Coconino County, Arizona, Superior Court Judge Joe Lodge is a declared write-in candidate in the Libertarian primary, running for re-election. He was originally elected as a Democrat some years ago. His attempt to run for re-election as a Democrat this year was thwarted when his declaration of candidacy to run in the Democratic primary was ruled invalid, because he forgot to specify which seat he was seeking.

He then filed as a write-in candidate in the Libertarian primary. But now his Democrat opponent has filed a lawsuit, saying he can’t be a candidate in the Libertarian Party primary because he tried and failed to get on the Democratic Party ballot. The new lawsuit seems illogical. Judge Lodge isn’t a “sore loser” because he didn’t lose the Democratic primary; he failed to run. Arizona does have a law that says a candidate who attempts to petition and has a petition failure can not then run as a write-in, but that law logically cannot apply because he isn’t running in the Democratic primary as a write-in; he has entered an entirely new race, the race for the Libertarian nomination. See this story.