The printed, monthly Ballot Access News has a 2008 presidential petitioning chart, which shows the progress of petitioning for the leading minor party and independent presidential candidates each month. That chart also shows the deadlines for both full party petitions, and candidate petitions. Unfortunately the print version shows a Maine candidate petition deadline of August 15. The actual deadline is August 8. I regret the error, which will be fixed in the next print issue.
The Reform Party meeting of July 18-19 in Dallas nominated Ted Weill of Tylertown, Mississippi for president, and Frank E. McEnulty of Long Beach, California, for vice-president. McEnulty has already been running as the presidential nominee of the New American Independent Party. He is already on the ballot in Colorado. However, when he addressed the convention, he said that he would withdraw as a presidential candidate and hoped to be the vice-presidential nominee for the Reform Party. The presidential vote was: Weill 25, McEnulty 3. McEnulty was then chosen for vice-president by acclamation. UPDATE: his post below indicates that although he was withdrawing as a contender for the Reform Party presidential nomination, he still is the presidential candidate of the New American Independent Party.
Officers chosen are: David Collison of Houston, Texas, chair; Rodney Martin of Yuma, Arizona, vice-chair; Janelle Skinner-Weill, secretary; Beverly Kennedy, treasurer.
On July 17, the Maine Democratic state chairman announced that he is asking the State Supreme Court to remove Herb Hoffman from the ballot. Hoffman is an independent running for U.S. Senate. If Hoffman is removed, Maine will be one of only seven or eight states with a U.S. Senate race that has no independent or minor party candidate on the ballot. There are 33 states with U.S. Senate races this year.
Everyone agrees that Herb Hoffman’s petition was signed by more than 4,000 registered voters. Maine Democrats say he should still be removed from the ballot, because they don’t believe that some sheets correctly identify the person who was watching the signatures be gathered.
On Saturday, July 19, the Arkansas Democratic Party State Committee unanimously passed a change in the party rules. It says that no person who resigned from public office as part of a felony plea bargain, is eligible to run in a Democratic primary.
The proposal was motivated by a desire to remove Dwayne Dobbins from the November ballot. Currently he and Green Party nominee Richard Carroll are the only names set to be printed on the November ballot, for State Representative, 39th district (North Little Rock). Dobbins already won the Democratic primary in May, because he was unopposed and Arkansas doesn’t permit write-ins in primaries. Dobbins had been in the state legislature in the past, but he had plead guilty to a sexual assault on a 17-year-old girl. His seat has been taken over by his wife. But the wife, Sharon Dobbins, surprised everyone when she didn’t file for re-election this year, and Dwayne Dobbins did file, on the last day.
The new Democratic Party rule seems harsh, since Dobbins already is the party’s nominee and the rule wasn’t passed until after he had won the primary. But the press in Arkansas all seem to assume that the Democratic Party’s rule change does mean that Dobbins’ name will be removed from the November ballot. This will leave Green Party nominee Richard Carroll as the only name on the ballot. But the Democratic Party will encourage voters to cast a write-in for Clinton R. Hampton, a Democrat and the former Mayor of Dermott.
The 9th circuit will hear oral arguments in Alaskan Independence Party v State on August 8, in Anchorage, Alaska (no. 07-35186). This little-noticed case has important implications for the law concerning the rights of political parties. The Alaskan Independence Party argues that it has a right to bar candidates from its primaries, if those candidates are hostile to the party. The party specifically wants to bar Daniel DeNardo, who has been suing the party for slander (in state court), ever since 2005.
