On December 20, the Federal Election Commission determined that Duncan Hunter and Dennis Kucinich qualify for primary season matching funds. The FEC also set the amounts that each of the 7 candidates will receive next year in the FEC’s first payment of such funds.

The amounts for Democrats will be: John Edwards $8,800,000; Chris Dodd $1,400,000; Joe Biden $857,000; Dennis Kucinich $100,000. For Republicans, John McCain $5,800,000; Tom Tancredo $2,100,000; Duncan Hunter $100,000.

These leading candidates have not sought matching funds: Republicans Rudy Guiliani, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson; and Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson.

Although Tom Tancredo withdrew on December 20, it does not necessarily follow that he can’t receive primary season matching funds, although the issue is unclear. If he had waited until January, he clearly would have been entitled to the funds.

Any party that is not now on the Texas ballot, and wishes to be on the ballot in 2008, must tell the Texas Secretary of State no later than January 2, 2008. That deadline is only two weeks away, and so far only the Green Party has filed the necessary form. The Libertarian Party is not affected since it is already on the Texas ballot.

This advance notice law was passed in 1993. It is probably unconstitutional, but no one has ever challenged it. It effectively makes it impossible for a new party to be organized in an election year. Of course, the only group that would have standing to challenge the law would be a party that was formed in an election year (i.e., an even-numbered year). The last time a new national party was formed in an even-numbered year, and which tried to get on ballots in the year it was formed, was 1992, when the Natural Law Party was formed in April.

Past parties of great significance that were not formed until an even-numbered year, and which tried to run candidates in the year they were formed, were the Republican Party in 1854, and the Progressive Party of 1912.