The archivist of the U.S. House of Representatives has compiled this interesting list of elections at which party control of the House switched. The chart begins with 1856. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
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Although the term “centrist” is somewhat vague, it appears there were eleven states in 2018 that had nominees of centrist parties on the ballot:
Colorado Unity; Florida Reform; Louisiana Independent Party; Minnesota Independence; Mississippi Reform; New York Independence and also Reform; Oregon Independent Party; Rhode Island Moderate; South Carolina Independence and also American; Utah United Utah; and Vermont Green Mountain.
The best showings for these parties, for either Governor or U.S. Senator (for candidates who were not also the nominees of a major party), were for the Oregon Independent Party and the Rhode Island Moderate Party. The Oregon Independent Party gubernatorial nominee, Patrick Starnes, got 2.86% of the vote even though he announced shortly before the election that voters should not vote for him, but for the Democratic nominee. The Moderate Party gubernatorial nominee, William H. Gilbert, received 2.71%.
For U.S. House, the best showing was United Utah Party’s nominee in the First District. Eric Eliason received 11.62% in a race with both a Democrat and a Republican.
For state legislature, the best showing was also a United Utah nominee. Michelle Weeks, nominee for State Representative, 51st district, received 39.05% of the vote in a two-person race.
USA Today has this op-ed by Charles Wheelan and Nick Troiano, activists in Unite America, which sponsored some independent candidates for federal and state office in 2018. The op-ed expresses the desire for a ticket in 2020 for President and Vice President that contains one Democrat and one Republican.
The op-ed suggests that John Kasich should run for President in Republican primaries, and that John Hickenlooper should run for President in Democratic primaries, and that each should pledge to name the other as his vice-presidential running mate. The op-ed also says that if they aren’t nominated, “they should reserve the right to form a third ticket in the general election.”
That would have been possible before 2012. Before 2012, virtually every state permitted presidential “sore losers” to get on the November ballot. But in 2012, the Michigan Secretary of State kept Gary Johnson off the November ballot as the Libertarian presidential nominee because he had run in that year’s Republican presidential primary. She did this even though Michigan had permitted John Anderson to be on the general election ballot in 1980 even though he also had run in the Republican presidential primary. The federal courts upheld the Secretary of State’s action, in opinions that were error-filled and rushed, and seemed more motivated at anger that Johnson’s attorney had been late to file his brief, than at attention on the issue.
Then, in 2016, Alabama, Arkansas and Pennsylvania all kept Rocky De La Fuente off the November ballot on the grounds that he had run in Democratic presidential primaries that year. This was true, even though Alabama and Arkansas both had precedents that “sore loser” presidential candidates were permitted in November (there was no prior precedent in Pennsylvania). De La Fuente sued Alabama and Pennsylvania and lost both cases, so now the U.S. has lost the ability to vote for presidential candidates in November who run outside the two major parties, after running in major party presidential primaries, almost in the blink of an eye.
A bill is pending in each house of the Oklahoma legislature to abolish the straight-ticket device. Last month the Senate bill, SB 51, had been introduced. The new bill in the House is HB 1919 by Representative Derrel Fincher (R-Bartlesville), who is in his first term. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
Oklahoma Representative Sean Roberts (R-Hominy) has introduced HB 2338. It moves the deadline for candidates to file in the primary from April to January. That would also automatically move the deadline for non-presidential independent candidates from April to January. Here is the bill.
The bill is impractical, because the deadline for a new party to submit its petition in 2020 will be on February 28, and if HB 2338 were passed, it would be too late for a new party that filed on the deadline to have any candidates in its primary. Oklahoma provides that all parties, even new ones, must nominate by primary. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.