Rick Jore, the Constitution Party’s only state legislator, must leave the Montana legislature in a few weeks because of term limits. Voters in his district replaced him with a Democrat. The November 2008 election in the 12th House district was between Republican nominee Ron Marquardt, and Democratic nominee John Fleming. Fleming won with 63% of the vote. Marquardt had been a member of the Constitution Party, and had been its 2006 nominee for Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court. But for the 2008 legislative race, Marquardt had switched to the Republicans.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Congratulations, Rick Jore! Great showing. May more Constitution Party candidates be considered for future positions.
The Constitution Party–-just 16 years old–-is the 3rd largest political party in the United States, and the fastest growing of the so-called “third†parties. Chuck Baldwin, the Constitution Party’s 2008 presidential nominee, set a party record this year for the total votes he received.
Those interested in supporting candidates who genuinely believe in small, non-nanny, non-interventionist government, and who are 100% pro-life, will want to check out the Constitution Party.
“Constitution Consciousâ€
http://constitution-conscious.blogspot.com
“Constitution Party”
http://constitutionparty.com
So THAT is why the CP in MT didnt run one of Jore’s family members or another CP member….they basically were,except he was a Republican!
It’s pretty easy in a two way race for the loser to have received over 20%. Rick had been an elected Republican before switching over to the CP. Rick could have gotten elected even as a Democrat. Rick was elected because of Rick and not a because of some political party. Thanks to all those folks who voted for Libertarian Ron Paul in Montana. Over 50,000 votes were cast for Libertarians in Montana. At least Baldwin got some 30-thousand votes more then the Green Party’s McKinney.
But isn’t it fascinating that one of the new parties actually has an elected official booted out by term limits?
Maybe the election process is finally beginning to grow up?
Blue Springs [Missouri], GOP [Kansas] loyalty committee[s], and religion:
http://www.kcstar.com
Loyalty committee. Loyalty plank. Voting prohibition. Shades of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Except it’s not 1950. It’s 2008, and that’s what the Johnson County Republican party leadership believes in. State Chairman Kris Kobach said it was one of his goals to keep party officers “from endorsing or giving money to Democrats†(11/18, Local, “GOP restricts members who gave to Democratsâ€).
According to the article, the loyalty committee reviewed 17 precinct leaders and determined that they didn’t kowtow to the party line. They contributed to various Democratic candidates, for various listed reasons.
Other than the obvious, that the state Republican party took the time and effort to investigate each party officer’s spending, doesn’t it bother anyone that this item was even approved? I could say that the members got bit by something they obviously knew of and approved, but that would be petty.
Why just restrict those who contributed to Democrats? What about those who might have helped a Libertarian? Or a Green Party candidate? There’s the Independent Party, the Reform Party and the Constitution Party.
The Republicans could have commanded, er, told their membership, “Support Republicans and no one else, or you’ll never vote again, at least not for the party leadership.â€
Lane Sekavec, Kansas City Missouri