On August 20, two Republicans filed lawsuits against Kentucky elections officials, and two minor party congressional candidates, alleging that the ballot access petitions for the two candidates don’t really have enough valid signatures. The two plaintiffs are David Caldwell, who says he is a Republican voter, and Cordell Lawrence, vice-chair of the Jefferson County Republican Party.
The two candidates are Edward A. Martin, a Libertarian; and Michael Hansen, a member of the Constitution Party who is using the ballot label “independent.” They are both running for U.S. House in the 3rd district. They are the only two minor party or independent candidates for Congress in Kentucky this year. Kentucky is one of five states with no statewide minor party or independent candidates (the only statewide race is U.S. Senate).
One of the cases is Caldwell v Martin, 10-ci-05867, in Jefferson Circuit Court. The case will be heard August 30.
Based on what we’re hearing, there were just shy of 600 signatures certified by the SoS, and in Ed Martin’s case, that they’re looking to knock off between 90 and 120 signatures, still leaving many, many more.
There’s a new update tonight: http://kyfreedomdigest.com/2010/08/25/flash-courage-the-cowardly-caldwell/
Note that this is political gamesmanship, as the Independent has been filed since late spring, and Ed Martin files in June. They waiting to file the complaint until August 1st, and then didn’t serve the papers until after the August 10th cut-off specifically to ensure that if we lose, we cannot replace the candidate on the ballot.
As a side-note: It may be of interest to people that the only “minor” parties in Kentucky are the LP and CP. So if someone knows someone who wants to restart the GP in KY, please let me know. I’m all about the free market of ideas.
Ken Moellman
Chair, LPKY
Michael is of no relations to the Nevada Hansens, FYI.
Sounds like Kentucky is trying to outlaw all the opposition parties just like Pennsylvania did.
FYI most of the early settlers of Kentucky were from Pennsylvania – Dan’l Boone et al.
The republicans have since voluntarily dismissed the legal action.