On January 19, the Delaware House Administration passed HB 11, which is intended to ban fusion. However, the bill is more restrictive than that. It makes it illegal for any political party to nominate someone who is not a member of that party. The bill does exempt presidential and vice-presidential candidates, however.
The U.S. Supreme Court said in Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut, 479 U.S. 208, on page 215, “Were the State to provide that only Party members might be selected as the Party’s chosen nominees for public office, such a prohibition of potential association with nonmembers would clearly infringe upon the rights of the Party’s members under the First Amendment to organize with like-minded citizens in support of common political goals.” The sponsor of the bill, Representative Earl Jaques, says his goal is to stop any candidate’s name from being listed more than once on the ballot. It doesn’t follow logically that, therefore, he should tell parties that they can’t nominate a non-member.
