National Journal has this story, detailing Indiana election laws and how they would operate if U.S. Senator Richard Lugar were to run for re-election next year as an independent or as the Libertarian Party nominee. As the story explains, Lugar has not said he has any intent to do either of those things. But some polls have suggested that Lugar will have trouble winning the 2012 Republican primary.
Lugar will be 79 years old in a few weeks, and he has been in the Senate since 1976. No independent candidate for either Governor or U.S. Senator has ever appeared on a government-printed Indiana ballot. Indiana has a tradition of disinterest in independent candidates. No independent has been elected to the Indiana legislature since 1880. Indiana has a straight-ticket device, which injures independent candidates.
How can Lugar be circulating a petition in each of the nine districts if nobody knows where the lines will be drawn? Has the redistricting already been completed in Indiana?
It seems to me Lugar running as a Libertarian makes about as much sense as Murkowski running as the LP nominee in Alaska.
#1, that’s a good question. My guess is that Lugar is planning to obtain a massive number of signatures to bolster his primary campaign. Indiana is neither gaining nor losing a US House seat, so he is probably assuming that the boundaries of the existing districts won’t change very much. If he has a massive number of signtures in each of the old districts, chances are he would have enough in each new district as well.
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This was sometime ago, aren’t the petitions by county and not via congressional district?
Indiana has never had a county distribution requirement for statewide candidates. The only distribution requirement for any type of statewide petition that Indiana has ever had is the congressional district distribution requirement for primary candidates for statewide office.