According to this Associated Press article, the Constitution Party is now entitled to appoint members to 17 Colorado state boards and commissions. The article quotes the Governor as saying that he will do his best to implement the state law, which says that major parties may make these appointments. A “major party” under Colorado law is one that polled at least 10% of the last gubernatorial vote.
The Wisconsin Libertarian Party enjoyed somewhat similar success after the 2002 gubernatorial election, when its nominee for Governor, Ed Thompson, polled 10.5% for Governor. Wisconsin lets all parties that poll at least 10% for Governor appoint a member of the State Election Board. The Libertarian Party did appoint someone, and no effort was made in the legislature to amend the 10% law. Thanks to ThirdPartyDaily for the news about Colorado’s boards and commissions.
What sort of State boards and commissions? What does someone on a State Elections board actually have the power to do?
THe only two I know are the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, and the Colorado Racing Commission. Maybe someone else will know the names of the others.
State Boards of Election customarily settle disputes about the election process. In 2004 the Wisconsin State Board of Elections ruled that Ralph Nader should be on the ballot, even though one of his candidates for presidential elector did not live in the congressional district that he had signed up to represent (Wisconsin has district residency requirements for candidates for presidential elector). The Libertarian member of the Board voted in favor of ballot access for Nader.
So do you think a Constitution Party member could get onto an election board?
Colorado doesn’t have an election board. As in most other states, the Colorado Secretary of State handles elections.
List of Colorado boards and Commissions:
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/GovRitter/GOVR/1185266451539
Quite a long list, as one would expect given the nature of the managerial-therapeutic state.
The article may be overstating the requirement.
For example, the Colorado Racing Commission has 5 members. The statute requires that no more than 3 are members of any political party (“major party” is not specified). There are also various specific requirements for commissioners, such as one veterinarian, and location, with members serving staggered terms. When the term of a particular member expires, the new appointee must be the same classification (eg veterinarian, etc.). I didn’t see anything about getting recommendations from the political parties – though perhaps there are some general statutes governing gubernatorial appointments.
The Colorado Commission on Higher Education has 11 members, with a maximum of six from a single major party. So apparently this commission can be stacked with Libertarians or some other minor party.
Another article mentioned a board that was comprised of members of the legislature, so in that case it was talking about the two legislative parties.
There are some election laws that imply that there will be two major parties. I think this applies to election judges. The requirement for a primary may be less severe than it sounds. Colorado nominates candidates for the primary ballot by convention, with an opportunity for candidates to petition on to the primary ballot. And there is also provisions for minor parties to have primaries for contested nominations. There were a couple of Libertarian primary contests in 2010.
Maybe Colorado will adopt Top 2.
This could also spur especially unaffiliated voters to register with the ACP to get these appointments.
So — will the C.P. become as corrupt as the D.P. and the R.P. — with the party hack appointments ???