The October 16, 2013 special election for U.S. Senate in New Jersey will probably only include four candidates. They will be the two winners of the major party primaries being held on August 13, along with two independent candidates. One is Antonio Sabas, whose ballot label is Freedom of Choice. The other will be Edward C. Stackhouse, whose ballot label is “Ed the Barber.” UPDATE: after this post was written, four more candidates filed (on the afternoon of the deadline day), so this post is no longer accurate. There may be as many as eight candidates.
This is the first U.S. Senate election in New Jersey history with no minor party nominees on the ballot. Generally statewide elections in New Jersey have five or six candidates on the ballot, because the petition requirement is only 800 valid signatures.
What about the Libertarian Party? Weren’t they trying to get a candidate on the ballot?
They made a late start to try and qualify Frank Cipriani, but didn’t complete the petition.
“This is the first U.S. Senate election in New Jersey history with no minor party nominees on the ballot.”
That might not be true. One of the candidates filed with the ballot label “D-R Party”, which is presumably short for Democratic-Republican Party. I believe this group had three candidates in 2012, and their ballot label of Democratic-Republican Party was not printed because it was believed that it would cause confusion against the Democrat and Republican ballot lines.