Jim Webb today said he won’t run for president as an independent. See this updated story from the Dallas Morning News. This makes it very likely that Michael Bloomberg will run as an independent.
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The Cleveland Plain Dealer has this article about two “dirty tricks” that have gained recent attention in election law and procedure. Scroll down to the second instance, which is about the 2014 incident when Ohio Governor John Kasich and his campaign maneuvered to keep the Libertarian Party off the ballot for Governor, and thereby kept it from keeping its party status for 2016.
Jim Webb is speaking in Dallas on February 11, and he is will say something about the 2016 presidential race. See this story.
On February 11, the Sixth Circuit upheld Ohio’s ballot labels policy for judicial races. Ohio says political parties nominate judicial candidates, yet in the general election, the ballot does not show any party labels. The Democratic Party of Ohio sued to require party labels, but the Sixth Circuit found no constitutional problem. The case is Ohio Council 8 American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees v Husted. The Democratic Party is among to co-plaintiffs. Here is the 13-page opinion. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Four West Virginia Delegates have introduced HB 4477, which eases the definition of “political party.” It says that a group is a party if it polled 1% for any statewide office at either of the last two elections. Alternatively, it meets the definition if its registration is above one-tenth of 1%, which currently would be 1,218 registrants.
Currently the Mountain Party and the Libertarian Party are ballot-qualified, because they polled 1% for Governor in 2012. If this bill passed, they would both have enough registered members to remain ballot-qualified, and would not need to worry about running for any particular statewide office in the future. Currently the Constitution Party, which is not on the ballot, has 185 registered members, so it would need to increase its size in order to qualify.
The sponsors are Doug Reynolds (D-Huntington), Pat McGeehan (R-Chester), Steven Shaffer (D-Tunnelton), and Mike Folk (R-Martinsburg). Another bill to ease the definition of “party”, HB 4356, has two sponsors, McGeehan and Isaac Sponaugle. Thanks to Jeff Becker for this news.