On October 27, Louisiana held a televised U.S. Senate debate in which six candidates participated. See this story. The debate sponsors invited each political party nominee, and also invited anyone who had either held elected office recently, or who had raised or spent $50,000. That enable two of the independent candidates to be invited. Participating were Republican incumbent David Vitter, Democrat Charlie Melancon, Libertarian Randall Hayes, Reform Party nominee William McShan, and independent candidates Mike Spears and Ernest Wooton.
Anyone can watch the debate using this link, which is at the TV station’s web page, wdsu.com.
Reform Party of Louisiana as ballot access?
Oh boy, let’s watch six egotists argue…now that’s progress!
Louisana has really easy ballot access. From what I understand you only have to pay a filing fee.
Kyle:
Louisiana does have easy ballot access for candidates. They only have to pay a qualifying fee. For candidates for U.S. Senator, that fee is $600.
The process by which a political party gains recognized party is more difficult. It requires meeting either a registrant threshold or a statewide vote percentage threshold.
Donald R. Lake:
The Reform Party is currently a recognized party in Louisiana. They gained that status a few years ago by meeting the registrant threshold and paying the $1000 registration fee. To maintain that status they must run a candidate at least once every four years.
SWD,
I’ve always wondered what’s your position on Proportional Representation with Majoritarian Allotment.
It consists of having your normal race and if a candidate gets an absolute majority, the winner gets the seat. But if no candidate gets an absolute majority, then the top “n” candidates share the seat and cast their votes equal to the % they got in the race.
#4: A candidate in Louisiana may qualify by paying a fee OR by getting signatures on a petition.
I’m not sure about the office of president, but this applies to all other offices.