Caffeinated Thoughts, an Iowa blog that looks at culture and politics from an evangelical reformed point of view, recently called for a four-candidate Iowa gubernatorial debate, instead of the Democratic-Republican debates that are already being planned.  See the post here.  It recommends that the Libertarian Party and the Iowa Party gubernatorial candidates be included.  Iowa has a recent tradition of excluding minor party candidates from gubernatorial and U.S. Senate debates.  Green Party and Libertarian Party candidates for Governor were not able to debate their major party opponents in either 2006 nor 2002.

The November 2010 gubernatorial ballot will feature six candidates:  Democratic incumbent Chet Culver, Republican nominee and former Governor Terry Branstad, Jonathan Narcisse of the Iowa Party, Eric Cooper of the Libertarian Party, David Rosenfeld of the Socialist Workers Party, and independent candidate Gregory Hughes.

The Iowa Party was formed by Jonathan Narcisse, a former member of the Des Moines School Board.  It emphasizes education and seems to be a blend of conservative and liberal positions on other issues.  Narcisse, who is black, was originally planning on running in the Democratic primary this year, but changed his mind and formed his own party.  The Iowa Party also has a candidate for the state legislature.

The independent gubernatorial candidate, Gregory Hughes, seems to stress problems with domestic relations courts, and is a founder of IowaFathers.  The Iowa Green Party has no nominees for statewide office this year, but has a candidate for the state legislature.

In 2010, there are at least twelve states, plus the District of Columbia, that have held contested primaries for minor parties:

Arizona had a 4-way gubernatorial primary for the Libertarian Party; California held contested primaries for all four of its ballot-qualified minor parties; Colorado held statewide Libertarian primaries; the District of Columbia is about to hold contested primaries for the Statehood Green Party; Florida held a contested state legislative primary for the Libertarian Party; the Illinois Green Party primary had a few contests for district office; Louisiana held a U.S. Senate primary for the Libertarian Party; the Maine Green Party had two contested legislative races; Minnesota had a contested gubernatorial primary for the Independence Party; Missouri had a contested Libertarian primary for several offices, including U.S. Senate; New York is about to hold a contested gubernatorial primary for the Conservative Party; Ohio had a few contested district office Libertarian primaries; and Vermont had several statewide contested Liberty Union primaries.  Thanks to the posters below for help with this blog post.

This is believed to be the highest number of states that have held contested minor party primaries in a midterm year since before World War II.  States that have held contested minor party primaries (for office other than President) since World War II, but not this year, are Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Washington, and possibly others.

On September 5, all three ballot-listed candidates for U.S. House in the South Dakota at-large seat debated each other at the state fair.  The three candidates include an independent, a Democrat, and a Republican.  See this story.

South Dakota has a tradition of including minor party and independent candidates in debates.  In both 2002 and 2006, all the candidates on the ballot for the gubernatorial, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House at-large seat were permitted to debate each other.

This year, the Constitution Party is the only ballot-qualified party on the ballot, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties.  However, its only nominees on the ballot are for Secretary of State and state legislature.  The party was not able to be on the ballot for Governor, U.S. Senate, or U.S. House, because the petition to place a statewide nominee on the ballot for the party’s primary requires 250 signatures of party members, and the Constitution Party only had 315 registered members at the time the petitions were due.  The party is on for Secretary of State because, in South Dakota, party conventions, not primaries, choose nominees for that office.  The party was able to run for state legislature because the law only requires 5 signatures to get on the primary ballot for that office.

The U.S. Senate race in South Dakota this year has only one candidate on the ballot, the incumbent, John Thune.