On December 16, the Libertarian Party announced that its 2008 presidential convention will be May 23-26, 2008, in Denver. The hotel will be Adam’s Mark Hotel.
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Lyndon LaRouche has indicated that he does not plan to run for president in 2008. This will be the first presidential election in which he has not run for president since 1972. In 1976, he was the nominee of the U.S. Labor Party. In all presidential election years starting in 1980, he has sought the Democratic Party nomination and has tried to run in as many Democratic Party presidential primaries as possible. He also ran as an independent in 1984, 1988 and 1992.
Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr has been elected to the Libertarian Party National Committee. He will represent Region 4, which consists of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Barr has been a life member of the Libertarian Party for some time. He was in Congress as a Republican from January 1995 through January 2003.
It is already too late for any more bills to be introduced in the 2007 session of the Maine legislature. The session started December 6, 2006, and that was also the deadline for all bills to be introduced.
Unfortunately, no Maine legislator introduced a bill to ease the definition of “party”. In 2005, the legislature had virtually passed a bill to improve the definition of “party”, except that the bill was tabled for budgetary reasons at the last instant. It is somewhat likely that bill could have passed in 2007, but since it was not introduced by the deadline, that hope is shattered.
If you are thinking about finding a state legislator to introduce a bill to improve any law, this is the time to act.
Michigan Democrats haven’t held a meaningful Presidential Primary since 1992, because Michigan law requires an open primary in which the voter decides in the secrecy of the voting booth which party’s primary to vote in. This type of primary violates national Democratic Party rules.
Legislative leaders from both major parties have agreed to pass a bill early in 2007, amending the presidential primary law. If the proposed bill passes, the new Michigan presidential primary will require voters to choose which party’s primary they wish to vote in. The parties will be permitted to retain this list, but it will not otherwise be a public record.
This list is not the same as having any voter register as a member of any party. Michigan has never placed a question about party membership on voter registration forms, and no one is suggesting that idea.
A bill to make this change failed to pass in the 2006 legislature, and that legislature has now adjourned, but the 2007 bill is considered almost certain to pass.