The Blue Enigma Party became ballot-qualified in Delaware last month. It was formed in 2006. It needed 284 registered members in order to qualify this year, and managed to obtain 292. It is not running any candidates for federal office, but it has candidates for state office. Specifically, has nominees for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and three State House districts. The party’s webpage is http://theblueenigmaparty.com. The gubernatorial candidate, Jeffrey Brown, is a 37-year-old bartender in a sports bar. The party’s first platform plank calls for increasing the number of teachers.
Brown is the only ballot-listed gubernatorial candidate, other than the Democratic and Republican nominees. He says his campaign’s number one goal is to help teachers.

Alan Keyes, presidential candidate of America’s Independent Party, is only on the ballot in three states. But two of those states, California and Florida, are very populous. The third state in which Keyes is on is Colorado. He is on the ballot in states that cast 18.1% of the national popular vote in 2004.

Tennessee State Senator Rosalind Kurita, running for re-election from the 22nd district, won her Democratic primary in August by only 19 votes. But on September 13, the state Democratic Party state executive committee tentatively ruled that she is not the party’s nominee, since she encouraged Republican-minded voters to vote for her in the party’s primary. On September 17, the final decision to exclude her as the Democratic nominee was made by a combined meeting of the Democratic county committees from Montgomery, Cheatham and Houston Counties (those three counties comprise the 22nd State Senate district).

On September 18, Senator Kurita said she may sue to regain the Democratic nomination. In the meantime, she filed as a write-in for the general election. If she does sue, the precedent will be important in the ongoing legal struggle over political party rights to control their own nominations process. Tennessee does not have registration by party.