On April 3, the Idaho Secretary of State posted a list of candidates for federal and state office in Idaho this year, including independent candidates. See this link.
The only candidates that could possibly be added would be the nominees of a new party, if a new party happens to qualify in Idaho this year. The petition for that is due in late August. Parties already qualified in Idaho are Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Constitution.
The New York Daily News, and other New York newspapers, gave prominent coverage to Howie Hawkins’ announcement on April 9 that he will run for Governor of New York on the Green Party line. See this story.
On April 8, the Louisiana House passed HB 193 by a vote of 84-5, after utterly revising it. The original bill said that independent candidates could have the ballot label “independent” instead of “no party.” But as amended, the bill does nothing to help independent candidates. Instead, now the bill repeals the law that says no party can be called the “Independent Party” and no party can have “Independent” as one of the words in its name. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.
The Sixth Circuit had decided to hold oral argument in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, 14-3230. This is the case over whether the Libertarian candidates for Governor-Lieutenant Governor should be on the party’s May 6 primary ballot. The argument will be sometime during the week of April 21-25.
Neither side had asked for oral argument. This development shows that the Sixth Circuit is taking the case very seriously. The exact date hasn’t been set yet.
As already noted, on March 31, a New Jersey Superior Court Judge struck down New Jersey’s law that won’t let petitioners work outside their own district. On April 8, Democratic congressional candidate Janice Kovach benefited from that decision, when an Administrative Law Judge restored her to the June 3 ballot. Kovach, the only Democrat running in the Seventh District, had initially been rejected because she was told she didn’t have at least 200 valid signatures of registered Democrats. She did have enough valid signatures, but some of them had been rejected because one of her circulators doesn’t live in the district.
The Administrative Law Judge who put Kovach back on the ballot seems to have based the decision on Kovach’s argument that Kovach herself, not the out-of-district circulator, co-circulated the petition. See this story. Thanks to William Fenwick for this news.
