Today's Wienie Award goes to the South Dakota Constitution Party. They could only get a hundred-some of their 345 registered members to sign petitions to put their gubernatorial and Congressional placeholders on the ballot. (The CP is at 328 members as of May 24.) So they are suing Secretary of State Chris Nelson and the State of South Dakota, saying the 250-signature minimum requirement for statewide candidates is unconstitutional.
I would suggest that instead of turning to activist judges to overturn the law, the Constitution Party concentrate on offering viable candidates and reaonable political philosophy that might draw more than 0.06% of eligible South Dakota residents to join their party.
But maybe I should cut the Constitution Party some slack. Let them win their lawsuit. Let the court require South Dakota set proportional signature requirements for even the smallest parties. Then Bill Fleming, Sam Hurst, Kevin Weiland, and I will get together, resurrect the Socialist Party of South Dakota (we'll call ourselves Pettigrew's Pirates and meet at the Prairie Village Socialist Hall), and run one of us for governor every cycle. Yahoo!
Good idea, Cory. But I still like the name Wobblies, especially the older I get. Be sure to catch me while I can still sign my name.
ReplyDeleteI strongly support your advice to the "what was it?" party. Offering viable candidates looks like a better strategy than going to court. Coming from a South Dakota Democrat, however, that's a little amusing.
ReplyDeleteAs you point out in posts below, you guys seem to be running a Republican for Governor. If so, that's exactly as many Democrats in the Governor's race as in the race for U.S. Senate.
I also notice that David Newquist didn't even cast a vote in this June's proceedings.
I wouldn't bother doing any soul-searching now. It's probably way too late for that. You'll have plenty of time over the next two years.
Wobblies... given all the WWWs in our Web activities, Wobblies may be a good name. WWW-IWW... let's get this party started!
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