On June 16, Donald Trump said he will seek the Republican presidential nomination. That makes 16 Republicans seeking the nomination who are generally considered to have the qualifications to be recognized by the national Republican Committee.
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According to this story, the Maine bill to amend the State Constitution to make it more difficult for initiatives to get on the ballot is not likely to pass. It needs two-thirds in each House, and the last procedural vote on the measure, LD 742, showed less than two thirds support. Even if the measure gets two-thirds in each house, it would not go into effect until after the voters had approved it. That vote would be in November 2015. Thanks to Thomas MacMillan for the link.
On June 15, the New Hampshire Libertarian Party filed this reply brief in its ballot access case. The hearing will be Thursday, June 18, at 10:30 am in Concord. The issue is the 2014 law that makes it illegal to circulate the party petition in an odd year.
Earlier this year South Dakota changed the petition deadline for a newly-qualifying party to submit a petition of 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote for party status. The old deadline was March 29. The new deadline is March 1. On June 15, the Libertarian Party and the Constitution Party filed a lawsuit against that deadline, Libertarian Party of South Dakota v Krebs, 4:15-cv-4111.
South Dakota is in the Eighth Circuit. In 1977 the Eighth Circuit said in MacBride v Exon, 558 F 2d 443, “It is completely unreasonable and unrealistic for a state to provide by statute that a person cannot get his name on the state’s presidential ballot as a third party candidate unless that party has qualified as a party in advance of primary elections.” Currently, South Dakota is the only state in which it is impossible for a new party to appear on the November ballot with a presidential candidate and the party label, unless that party participates in a primary. The South Dakota primary is in early June. MacBride v Exon was a Nebraska case, and the Nebraska primary was (and still is) in May.
UPDATE: here is a news story about the lawsuit.
Law Professors Joseph Fishkin and Heather Gerkin have published a scholarly paper on the current status of the national Republican Party, in which the official party structure and the Koch Brothers each have their own database of Republican Party donors, activists, and voters. The Koch Brothers’ database is superior to the party’s database. Fishkin and Gerkin conceive of the Koch Brothers as part of the national Republican Party, despite their lack of office within the party. Their paper explores the ramifications of this split between the formal party structure and the party’s influential backers. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.