Rex Rammell, a Wyoming veterinarian who has run for office several times as a Republican, and who had been seeking the Republican nomination for Governor, announced on May 10 that he would instead join the Constitution Party and seek its nomination for Governor. Here is his campaign web page, which doesn’t yet mention his party switch.
Here is a newspaper story about his party switch.
Louisiana easily has the nation’s most severe petition requirement to recall an elected official. On May 9, the Louisiana legislature passed HB 54, which eases the requirement, although even if the Governor signs the bill, Louisiana will still have the most difficult recall petition requirement.
Existing law requires the signatures of 33.3% of the registered voters. The bill lowers it to 20% of the registered voters, if the jurisdiction is 100,000 or more voters. If it is smaller, then the petition would need 25% of the registered voters.
On May 10, the California Secretary of State released a new voter registration tally, as of April 6. This is the first California tally since the tally of January 2, 2018.
The only parties that increased their share of the registration since the January 2018 tally are the American Independent and Libertarian Parties. The number of all registered voters declined slightly since the January 2018 tally, owing to purges of the rolls.
The new percentages are: Democratic 44.58%; Republican 25.27%; American Independent 2.664%; Libertarian .7405%; Green .4798%; Peace & Freedom .39%; unknown .15%; unqualified parties .608%; independent 25.11%.
The January 2018 percentages were: Democratic 44.63%; Republican 25.44%; American Independent 2.655%; Libertarian .738%; Green .483%; Peace & Freedom .40%; unknown .11%; unqualified parties .607%; independent 24.95%.
The Constitution Party, which is not ballot-qualified, declined from 321 members to 312 members.
The Libertarian Party of Ohio, and the Constitution Party of North Carolina, are currently working on very difficult petition drives for ballot status in 2018. Both states held primaries on May 8. In both states, volunteers and paid circulators petitioned near polling places. Petitioning at the polls is one of the best methods for getting lots of valid signatures on a single day.
Libertarians in Ohio got at least 1,500 volunteer signatures, and probably between 1,000 and 2,000 paid signatures, on primary day.
Constitution Party workers in North Carolina got 500 signatures on primary day.
The North Carolina Constitution Party needs 11,778 valid signatures. It has been turning in signatures and election officials are validating them. The party has 10,500 valid signatures already and there are 2,500 waiting to be checked. The deadline is May 16. Assuming the drive succeeds, this will be the largest requirement that the Constitution Party has met in any state since 2012, when it overcame the New York requirement of 15,000.
The Ohio Libertarian Party needs 54,965 valid signatures. Ohio won’t let parties turn in any signatures until the drive is finished. Assuming the drive succeeds, this will be the biggest job the Libertarian Party has done in any state since 2008, when it overcame the North Carolina requirement of 69,734.
Starting in 2017, many state legislators introduced bills to require presidential candidates to reveal their income tax returns, or be omitted from ballots. But the idea seems to have died out.
The only two state legislatures that ever passed such bills were New Jersey and California. New Jersey’s legislature passed its bill at a time when Chris Christie, a Republican, was Governor. He vetoed that bill. But starting in January 2018, New Jersey has a Democratic Governor, Phil Murphy. However, during 2018, the same bill, introduced on January 9, 2018, has made no progress.
In California, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the bill.
