The 2005-2006 session of the Ohio legislature is still sitting, and the Ohio House Elections & Ethics Committee will hold a hearing on HB 638 on Wednesday, December 6, at 10:30 am. Representative Jim Trakas will testify in favor of his own bill. The bill would let candidates who use the independent candidate petition procedure choose a partisan label. This label would then be printed on the November ballot, next to the name of the petitioning candidate.

Ohio permitted partisan labels for candidates who use the independent procedure between 1891 and 1947. A slight majority of other states also permit a free choice of partisan label, as long as the label is fairly short and doesn’t mimic the name of a qualified party.

The December 2006 issue of New York Magazine cover story is about New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s interest in running for president in 2008, outside the two major parties. The article says that Unity.08 co-founder Doug Bailey is “openly courting the Mayor” to seek the Unity.08 nomination.

It seems likely that the incoming Ohio Secretary of State favors liberalizing the Ohio ballot access law. There is reason to believe that she will not appeal the September 2006 decision of the 6th circuit that held Ohio’s law unconstitutional.