Fancy Farm is a small town in western Kentucky. For 128 years in a row, community leaders have held an annual Political Picnic, at which candidates for public office are invited to speak. The first presidential candidate who was invited, and accepted, was George Wallace. This year the Fancy Farm Political Picnic has invited Senators Obama and McCain, and holds out hope that they will accept. However, the organizers of the Picnic have told Bob Barr that he is not invited. Organizers said, “We rarely ask third party candidates.” The Picnic is held on the grounds of St. Jerome Catholic Church, not on public property. Therefore, the organizers are free to invite whom they wish. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this news. For more about the Picnic, see here.

A Reform Party national meeting in Dallas is scheduled to be held, commencing on Friday afternoon (July 18). The meeting was called to resolve the difficult issue of the identity of the national officers of the Reform Party. In early 2007, a federal jury trial in Florida had determined that the Tampa 2005 national convention of the Reform Party had not been valid. In late 2007, a state court in Texas had determined that the national convention before that one (in Yuma in early 2005) had also not been valid. The Texas court had appointed a professional parliamentarian to preside over a new national meeting.

One of the factions that does not wish to participate in the Texas meeting filed a lawsuit in state court in New York in response to the action of the Texas court. On May 28, the New York court set a hearing on whether the Texas meeting should be enjoined. On July 14, one of the plaintiffs in the New York case telephoned the hotel that is hosting the Dallas meeting, and explained that the hotel should cancel the Dallas meeting. On July 15, the Texas court held a hearing, at which the hotel manager participated. The hotel then determined that it would continue to host the meeting. On July 17, the New York court issued an order saying the plaintiffs in the New York case “will be irretrievably harmed if the defendants are permitted, in effect, to hijack the political parties and entities which appear, on these papers at least, to be in the legitimate domain of the plaintiffs.” However, as of Friday morning, it appears likely that the Dallas meeting will proceed on schedule.

On July 17, Pennsylvania State Senator Mike Folmer (R-Lancaster and Lebanon Counties) contacted the Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition, and requested a copy of the Coalition’s original 2007 ballot access proposal. The Senator said he is not interested in Representative Kerry Benninghoff’s idea for replacing mandatory petitions with filing fees. Senator Folmer wants ideas for a bill specifically to help minor parties. The Coalition’s original proposal, submitted to all legislators last year, was a ballot access system similar to Delaware’s system. In Delaware, minor parties that attain a certain number of registered voters are considered qualified parties, and nominate by convention, and are automatically on the November ballot.