The Jill Stein campaign believes it qualified for primary season matching funds on Wednesday, January 6. In 2012, when Stein also qualified for primary season matching funds, she didn’t do that until August. She received her first check from the FEC on August 28, 2012, for $100,000.
By qualifying this early, Stein will probably receive her first check in early February 2016. The money can be used to pay for general election petitioning.
Martin O’Malley, seeking the Democratic nomination, became the first presidential candidate to qualify for 2016 primary season matching funds. He submitted his paperwork November 3, 2015.
Is this similar to what the New Alliance Party did in 1988? If so, it could greatly benefit the Green Party’s ballot access for the upcoming election.
@Curt: Yes, I think so, in that Lenora Fulani of the New Alliance Party did qualify for primary season matching funds in both the 1988 and 1992 campaigns.
“The money can be used to pay for general election petitioning.”
Richard, can you explain exactly what that statement means? Is there a restriction that the money can be used only on certain “petitioning” aspects of the campaign (what would those be)?
No, there is no restriction at all. The FEC has been very good about this.
Lenora Fulani got over $2,100,000 in primary season matching funds in 1992. Other minor party candidates who got primary season matching funds include the Citizens Party nominee in 1984 (Sonia Johnson), who pioneered it. Also John Hagelin of the Natural Law Party several times, and Ralph Nader in 2000, 2004, and 2008, and Gary Johnson and Jill Stein in 2012.
If she’s qualified, then that greatly increases the chances of the Green Party getting ballot access here in Illinois. If we had to rely on whatever volunteers we can scrounge up again (admittedly I was one of them), it could end up being another 2014, where we were short a couple of thousand signatures. Ridiculous ballot access requirements…but anyway, now we might be able to get some professionals on the ground this spring, and hopefully get the 40k or so needed to pretty much ensure ballot access (of course, we’ll probably have to watch out for armed goons, I mean “private investigators”, knocking on our doorsteps as they did with the Libertarians in 2014).
Congrats to Stein and the Green Party on this accomplishment!
“The money can be used to pay for general election petitioning.”
The purpose of a primary is to nominate candidates to be placed on the general election ballot. When candidates are placed on the general election by petition, it is non-distinguishable from a functional point of view from running in a primary and winning the primary. Some state laws even refer to the process as being nominated by petition.