New Jersey does not permit out-of-state circulators for primary petitions. The Third Circuit will hear a challenge to that law on January 23, 2018, Wilmuth v Guadagno, 17-1925. The plaintiff filed the case in 2016, wanting to circulate primary petitions for a Democratic presidential candidate. The state argued that if someone from outside New Jersey were allowed to do that, that would violate the associational rights of the Democratic Party. However, the Democratic Party has no bylaw on that subject, and did not intervene in the case. Nevertheless, the U.S. District Court ruled against Wilmuth, without even writing an opinion, back on March 24, 2017. Wilmuth is appealing to the Third Circuit.

Chanda Mills Crutcher, a pastor, has entered the December 12 Alabama U.S. Senate race. She is the first woman in the race. See this press release.

Montana requires a petition of 5,000 signatures for a group to become a qualified party. The Montana Green Party now has 3,000 signatures. The deadline is March 15, 2018. Assuming the petition succeeds, it should be easy for the party to poll enough votes in November 2018 to remain on the ballot. Montana has three statewide races up in 2018, including Clerk of the Supreme Court, a partisan race in which voters don’t care very much who wins, so they are quite willing to vote for their favorite minor party.

The last time Clerk of the Supreme Court was up, in 2012, the Libertarian Party was in a two-way race with a Democrat, and the Libertarian nominee, Mike Fellows, received over 43% of the vote and carried a number of counties. Currently the Libertarian Party is the only qualified third party in Montana.