On December 2, Chase Oliver declared his candidacy for the 2024 presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party. He was also the Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate last month. He debated his Democratic opponent, Senator Raphael Warnock, during that campaign. The Republican nominee, Herschel Walker, declined to appear. See this press release from Oliver.
The Libertarian Party had three members running for City Council of Hanford, California, on November 8, 2022. Two of them came close to winning. Frank Ramirez lost by 673-622 in Area B. Cheyne Strawn lost by 1,069 to 957 in Area E. The Mayor of Hanford, Kalish Morrow, is a Libertarian who was elected in 2020 and whose term expires in 2024.
Hanford is the County Seat of Kings County in the San Joaquin Valley, and has a population of 60,000.
Here is an article about the Hanford Libertarians.
Missouri Representative Dan Stacy has again introduced a bill to transform Missouri from an open primary state to a closed primary state. He has introduced it many times in the past. For the 2023 session it is HB 31. Here is the text. Thanks to Ken Bush for this news.
More independent candidates for the legislature have been getting elected during the last decade, compared to previous years. In every even-numbered general election, more than ten independent candidates have been elected in 2022, 2020, 2018, 2016, and 2014. But there are no years in which more than ten independents got elected to state legislatures at any time 1975-2010.
The highest number of independent winners since World War II was in 2012, when 17 were elected.
The number of winners in other recent years has been: 2022, thirteen (at least); 2020, fifteen; 2018, thirteen; 2016, twelve; and 2014, fifteen.
The main cause is probably the growing movement to eliminate straight-ticket devices. Fifteen states have repealed them 1965-2020. Only six still have the device: Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. Another cause is the switch from party-column ballot format to office-block format. Only five states still don’t use office-block: Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and New York.
Alaska Representative David Eastman (R-Wasilla) was re-elected this month. Consequently, a lawsuit challenging his eligibility to serve as a legislator, based on his membership in the Oath Keepers, will move ahead this month. The lawsuit was filed on July 29, 2022, but it was delayed because no one could know if he was going to be re-elected. He was re-elected with 51.3% of the vote.
The case is Kowalke v Eastman, Superior Court, 3rd district, 3AN-22-07404. The Alaska Constitution, Article XII, sec. 4, says, “No person who advocates, or who aids or belongs to any party or organization or association which advocates the overthrow by force or violence of the United States or of the state shall be qualified to hold any public office of trust or profit under the Constitution.”
Eastman is a life-member of Oath Keepers, and he was at the national capitol on January 6, 2021. Here is a link to documents in the case.
