The ballot-qualified Constitution Party of Oregon has recently voted to become the Oregon state affiliate of the Independent American Party. However, the Oregon Constitution Party plans to retain its name. If the Oregon Constitution Party were to change its name to something different, it would only have a year or so to ask its registered members to fill out a new voter registration form, leaving the Constitution Party and re-registering under the new name. Oregon requires a party to have registration of one-tenth of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, and getting the needed 1,453 registrations is a burden the party doesn’t wish to undertake.

Also, Oregon already has a ballot-qualified party named the Independent Party, so even if the state Constitution Party did ask the Secretary of State to let it change its name, it could not have the name “Independent American Party” because the word “Independent” is already pre-empted.

The Oregon Constitution Party disaffiliated from the national Constitution Party in 2006, mostly because of a disagreement over public policy concerning abortion. In 2008 the Oregon Constitution Party nevertheless nominated Chuck Baldwin for President, who was also the national Constitution Party’s nominee. But in 2012, the Oregon Constitution Party nominated Ron Paul for President. When he declined their nomination, the Oregon Constitution Party nominated Will Christensen for President. Christensen held himself out as the presidential nominee of a new party, the Independent American Party, but he did not get on the ballot in any state except Oregon, so the reference books that gather election data list him as the nominee of the Constitution Party of Oregon, not the Independent American Party.

The national leaders of the Independent American Party have been working inside the ballot-qualified Americans Elect Party of Arizona. But the only states with ballot-qualified parties named “Independent American” are Nevada and New Mexico. In Nevada, the Independent American Party is the Nevada state affiliate of the Constitution Party. In New Mexico, the founder of the ballot-qualified Independent American Party, Jon Barrie, has lost interest in that party and is now state chair of the New Mexico Constitution Party. The New Mexico Independent American Party appears to not have any state officers, because its former officers have abandoned the party.