The Constitution Party’s vice-presidential candidate is Darrell Castle, an attorney from Memphis, Tennessee. He won the nomination on the first ballot. The key factor in his victory was that presidential nominee Chuck Baldwin asked the convention to choose Castle. Also, Mary Starrett told the convention that she didn’t want the vice-presidential nomination.
On April 26, the North Carolina Green Party chose delegates to the national convention. The delegates comprise 5 pledged to Cynthia McKinney, 2 to Jesse Johnson, and one to Kent Mesplay. Thanks to Kai Schwandes for this news. Among those seeking the Green nomination, McKinney so far is leading in every state that has already chosen delegates. The convention will be July 10-13 in Chicago.
The most significant vice-presidential candidates for the Constitution Party are Law Professor Scott Bradley of Utah (the party’s US Senate candidate in 2006), attorney Darrell Castle of Tennessee, and Mary Starrett of Oregon (the party’s 2006 gubernatorial nominee). Alan Keyes has said he will not seek the vice-presidential nomination. A few other vice-presidential candidates have also announced, but the three with the most support are the three named above. The convention will choose one late Saturday afternoon (April 26).
Past Constitution Party vice-presidential candidates have been: 1992 Albion W. Knight; 1996 Herbert W. Titus; 2000 J. Curtis Frazier; 2004 Chuck Baldwin.
On April 24, peace activist Cindy Sheehan began her drive to collect 10,198 valid signatures, to get on the ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. House in San Francisco. She garnered considerable publicity; see here for the San Francisco Chronicle story.
California has one of the strictest laws in the nation for independent candidates for U.S. House. No one has qualified for that office as an independent since 1996, when Steven Wheeler qualified in the 22nd district (Monterey area). Sheehan had an alternate path to the November ballot. She could have been a write-in candidate in the Green Party’s primary, or the Peace & Freedom Party primary. She would have needed 1,847 write-ins to win either of those nominations (she couldn’t appear on either of those parties’ primary ballot because of her prior registration history). She chose the independent petition method, either because she perceived it is easier, or because she is more comfortable as an Independent than as a Green or Peace & Freedom nominee.
On April 24, the Ohio Secretary of State said that it will not put the Libertarian Party on the ballot this year. In 2006 the 6th circuit had ruled that the old law, requiring a petition of 1% of the last vote cast, due an entire year before the general election, is unconstitutional. The Ohio legislature has not replaced the old, void law, with a new one.
To fill the gap in the law, last year the Ohio Secretary of State said she would accept party petitions if they were submitted in late November 2007, and if they had the signatures of one-half of 1% of the last vote cast (slightly more than 20,000 signatures). No group complied with this task. The only group that even tried to qualify as a party was the Libertarian Party, which submitted 6,500 signatures on the day before the March primary. The party believes that when a ballot access law is unconstitutional, and the legislature doesn’t pass a new requirement, then a state is obliged to put any party or any candidate on the ballot, if that party or candidate demonstrates a modicum of support.
The party rests its opinion on the U.S. Supreme Court opinion McCarthy v Briscoe. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court said that since Texas did not have any procedure for an independent presidential candidate to get on the ballot, Texas must put McCarthy on the ballot even though he hadn’t submitted any petition at all. The Court noted public opinion polls, and ballot status for McCarthy in other states, to justify putting McCarthy on the ballot.
Ohio is in the 6th circuit. The 6th circuit issued a similar opinion in 1984 called Goldman-Frankie v Austin. It said the lower court had been correct to order the Michigan Secretary of State to put Peggy Goldman-Frankie on the ballot as an independent candidate for State Board of Education, since Michigan did not have a valid law in place.
The Ohio Secretary of State did not say why she is not influenced by McCarthy v Briscoe or Goldman-Frankie v Austin. It is likely that the party will bring a lawsuit. It nominated by convention earlier this year and has certified the names of its candidates for U.S. House and state legislature.
