On August 25, the Independent Party released the names of its nominees for U.S. Senator and U.S. House. Also the Blue Enigma Party released the name of its nominee for U.S. Senate. See this story, which also covers the Constitution Party’s failure to regain its spot on the ballot this year.
The Green Party is ballot-qualified in Delaware but has no nominees this year.
The Libertarian Party had already turned in the names of its nominees.
Democrats in Kauai County, Hawaii, have gone to state court to keep a Republican candidate off the ballot for a state legislative seat. They allege paperwork errors. Candidates for the legislature in Hawaii only need 15 signatures. If the Democratic attempt is successful, the Democratic nominee will be unopposed, and write-ins in Hawaii are banned. See this story. UPDATE: the Democratic Party lost its lawsuit. See this story.
Ben Manski, Green Party nominee for Wisconsin’s Assembly, 77th district, was recently endorsed by Madison Teachers, Inc., the union for public school teachers in Madison. The 77th district is in Madison. See this story.
On August 23, Bill Redpath, Libertarian Party nominee for U.S. House, Virginia’s 10th district, debated his Democratic Party opponent, Jeff Barnett. See this story. The third candidate in the race, incumbent Republican Frank Wolf, did not participate. Thanks to Melinda Moore for the link. Redpath is somewhat well known nationally because he was the chair of the Libertarian National Committee 2006-2010.
The Vermont legislature this year moved the petition deadline for independent candidates from September to June, a drastic de-liberalization. On August 25, an independent candidate for U.S. House, Jerry Trudell, filed a lawsuit in state court, alleging that the deadline is unconstitutional. Vermont holds its primary in August. The case is Trudell v Markowitz, filed in Superior Court in Washington County.
Trudell was on the ballot in 2008 for U.S. House, with the ballot label “Energy Independence.” He polled 10,818 votes, coming in third. He submitted a petition this year shortly before the primary, but the Secretary of State refused to accept it because it was late.
Courts in many states have ruled that independent petition candidate deadlines (for office other than president) may not be earlier than the primary, or perhaps the day before the primary. Such cases have been won in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. In addition, lawsuits filed by independent presidential candidates have also struck down deadlines in Arizona, Massachusetts, and North Carolina, and in all three of those cases, the decision seemed to strike down the deadline for non-presidential independents as well.
There are no cases upholding independent candidate petition deadlines that are earlier than primary day, or the day before the primary, except for one in Illinois in 1986 that has since been overturned, and one in Washington state in which none of the plaintiff-candidates were injured by the deadline.
