Two Marxist parties in the U.S. have increased their involvement in the 2006 congressional elections, compared to previous years.

The Socialist Workers Party this year will be on the ballot for U.S. House in at least one district in Iowa, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. By contrast, in 2004, the party did not have any candidates on the ballot for U.S. House except in New Jersey.

The Socialist Equality Party this year will have candidates on the ballot for Congress in Michigan and New York. It also made a valient effort to place a candidate on the California ballot for U.S. House as an independent. However, that effort has probably fallen short. Although the party collected almost 9,000 signatures, it appears not to have enough to meet the requirement of 3% of the number of registered voters in the 29th district. No one has been able to qualify in California as an independent for U.S. House since 1996.

On August 11, one of the Texas independent gubernatorial candidates filed a criminal complaint against the other Texas independent gubernatorial candidate. Kinky Friedman complained about State Comptroller Carole Strayhorn’s use of 18 state employees to help produce briefing papers, and to help edit her speeches. Strayhorn defended herself by saying that these briefing papers would have been produced anyway, whether she were running for office or not. The Texas Government Code prohibits the use of state agency personnel “in connection with a government campaign”. The Travis County District Attorney’s office said it would not act on the complaint until after the November election.

On August 11, the 4 ballot-listed candidates for Colorado Governor debated on TV. The four candidates were the Democrat, Republican, Libertarian and Constitution Party nominees. The debate was sponsored by two TV stations and the Rocky Mountain News.