National leaders of the Republican Party are working to try to persuade Republican Florida Governor Charlie Crist not to run for U.S. Senate this year, according to this New York Times story of April 19.
National Republican Party officials don’t want him to run as an independent, nor do they seem to want him to run in this year’s Republican primary. They suggest that he should run the other U.S. Senate seat when it is up in 2012.
The Massachusetts Libertarian Party is ballot-qualified, and it could keep its status through 2012 by running a candidate for any statewide office this year. Although the law requires that one of the party’s statewide nominees poll 3%, it is a virtual certainty that the Libertarian Party could easily meet this test for an office like State Treasurer. Generally, Republicans don’t run anyone for State Treasurer. In 2006, when only the Democratic and Green Parties had a candidate for Treasurer, the Green Party polled 16.45% for that office. The Green Party also polled 17.75% for Secretary of State, another office that Republicans didn’t run for.
However, the Massachusetts Libertarian Party is not running anyone for any statewide office this year. As a result, the party will lose its place on the voter registration form. It will lose its 2012 presidential primary. And it will be required to circulate a difficult petition for the party’s presidential nominee.
The Massachusetts Libertarian Party says it can’t find anyone who wants to run for statewide office this year. It is true that if any candidate emerged, he or she would need 5,000 signatures to get on the Libertarian Party’s primary ballot, and only registered Libertarians and registered independents could sign. This is a tough requirement, but over half of all Massachusetts registered voters are registered independents, so it isn’t as bad as it might seem at first.
It is possible a lawsuit could be won against the state’s difficult petition requirements for getting candidates on the primary ballot of a small party, but if the Massachusetts Libertarian Party loses its qualified status, it won’t have standing to pursue such a lawsuit. Currently, the only qualified parties in Massachusetts are the Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian Parties, so no other party has standing to bring such a lawsuit.
As noted much earlier, on March 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C., struck down a Federal Election Commission ruling that limited the amount of money an individual may donate to a new political party to $5,000. That decision was Unity08 v FEC, 08-5526.
The federal government has not asked for a rehearing en banc in the Unity08 decision, and the deadline for doing that has now passed.
It is still theoretically possible that the government could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the decision. The deadline for that would be May 31.
On April 19, a U.S. District Court struck down the law that requires independent presidential candidates in Idaho to obtain 6,550 valid signatures. The basis for the decision is that Idaho law requires independent candidates for other statewide office to collect exactly 1,000 valid signatures. The presidential requirement, expressed in the law, is 1% of the last presidential vote cast. The case is Daien v Ysursa, cv09-22-S-REB. Here is the decision.
The decision also strikes down Idaho’s ban on out-of-state circulators for independent petitions.
The 34-page decision says that it is not even rational for Idaho to require almost seven times as many signatures for an independent presidential candidate, as for an independent candidate for other statewide office. This is the first decision that strikes down the number of signatures for one type of statewide independent candidate, on the grounds that it is significantly more difficult than the number of signatures for an independent candidate for some other statewide office.
Surprisingly, many states require significantly different signature requirements for one statewide office, than for other statewide offices. States that require fewer signatures for an independent for president, than an independent for other statewide office, are Alabama and Arkansas. States that require significantly more signatures for an independent presidential candidate, than for an independent candidate for other statewide office, besides Idaho, are Florida, Hawaii, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas.
On April 19, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Christian Legal Society v Martinez, 08-1371. This is not an election law case, but it is a case on freedom of association, and those cases impact on cases about political parties. UPDATE: here is a comprehensive AP story.
