Oregon Constitution Party Nominates Will Christensen for President

Posted on by August 25, 2012
18

On August 18, the ballot-qualified Constitution Party of Oregon nominated Will Christensen for President. See here. Christensen will apparently not be on the ballot in any other state. He had formed the Independent American Party some time ago but it did not carry out any successful petition drives. The Independent American Parties of Nevada and New Mexico are not associated with Christensen’s party.

Christensen campaigns by listing his “dream cabinet”, which he hopes would include persons such as Congressman Allen West of Florida for Secretary of Defense, and Congressman Ron Paul for Secretary of the Treasury. However, there is no indication that these individuals are even aware of their status. Christensen attempted to obtain the presidential nomination of the American Independent Party of California earlier this month, but did not succeed. His vice-presidential running mate is Kenneth Gibbs.

Idaho Will Have Six Presidential Candidates on the Ballot

Posted on by August 25, 2012
3

The independent presidential petitions for Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson both succeeded. They will both be listed as “independent”. They will join the presidential nominees of the four ballot-qualified parties: Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Constitution.

Idaho requires 1,000 valid signatures for independent presidential candidates, due in August. Americans Elect never qualified in Idaho; even though the signatures were collected, they were never submitted.

Missouri U.S. Senate Race is a Three-Candidate Race, Yet Mason-Dixon Poll Gives Respondents Only Two Choices

Posted on by August 25, 2012
5

Three candidates are on the Missouri ballot for U.S. Senate: incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill, Republican nominee Todd Akin, and Libertarian nominee Jonathan Dine. Yet a recent Mason-Dixon poll conducted for the Post-Dispatch and New 4 asks voters, “If the 2012 general election for Missouri’s U.S. Senate seat were held today, would you vote for Claire McCaskill, the Democrat, or Todd Akin, the Republican?” See here. Scroll down.

The results of that poll, we are told, are: 50% for McCaskill, 41% for Akin. Presumably, 9% of the voters either said “I don’t know” or said they are voting for the Libertarian, or at least for someone else. One wonders why pollsters don’t present the actual list of candidates to respondents, especially when there are only three. An earlier Rasmussen Poll did present respondents with the choice of McCaskill, Akin, or “someone else” and that polled resulted in 9% voting for “someone else.” See here for Nate Silver’s discussion of that poll, written before the Post-Dispatch Poll results had been released. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link to the Mason-Dixon Poll.

Here is an interview with Jonathan Dine, conducted by Eric Dondero at LibertarianRepublican.

South Bend, Indiana, Tribune Carries Op-Ed Criticizing Indiana’s Ballot Access Laws

Posted on by August 25, 2012
4

Andrew Straw, an Indiana Green Party activist, has this op-ed in the South Bend Tribune, criticizing Indiana’s ballot access laws. Straw seems to be the most energetic activist against Indiana’s ballot access laws in many decades. Indiana is one of only two states in which no statewide minor party or independent petition has succeeded in over ten years (the other such state is Georgia).