On June 1, attorneys for Steve Kelly asked U.S. District Court Judge Sam Haddon to extend the non-presidential independent candidate petition deadline for 2012 only. As noted previously, late on Friday, May 25, Judge Haddon had declared the March deadline unconstitutional. Then the Secretary of State said the new deadline, for this year, will be May 29, which was the very day that the press and the public first became aware of the decision. The new brief, filed by the ACLU (attorneys for Kelly) asks the Judge to set an August 15 deadline for this year, on the grounds that it denies due process to set a new deadline which, in practical terms, couldn’t be met.
August 15 is the deadline for independent presidential candidate petitions to be submitted to Montana county elections officials. Therefore, it is obvious that August 15 is administratively feasible.
If Steve Kelly is serious wouldn’t he be out collecting signatures? Also this year people could have run on the Americans Elect ballot line, avoiding the signature process.
Steve Kelly specifically wanted to run against Senator Max Baucus, who was up for re-election in 2008. This year Montana’s other US Senator is up. It doesn’t follow logically that just because Kelly wanted to campaign against Baucus, he wants to campaign against Jon Tester.
Also, even if Kelly does want to run against Tester this year, it is no small feat to get 17,415 valid signatures in a state with low population and no really big urban centers. Especially when the deadline is ambiguous (as of right now).
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