LNC Meeting of March 2002
Political Directors Report
Preliminary Report March 15-16, 2002 Colorado
Prepared 03/01/02 by Ron Crickenberger
Staffing: Marc Brandl has been spending about 40% of his time on campus
outreach and customer service, and the remainder on political affairs. We
have two interns currently, Andrew Einhorn, and Andrew Bradley, and have
recently recruited several continuing volunteers.
Libertarians in Office: 506
2002 Candidate Recruiting
We have 511 candidates recruited so far toward our goal of 2002 candidates
in
2002.
Over 100 more have "unofficially" announced in Indiana, but are holding off
public announcements for reasons related to early filing of campaign finance
reports.
Our numeric goals for candidates in'02 are:
Total candidates: 2002
US House: 218
Wins: 50
Partisan filing deadlines have passed in CA, TX, OH, NE, and MS.
California filed 109 partisan candidates, they expect many more non-partisan
candidates to file. This is the second highest number of partisan candidates
they have ever run, after 2000.
Texas filed 156, significantly up from their record total last year. They
are
still recruiting non-partisan candidates.
Ohio filed many fewer candidates this year than last due to their ballot
status limbo. Only about 20 candidates attempted to file. Whether or not
they
appear on the ballot will depend on the results of a lawsuit. They will
petition additional candidates on via the independent process. More on this
in the ballot access section.
Nebraska filed all 3 Congressional seats, a US Senate seat, and for
Secretary
of State. We paid most of the filing fees for the US House candidates, and
for the Sec of State candidate. The Sec of State candidate will hopefully be
in a two-person race (it was a two way as of 3PM when our candidate filed on
the last day of filing) so we should be assured of receiving the 5% of the
vote necessary to retain ballot status.
Mississippi filed 3 of 4 US House seats.
2002 Ballot Access
Completed Drives
Arizona, collected enough additional registrations to stay qualified, but
some of the registrations collected were decertified as invalid, due to some
bad work by a couple of voter registration contractors. The Secretary of
State certified them in January
Current Drives
Arkansas has 2,500 "old" sigs so far for their drive for status in 2002.
We plan both a petition drive and lawsuit here, to obtain ballot status for
2002.
In an earlier case involving the Reform Party, a court had ruled that if the
requirement was 10,000 sigs for an independent statewide non-presidential
candidate, then anything over 10,000 sigs for a new party was
unconstitutional. Despite the 10,000 sig requirement appearing in the
annotation of the court case, the State's Attorney General is saying the law
requiring 3% (about 23,000 sigs) is still in effect. Richard Winger thinks
the suit against the 23,000 requirement is almost a slam dunk case.
Our intention is to collect enough sigs to meet the 10,000 sig requirement,
and then file suit for them to be accepted.
Hawaii is very close to completing their drive.
Maryland needs valid 27,000 sigs to place Spear Lancaster on the ballot for
governor. They have over 16,000 sigs now. They have slowed down the paid
portion of the drive while waiting for a court decision regarding a lawsuit
filed by the Green party, which could eliminate the need for them to
complete
the drive. If the lawsuit is successful, they will not need to petition for
any of their candidates.
New Mexico needs 2,494 valid sigs. They have about 6,000 raw sigs now, so
are
very close to finished.
Ohio began a statewide drive in 2001. They needed 45,753 valid. The deadline
was January 7.
The drive has been stopped due to legal action. Our reading of the law said
there was a one-day window to file our 2000 petition that would have placed
us on the ballot not only for 2000, but for 2002 as well. The Sec of State
disagreed with our reading, so we attempted to file a candidate for a local
office just as if we were indeed still qualified. The county board where we
filed ruled in our favor 4 to 0.
Then, the Secretary of States office "asked them to reconsider." They
re-voted 2 to 2, which left the decision up to the Sec of State. The Sec of
State did nothing, so we filed a suit asking for a decision.
The court said we had not been damaged, as the Sec of State's inaction meant
that we our local candidate was still on the ballot. So the court refused to
hear the case.
Later, the Sec of State DID move to throw our local candidate off, so we
refilled the case. We then lost at the lower court level, and have now filed
at the State Supreme Court.
About 20 Ohio candidates went through the petitioning and filing procedure
(25 valid sigs and an $85 filing fee for most races) as if we were still a
qualified party, in order to help bolster our legal case. Whether or not
these candidates will actually appear on the ballot will depend on the
results of the court case.
We will be assisting with petitioning costs to place a few more US House
Candidates on the ballot as independents. Each candidate will need about
1,800 valid signatures.
2002 Ballot Access
In 2002, we can do the following:
Arkansas, details above
DC Given last year's results, we should attempt to gain and retain here
again, as long as we get good candidates lined up again.
Illinois should be able to complete its drive on its own, given their
current
funding level, and super-petitioner Scott Kohlhass' position there as Exec
Director.
Iowa should complete their drive on their own. They need 1500 valid sigs to
qualify a statewide candidate. They are researching the possibility of
having
multiple candidates on the same petition.
Kentucky will need 5,000 valid sigs by August 6, 2002 for a statewide
candidate. They need only 400 sigs each for US House candidates. We should
be
able to provide just organizational assistance.
Minnesota will need 2,000 valid sigs by June 1. Has always completed its
drive on its own.
Nevada will have to decide if they want to go for full party or individual
petitions. I have been attempting to persuade them to go for full party.
New Hampshire will need 16,931 valid sigs to requalify, and 4% for either
Gov
or Senate in 2002 to retain for 2004. They should get the bulk of the drive
done on their own. Their signature requirement has gone up substantially
from
the 9827 sigs needed in 2000, due to the difference in the total votes from
which the signature requirement is calculated.
New York Should not require financial assistance. They need 15,000 valid
sigs
- less than 25 valid sigs per member.
North Dakota We will probably not do this state for 2002
Oklahoma We will probably not do this state for 2002. I hope to get a few US
House candidates on as independents. Currently, registered Democrats,
Republicans, and Independents can run simply by paying a filing fee.
Registered
Libertarian and Reform Party members can only run if their party collects
tens
of thousands of signatures. The Coalition for Free and Open Elections
(COFOE)
will be filing a lawsuit to overturn this blatantly discriminatory law.
Rhode Island should be able to complete its drive on its own - although they
couldn't last time.
Pennsylvania should be able to do its drive on its own. 21,739 sigs needed -
less than 35 valid sigs per member for them to do.
Tennessee should complete petitioning for 2002 on its own.
West Virginia: It is unlikely that we will go for this drive in 2002, as
there is no way to retain status for 2004. Retention is based on the % for
Governor, and Governor is not up until 2004.
The LNC will financially assist with 2002 drives in New Hampshire, Arkansas,
and, if, quality candidates emerge, DC. We will also need to assist
Congressional candidates in Ohio and some other states as well.
Project Majority -- 218 in 2002
We are on track to again challenge a majority (at least 218) of US House
seats.
In the states where filing deadlines have passed, we have recruited the
following House candidates.
| State | #filed | # filed '00 | Total seats |
| CA | 44 | 45 | 53 |
| TX | 30 | 29 | 32 |
| MS | 3 | 5* | 4 MS lost one seat due to redistricting |
| NE | 3 | 3 | 3 |
111 US House candidates have already announced nationwide.
It will be difficult, though not impossible, for us to meet our record of
256
candidates for US House that we set in 2000. This is primarily due to the
ballot access limbo in Ohio.
We assisted with filing fees in CA (apprx. $4,000) and in NE (about $5,100)
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