Texas has a unique law that requires newly-qualifying parties to notify the state by January 2 of the election year, if they wish to petition during the election year. Petitioning itself can’t start in Texas until March.
The Constitution Party has now filed the notice. The parties that had previously filed it for 2016 are Modern Whig, Reform, Christian, and Veterans.
On December 27, John McAfee became a dues-paying member of the Libertarian Party. He lives in Alabama. He had said last week that he will seek the party’s presidential nomination.
On December 28, Rasmussen released a general election poll for president. The results: Hillary Clinton 37%, Donald Trump 36%, someone else 22%, undecided 5%. For more detail, see here.
The Green Mountain Party was formed earlier this year to influence politics and government in Vermont. It is fiscally conservative. Vermont has two methods for newly-qualifying parties to get on the ballot. If they show they are organized in any ten towns by the end of an odd year, they are ballot-qualified and can nominate by convention with no need for petitions.
Or, they can place nominees on the November ballot by petition. The nominees will have the party name on the ballot next to their name. Those petitions are due in August of the election year. The Green Mountain Party will not meet the deadline for having committees in ten towns, but it is free to use the petition method later this year if it wishes.
Rocky De La Fuente is a San Diego businessman who is aggressively seeking a spot on Democratic presidential primary ballots. He has already qualified in nine states, from among the fifteen states in which the deadline has passed. He describes himself as a conservative Democrat.
Federal Election Commission records show that he has donated $10,000 over the past sixteen years to various Republican candidates for federal office, but only $1,000 to Democrats. Among Republicans he contributed to are President George W. Bush in 2004, and California Republican members of Congress Duncan Hunter, Brian Bilbray, and Darrell Issa.
