The Democratic Party National Congressional Campaign Committee is backing Ed Jany for Florida’s U.S. House district 13 this year, even though he is a registered independent. See this story.

Jany would like to be a Democrat, but Florida law does not permit anyone to run in a primary if he or she has been a registered member of another party during the proceeding year. Jany had been a registered Republican for part of that period.

The Democratic Party statements criticize the Florida law, which was passed in 2011. But the Democratic Party does not reveal that it had a chance to overturn that law, as applied to Democratic candidates, and it refused to help. Nancy Argenziano had run for the legislature in 2012. Like Jany, she wanted to run as a Democrat, but the same law interfered with her as well. She filed a lawsuit against the restriction, but lost. Her attorney asked the Democratic Party of Florida to enter the lawsuit as a co-plaintiff, but the party refused. If the party had entered the lawsuit, Argenziano would probably have won. The U.S. Supreme Court said in Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut in 1986 that the First Amendment permits a political party to nominate a non-member, if it wishes. A federal court in New Mexico and a state court in Colorado have both struck down laws similar to the Florida law, in cases in which a political party itself brought the lawsuit. Thanks to Austin Cassidy for the link.

Joel Mathis has this essay, questioning the good sense of Pennsylvania’s ballot access practices, in Philadelphia Magazine. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

The Constitution Party petition for a place on the 2014 New Mexico ballot has been approved by the Secretary of State. This is the first successful Constitution Party statewide ballot access petition so far this year.

The New Mexico law on how a party remains on the ballot is very unusual. A party can remain ballot-qualified in New Mexico forever, if it continues to run at least one partisan nominee (for any office) every two years, and as long as it abstains from running for Governor and President. But if it should run for Governor or President, then and only then is its status at risk. If it does run for either of those offices, it must poll one-half of 1% of the total vote. The Constitution Party is not running anyone for Governor this year, but it does have candidates for certain other partisan offices. Therefore it will also be on the ballot in 2016.

The only other ballot-qualified parties in New Mexico at this time are the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Independent American Parties.