"For 22 years, [Doug] Dern, a bankruptcy lawyer with a small practice outside Detroit, has almost single-handedly kept the Natural Law Party on Michigan’s ballot."Each cycle, the party runs a handful of candidates in obscure state races to meet Michigan’s minimum polling requirements for minor parties. 'Keep that ballot access,' Mr. Dern, 62, said in an interview on Friday. 'Because someday, a candidate is going to come along who’s going to be perfect for it. Someday, the third parties are going to be hot.'... "
I'm reading
"How R.F.K. Jr. Got on the Michigan Ballot, With Only Two Votes/The independent candidate persuaded a tiny party to give him its line on the ballot in a key 2024 battleground state, sparing him a costly, arduous organizing effort" (NYT).
"Mr. Kennedy was formally nominated at a brief convention held Wednesday morning in Mr. Dern’s law office. The only two attendees were Mr. Dern and the party’s secretary.... Mr. Dern... has worked as a stage magician and also has a law practice for drunken-driving arrests.... 'I’ve just been plugging away, year after year, making sure there are people on the ballot,' he said."
Nothing goes together like transcendental meditation, drunk driving, and magic.
Thanks to Doug Dern for keeping the Natural Law fire burning, lending a hand to Bobby, and throwing a monkey wrench into the 2-party system.
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29 comments:
Oh no - whatever will the pathetic control freak anti-freedom Soviet left do?
That’s awesome.
We will soon learn why this is illegal…
The Democrats are the Unnatural Law party.
He is delusional if he thinks this somehow lifts third parties.
It's just partisan politics in disguise and he is a tool volunteering to be used.
“It's just partisan politics in disguise and he is a tool volunteering to be used.”
Tsk tsk tsk. Poor Mark. Such sour grapes over the fact that the tool is being used against Dems. That’s not supposed to be how it works!
- Rafe
Ha. Mark the Leftist labels him a delusional tool for daring to engage in the political system.
How utterly predictable.
Nut case RFKjr gets a ballot placement from the nutcase party. Perfect.
Seems like a great fit! I am not being sarcastic. I'm glad he is on the ballot.
That the left hate one of their own - a Kennedy - is very revealing.
He is on the ballot in Michigan for the moment. However, the Democrats will sue in state court to get Natural Law Party off the ballot, and they will win with the right set of judges. The Democrats will not let Kennedy on the ballot without a big, big fight in court.
This was supposed to be what "No Labels" was for, but the problem turned out that they couldn't find a single candidate that didn't take more votes from the Democrats than from Trump, so they folded up their tents and went home. Even if No Labels had managed to convince Mitt Romney to run on their ticket, Romney would have hurt Biden, too, by sucking up all the moderate suburbanites that voted for Biden in 2020. Strong 3rd party candidates always take votes from the party in power, not the challenger party- it is one of the iron rules of politics.
"It's just partisan politics in disguise and he is a tool volunteering to be used."
That's almost exactly what I thought when Ds nominated Biden for President and continue to support him.
All the arguments against Trump went out the window and conformed they're all partisan ploticis in pursuit of maintaining significant corruption among the leadership
There's good folks out there who have honest policy ideas that match D goals but these people are blocked because if you actually follow them those undermine the powers that are and continue to be.
I don't agree with RFK but it sure seems to me as someone with affinity for D goals if not all their methods that RFK Jr is more genuinely a true D believer. Making him actually much less of a partisan tool than Biden, who has been a absolute partisan tool for many decades.
But he's a tool that maintains the corruption and keeps the rich rich and the poor desperate so that's what Ds really want despite their rhetoric.
Someone should make a movie about Doug Dern. After years, finally getting a candidate is a winner's story. I'm glad for him (and for Bobby).
A competent local journalist would have been able to research and report on the five prior presidential elections in that state, telling who else that party had nominated and placed on that state's ballot.
Seems like a "natural" question, with simple answers worth knowing. Assuming, of course, the candidates have any name recognition whatever. (Bernie, Ralph Nadar, Lyndon LaRouche... Is the party even halfway consistent in choosing candidates by some sort of principle? Or is it opportunist, making sure there is a "none of the above" choice? Or is it a fund-raising scam, as we have seen with the spin offs from Black Lives Matter or, earlier, the Tea Party Movement?
Yancey Ward, can you provide a link to support the statement "Strong 3rd party candidates always take votes from the party in power, not the challenger party."
