A new political party named the Democratic-Republican Party was formed in New Jersey earlier this year. It successfully petitioned to place a U.S. Senate nominee, two U.S. House nominees, and four nominees for county office, on the ballot. However, the state refuses to place the party name of these candidates on the November ballot. Instead, the state says they will have the label “No slogan” printed on the ballot next to their names.
The party sued, but on October 10, a U.S. District Court Judge refused injunctive relief. The case is Democratic-Republican Party v Guidagno, 3:12-cv-5658.
The state says voters would be confused if a party with that name were permitted on the ballot. However, almost all New Jersey counties use a party column ballot, in which the Democratic nominees are all in one column headed by “Democratic”; Republican nominees are treated the same; and all other candidates are squeezed into columns headed “By petition.” New Jersey defines “political party” to be a group that polled 10% of the statewide vote for its nominees for lower house of the legislature. This definition has been in place since 1920 and since then no party other than the Democratic or Republican Parties has ever enjoyed status as a “political party.” Given that all the major party nominees are in their own party columns, it is extremely unlikely that any voter would be confused with the label (in tiny print) next to the names of the party’s candidates, since they are all in the “By petition” column.
The party’s nominee for U.S. Senate is Eugene LaVergne. Its U.S. House nominees are Fred LaVergne in the 3rd district, and Leonard Marshall in the 4th district. The party has two freeholder candidates in Burlington County and also two in Ocean County.
