On August 8, some Texas Republican nominees for public office in November 2022 filed a lawsuit with the State Supreme Court, seeking to remove their Libertarian Party opponents from the general election ballot. In re Self, 22-0658. The only statewide candidate who is included in the group of plaintiffs is Dan Patrick, the Lieutenant Governor who is running for re-election.
The issue is the filing fee. See this news story.
I have to side with the GOP in this matter. The election laws says pay a fee or submit signatures which they did neither.
I also agree with the Republicans. It is always a good idea to eliminate opposition to the Republicans, whether it is from the ballot or by physical removal from among the ranks of the living. We need total Republican victory by whatever means needed. Whatever it takes, the GOP must rule everything everywhere.
@Mac… Libertarians are not opposition to republicans. That’s a delusional myth. Libertarians trace their roots back to the early Democratic Party (aka classical liberalism). There’s a reason Clinton lost 2016, Johnson pulled more votes from her than Trump because libertarians agree more with Dems than Repubs (especially on social issues and foreign policy); not to mention Republicans have largely become anti-trade protectionist that hate capitalism.
You want more Repubs in office? Then honestly you should FAVOR libertarians on the ballot.
The constitutionality of the filing fee law is under federal court attack. The US Supreme Court ruled in Lubin v Panish in 1974 that filing fees are unconstitutional unless they are needed to protect ballots from being crowded with too many names. Therefore filing fees for people nominated by convention make no sense. Furthermore, the state gives the filing fees from major party candidates back to the major parties, but the government does not give the convention party filing fees back to those minor parties.
Besides that, the filing fee law has flaws in its wording. That is why in 2020 the minor party candidates were not removed from the Texas general election ballot even though many of them did not pay the filing fees either.
LP- 1960s —
unhappy with Donkey jfk-lbj Vietnam WAR
and the elephant nixon wage/price controls.
“@Mac… Libertarians are not opposition to republicans. That’s a delusional myth. Libertarians trace their roots back to the early Democratic Party (aka classical liberalism). ”
False. They trace to Republicans who were not happy with Nixon’s wage and price controls. The vast majority of Libertarians since then have all been disgruntled Republicans and Conservatives and most went back to GOP including me. Most people hear libertarian and might think Ron Paul or Rand Paul or Glenn Beck or Neal Boortz. Even though most of those were either never or very briefly LP. The candidates are nobodies with no advertising budget so it doesn’t even matter if they are goofy leftist stoners like Johnson or even goofier marxist Burn Loot Murder Jorgensen.
“There’s a reason Clinton lost 2016, ”
Same reason Biden lost in 2020, she just wasn’t as good at cheating. Trump is way more popular and a much better candidate and President. Duh.
“Johnson pulled more votes from her than Trump ”
Ridiculous and wrong.
“LP- 1960s —”
Did not exist. Created 1971-2. By Republicans.
I hope the Texas Libertarian candidates will prevail and appear on the voters’ ballots.
I found this just now on the IPRX blog. I agree completely:
We are entering a dangerous period. America as we know it is over. We’ve seen it coming, but the actions of the FBI today make it clearer than ever. Are we at war?
Freedom of speech is gone. We can no longer say what we really feel on social media. Even our favorite president is banned. Now someone like Alex Jones is being successfully sued for millions just to keep him and us silenced for not parroting their talking points. Is this war?
Perverts are injecting lies and grooming children in our schools. They want to inject our children with dangerous chemicals and castrate them. They want to have sex with them. When you raise your voice about it, the DOJ labels you a terrorist. Is this war?
Gas prices are higher than ever. Everything is more costly. We are in an economic recession. Congress is raising taxes and mandating the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents just to go after you and me. Is this war?
The FBI is targeting the greatest president we’ve ever had. The DOJ will prosecute him on false charges related to a capital breach they themselves encouraged after they rigged a presidential election. They want to throw him in prison and execute him. Are we at war yet?
I think I hear the gunfire outside right now.
War is here.
Which side are you on?
Soon to be LP folks at olde YAF convention in Pittsburg, PA 1967—
quite fed up with both statist control freak gangs.
ROT now much, much, much worse — open commies vs open fascists for $$$ CONTROL —
to loot the treasuries esp via inflation — destroy what’s left of olde *middle* class.
Thanks Mr. Winger for clarifying the legal situation. I reverse my opinion and say the GOP is wrong. You make a good point: Why should any candidate or party have to pay filing fees or even submit petition signatures if nominated by a convention! It’s like double jeopardy.
It is presumptuous to assume that Libertarians draw more votes from Republicans that Democrats. IMO, the Libertarians draw most of their votes from people who might not have voted at all.
And, in the last three Presidential elections, it appears that they took more votes from Democrats than Republicans. This was sufficiently so in 2016 to effect the outcome.
In 2012 and 2020, it did not. While Republicans whine that Jorgensen spoiled Trump in 2020, I do not think this is so. Trump would probably have gotten few, if any, votes from Jorgensen were she not on the ballot. Her whole campaign was deliberately aimed at young, liberal voters.
You are speaking nonsense. Very few voters actually know much about the individual libertarian candidates. Even those who vote for them. I am not talking about the political nerds here. People vote Libertarian because they heard that Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Alex Jones, Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, and other people who are generally conservative right wing Republicans are “libertarian.” Simple as that. If they are not happy with the GOP RINOs and moderates they vote libertarian and don’t realize the “campaign is aimed at the left.” Once they run into the disgusting “left libertarian” whack jobs they run back to the GOP. And now there’s an even better reason to run back to the GOP because it is finally becoming a right wing nationalist party again thanks to Trump. Thank God.
As for commies and fascists, the left wing commies ARE the fascists. Have you not been paying attention to their fascist efforts to stifle free speech, militarily invade the whole world, confiscate guns, ban tobacco smoke, have government micromanage the economy, and so on? You are an idiot if you think the patriotic right wing is more fascist than the commie left wing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election
same for earlier years back to 1788
What point are you trying to make with your fake news link if any?
2020 Biden/Trump plurality ONLY in NC.
Thus the commie/fascist efforts to kill off third parties esp in NC.
Trump actually won in a huge landslide and got massively cheated out of it.