On February 6, the California Secretary of State determined which presidential candidates will be listed on the various presidential primary ballots. Ever since 1976, it has been a California tradition that the Secretary of State lists any presidential candidates in minor party presidential primaries who have been suggested by party leaders. The law itself, however, tells the Secretary of State to list candidates who are discussed in the news media.

For 2012, for the first time, a California Secretary of State has made her own independent evaluation of which minor party candidates are discussed in the news media. She has therefore listed some candidates who were not suggested by minor party leaders, and deleted some candidates who were suggested.

The Libertarian Party’s list of nine candidates was not altered. The Green Party had suggested only Jill Stein and Kent Mesplay, but the Secretary of State added Roseanne Barr.

The Peace & Freedom Party had listed four candidates, but the Secretary of State only listed two of them, Rocky Anderson and Stewart Alexander. She deleted the presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Peta Lindsay, and the presidential candidate of the Freedom Socialist Party, Stephen Durham, probably because neither one of them has filed with the FEC or otherwise obtained much publicity.

The American Independent Party had listed fourteen candidates, but the Secretary of State will list only Ed Noonan, Max Riekse, and Laurie Roth.

The Republican Party ballot will include Newt Gingrich, Fred Karger, Ron Paul, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum. The Democratic ballot will only include President Obama.

Candidates may still withdraw, and there is a possibility that Rocky Anderson will withdraw from the Peace & Freedom primary ballot, because he is more interested in promoting his Justice Party. The California law provides a petition procedure for candidates who were not listed to obtain a place on the presidential primary ballot, which requires a petition of 1% of any party’s registered voters. Thanks to Mark Seidenberg for this news. UPDATE: here is the list, from the Secretary of State’s web page. It includes addresses for each candidate.

On February 6, Newt Gingrich withdrew from the lawsuit Perry v Judd, which was filed last year to challenge Virginia’s ban on out-of-state circulators. The case is still alive because Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum intervened in the case earlier, and they haven’t withdrawn. UPDATE: according to this Washington Post story, Huntsman and Santorum also withdrew, so the case is finished before it could achieve anything worthwhile.

If one of them remains in the case, it can still proceed to a declaratory judgment. U.S. District Court Judge John A. Gibney already wrote in this case, “It is highly unlikely that the residency requirement will withstand the First Amendment challenge.” He also said, “The Court agrees with the rationale in Nader v Brewer.” Nader v Brewer is a 9th circuit case that struck down Arizona’s ban on out-of-state petitioners.

However, Judge Gibney was only dealing with injunctive relief. He hasn’t formally made a decision on whether the Virginia restriction on out-of-state circulators is unconstitutional. If all the intervenors withdraw from the lawsuit, there won’t be a decision on declaratory relief and the entire case will have achieved nothing.

Similarly, in 1992, the Alaska Libertarian and U.S. Taxpayers Parties won injunctive relief against Alaska’s early August petition deadline for presidential petitions. But because they never went back and got declaratory relief, the law was never held unconstitutionally early and survives to this day. Also, in Hawaii in 1986, the Libertarian Party got an injunction against Hawaii’s April petition deadline for new parties, but because the party never went back and got a declaratory judgment, the law was not struck down, and since then Hawaii has made the deadline even earlier, and moved it to February. Thanks to Josh Gerstein for this news.

On February 6, a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania jury convicted State Representative H. William DeWeese of using state resources to work on partisan political activity during the period 2000-2006. DeWeese was in the Democratic leadership in the House during those years. He directed staff to use government employees and government computers to help challenge the 2004 petition of Ralph Nader, and the 2006 statewide Green Party petition. See this story. DeWeese is currently in the legislature, and has been a state legislator since he was elected in a special election in May, 1976.

It is possible this conviction will have some relevance to Ralph Nader’s pending lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee and its allies, over what was done by Democrats to Nader ballot access efforts in 2004. The Maine Supreme Court is still considering Nader’s lawsuit. Also a District of Columbia appeals court is still considering whether to force a Washington, D.C. bank to turn over Nader’s funds to his Democratic 2004 challengers.