The South Dakota Constitution Party announces its full slate of nominees, legal and extralegal:
- District 23 State House: Wayne Schmidt
- U.S. Senate: Kurt Evans
- State Party Chairman: Lora Hubbel
- President/Vice-President: Darrell Castle/Scott Bradley (actually, the CP nominated electors, whose names are not yet published).
The Pres/VP and party chair nominees are perfectly legal. There is no statutory mechanism for parties to nominate candidates for Congress or Legislature post-primary. The District 23 House race was supposedly settled by the Republcian primary last month when newcomers Spencer Gosch and John Lake beat experienced legislators Charlie Hoffman and Dick Werner. Adding Schmidt to the ballot and holding a general election contest will require some judicial activism on the part of Judge Karen Schreie
Wayne Schmidt is a longtime Constitutionist. He ran for Legislature in 2006 and 2008, then ran very quietly as the CP’s candidate for PUC in 2014, in which race he won 5% of the vote.
I have not followed the ballot access lawsuit, and I’m not familiar with the legal arguments being made. It does seem to me to be a stretch for the court to allow candidates for the legislature and the US Senate this year by a party that was not recognized at the time of the petition submission deadline – candidates who themselves did not submit petitions for office. (It does seem crazy to me that independent candidates need to submit so many more petition signatures than Democrats and Republicans though.) But if the court buys the argument that South Dakota’s deadlines are so early that they make it difficult to collect roughly 7,000 signatures to get the party recognized, then make it nearly impossible for candidates to circulate petitions by the deadline – maybe the court will fashion a remedy.
Given the platforms of the candidates, the name, “Constitution” Party, is a laugh.
With Lora Hubbel running the show the Constitution Party is sure to have people flock to courthouses to register as members. Certainly they will put people in the legislature and statewide office next election cycle. I don’t understand why Stace Nelson doesn’t abandon the RINO party and join the true constitutional conservatives though. Seems like he would be a better fit there. He could be the first Constitution Party US Senator (assuming that the court doesn’t let Kurt Evans on the ballot this year).
Or if Kurt doesn’t change his mind. Again.
“Rorschach” writes:
The petitions submitted by major-party candidates are for possible taxpayer-financed primary elections that the Constitution Party hasn’t ever needed or wanted. If John Thune drops out of the Senate race at the beginning of August, state party leaders can replace him with any Republican they choose. That’s fine, but minor parties and independent candidates should have the same August deadline.
Too late. The first Constitution Party U.S. Senator was Bob Smith of New Hampshire in 1999.
@Kurt: “Too late. The first Constitution Party U.S. Senator was Bob Smith of New Hampshire in 1999.”
FWIW. He never ran for or was elected on the Constitution Party ticket to the Senate. He was elected as a Republican and switched to the Constitution Party after a failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1999 and then switched to being an Independent after failing to secure the Constitution party’s nomination. He belonged to the Constitution Party for less than a year.
I’d written:
“Don Coyote” replies:
That’s all true, Don, but Senator Smith continued to support the Constitution Party and its platform even after he rejoined the Republican Party.
In the above post, Cory listed:
I see those names have been published now:
http://constitutionpartysd.blogspot.com/2016/07/new-party-officers-and-5-candidates.html
Thanks for that update, Kurt! Where are those three electors from?
I believe Frank is from Brandon, Joel is from rural Badger, and Melvin is from Sioux Falls.