On July 9, Robert Owens, Constitution Party nominee for Ohio Attorney General, was certified for the November 2008 ballot, as an independent candidate. Ohio is holding a special election for that office because the incumbent elected in 2006 resigned a few months ago. The law required Owens to submit 750 valid signatures. He was given only 10 days to collect them. The state took two months to check the petitions.
It is conceivable that someone will challenge Owens’ position on the ballot, since he voted in the March 2008 Republican primary. Ohio does not have registration by party, but Ohio elections officials keep a record of which party’s primary ballot a voter chooses.
Just in case Owens is challenged, he filed a federal lawsuit on July 9 arguing that it would violate the U.S. Constitution for Ohio to keep him off the ballot just because he voted in the Republican primary. Ohio has no law that says an independent must not have voted in a primary. It does have a vague law that says an independent must not be “affiliated” with a qualified political party. That law was upheld in Morrison v Colley, but in that case, the independent candidate had run for party office in a partisan primary, which is different than just voting in a party primary. The new case filed by Owens is Constitution Party of Ohio v Brunner, 2:08-cv-666. If Owens is not challenged, he will dismiss the lawsuit.
Robert Owens was also endorsed by the Ohio LP.
Hey Richard,
Time to get your facts straight if you are going to be commenting on other people’s campaigns. Robert Owens was not nominated by the Constitution Party. He IS an independent candidate with a broad anti-corruption coalition behind him that includes many issue PACs like the CP. HUGE difference and your sloppiness and two-bit circus slant is damaging to the efforts on the ground.
So come out from behind your computer once in a while and ask the people involved in these things!
Jeremiah Arn
Owens 2008 campaign manager
Whoa! Jeremiah… climb down from your high horse. Richard is so fair in his reporting of all minor party and independent candidates that I believe your nastiness is very unwarranted. Just read his writings over the years to see what I mean.
Robert Owens chose to call his lawsuit “Constitution Party of Ohio v Brunner” when he could have just had himself and a voter who supports him as co-plaintiffs. So that tells me he wants to public to perceive him as a Constitution Party nominee.
He’s also the CP State Chair. FYI
Richard,
Please ignore idiots. You do great work,and im proud to say you are a friend-to-liberty.
Boy those Libertarians [like Jerry Arn!] sure ‘do not play well with others……’
So glad secular saint Richard Winger is the exception!
More on CP candidate, Robert Owens…
Posted by Cody Quirk — July 10th, 2008
from [so called] Third Party Watch:
On July 9, Ohio Constitution Party State Chairman, Robert Owens, was certified for the November 2008 ballot, as an independent candidate for Attorney General. Ohio is holding a special election for that office because the incumbent elected in 2006 resigned in disgrace a few months ago. The law required Owens to submit 750 valid signatures. He was given only 10 days to collect them. The state took two months to check the petitions.
Robert and his wife, Teri, have been extremely active in organizing a new state committee for the Constitution Party in Ohio over the last year. They led an impressive delegation from Ohio to the National Convention in Kansas City, where they were outspoken supporters the eventual Presidential nominee, Chuck Baldwin.
At most there will be only three candidates for Attorney General on the November ballot in Ohio. There is some feeling that the Republicans may not even field a candidate, leaving it a contest between Owens and the candidate of the Democrats, the party of the disgraced former Attorney General