The April 7 Tulsa World has this editorial, suggesting that the legislature should pass HB 2134, the bill to cut the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party from 5% of the last vote, to 2.5%. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for the link.
On April 6, Nick Troiano formally announced that he will be an independent candidate for U.S. House in Pennsylvania’s 10th district. The announcement was no surprise, because he had earlier announced that he was exploring running. Troiano was the youth director for Americans Elect in 2010-2012. He is 25 years old, and says his congressional campaign this year has already raised $30,000. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this news.
This Hendrix College Poll for the Arkansas gubernatorial race included all four parties that are on the Arkansas ballot. The results show that either the Libertarian Party or the Green Party might poll the needed 3% to retain ballot status, depending on which candidates the major parties nominate. The major parties choose their nominees in the May 20 primary.
According to this story, the Vermont legislature has again amended SB 86. The original bill, which passed the Senate last year, moved the independent deadline from June to August. The House Committee revised the bill to move the deadline in the opposite direction, from June to May. But the newspaper story seems to indicate the bill will not move the deadline at all.
Vermont is tied with Illinois for having the nation’s earliest independent presidential petition deadline. Moving it even earlier would certainly have been unconstitutional.
On April 3, President Obama signed HR 2019. It eliminates public funding for the presidential conventions of parties that polled at least 5% of the vote for President in the last election.
The only party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, that ever received this type of public funding was the Reform Party in 2000. The program had existed starting in 1976.
