Montana has four ballot-qualified parties: Constitution, Democratic, Libertarian, and Republican. All four nominate by primary. Filing for the June 2010 primaries closed on March 15.

The Libertarian Party has a candidate for the only statewide office on the ballot, U.S. House. The Libertarians also have one candidate for State Senate, five for State House, and one for Sheriff.

The Constitution Party has six candidates for the State House, but none for the only statewide office (U.S. House), and none for State Senate. Because the party is not running for a statewide office, it will lose its spot on the ballot after November 2010. When a party meets the vote test it remains on for the next two elections. It met the vote test in 2006, which kept on for 2008 and 2010, but it did not meet the test in 2008. However, the party has successfully completed the party petition four times before, so presumably it can do so again in 2011.

Montana requires independent candidates (for office other than President) to submit petitions in March. Out of the 125 state legislative races, only three independents filed. Two chose the label “independent” and one, Cheryl Wolfe, chose “Green.”

The San Diego Reader is a free weekly newspaper that has existed since 1972. Its latest issue has this story, which tries to determine who is paying for the literature that has been being postally mailed to California voters ever since late last year. The brochures say they are from the California Independent Voters Project. The return address is the law office of the attorney for the pro-Proposition 14 forces.

As the Reader article says, the California Independent Voters Project is a 501(c)(4) organization, so it doesn’t need to say where its contributions come from. The author of the article was able to learn that Eli Lilly Company, the drug manufacterer, contributed.

Another committee to support Proposition 14, called “Yes on 14 – Californians for an Open Primary” is registered with the Secretary of State, and it does disclose its contributors and expenses. It has received over $500,000 in contributions so far. However, it has spent almost nothing, and thus could not be the source of the financing for the postal mailings.