The faction of the Michigan Libertarian Party that is not recognized by the National Committee of the Libertarian Party has submitted a proposal to the U.S. District Court that is hearing the dispute. The proposal asks the court to order a new state convention to which all members would be invited if they had been members in July 2022, to determine which side has the most support among the members. Here is an Independent Political Report blog post that has the proposal.
This story says U.S. Senator Mitt Romney has had conversations with others about starting a new political party, although he is opposed to a No Labels presidential nominee in 2024.
On October 19, the No Labels Party of Arizona filed a federal lawsuit to stop the Secretary of State from holding a primary for it in 2024. No Labels is a qualified party in Arizona, and in Arizona, all qualified parties nominate by primary. No Labels Party v Fontes, 2:23cv-2172. Here is the Complaint. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge John T. Tuchi, an Obama appointee.
The Complaint mentions the Eleventh Circuit precedents that permit parties to block particular candidates from their presidential primaries. But the Eleventh Circuit includes Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. The Complaint does not mention two Ninth Circuit precedents that find political parties do not have the right to block state laws on how qualified parties nominate. Arizona is in the Ninth Circuit. The two cases are Lightfoot v Eu, in which the Ninth Circuit blocked the Libertarian Party of California from nominating candidates by convention; and Alaskan Independence Party v State, which blocked the Alaskan Independence Party from barring a particular candidate for U.S. Senate from its primary.
Arizona No Labels doesn’t want a primary because already two candidates have filed to run in the No Labels primary, for U.S. Senate and Corporation Commissioner. No Labels doesn’t want to have candidates for anything but president.
Even though the Republican Party has been opposed to automatic voter registration, this story reports that the Republican Party has gained three times the number of Democratic Party registered voters in the one month since automatic voter registration became the law in Pennsylvania.
Thanks to Political Wire for the heads up and the great resource that it is!
Politico today published this story on 2024 Presidential ballot access difficulties for independent and third party candidates. While it focused on the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. candidacy, it also addressed No Labels, and mentioned Ballot Access News and Richard Winger.
