Filing closed earlier this month in New Jersey for candidates for Congress. For the first time since 1890, there will be no congressional candidates on the ballot with a party label that includes the word “Socialist.”
This year, there are 4 Green Party candidates for U.S. House, 3 Libertarians, and one Constitution Party nominee. New Jersey doesn’t have any statewide races up this year.
Do they have status? I am surprised that Greg Pason isn’t running for something after running for Governor last year.
In New Jersey, every candidate needs to petition for ballot access. Fortunately, the signature requirements are low.
As for why the Socialist Party isn’t putting up any candidates this year (speaking as a member of the SPNJ), our main focus is around the state budget cuts, and building resistance to that. My hope is that that will lead to running candidates in the state legislative elections in 2011, but the folks in the SPNJ who have run in the past are either focused on more the anti budget cut movement (Greg Pason), or are no longer members of the Socialist Party (Tino Rozzo.)
No party with the word “socialist” in the name is running, but a party with an avowedly socialist ideology is, Vitov Valdes-Munoz is the American Labor Party candidate in District 2.
The American Labor Party was founded by the previously mentioned Tino Rozzo. It styles itself as an American version of Socialist International affiliated parties like British Labour, the French PS, the German SPD, and the Canadian NDP.
Really though, they’re much further to the left than those only slightly to the left of the Democratic Party SI parties. They’re just engaging in the typical minor party fantasticisms when they dream about being in the SI.
What Peter M says is correct. Our focus is building a movement against the budget cuts and for state-wide candidates in 2011. Much of our 2010 federal campaign work will be in helping to promote the SPUSA’s US Senate candidate in Ohio, Dan LaBotz. http://www.danlabotz.com/