Not saying it's not so, just curious if there's a summary somewhere that proves this very interesting point.
Meditation: check. Responsible gun use: check. Flat tax: check. Organic farming: well, OK if not mandatory.
Any other year I might do it. This year is critical. Vote Orange.
Dern is a hero.
Good for Wisc.
The democrats just want to make sure every voter can vote.... for their selected list of candidates.
Saving democracy one ballot exclusion at a time.
Does this help RFK get Secret Service protection? What a disgrace, especially considering his family history.
Yes it’s bad for the two party system, which is good for the US. The People deserve to have a neither option on the ballot. If you think Beiden is stupid and don’t like Trump’s mean tweets you should have the option to say so, and when the votes are tallied, you should be able to see how many agreed with you. So JFK is the neither option, at least in Michigan.
This also supports honest voting, if you don't vote a sophisticated fraud system can manufacture votes for those who don’t vote, especially if there is vote by mail, mail in ballots can be inserted with false chain of custody. Non voters by name can be tallied easily the minute the polls close.
Throwing a 'wrench into the 2 party system' will just re-elect BIden.
i guess biden couldn't dodge this wrench.
"Yancey Ward, can you provide a link to support the statement "Strong 3rd party candidates always take votes from the party in power, not the challenger party."
Just history, Robert. T. Roosevelt in 1912, Strom Thurmond 1948 (Truman won anyway), George Wallace 1968, John Anderson 1980, Ross Perot 1992. Even if we go to minor third parties, the ones that outperform always outperform expectations when their closer political match in the two parties is the incumbent or the incumbent party- Nader in 2000, Stein in 2016.
And it just makes logical sense- a strong 3rd party challenge always comes from frustration with not getting what one expected from the incumbent candidate or party- both in who decides to run and the voters who vote for them. When you are of the party out of the White House, you as a potential candidate and voters know to back the party candidate because not doing so is suicide since you lost the last election.
Since Trumpism caused virtually all of the really good MI GOP election lawyers to abandon, or at least distance themselves from, the Party, I think the mantle of “top election lawyer in Michigan” falls on Mark Brewer. And Mark just filed suit to block RFKJr from the fall ballot on the Natural Law Party line. I think it’s an open question whether RFKJr makes it on.
Along with Mark, one of the smartest and most skilled political strategists in Michigan is Jeff Timmer, who used to be the Executive Director of the MI GOP. Back when the Party was flush with funding and was winning elections. It would be hard to say who loathes Trump more; Mark or Jeff. But you can hear them for yourself on their podcast, where in the latest episode they talk about the new lawsuit:
https://a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it.blubrry.net/?powerpress_pinw=1660-podcast
It would be hard to say who loathes Trump more; Mark or Jeff. But you can hear them for yourself on their podcast, where in the latest episode they talk about the new lawsuit:
Denying non-crony candidates access to the ballot, is that the "Saving Our Democracy" I keep hearing about?
The Republican Party of Mitt Romney and Chris Christie and these two clowns must die. Traitors within the walls are worse than enemies without.
Paddy, Biden has been a tool his whole life, but your point isn't wrong.
Power to the people. (fist in the air)
Blogger Hassayamper said...
It would be hard to say who loathes Trump more; Mark or Jeff. But you can hear them for yourself on their podcast, where in the latest episode they talk about the new lawsuit:
Denying non-crony candidates access to the ballot, is that the "Saving Our Democracy" I keep hearing about?
The Republican Party of Mitt Romney and Chris Christie and these two clowns must die. Traitors within the walls are worse than enemies without.
It’s a funny thing; back when we Michigan Republicans used to win elections and produce enviable fundraising, we weren’t talking about executing traitors.
A competent local journalist would have been able to research and report on the five prior presidential elections in that state, telling who else that party had nominated and placed on that state's ballot.
Who needs a competent local journalist? It's all on Wikipedia.
In 2004 the Natural Law Party of Michigan nominated Walt Brown (the Socialist Party USA candidate), in 2008 they went with Ralph Nader, in 2012 they gave the presidential nod to Rocky Anderson (Democrat who had been mayor of Salt Lake City and who had endorsed Nader in '08), in 2016 they nominated Mimi Soltysik (the Socialist Party USA candidate), and in 2020 they nominated Rocky De La Fuente (a California businessman).
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