On July 15, the Minnesota deadline for filing for the primary, Dean Barkley filed in the Independence Party primary for U.S. Senate. Another Independence Party member, Jack Ulrich, also filed for the seat, so the party will have a contested primary. Barkley was the U.S. Senator for Minnesota for a few months in late 2002, after Senator Paul Wellstone was killed.
On July 15, Bob Barr held a press conference in Oklahoma City to denounce the state’s ballot access laws, and to say that he is about to file a lawsuit against the independent presidential procedure. He also turned in 9,488 signatures on an independent petition.
No one has appeared on the ballot as an independent presidential candidate in Oklahoma since 1992. According to the U.S. Supreme Court in Storer v Brown, an independent candidate petition procedure that is rarely used is probably unconstitutional. Also, Oklahoma seems to have little interest in making independent presidential ballot access difficult, since Oklahoma requires no signatures at all for independent candidates for other office. Yet in Anderson v Celebrezze, the U.S. Supreme Court said that states have less interest in keeping presidential candidates off their ballots, than candidates for other office. This is because a presidential election is of concern to the entire nation. Here is a link to the Tulsa World’s coverage of the Barr press conference.
The Constitution Party has decided that it cannot afford to get on the ballot for president this year in Arizona, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. Maine is in doubt. However, the party still hopes to be on the ballot in 41 states. The other states that party doesn’t expect to be on are: Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Carl Romanelli, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in 2006, filed a Petition with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on July 15, seeking to re-open the case that imposed approximately $90,000 in court costs against him, to pay for the process by which he was removed from the ballot.
The petition points out that the judge who imposed the fees, did so partly because he felt Romanelli had been uncooperative, by failing to have attorneys and representatives in the various local courts at which his petitions were being checked. The petition points out that the other side would also have been short on such resources, if it had not been for the illegal diversion of public employee manpower.
The Romanelli fees matter is already pending in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court anyway, because the amount is still being contested. The new petition relates to the merits of the existence of the fee itself, rather than the controversy over the amount.
Public Policy Polls released a South Carolina poll on July 15 for president and U.S. Senate. For president: McCain 45%, Obama 39%, Barr 5%, other and undecided 11%.
For U.S. Senate, Republican Lindsey Graham 52%, Democrat Bob Conley 21%, independent Mark McBride 10%, undecided 17%. McBride is not certain to be on the ballot. He turned in his petition, but the signatures haven’t been checked. There are no minor party candidates for U.S. Senate. UPDATE: McBride failed to gather sufficient signatures to be on the ballot. Thanks to Art DiBianca for the link. For more details about these polls, see here.
