Althouse: It's not that easy for a party nominee to remove his name from the ballot to help the third party candidate against his opponent.

September 4, 2014

It's not that easy for a party nominee to remove his name from the ballot to help the third party candidate against his opponent.

The Democratic Party nominee in the Kansas Senate race is finding out.

19 comments:

Original Mike said...: Laws? Laws are for other people. They'll find a judge to give them what they want.; 9/4/14, 10:25 AM
MadisonMan said...: If he really wants to have the Republican lose to the Independent, he should throw as much mud as possible at the Republican. The Republican will throw mud back, and the electorate, sick of both, will elect the Independent.

Similar to Moody/Checota in 1992 in Wisconsin.; 9/4/14, 10:25 AM
Birkel said...: Kansas ain't New Jersey.; 9/4/14, 10:30 AM
Original Mike said...: "Kansas ain't New Jersey."

We'll see. I bet it is.; 9/4/14, 10:33 AM
traditionalguy said...: Now we need photo ID for the candidates.; 9/4/14, 10:36 AM
Jeff R. said...: Can't the Democrats just nominate Orman as their replacement candidate? (If they are sufficiently of one mind to manage it procedurally, at least.); 9/4/14, 10:42 AM
Lance said...: I'm old enough to remember as far back as two weeks ago when Democrats thought Taylor had a chance of beating Roberts.; 9/4/14, 10:43 AM
Brando said...: I wasn't aware the Dems had a shot in Kansas anyway. I must not be following these races closely enough.

It's understandable when your party's vote is being split with a third party (and that third party nominee will caucus with you, and has a chance to win) to want your electorate to go with the independent in order to prevent the opposition winning. The way to do that is have your nominee endorse the independent, suspend campaigning, and do a ballot switch if the laws permit. If not, then hope your voters will do what you want them to.

Nice try pulling a New Jersey--gotta live by your state's laws, or try to change them. Of course, changing them can bite you in the ass like it did in Massaholia back when they kept switching whether Senate vacancies could be appointed by the Governor vs. special election.; 9/4/14, 10:46 AM
Michael The Magnificent said...: We'll see. I bet it is.

I agree. All it'll take is one sympathetic judge, and presto-change-o, the law says whatever the Kansas Democratic Party needs it to say.; 9/4/14, 11:06 AM
buwaya said...: This is dirty pool of course.
The Democrats know their candidate, running as a Democrat, has no chance. Therefore they not so surreptitiously back a pseudo-conservative who is in cahoots with them (i.e., actually a Democrat) to pose as an independent.
This is an election conducted under false pretenses. The Democrats are a party of swindlers.; 9/4/14, 12:04 PM
Joe said...: Seems like the law is working exactly as intended.; 9/4/14, 12:34 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: The trouble with Kansas is they don't have flexible laws like, say, New Jersey.; 9/4/14, 1:08 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Shoulda read comments first.; 9/4/14, 1:09 PM
David said...: So these idiots wanted to withdraw the guy's name but didn't bother to read the state's statutes before jumping ahead.

That's pretty much par for the course. Seems like they deserve the result they are getting.; 9/4/14, 1:48 PM
phantommut said...: Wonder how much of the disgust this is presumably generating within the independent voter pool will rub off on Orman, one way or another?

Could be a case where the Democrats are managing to torpedo both not-Republicans.; 9/4/14, 3:24 PM
sane_voter said...: Seems like Roberts could run some devastating ads about how Orman and the Dems are gaming the system. I don't expect Roberts to lose in either case.; 9/4/14, 3:26 PM
The Godfather said...: The election is 2 months away. Even the Republicans ought to be able to able to paint the "independent" as a Democrat, if that's what he is.; 9/4/14, 5:19 PM
clint said...: Blogger Mike said...
"The trouble with Kansas is they don't have flexible laws like, say, New Jersey."

New Jersey doesn't have flexible laws. It has flexible judges.

Infinitely worse.; 9/4/14, 9:02 PM
Jaq said...: This is how Harry Reid operates. He kept his own seat by getting involved in the Republican primary to ensure he ran against the weakest candidate in the general.

If it were straight up about preferences of the public as expressed through elections under our system of laws, the Senate would be as solidly Republican as the House is. The House is just too hard to game.; 9/5/14, 6:07 AM