The American Independent Party will have primary contests on June 8, 2010, between candidates who do not want the AIP to be allied with the national Constitution Party, and candidates who are loyal to the national Constitution Party.

The statewide candidates for the anti-Constitution Party group are: Ed Noonan, U.S. Senator; Markham Robinson, Governor; an unknown individual for Lieutenant Governor; Lawrence Beliz for Controller.

The statewide candidates for the pro-Constitution Party group are: Don Grundmann, U.S. Senator; Chelene Nightingale, Governor; Jim King, Lieutenant Governor; Merton Short, Secretary of State; Nathan Johnson, Controller; Diane Templin, Attorney General; Clay Pedersen, Insurance Commissioner.

Robert Lauten is the only candidate for State Treasurer, and it is not clear which side he is on.

The anti-Constitution Party group webpage, www.aipca.org, does not yet list any candidates. The pro-Constitution Party group webpage, www.aipcalif.blogspot.com, does list its candidates. Besides the statewide candidates, it lists six for U.S. House (plus a seventh who is listed as a write-in candidate), 2 for Board of Equalization, one for State Senate, and one for Assembly.

The internal rules for the American Independent Party are contained in the California Election Code. The rules say that all the party’s nominees for partisan office, except Insurance Commissioner, are automatically members of the State Central Committee of the party. In addition, nominees may appoint several other members of that Committee. Therefore, the identity of the primary winners not only determines who the party’s nominees will be, but influence who sits on the party’s governing body.

The California Secretary of State will not release the names of primary candidates until April 1, but it is possible for anyone to check with various counties to see which candidates have filed. Each candidate must have filed in his or her home county no later than March 12 (except that if the incumbent didn’t file, the deadline is March 17).

On March 16, the U.S. House held a hearing on HR 3335, a bill to require the states to let ex-felons register to vote in federal elections. Here is a Florida newspaper story about the hearing, which emphasizes the point that the Supervisor of Elections of Leon County, Florida made. If this bill had been in effect before the 2000 election, thousands of Florida voters who were not permitted to vote, would have been permitted to vote, and the outcome of the presidential election would have almost certainly been different.

On March 16, the Tennessee House State & Local Government Committee amended HB 3060 to permit a candidate to file simultaneously as an independent candidate, and as a declared write-in candidate in a partisan primary for the same office.

If the candidate then lost the primary, he or she could still run as an independent candidate. See this story, which explains the motivation for the bill. The Speaker of the House is a Republican, but he is considered a traitor by his own party, because he became speaker with the votes of all the Democrats in the House, plus his own vote. As speaker, even though he is a Republican, he has appointed an equal number of committee chairs from each of the two major parties. The Republicans, in retaliation, had announced that he would not be allowed to file for re-election in the Republican primary this year. But if the bill is signed into law, he could be a write-in in the Republican primary. Since no other Republican has yet announced plans to run in his district, he could surely win a Republican primary as a write-in candidate. And if some other Republican does file for that primary, and defeat him, he can still run in that district as an independent.