On June 18, Brian Moore, a long-time resident of Florida, filed to run for Governor in the Democratic Party primary. He will be the only opponent of Alex Sink. See this story, which focuses on the fact that Moore was the Socialist Party presidential candidate in 2008.

Moore’s ties with the Socialist Party have recently ended. Moore was also active in the Reform Party during 2004, the year the Reform Party nominated Ralph Nader for President.

June 18 was the deadline for candidates to file for election in Florida, for state office. The Florida deadline for congressional candidates was last month.

The Montana Republican Party recently decided not to hold a presidential nominating caucus in February 2012. Instead the party will treat its presidential primary in June 2012 as the method for selecting delegates. See this story.

In 2008, the June presidential primary was just a “beauty contest” for Republicans, with no binding force. The 2008 Republican delegates were chosen in a February caucus.

Montana primaries have always been open. Montana has never had registration by party.

Mark Noble, an Ohio Libertarian, has just completed a study of the voters who chose a Libertarian Party primary ballot last month, in Franklin County, Ohio. Franklin County is Ohio’s second-most populous county, and includes Columbus. In Franklin County last month, 1,351 voters chose a Libertarian primary ballot.

The analysis shows that in 2008, 22% of those voters had chosen a Republican primary ballot; that 27% had chosen a Democratic primary ballot; and that 41% had not voted in any party’s primary. Erickson hopes to do further research on this for counties other than Franklin County. In 2008, the only parties that had primaries in Ohio were the Democratic and Republican Parties.