Max Linn, Reform Party candidate for Governor of Florida, kicked off his campaign on August 6 with a pledge to spend $1,000,000 of his own money on the campaign.
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On August 5-6, the Michigan Green Party, which is ballot-qualified, nominated its candidates. Doug Campbell was nominated for Governor, and David Sole for U.S. Senator.
There are twelve U.S. Senate races this year that are considered somewhat competitive. Of those, Greens have nominated a candidate in Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington. They have not done so in Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, and Rhode Island.
Although the Green Party that is on the ballot in Virginia is not affiliated with the national Green Party, it is the only Green Party that is on the Virginia ballot this year.
Democrats are furious with the Green Party for running someone for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, but seem to have nothing to say about the Greens running in six other close Senate races.
State Senator Ben Westlund is an independent candidate for Governor of Oregon. He needs 18,356 valid signatures, and has collected 45,000. Deschutes County has finished checking his petition, and reported 57% of his signatures are valid. If that rate holds up in other counties, he will easily qualify; he only needs a 41% validity rate.
He will be the first statewide independent candidate to cope with Oregon’s new primary screenout, which forbids voters from signing for an independent if they voted in the primary. Oregon has high primary turnouts, compared to most states, since the state votes entirely by mail.
On August 5, Texas State Senator Eddie Lucio, Jr. endorsed Carole Strayhorn for Governor of Texas. Strayhorn is one of the two independent candidates on the ballot for Governor. Lucio represents the Brownsville area and has been a Democratic State Senator since 1990.
Connecticut plans to replace its old-fashioned lever mechanical voting machines with optical-scan paper ballots, in time for the November 7, 2006 election. This is good news for minor party and independent candidates in Connecticut. The Connecticut lever machines uses the party row format, with the major parties occupying the upper rows. That type of ballot format encourages voters to overlook the “less important” candidates in the lower rows.
But the optical scan ballot format is always an “office-group” format. All of the candidates for the most important office are in a list, and the voter chooses one candidate or, perhaps, chooses no one. The voter’s eye then goes to the list of candidates for the second-most important office on the ballot, and the voter concentrates on the list of candidates for that office. With this type of ballot format, the voter for minor party and independent candidates is generally higher, for the less important offices.