Sue Henshaw,
Secretary, CFL Party

You haven’t really read our statements, but you have read the bill and for that you deserve a gold star!

Yes, minor parties still have to petition when running for an office they’re not already qualified for (we’ve never suggested otherwise). But they can now cross-endorse without first running a separate candidate. Seems like a pretty small technical change, but an additional 5,000 – 7,000 votes for Joe Courtney or Jim Himes is no small matter.

By the way, we didn’t get “lost in the bold.” Trust me, we’re very, very, very familiar with this language.

Jon Green
http://www.ct-workingfamilies.org

What this amendment does is allow minor parties to nominate the same candidate as another party when they don’t have ballot access for that office based on obtaining 1% of the vote in the last election. Previously, they had to run their own candidates first before they could cross-endorse. That first candidate had to petition onto the ballot by collecting signatures equal to the lesser of 7500 voters or 1% of the vote in the last election.

Now, minor parties can skip the step of running their own candidate first if they already have access to a line on the ballot for another office, but they are still required to collect sufficient signatures to gain ballot access for each individual office if they aren’t pre-qualified by 1% of the vote in the last election. GC and the WFP got lost in the bold of “the minor party is otherwise qualified to nominate candidates on the same ballot” and forgot about what preceded it “such petition is circulated by an existing minor party with the same party designation at the time of such nomination.” They still have to petition. It is right there in the text. The difference is now they can petition for a major party candidate and can cross-endorse in election No. 1 instead of waiting until election No. 2.

Here’s what the statutes say:

Section 9-372

(6) “Minor party” means a political party or organization which is not a major party and whose candidate for the office in question received at the last-preceding regular election for such office, under the designation of that political party or organization, at least one per cent of the whole number of votes cast for all candidates for such office at such election;

New Section Section 9-453t

Notwithstanding any other provision of the general statutes or any special act, the nomination of a candidate by a major or minor party under this chapter, for any office shall disqualify such candidate from appearing on the ballot by nominating petition for the same office, unless (1) such petition is circulated by an existing minor party with the same party designation at the time of such nomination, and (2) the minor party is otherwise qualified to nominate candidates on the same ballot. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit any candidate from appearing on the ballot as the nominee of two or more major or minor parties for the same office.

The underlined text is the addition to the law.

But the WFP will, in fact, be qualified to cross-endorsed in every congressional race in 2008, because of this new law. Since the WFP has endorsed candidates in various State House and Senate districts across the state, the WFP will be qualified for all races on the same ballots as those house and senate race. Thus, consequently, every Congressional race.

Just to clarify.

I think the next few years will be an interesting few years.

All I have to say is Barry Bonds, A-Rod, David Ortiz & Ken Griffey should be participating in the Home Run Derby. What pirmadonnas these guys are. I’m not a big fan of the Home Run Derby, but these guys are making a ton of money and they can’t take a few swings to please some fans…especially the kids?

Yeah, I’m sure every kid in America couldn’t wait to get home and see if Alex Rios would win the Home Run Derby. BTW in case you didn’t see it he didn’t…he was runner up to Vlad Guerrerro!