The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) has existed starting in 1985. It is a loose coalition of nationally-organized minor parties and other groups that support fair play for independent candidates and minor parties. Recently the Prohibition Party re-joined the COFOE board. The other members are the Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Reform, and Socialist Parties; Fairvote; and CUIP.

The Prohibition Party had also been on the board in the past. COFOE obtains small donations from many individuals, and uses most of the money to help pay for lawsuits that benefit independent candidates, and sometimes lawsuits that benefit minor parties. Individual members of COFOE receive a free copy of Ballot Access News.

This year, COFOE donated $2,000 to the plaintiffs in the Alabama lawsuit that challenged the March petition deadline. If COFOE had more revenue, it could help more lawsuits. To see COFOE minutes of past annual board meetings, see www.cofoe.org.

Louisiana held its election for all statewide offices on Saturday, October 24. The two independents in the State House were re-elected. Jerome “Dee” Richard of the 55th district was re-elected unanimously because no one filed against him. Terry Brown of the 22nd district was re-elected, defeating a Republican by 6,627 to 6,026.

The only minor party candidates for state office were Green Party member Adrian Juttner for Agriculture Commissioner, and Libertarian Party member Jason France for State Board of Education, district six. Juttner polled 36,180 votes (3.49%) against a Republican and two Democrats. France polled 15,424 votes (11.3%) against three Republicans.

Juttner polled the largest vote ever received by a Green Party candidate in Louisiana. He was the first Green to run for statewide office in Louisiana other than President. Here is a link to the Secretary of State’s web page showing election returns.

In some races, no one got 50%, and there will be a runoff. So far, the Republican Party gained one seat in the House and the Democratic Party gained one seat in the State Senate.

Tom Campbell has this op-ed in the Orange County Register, suggesting that the new lawsuit against the Commission on Presidential Debates, which depends on antitrust law, has merit.

Campbell was once director of the antitrust arm of the Federal Trade Commission. He also has taught antitrust law since 1983. He is now dean of the Fowler School of Law at Chapman University. He is a former member of Congress and was the Republican Party’s nominee for U.S. Senate from California in 2000.

The lawsuit is Gary Johnson v Commission on Presidential Debates, filed on September 28 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. 1:15cv-1580. The Commission hasn’t responded to the lawsuit yet. The Commission has received permission from the court to delay its response until December 8.