Richard Carroll, Green Party nominee for the Arkansas state house, 39th district, still doesn’t know if he will be the only name on the November ballot or not. The Democratic Party of Arkansas had disqualified its nominee, Dwayne Dobbins, after he won the May 2008 primary. The Democratic Party took this action because Dobbins, a former state legislator, had resigned in the middle of the prior term as part of a plea bargain to avoid felony prosecution for a sexual assault on a 17-year-old girl. The only reason Dobbins won the 2008 primary was because everyone had expected his wife, Sharon Dobbins, to file for re-election. But she surprised everyone by not filing, and only Dwayne Dobbins filed, at the last minute.

Now the Democrats have been reminded that their disqualification of Dobbins would probably not be upheld in court, under a precedent from 1994 involving a Republican candidate for Attorney General who was in a somewhat similar situation. To counter that, the Arkansas House Speaker plans to propose a rule to disqualify anyone from taking office in the legislature who had previously resigned as part of a plea bargain. The legislature reconvenes August 5.

No one yet knows whether Dwayne Dobbins will sue to regain his spot on the November ballot. He may be discouraged from trying to sue, if he knows that he can’t be seated anyway. But if he does sue, and if he wins the lawsuit (which is very likely) then there would be two candidates on the November ballot after all. In any event, there is also a Democratic write-in candidate.