New York Times Seems to Reverse Course on Whether Libertarian Party is Worth Covering

Posted on by March 22, 2016
7

Among the nation’s biggest media, the New York Times has been almost unique in its disdain for the Libertarian Party. Most presidential election years, the newspaper doesn’t even mention the party or its presidential nominee. Even in 1987-1988, when for the first time the Libertarian Party recruited an ex-member of Congress as its presidential nominee, the paper ran no story about the Ron Paul candidacy. Earlier this year, when Gary Johnson declared for the Libertarian nomination on January 6, the New York Times was one of the few large newspapers that did not mention that news.

But, on March 22, the Times published a lengthy news story that contains a substantial amount of information about Johnson, and even a picture of him. See this story.

Probably one reason the Times has ignored the Libertarian Party in the past is that the party has never been ballot-qualified in New York or New Jersey.

U.S. Supreme Court Hears Virginia Lawsuit on Racial Gerrymandering

Posted on by March 21, 2016
6

On Monday, March 21, the U.S. Supreme Court heard Wittman v Personhuballah, 14-1504. The issue is Virginia’s U.S. House district boundaries. The legislature drew a plan in 2012 that was held to be an unconstitutional racial gerrymander by a 3-judge U.S. District Court. Here is a description of the oral argument from Scotusblog. The Justices seem to have spent more time thinking and asking about who has standing in such cases, than on the issue of racial gerrymandering.

A “racial gerrymander” means packing so many members of a racial or ethnic minority into a handful of districts, that members of that group have very limited influence in other, neighboring districts.

Montana Rejects Rocky De La Fuente Democratic Primary Petition; Says Only 42.3% of Signatures are Valid

Posted on by March 21, 2016
4

Montana holds its presidential primary on June 7. The only names on the Democratic ballot will be Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. They were put on the ballot automatically because they are discussed in the news media. The only candidate who submitted a petition, Rocky De La Fuente, submitted 856 signatures to meet a requirement of 500. Any registered voter is eligible to sign; Montana doesn’t have registration by primary. But election officials said only 362 signatures are valid.

The Montana Republican presidential primary ballot will list Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump.

Another Democrat, Florida attorney Michael Steinberg, petitioned for the Montana Democratic Party primary, but he only got 480 raw signatures so he didn’t bother to submit them.

Bob Healey Dies

Posted on by March 21, 2016
2

On March 20, Bob Healey died, at the age of 58. See this story. He founded the Cool Moose Party of Rhode Island in 1994, and was its gubernatorial candidate that year, polling 9.08%. That made it a ballot-qualified party. In the 1996 election, it had 18 candidates for the legislature on the ballot, the most any party other than the Democratic and Republican candidates had run for the Rhode Island legislature since 1920. Also in 1996, the party elected two nominees to the Hopkinton Town Council, in a partisan election.

In 1998, Healey again ran for Governor, and again got over 5%, thus keeping the party on the ballot for another four years. His percentage that year was 6.28%.

In 2002, he ran for Lieutenant Governor, and got 18.78%, but the party went off the ballot because only the vote for Governor or President counts.

In 2006, he petitioned onto the general election ballot as the Cool Moose Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor, and got 13.41%.

In 2010, he again petitioned for Lieutenant Governor as the Cool Moose Party candidate, and got 39.15% in a race that also included the Democratic nominee and an independent candidate.

In 2014, he was the Moderate Party’s gubernatorial nominee, and he polled 21.43%, the highest percentage for any minor party gubernatorial nominee in the nation that year. Thanks to Jack Dean for this news.

Oklahoma Libertarian Party Is Now a Qualified Party

Posted on by March 21, 2016
15

The Oklahoma Election Board has determined that the Libertarian Party’s petition for party status is valid. This is the first time any party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, has been qualified in Oklahoma since November 2000, except that Americans Elect qualified in 2011 but then didn’t run any candidates. Oklahoma voters may now register into the Libertarian Party and election officials will tally them. Current voter registration forms have a blank line in the part of the card that asks about party affiliation.

The most difficult petition requirement the Libertarian Party must now complete, in order to have its presidential nominee on the ballot in all states in 2016, is the Illinois requirement, 25,000 signatures.