According to this story, Maine State Senator Tom Saviello may run for re-election this year as an independent. He was last elected as a Republican. He must decide before March 1. Thanks to Tom MacMillan for the link.
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On February 11, attorneys for Ohio state government said they will drop their appeal of the January 7, 2014 order of a U.S. District Court that put Ohio’s minor parties on the 2014 ballot. When the state had appealed that court order to the Sixth Circuit, the state had also asked for expedited handling, but the Sixth Circuit had then refused to expedite the case. That seemed to be a clue that the Sixth Circuit agreed with the U.S. District Court.
The case, Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, will undergo further action in the future, over whether the new ballot access law passed late in 2013 is constitutional for elections in years beyond 2014. But it is now settled that the new ballot access restrictions will not interfere with the 2014 election.
On February 10, Bill Bloomfield announced that he will not be an independent candidate for U.S. House, in California’s 33rd district. This is the district in which veteran Congressman Henry Waxman is not running for re-election. In 2012, Bloomfield was the only independent candidate for any partisan office in California who managed to get on the general election ballot even though there was at least one Republican and one Democrat in the race. In the election, though, Bloomfield lost to Waxman, despite outspending him. See this story about Bloomfield’s announcement.
On February 10, the Arizona House Rules Committee passed HB 2196 by a vote of 5-2. This is the bill that repeals the 2013 omnibus election law bill. That 2013 bill made it very difficult for members of qualified minor parties to get on their own party’s primary ballot.
The Arizona House Judiciary Committee had also passed this bill, on January 30, so now the bill goes to the House floor.
Sam Rankin of Billings, Montana, will attempt to get on the ballot this year as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Montana. See this story. No one has qualified as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Montana since 1936. Since 1895, Montana has had very severe ballot access laws for non-presidential independent candidates. The law requires signatures equal to 5% of the winning candidate’s vote in the last election. Rankin will need 17,417 valid signatures by May 27.
The deadline was formerly in March, but that deadline was declared unconstitutional in 2012 in Kelly v McCulloch, so the legislature moved it to May. It is conceivable that the May petition deadline is also unconstitutionally early. The primary is June 3. Generally it is unconstitutional for states to require independent candidates to file petitions before the primary.
Ironically, if Rankin had decided to run as the nominee of a new party, he would only need 5,000 signatures, but the deadline for that petition is March 13. Thanks to Mike Fellows for this news.