hardly that since Missouri voters are required to choose a party and given a ballot for that party at the primaries. We are very pleased the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Washington States Top Two primary system and are considering an initiative drive to allow such here.
http://www.reformpartyusa.us
The only ballot-qualified parties in Missouri now are the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian Parties. The Green Party is not on the ballot and is not trying to get on. The Constitution Party turned in a petition this year which is being checked now.
The US Supreme Court has not upheld the “top-two” system in any final sense. It has only said that challenges must be brought after the system has been tried at least once. Also it hasn’t ruled on the argument that the system violates the ballot access precedents. The data from states that have used “top-two” show that the only candidates who ever qualify for the Missouri ballot are members of the Democratic and Republican Parties, so I am dismayed that anyone supports it.