The speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives has agreed to meet with the lobbyist for the Oklahoma ballot access bill on Monday morning. The lobbyist is a professional, and he has had great success so far, because HB 1072 has passed both houses of the legislature, but it needs to go through the conference committee, since the version of the bill in each house differs. Bill Redpath, national chair of the Libertarian Party, has made a life-saving personal contribution of $1,500 to OBAR (Oklahoma Ballot Access Reform) so that the lobbyist’s bill can be paid for May.

Thomas Golisano told the press on May 15 that he is moving from New York to Florida. Golisano was the Independence Party’s gubernatorial candidate in 1994, 1998, and 2002. He is a billionaire, and he spent lavishly on his campaigns, polling enough votes in 2002 to give the Independence Party the third line on New York ballots (New York puts parties on the ballot in the order of how many votes they polled for Governor). See this story. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link. Golisano says he is paying $13,000 per day to New York in state taxes. Florida does not have a state income tax.

Free & Equal released this press release on May 15, asking people who care about ballot access to contact certain key Oklahoma legislators today and in the next few days, urging support for HB 1072. HB 1072 lowers the number of signatures to put a previously unqualified party on the Oklahoma ballot. Please, if you care about this issue, make some phone calls yourself, even if you don’t live in Oklahoma. The conference committee does not meet formally, but handles its business by the process of individual members talking to other individual members of the Committee. The conference committee has 223 bills to consider by May 21.