Colorado Bill for a Presidential Primary Introduced

Posted on by April 30, 2015
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Twenty-eight Colorado legislators have introduced SB 287, which would establish a presidential primary. Only parties that had polled at least 20% for president in the last election would be eligible for a presidential primary. The Governor would set the date, but it would always be in March. Under current law, since 2003, there is no presidential primary in Colorado; caucuses are used instead.

In 1992, Ross Perot got 23.32% of the vote for President in Colorado, but his ballot label was “independent”, so probably if the bill had been in effect in the 1990’s, there would have been no “Independent Party” presidential primary in 1996.

Under the terms of the bill, candidates get on the ballot with a filing fee of $10,000, or 10,000 signatures of party members. Section 1-4-1204 also seems to say candidates must have qualified for primary matching funds. It is conceivable that the intent of the bill is to provide that the filing fee/petition is not needed for candidates who qualify for primary season matching funds; the wording is ambiguous. The bill would be clearer if there were either an “and” or an “or” after 1-4-1204(a). Here is a copy of the bill. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.

Dr. David Gill, Four-Time Democratic Nominee for U.S. House in Illinois, Will Run as an Independent in 2016

Posted on by April 30, 2015
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On April 30, Dr. David Gill, an emergency room physician, said he will be an independent candidate in 2016 for the U.S. House in the Illinois 13th district. He had been the Democratic nominee for U.S. House in the 15th district in 2004, 2006, and 2010, and he had been the Democratic nominee in 2012 in the new 13th district.

See this story, which explains why he has left the Democratic Party. When he was the Democratic nominee in 2012, the party leadership opposed him but he won the primary anyway. In the 2012 general election, he lost to Republican Rodney Davis by only 1,002 votes. The old 15th district in the 2000’s decade included Champaign, Bloomington, and much of east central Illinois. After the 2011 redistricting, the new 13th district still includes Gill’s home area of Bloomington, but otherwise it is a very different district, extending to the west, all the way to the Mississippi River, and including Springfield.

Gill considered running as an independent in 2014, when he would have needed 15,205 valid signatures. For 2016, he will need 10,514. The number is lower because turnout in 2014 was much lower than in 2012.

New Hampshire May Force Senator Bernie Sanders to Say he is a Democrat in Order to Appear on the Primary Ballot

Posted on by April 30, 2015
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New Hampshire election law says anyone can be on a presidential primary ballot who pays a fee of $1,000 and fills out a Declaration of Candidacy. However, the Declaration of Candidacy since 1983 has said, “I am a registered member of the (fill in the blank) party.”

The literal language of the New Hampshire requirement that the candidate be a registered member of the party has never been applied, because 20 states don’t have registration by party. Walter Mondale, the Democratic nominee in 1984, was not a registered Democrat because Minnesota has never had registration by party (and, if it did, Mondale would have been a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party). Bill Clinton was not a registered Democrat for the same reasons; neither was Al Gore. Among Republicans, neither George H. W. Bush nor George W. Bush was a registered Republican because Texas doesn’t have registration by party.

So, in practice, the affidavit doesn’t mean what it says; what it does mean is that the candidate must hold himself out as a member of the party. See this story. It will be interesting to see how Senator Bernie Sanders handles this situation. Even though he has announced that he intends to run in Democratic presidential primaries, he has not said that he a Democrat, and he lists himself in the Congressional Directory as an independent. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

Free Talk and Dramatization on the American Labor Party at New York City Library

Posted on by April 30, 2015
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On Monday, May 4, between 5 pm and 7 pm, a free lecture and dramatization will be presented at a New York city public library, on the history of the American Labor Party 1936-1955. See this web page for more information about the event, which is at 10 Jersey Street, Manhattan, between Mulberry Street and Lafayette Street. Thanks to Gerald Meyer for this news.