On September 14, the New Hampshire Union Leader, the largest newspaper in the state, endorsed Gary Johnson. See the editorial here.
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The Mississippi Reform Party, which is independent of the national Reform Party, had certified Barbara Dale Washer as its presidential nominee last week. However, this week it withdrew that nomination, so she will not be on the ballot.
For several years, Florida has had a law saying a ballot-qualified party can’t be on the ballot for President unless it is recognized by the Federal Election Commission as a national committee of a national political party, or unless the party submits a petition signed by 1% of the state’s voters. This year, that would be 119,316 signatures.
The purpose of the FEC’s recognition of national committees concerns campaign finance, not ballot access. Federal campaign laws allow individuals to contribute much more money to national committees of political parties than to other campaign committees. Therefore, the FEC has had to decide which national committees of nationally-organized political parties to recognize. However, nothing in the federal campaign laws define the term, so for 42 years the FEC has been deciding which applications for such status to grant. The FEC has never had any objective standards, but roughly speaking, it recognizes a national committee if the party in question has been on the ballot in several states for president and congress. But the rulings are not at all consistent.
In 1975, the FEC approved its first application for national committee status, other than for the Republican and Democratic Parties. In ruling 1975-129, it approved the Libertarian Party. Its presidential nominee had been on the ballot in two states in 1972, and the party had had a single candidate on the ballot for Congress in one state. In 1974 it had had candidates for Congress on the ballot in three states (the FEC won’t count party nominees unless the party name appears on the ballot).
On March 4, 1980, it refused to recognize the Citizens Party, which was running Barry Commoner for President and many candidates for Congress. Ruling 1980-3 said the FEC won’t recognize a national committee until after it has been through a presidential election.
On December 4, 1980, the FEC approved the Socialist Party, in ruling 1980-121. The Socialist Party presidential nominee had been on the ballot in nine states. The party had congressional candidates on the ballot in two states, Iowa and New Jersey. There were only three congressional candidates. The ruling did not mention how many congressional candidates the party had run.
On November 20, 1980, the FEC denied status to the National Unity Party, which John Anderson was organizing, even though Anderson had polled 6.6% for President. The ruling, 1980-131, said the National Unity Party did not have any congressional candidates.
On November 18, 1996, the FEC denied status to the Green Party, ruling 1996-35, even though its presidential nominee, Ralph Nader, had been on the ballot in 23 states and had congressional candidates in Alaska, California, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island. The party received 12.6% for U.S. Senate in Alaska and polled 685,040 votes for President.
It is therefore obvious that FEC recognition as a national committee is not objective, and is not connected to the level of popular support for the party.
On September 14, U.S. District Court Judge W. Keith Watkins issued an order in De La Fuente v Merrill, m.d., 2:16cv-755. The state is asked to respond to the lawsuit by September 23. A hearing will be held on October 5 at 9 a.m. in Montgomery.
After the Alabama Secretary of State’s office had checked Rocky De La Fuente’s petition and found it valid, it had listed him on its webpage as a candidate. But then the office told him he cannot appear on the ballot because he had run in the Democratic presidential primary in Alabama that year. The lawsuit argues that (1) the Secretary of State violated due process; (2) the Secretary of State ignored the 1992 precedent in which Lyndon LaRouche was not removed from the ballot as an independent even though he had run in Alabama’s Democratic presidential primary that year; (3) sore loser laws cannot be applied to presidential candidates because the true candidates in November are the candidates for presidential elector; (4) states cannot add to the constitutional qualifications to run for federal office.
Judge Watkins only entered the case on September 14. The case had originally been assigned to Judge Myron Thompson, but then it was transferred to Judge Watkins because Judge Thompson’s schedule did not permit him to act quickly on this case.
The Alaska Republican State Central Committee has 80 members. According to this story, five have resigned, and one has been expelled, because the six intend to support Joe Miller for U.S. Senate. He is the Libertarian Party nominee.