Recently Republican Party national committee Reince Priebus said that Republicans who intend to seek the party’s nomination in 2020, and who haven’t endorsed Donald Trump, may be penalized by the Republican National Committee. Political scientist Boris Heersink has this analysis in the Washington Post, explaining that the Republican national committee has no power to do that.

Even the Democratic National Committee twenty years ago did not have the ability to prevent Lyndon LaRouche from running in its presidential primaries (which he did in 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996). In 1995 the Democratic National Committee declared that LaRouche is not a bona fide Democrat, but that didn’t keep him off any presidential primary ballots. The DNC did pass a rule saying any LaRouche delegates who won presidential primaries would not be seated.

The September 20 print edition of the San Antonio Express-News has this editorial endorsement of Mark Miller, the Libertarian Party nominee for Railroad Commissioner. Railroad Commissioner is a statewide partisan elected office. As the editorial says, it has nothing to do with railroads; instead it regulates the oil and gas industry.

The Libertarian Party of Texas needs to poll 5% for at least one statewide race to remain ballot-qualified. This year, the Democrats are running a full slate for all statewide offices, for the first time since 2002. That makes it more difficult for the state’s two ballot-qualified minor parties to poll 5%. Normally it is easy for the Green Party and the Libertarian Party to get 5%; they merely file in the statewide races that lack a Democratic candidate.

On September 19, a Connecticut state trial court refused to order the Secretary of State to print any nominee for the Independent Party for U.S. Senate. There are two factions of that party, and each faction nominated someone different. The Secretary of State says she doesn’t know which faction to recognize, so she won’t print anyone on the ballot for any statewide office. The state court decision sustains the Secretary of State’s action. See this story.

The party will now lose its ballot qualification for U.S. Senate. Connecticut is the only state in which qualified status is separate for each office. The lawsuit will continue, and each faction hopes to eventually win a ruling over who the true state officers are.