U.S. District Court Judge Says Trial Needed to Settle Montana Republican Party Lawsuit Against Open Primary

Posted on by December 15, 2015
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Last year, the Montana Republican Party filed a lawsuit against state law that requires the party to nominate candidates for public office in an open primary. On December 14, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris, an Obama appointee, ruled that the lawsuit can’t be decided without more evidence. The Republican Party already provided evidence that in open primaries in other states, a certain percentage of voters who are not loyal to the Republican Party nevertheless choose to vote in Republican primaries.

The ruling, which is 37 pages long and has a comprehensive history of other lawsuits on the issue of primaries, says the case needs evidence from Montana. In order to win the case, the Montana Republican Party will now need to find evidence that votes who don’t really like the Republican Party still choose to vote in Republican primaries.

In Montana, the voter registration form doesn’t ask about party membership, and it isn’t easy for anyone on either side of this lawsuit to define what a Republican is. The state argues that if a person requests a Republican primary ballot, by definition the person is a Republican. Thanks to Rick Hasen for news about the decision.

Texas Democrats Likely to Run Full Slate of Statewide Nominees in 2016, Lessening Chances that Libertarian and Green Parties Will Remain on Ballot After November 2016

Posted on by December 14, 2015
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The Texas Democratic Party has recruited a full slate of candidates for the 2016 statewide offices. Although there is no certainly that all of them will qualify for the March primary ballot, it is likely that they will. The 2015 Texas legislative session passed SB 1073, which removes the requirement that primary candidates for statewide judicial offices need a petition to get on the primary ballot. Therefore, they can all get on the Democratic March primary ballot with just a fee.

This is bad news for the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. Both parties remain ballot-qualified in Texas by polling at least 5% for one of the statewide races, every two years. But the only races in which they are able to poll as much as 5% have been races in which no Democrat was running. For example, in 2014, the highest percentage for a Libertarian in a statewide race with both major parties also in the race was 3.39%. The highest Green percentage for a statewide race with both major parties was 2.03%. Thanks to political scientist Mark P. Jones for this news.

Jill Stein Meets with Foreign Leaders in Paris and Moscow

Posted on by December 14, 2015
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Jill Stein, the 2012 Green Party presidential nominee who is again seeking the Green Party presidential nomination, recently attended meetings in Paris and Moscow. On December 10 she sat at the same banquet table as Vladimir Putin, and she met other Russian political leaders the following day. See Stein’s web page here. Thanks to Jacqui Devenaux for the news.

Two Candidates Qualify for Arizona Green Party Presidential Primary; Six Qualify for Democratic Primary

Posted on by December 14, 2015
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The Arizona Green Party will have two candidates in its presidential primary, Jill Stein and Kent Mesplay. In 2012, when anyone could get on any party’s presidential primary in Arizona just by asking, the Green Party had six candidates.

The Libertarian Party told the Arizona Secretary of State that it does not want a presidential primary.

In the Arizona Democratic presidential primary, six candidates qualified: Hillary Clinton, Rocky De La Fuente, Henry Hewes, Martin O’Malley, Bernie Sanders, and Michael Steinberg.

Fourteen Republicans Qualify for Arizona Republican Presidential Primary

Posted on by December 14, 2015
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December 14 was the deadline for presidential primary candidates in Arizona. Fourteen Republicans qualified; see the list here, from the Secretary of State’s web page. Candidates were put on automatically if they could show they were already on the presidential primary ballot of at least two other states. George Pataki qualified, but Jim Gilmore did not apply, even though he could have easily qualified, because he is on in Florida, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.