Bob Knight, former Mayor of Wichita, Kansas, will probably be an independent candidate for Governor of Kansas this year. He said on June 24 that he has supporters who want to collect the needed 5,000 signatures for him, and he has told them “go ahead”. Thanks to Politics1 for this news.

The number of states this year with independent or minor party candidates for Governor who have held fairly important elected or appointed office in the past, is unprecedented. These states include Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Texas.

On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Vermont’s campaign finance restrictions. Randall v Sorrell, 04-1528. The lead plaintiff, Neil Randall, had been elected to the Vermont legislature as a Libertarian, although he had also won the Republican nomination as well. Later he changed parties from Libertarian to Republican, and was re-elected solely as a Republican.

The ruling struck down Vermont’s expenditure limits, on the basis that the Supreme Court had already thrown out expenditure limits back in 1976. More significantly, it also said Vermont’s contribution limits are too low, especially the limit on how much money a political party may contribute to its own nominees. The Court said, “We agree with the District Court that the Act’s contribution limits ‘would reduce the voice of political parties’ in Vermont to a ‘whisper.’ The law let parties contribute only $200 to any particular nominee.

Ohio state representative Jim Trakas has promised to introduce a bill in the next 10 days to let petitioning candidates choose a partisan label, to be placed on the November ballot next to the name of that candidate. A slight majority of other states already have such a law. These laws typically require that the label be no longer than 3 words, and not mimic the name of a fully-qualified party.

Since virtually all minor parties in Ohio place their nominees on the November ballot by petition, this bill, if passed, would make a huge improvement in Ohio ballot access laws for minor parties. Ohio law permitted such labels between 1891 and 1947. The label was repealed at the same time that the Ohio legislature made other hostile changes, such as eliminating write-ins, eliminating procedures for independent presidential candidates, and sharply increasing the number of signatures needed for independent candidates.

Representative Trakas is a Republican from Cuyahoga County.