Cal Newsroom has this story about the American Independent Party, which features the fact that (1) no member of the party is running for any partisan office this year in California; (2) the party has endorsed many statewide Republican candidates and these endorsements appear in the statewide voter pamphlet this year.
The story is flawed because is says that the American Independent Party claims to be the fastest-growing party in California. This sentence is false and the AIP does not make that claim, nor could it, because for the last 16 months, the fastest growing parties in California have been the Peace & Freedom Party and the Libertarian Party.
I’m as much in the dark about their strategy this year as you are.
The AIP main goal is to spite the Constitution Party and it seems to be personal. If it was merely about Alan Keyes or foreign policy or any other issue then they would be running candidates for office. For full disclosure I was briefly registered with the AIP and considered myself aligned with the Constitution Party for a couple of years. But I am likely going to vote for Republican candidates for California including all the ones the AIP endorsed.
What does this mean for staying on the ballot after November? Will they perhaps name their own candidates later in the year?
In terms of percentage growth, Americans Elect has grown faster than P&F from February 10, 2013 to April 4, 2014 (15 months).
And it is likely that the Independent Party has grown even faster.
Michael, parties in California remain ballot-qualified if they have enough registered members, so that will protect the AIP for a very long time.