Comments on: Socialist Party Uses Obscure Method to Get on Iowa Ballot

By: Wes Upchurch

Wes Upchurch — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:57:25 +0000

Why not sponsor or promote a concert?

Concerts draw people and they are meetings, are they not?

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:47:38 +0000

I’m certainly not voting socialist, but diversity is the spice of life! Let everyone on the ballot. I think that’s a beautiful thing, and kudos to those who are steadfast enough in their convictions to research and execute this, even while I may disagree with them as to the perfect form of government.

-bw

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:41:15 +0000

I think you should keep your success under your hat for now.

What if someone finds a way to over turn it wirh all yout btagging?

Cool it

By: John Famularo

John Famularo — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:13:51 +0000

It would be interesting to find out what their definition of “room” is. Must it be part of a larger structure? Must it have four walls, a floor and a ceiling? Construted of what materials etc.?

By: richard winger

richard winger — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:34:21 +0000

The Nebraska law required 750 attendees. It was so tough, Nebraska was one of the 3 states in which Henry Wallace couldn’t get on in 1948. In 1969 the legislature abolished it, thank goodness.

By: Matt Erard

Matt Erard — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:26:43 +0000

I think the only real relevance to the fact that many of our Convention attendees arrived on foot is that socialists are more environmentally conscious and less wedded to car culture than our major party opponents. We were overjoyed by the fantastic turn-out at our publicly advertised Convention at the U of I campus, and how many folks there (mostly students, but representing over 30 Iowa counties!) found it important to make their contribution to ensuring that there’s once again a Socialist Party alternative on the ballot in this year’s presidential election.

Every Convention attendee explicitly confirmed his/her desire to place the Moore/Alexander ticket on the ballot by means of Convention at the location and their desire to be counted among those attending for this purpose. Any notion that our Convention was conducted in any way other than in pristine accordance with Iowa’s statutory requirements is entirely false. Every aspect of our process to qualify for the Iowa ballot, from the definitions and precise details of statutory wording relating to the Convention’s operation, to the finer details of filing documents, was not only in full and unambiguous compliance with the statute, but continuously clarified by the exceptionally hard-working and responsive Iowa Secretary of State’s Office, as a result of our constant calls to them to ensure that we dotted every ‘i’ and crossed every ‘t.’

Iowa should be commended on broadly allowing this kind of process for placing candidates on the ballot by means of the people coming together to affirm their support and assert such a directive to the state from the bottom up by establishing a grassroots rallying point through which a widely shared political perspective can become a recognized political body. The fact that a socialist party would prefer such a method is not simply a result of quantitative calculations. The goal of making democracy a part of daily life, largely through political assembly of the active people, is at the core of our identification as socialists.

The primary basis on which this effort was so successful is that the SP maintains a great deal of public support in Iowa City; as past demonstrated not only by our equal success with the IA petitioning method for presidential ballot access the last time we attempted to qualify there in 2000, but even more directly by Socialist Party candidate Karen Kubby having been elected to the Iowa City Council from 1989 until retiring in 2000 and having received the highest vote totals of any candidate in the Iowa City Council’s entire history. Whether our efforts are focused on presidential elections or city council elections, when the Socialist Party engages in electoral politics in Iowa City, it breaks new records!

By: hhart

hhart — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:12:44 +0000

Dang, those are smart puppies. Im going to suggest the IA Green Party try this next time, no more petitioning in 105+ degree heat.

By: NE

NE — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:03:32 +0000

There used to be laws like that in Nebraska too, I believe. However, at some point the number of required attendees was vastly increased (to like 500 or 1000), making it pointless. This was intended to prevent anyone from actually using it as a method to get on the ballot.

By: Trent Hill

Trent Hill — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:47:28 +0000

Very wise. They saved ALOT of time and effort.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:04:21 +0000

A meeting – under the electoral law of Iowa.

As Kyle said – kudos to the Socialists for having the brains to work that one out!