On December 6, the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance issued an advisory opinion, saying that for campaign finance purposes, all political parties should be treated alike, whether they are ballot-qualified or not. The opinion had been requested last month by the Libertarian Party.

The Kentucky law on how parties gain qualified status is more severe than it sounds. Kentucky requires a 2% vote for President to be a qualified minor party, and a 20% vote for President to be a major party. The only parties that have enjoyed qualified status in Kentucky since World War II are the American Party 1968-1972, the Anderson Coalition Party 1980-1984, and the Reform Party 1996-2000. Obviously, many other minor parties have placed nominees on the ballot in the last 70 years, including the Libertarian Party, but they haven’t had qualified party status.

Under the ruling, qualified party status is immaterial to campaign finance. In 2011, the Libertarian Party put a nominee for State Treasurer on the ballot, and was warned that the party could not give more than $1,000 to its nominee because it wasn’t a qualified party, but in the future, unqualified parties will be permitted to give as much as the qualified parties. Thanks to Ken Moellman for this news.

Recently, two polls were released for the California June 2014 gubernatorial primary. The PPIC poll shows: Democrat Jerry Brown 47%, Republican Tim Donnelly 16%, Republican Abel Maldonado 7%, someone else (volunteered) 1%, undecided 29%. Scroll down to page 12 for these results.

However, a Field poll shows: Democrat Jerry Brown 58%, Republican Abel Maldonado 11%, Republican Tim Donnelly 9%, Republican Neel Kashkari 3%, undecided 25%.

Cindy Sheehan and Luis Rodriguez are also running for California Governor, but the pollsters did not include them. Sheehan will have the “Peace & Freedom” label, and Rodriguez the “Green” label. As most readers know, California has the top-two system, and only the two candidates who place first and second can run in the election itself.

A U.S. District Court in Ohio has expedited the lawsuit over whether the new ballot access restrictions can be imposed for the 2014 election. All briefs must be submitted by December 18, and the hearing might be held that same day. The judge says he will decide the case no later than January 8, 2014. The legislature last month passed SB 193, which removes the four minor parties from the 2014 ballot and says they must submit approximately 28,000 valid signatures for the party, and then separate candidate petitions, if the parties want to be on the 2014 general election ballot.