That’s laughable.

First off, Ed thinks State Parties still need to have their convention in Sacramento; that law is no longer on the books.

Ed is so irrational, he claims that the CP never elected anyone to office.

Then how do you explain our election victories in Nevada, Utah, Michigan, Wisconsin and West Virginia?

Is Cody an election lawyer?

If so, then from what law school did he obtain his Juris Doctor?

If not, then how can he speak for a judge before the merits of the case have even been pleaded?

The hyperbolic posturing is laughable.

=Nope. Wrong state.

The real fools are the ones that elected him AIPCA chairman in the first place.

= Then I guess Americans are fools for reelecting George W. Bush.

How any one that has ever dealt with Ed Noonan could support him for any public position is beyond me.

= People change in time. I supported Peroutka back in 2004 and look what happened.

Does that indictment include Ed’s brother-in-law Chris Hansen and his sister-in-law Janine Hansen? The real fools are the ones that elected him AIPCA chairman in the first place. How any one that has ever dealt with Ed Noonan could support him for any public position is beyond me.

-Larry Breazeale, Msgt.(ret.)USAF
NATIONAL VETERANS COALITION
Constitution party

If Noonan sues, his lawsuit will be thrown out.

That is all that is really in contention within the AIPCA. Which is why I believe that Keyes will hold the AIPCA ballot line in 2008. It may even end up that the AIPCA may have to re-petition as a new political party or their 300K+ “members” have to register to vote again.

I personally think that state governments should get out the business of monitoring political party membership. I am also opposed to primaries all together, and think that all candidates should have the same ballot access requirement regardless of political party endorsement/affiliation.

There are parts of Minneapolis where there would be no Republican legislative candidates if they had to gather 500 signatures from potential voters to attain ballot access as the GP, LP, and CP are required to do. Many politicians in Minnesota and other states have no opposition as the minour parties cannot meet the ballot access requirements that the incumbent majour party candidate does not have to meet. However, y’all knew that and I digress.

There, one faction of the Arizona LP organized according to state election law, which involved standing for election as party officials in the primaries. Registered Libertarians and independents could vote in these elections. A handful of people did this, and then formed a state leadership.

The traditional LP organization challenged them in court. Basically, the traditional Arizona LP membership had a state convention for members and then elected its leaders.

The national LP disaffiliated the Arizona LP, held an plebicite among members of the National LP in Arizona and then affiliated the faction that had organized through the primaries.

The conflict was resolved in the Arizona courts. The traditional organization won. Basically, the courts said that political parties cannot be forced to use the primary scheme to choose their party leadership. The traditional organization won the right to choose who would be placed on the Presidential ballot in the state.

So, the nominee of the National Libertarian Party, Harry Browne, was not on the ballot in Arizona. L. Neil Smith was on the ballot.

Obviously, there are some differences. But the key similarity here is that the Noonan faction followed the election laws and won party positions in the primaries. This tiny faction has now followed the laws, organized the party according to state law. And are claiming to control the ballot line for the Presidential race.

I am not sure what the other faction did, but it sounds like they used the tradtional 3rd party approach of a state convention of members to elect the leaders.

The California Libertarian Party does this.

Anyway, my guess is that the courts will side with the traditional party organization as long as they have bylaws explaining what they do. The argument that state election law overturns the bylaws failed in the Arizona case.

Oh, it was about political parties having the 1st amendment right to govern their own affairs.

Cal Zastrow was a very good petition gatherer. No doubt about it.

What needs to be decided is control of the AIPCA. Any one can stand on a soapbox and claim to be just about anything, but until one side concedes to the other there is conflict. In situations like this, most politicians take the route of least resistance and wait. In his mind, there are many more pressing concerns than who controls a minour third party that usu. gets less than 1% of the total vote.

For the CA SoS to wait, can only benefit Ed Noonan. For the national CP to expend resources in maintaining control of the AIPCA, can only hurt ballot access in other states w/ poor to almost non-existant CP organisation. There are at least 10 states in danger of not having Baldwin/Castle on the ballot that had Peroutka/Baldwin in 2004.

Spin away, Gary, but this time in 2004 Cal Zastrow was out on the streets gathering signatures for Peroutka/Baldwin. You, on the other hand, are in California trying to hold on to a greasy flagpole in a windstorm.

The number of experienced petition gatherers has also declined in just about every state affiliate of the CP. Some once thriving CP affiliates also are on the verge of bankruptcy many of them having less than $100 in the bancque now well within an election season. Many more were never thriving to begin with and only exist on paper or in one’s imagination.

Past disagreements like this don’t usually get sorted out for many months. Most likely, Ed will retain control of the AIPCA well past Election Day 2008. Will Keyes have the AIPCA’s ballot line? Likely.

You probably don’t understand CA election laws but it doesn’t work that way.

Sorry, Ben, not likely at all.

Keyes has virtually no support with the California AIP. Even at the CP convention (where the Chairman’s perogative can heavily weight the vote) there were more Baldwin supporters than Keyes and most of the Baldwin people couldn’t make it. And, one of the Keyes supporters was Pastor Wiley Drake who had Chuck give a sermon in his Church Sunday.

funny.

Any Green Party Bible stories you want to share?

Are Keyes and his supporters actively encouraging this?