Although the Constitution Party has been on the Louisiana ballot for president and it also ran a candidate for Congress, it has never had any candidates for state office in that state. However, the party is running Michael Ecuyer for the legislature in the 74th district. Since the Constitution Party is not a qualified party in Louisiana, he will not have the party name next to his name on the ballot. Like all candidates in Louisiana, he can qualify for the ballot with a filing fee; no petition is needed. The Constitution Party would need to persuade 1,000 voters to register as members of the party, in order to become ballot-qualified.

Ever since November 2000, the Mountain Party has been the only ballot-qualified party in West Virginia, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. It has run for state office and ran a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2006, but it has never run a presidential candidate.

On July 8, at its state convention, it voted to become the West Virginia affiliate of the Green Party. There still remains the formality that the national Green Party must accept the Mountain Party, but it is extremely likely that the national party will gladly do so. That will increase the number of states in which the Green Party (by whatever name) is ballot-qualified, from 19 states, to 20 states, the party’s first increase in 2007.

On July 8, peace activist Cindy Sheehan told the Associated Press that she may run for U.S. House in California’s 8th district as an independent. The incumbent is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Sheehan said she will run unless Pelosi files articles of impeachment against President Bush by July 23. If Sheehan runs, she will need 10,198 valid signatures to be collected between April 2008 and August 2008. She must take care not to be registered as a member of a qualified party at any time in the period October 2007 through August 2008. California election law does not permit anyone to become an independent candidate (for office other than president) if that person has been member of a qualified party during the 13 months before an election.

If she does run and if she does get on the ballot, she would be the first independent candidate for U.S. House from California since 1996, when Steven Wheeler ran in the San Luis Obispo County district against Andrea Seastrand and Walter Capps. Wheeler only got 4.0%.