A Modest Victory for the Moderate Party

Kenneth Block, founder of the Moderate Party of Rhode Island, has won a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Rhode Island's ballot access laws. The Providence Journal reports that Federal Judge William Smith:

threw out as unconstitutional a provision of state law that forced new political parties to wait until Jan. 1 of an election year to collect the signatures they need to get on the statewide ballot. And while he hinted he’d have liked to toss the state requirement that those new parties collect signatures equal to 5 percent of the turnout in the previous statewide election . . . Smith said there was enough precedent to let stand that part of the state’s ballot access law.

Ballot Access News provides some context:

This decision is the first constitutional ballot access victory in calendar year 2009 so far, and only the second decision to strike down a “start date” for petitions to create a ballot-qualified party. The first such decision had been won in U.S. District Court in Arkansas in 2001.

As quoted in the Providence Journal piece, Judge Smith pointed out the obvious in his decision:

“This court can surmise perhaps that one of the reasons for the high hurdles is to keep potential challenges to comfortable incumbents to a minimum,” Smith said.

The decision may have far reaching effects in Rhode Island politics. In a profile of the state's political landscape (see Independent in a One-Party State), I suggested that the radically lopsided Democratic majority in the Ocean State may, paradoxically, foster the development of third party and independent campaigns for office. Smith proved cognizant of the connection as well. Again, from the Providence Journal:

“Historically so much of the value of a minor party lies in what it can do before an election,” he wrote, “spark debate, introduce new ideas, educate voters, and challenge the status quo. The bedrock First Amendment principles implicated here are especially vital in a state such as Rhode Island, where two major parties operate but where only one, the Democratic Party, increasingly dominates the legislative political landscape.”

Mandatory Minimums

John Brummet relays word of a noteworthy report on the trials and tribulations of the Republican Party in Arkansas, which may lose its official status as a political party in the state if it fails to run a candidate for governor in 2010. At the state level, Arkansas is solidly Democratic. Its governor, Mike Beebe (D), is apparently wildly popular, while the AR state House of Reps currently has "71 Democrats, 28 Republicans and one Green Party member," and "the 35-member Arkansas Senate has 8 Republicans and 27 Democrats." Talk Business reports that the Green Party could gain if the Republicans do not field a gubernatorial candidate:

Incumbent Democrat Gov. Mike Beebe is enjoying immense popularity with approval ratings ranging from 60% to 80% throughout his first term, in large part due to strong legislative success and a middle-of-the-road governing style. So why would the GOP, with limited resources, a small pool of statewide talent, a large number of open State House and Senate seats, and a contested race for U.S. Senate challenge Beebe? They have to – if they want to remain a political party. Arkansas law defines a political party as a group of voters that poll at least 3% of the entire votes cast for Governor or President, depending on the election cycle. If they fail to get 3%, they no longer are recognized as a political party. If they fail to field a candidate for Governor and the Green Party does, it could usurp the GOP’s status as the minority party.

The Five Percent Minimum

In a political commentary on the recent resignation of Hungary's prime minister, John Horvath argues that the move is nothing more than a political ploy rather than, for instance, the tragic end of a political career. What caught my attention, however, was a comparison offered more or less as an aside in Horvath's analysis. He observes that the conservative and liberal parties are struggling for their political survival - they may not reach the "five percent minimum" necessary to remain in parliament - and states:

if this does happen, Hungary will then officially revert to a two-party system much like in the US. This, in turn, will be a testament to the degradation of democracy in Hungary since the end of communism in 1989. When multi-party elections were first held twenty years ago, there were a large number of different parties representing a broad spectrum of political views; nowadays, political discourse in Hungary has reverted to the simplistic bloc partisan politics of left versus right.

On a related note, the "5 percent minimum" has just consolidated the duopoly's strangle hold on politics in Nebraska: "Libertarians, Greens and the Nebraska Party are no longer officially recognized in Nebraska. The parties lost their legal status after none of their candidates for president or U.S. Senate garnered 5 percent of the vote, as required by state law."