On August 31, Citizen Outreach had sued the Nevada Secretary in state district court in Carson City, arguing that Nevada election laws require a new party to submit two separate petitions if they want to be on the ballot: first, a petition for each statewide nominee, due in March, signed by 250 voters; and then a completely separate petition in June, signed by slightly more than 9,000 signatures. On September 9, that case was dismissed on the grounds that it should have been filed months ago. See this story.
The motivation for the lawsuit had been to remove Jon Ashjian from the November ballot. He is the Tea Party candidate for U.S. Senate. However, if the lawsuit had succeeded, the Green Party would also be off the ballot.
If this is more of the IAP legal challenges to this fellow, it undoubtedly cost the IAP something to pursue this case, that they lost. Unless they had pro bono lawyers.
It just seems a little tragic that the IAP *didn’t* put all this energy into staking out a strong public position on the Right for their candidate, standing out from the two corporate parties. This seems a year when focused aggressive indie or third party candidates could make s serious mark in the election.
The IAP wasn’t a part of this lawsuit, idiot!
BTW, we already have a viable candidate running for US Senate and his name is Tim Fasano.
Ashjian is a crook and is running because he has an agenda of his own that is an affront to stopping the two-party system.
And I’m not too surprised that this one didn’t succeed; it should have been filed months ago, indeed. However the one we’re a part of is on better & more solid legal ground.
It seems to me that any organization supporting a harsh interpretation of ballot access laws to force a candidate off the ballot should change it’s name to Citizen Push Out.
It seems to me that any organization supporting a loose interpretation of ballot access laws to include a sleaze-bag on the ballot should change it’s name to ‘I’m a Political Prostitute and I don’t give a shit about any laws!’.
The Citizen Outreach lawsuit include a co-plaintiff, Janine Hansen, who is a prominent leader of the Independent American Party. As soon as I found out she was a co-plaintiff, I reached her on the phone. She said she would take her name off as a co-plaintiff, but I doubt that happened because it was so late in the process. I appreciated her saying she no longer wanted to be part of the lawsuit.
She was involved in it as a individual.