The Working Families Party is a ballot-qualified party in Massachusetts, but Massachusetts doesn’t allow fusion (except that if a candidate wins the primary of the party that he or she is not a member of via write-in votes, which is very difficult, fusion is allowed). The Working Families Party generally desires to cross-endorse the Democratic Party nominee (or, in rare cases, the Republican nominee) rather than running its own nominee.

Massachusetts holds a special election on March 4 to fill the vacancy in the State House, Middlesex 23 district (mostly the town of Arlington). Suzanne Gordon, who has authored or edited 12 books and who is an expert on health care, has submitted petitions to be on the Democratic primary ballot, and the Working Families Party. She needed 150 signatures in each primary. If she gets enough valid signatures on both petitions, she could be the plaintiff-candidate for a proposed lawsuit to gain more complete fusion in Massachusetts. Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that nothing in the U.S. Constitution forbids states from outlawing fusion, it is possible that the Massachusetts Constitution’s guarantees of free association will protect the right of two political parties to jointly nominate a candidate.

On January 3, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle refused to issue an injunction to postpone the Florida Democratic presidential primary. However, the case remains alive, over the constitutional issue. The Florida Democratic voter who had filed the case had argued that it is the state’s fault that the Florida Democratic voters can’t elect any delegates to the national convention, and that therefore the state should be forced to schedule the primary in February. If the primary were in February, Florida Democrats could have delegates to the national convention. Ausman v Browning, 4:07-cv-519, Tallahassee. The judge said it would be chaotic to reschedule the primary at this late date.

Unity08 decided not to file the form that Texas law requires, giving notice that it intends to qualify as a party during 2008. Unity08 says it will have a major announcement about itself in a week or so.

Some months ago, Unity08 had hired an experienced ballot access director to research and coordinate the details of ballot access petitioning for the whole nation. However, that individual was laid off on December 19. These actions suggest that Unity08 has decided not to pursue its original mission of qualifying itself as a political party in as many states as possible before choosing a presidential nominee.