On June 17, Indiana State Senator John Waterman (R-Shelburn) said he will try to get on the ballot as the Taxpayers Party candidate for Governor. He needs 32,742 valid signatures by Monday, June 30. He is motivated to run because neither major party is giving enough property tax relief.
His Senate seat will not be jeopardized, because he was re-elected to a four-year term in 2006. He has been in the State Senate since 1994. Before that, he was a county sheriff for eight years. See this story. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for the link.
If he gets on the ballot, no matter how many votes he gets, his party will not be ballot-qualified after the election is over. The only way an Indiana group may become a qualified party is by polling 2% of the vote for Secretary of State, and Secretary of State is not up in presidential/gubernatorial election years. Indiana is one of only two states in which it is impossible for a group to become a qualified party in a presidential election year. The other such state is New York.
33,000 signatures in less than two weeks? Good luck!
Waterman is a Republican. I wish he would have run in the primary so I would have had someone to vote for against Mitch Daniels.
This could be an interesting race for governor with the Libertarian Party’s Andy Horning on the ballot and independent Steve Bonney also running. There could be three anti-property tax candidates to vote for.
Taxpayers Party? That is the old name for the Constitution Party. Does that mean he’s running with them for governor?
Michael,
No, this is a new party. The Indiana branch of the CP goes by the Constitution Party just like every state except Michigan.