No Democrat will be on the November ballot this year for US Senate in Indiana. The only two candidates listed will be a Republican and a Libertarian. This is the eleventh time in the last 16 years in which one of the major parties had not nominated in a US Senate race. The other instances have been: no Republican in Massachusetts 2002, Arkansas 1990 and Georgia 1990; no Democrat in Idaho 2004, Kansas 2002, Mississippi 2002, Virginia 2002, Mississippi 1990, and Virginia 1990.
In April 2006, the Alabama legislature passed HB 51, which was intended to move the presidential primary from June to February. However, the bill was drafted so that it actually moves the primary for all office, not just president, to February. Since the petition deadline for minor parties and independents candidates (other than president) is tied to the date of the primary, that had the indirect result of moving the petition deadlines to February. Already various minor parties and independent candidates have a case in the 11th circuit against the June deadline. In 1991 the 11th circuit had struck down Alabama’s then deadline of April, so clearly the new law is unconstitutional. The legislature has gone home for the year and can’t fix the problem until next year.
The Ohio Secretary of State’s office has determined that both the Green and Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidates have enough valid signatures on their petitions. Each needed 5,000 valid signatures and turned in double that amount. Each will have the label “Other-party candidate” on the November ballot, instead of the label of their party. However, a bill will be introduced in Ohio soon to allow such candidates to have their party label printed on the ballot in future elections.
Pennsylvania HB 2830, which sets a cap on the number of signatures required for statewide minor party and independent candidates (45,000) passed the State House Government Committee on June 29. The bill has other unrelated provisions, and would take effect this year.
On June 29, Bill Scheuer, the Moderate Party candidate for U.S. House, Illinois 8th district, sued the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and various individuals, for fraud. Scheuer had laboriously collected 13,000 signatures to get on the November ballot. Since the legal requirement was almost 14,000, he had also contracted with an individual who promised to collect another 10,000 signatures for payment. The individual appears to have disguised his true identity, and also disguised the fact that he is a government employee associated with the Democratic Party. The individual gave Scheurer assurances that he was getting the signatures, but in fact he was not doing so. The case is Moderate Party v Dem. Congressional Campaign Committee, and has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge James B. Moran, a Carter appointee.
