On July 6, 2006, the Green Party of Connecticut had filed a federal lawsuit against the discriminatory public funding law passed by the Connecticut legislature in 2005. Among other things, the law requires a new party to not only collect the same number of $5 contributions from small donors as the major parties, but to also submit a petition signed by 10% of the last vote cast in that district (or in the state, if the candidate is running for statewide office). Even if the 10% petition is submitted, the new party candidate would still not receive the same amount of public funding as the major party members. For full public funding, a 20% petition is required.

On June 6, 2007, an oral argument was held, in which the state argued that the lawsuit should be summarily dismissed, even before any evidence is gathered. The judge has not ruled on the state’s motion. However, he is permitting discovery (a method of evidence-gathering) to proceed. It is unlikely that he would be permitting discovery if he intended to dismiss the lawsuit. The lawsuit is being handled by the ACLU.

Michigan requires petitions signed by one-half of 1% of either major party’s last presidential vote, for a candidate to qualify for the January 15 presidential primaries. The due date was October 23, 2007. Of course, this procedure only applies to Democratic and Republican presidential candidates who were not automatically placed on the ballots by Democratic and Republican party leaders.

Two groups had announced that they were petitioning: Alan Keyes had said he would gather the needed 11,569 signatures to get on the Republican presidential primary ballot, and a Draft Al Gore group had said it would gather the needed 12,396 signatures to place Gore on the Democratic ballot. However, neither group succeeded. The Gore group only obtained 3,000 signatures. It is not known how many Keyes collected.

Only three presidential candidates have applied to the Federal Election Commission to receive primary season matching funds, as of October 23. They are John Edwards, John McCain and Tom Tancredo. The FEC has already certified eligibility for McCain and Tancredo, and is still looking at Edwards’ submission. Although primary season funds won’t be paid until January of the election year (at the earliest), candidates are free to establish eligibility in the odd year before the election year. Any candidate seeking the nomination of any party (no matter how small that party is) may qualify by raising $5,000 from each of 20 states. Contributions from any single donor, no matter how large, cannot count as greater than $250 for this purpose.