The Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, has decided not to appeal last week’s U.S. District Court order putting the Libertarian Party on the ballot. This will be the first time any party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, has appeared on the ballot in Ohio since 2000.
An NBC/WSJ Poll released on July 23 shows these results for president: Obama 48%, McCain 35%, Nader 5%, Barr 2%, other and undecided 10%.
When the pollster only mentions the two major party candidates to respondents, the results are: Obama 47%, McCain 41%, other and undecided 12%. See here for more details. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this link.
On July 23, the Connecticut Working Families Party released a list of its legislative nominees. See this newspaper story. The reporter seemed surprised that the party had cross-endorsed two Republican candidates, but the Working Families Party in 2006 had also cross-endorsed two Republican legislative candidates, Senators Leonard Fasano and Tony Guglielmo.
Bill Collins is an independent candidate for the South Carolina State Senate, 38th district, this year. He is a well-known publisher and he could perhaps win the general election. His only opponent is a Republican. See this story. Independents were elected to the State House in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 1998, but South Carolina hasn’t had an independent, or a member of a minor party, in the State Senate since 1894.
Dick Anthony Heller, the plaintiff in last month’s famous U.S. Supreme Court decision that said the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a gun, is petitioning as the Libertarian nominee for Delegate to the U.S. House from the District of Columbia. He needs 3,000 signatures.
If he gets 7,500 votes (or if Bob Barr gets 7,500 votes for president within D.C.), the D.C. Libertarian Party will be a ballot-qualified party for the first time. The last time the D.C. Libertarian Party made a push to win 7,500 votes for any partisan office (other than just president) was in 2000. In that year, it ran Robert Kampia for Delegate. He polled 4,594 votes.
The advantages of being a qualified party include obtaining a tally of how many registered members that party has, as well as a presidential primary, plus a primary for other office. The only other nationally-organized minor parties that have ever been qualified in the District are the Statehood Green Party currently, and the Socialist Workers Party, and the U.S. Labor Party, which had that status 1976 through 1978.
