Senator Mike Delph has withdrawn SB 68, which would have provided a second means for a presidential candidate to get on a primary ballot. Current law requires a petition of 4,500 signatures, with at least 500 signatures from each U.S. House district. SB 68 would have permitted a candidate to also get on the ballot if he or she pays a filing fee of $10,000. But, on January 24, he withdrew it, because the bill had been criticized by people who said it isn’t fair to change the rules for this year’s election. One wonders why Senator Delph didn’t just amend the bill to provide that it doesn’t take effect until 2016. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.
The Indiana presidential primary is May 8, and the petition deadline is February 10, at noon.
This is the same state senator who is currently pushing a bill to force the Indiana High School Athletic Association to go from 5 class basketball back to only 1 class. He’s also trying to ban schools from starting the year before Labor Day. He literally said on the radio that his justification for banning all these thing is that he simply doesn’t like them. I don’t know how anyone could take any of his legislation seriously at this point.