Ohio GOP tries to rig the 2014 elections

The New Face of Fascism

The Ohio Republican Party adopts Fascism and tries to

keep smaller opposition parties off the ballot.

By Gary;

Neo-Fascist Bullshit like this from the GOP is the reason I now call myself an independent Constitutional Federalist instead of a Conservative Republican.

A corrupt Ohio Republican Party rammed through the GOP legislature the John Kasich Re-Election Protection Act which would disenfranchise every Ohio voter by taking away their right to vote for smaller opposition political parties on the November ballot.

See our original article:  GOP Fears Democracy May Break Out.

The newly passed GOP law comes as Ohio Republicans face growing competition from tea party supporters who say they may support a third-party challenger to Obamacare loving Republican Governor John Kasich. 

If you can't win on the issues then ban your opponents from the ballot.

The Courts Act to Protect Voters from the GOP

On January 7, U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Watson ruled that due process requires that Ohio not implement its new ballot access barriers for minor parties for the 2014 election.


The Ohio GOP dropped
the elephant in favor
of the Fasces.

The 28-page opinion depends on the fact that the Ohio legislature did not pass the new requirements until November 2013, after various candidates of the minor parties had already been circulating petitions to place themselves on their own party’s primary ballot.

The case is Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, southern district, 2:13cv-953 reports Ballot Access News.

The decision also depends on the fact that the new law doesn’t take effect until February 2014. The Republican majority in the legislature wanted the new requirements to take effect immediately, but the bill would have needed 60% in each House of the legislature to take effect immediately, and because some Republican legislators voted against the bill, the bill did not pass with 60% in the State House.

The decision says, “The Ohio Legislature moved the proverbial goalpost in the midst of the game. Stripping the Plaintiffs of the opportunity to participate in the 2014 primary in these circumstances would be patently unfair.”

On January 10, Ohio filed a notice of appeal in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted. The state hopes the Sixth Circuit will reverse the U.S. District Court order of January 7, and remove the qualified minor parties reports Ballot Access News.

The only thing missing is a good old fashioned sieg heil right arm salute.



GOP Acts to Ban the Constitution Party
Every democratic nation on earth has all political parties and independent candidates on a single general election ballot so the voters have multiple real choices for their leaders.
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But Ohio Republicans don't like the idea of free men and women having the right to vote for who they want.  So the GOP passed a law to rig the system and keep the Constitution, Libertarian and Green parties off the ballot. 

The GOP says:  "Keep those small parties off the ballot."

Ohio Attorney General election in Ohio, 2010
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage
	Republican	Mike DeWine	1,821,414	47.54%
	Democratic	Richard Cordray (Incumbent)	1,772,728	46.26%
	Constitution	Robert Owens	130,065	3.39%
	Libertarian	Marc Allan Feldman	107,521	2.81%
Totals			3,729,428	100.0%
	Republican gain from Democratic

 

Ohio Governor's Race election in Ohio, 2010
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage
	Republican	John Kasich - Mary Taylor	1,849,842	49.33%
	Democratic	Ted Strickland - Yvette McGee Brown	1,752,790	46.74%
	Libertarian	Ken Matesz - Ann Leech	89,499	2.39%
	Green	Dennis Spisak - M. Anita Rios	56,797	1.51%
	N/A	David Sargent - Andrew C. Pfeifer (write-in)	864	0.02%
Totals			3,749,792	100.0%
	Republican gain from Democratic

 

"I support the GOP efforts in Ohio
to limit voter choices."
Fidel Castro

Does the GOP Believe in Anything?
Governor John Kasich and the entire Ohio Republican Party should get on their fucking knees and beg forgiveness from the voters for trying to rig elections in their favor.
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Somehow I doubt that John Nicholas Hetrick (above) fought to create a country that prevented free elections.
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The Republicans already banned opposition parties in California.  See for yourself what the GOP is now up to in Montana:  GOP looks to rig Montana's elections.

GOP looks to rig Montana's elections

Voters must be guided into making the "correct" decision on election day by those of us who
know what is best for the people.  I am Benito Mussolini and I approve this message of support for
the Montana Republican Party's efforts to limit voter choices in elections.

Limiting Voter Choices

• The Republicans want to rig Montana's elections in their favor by keeping independents and smaller parties off the November ballot.
• Every democratic nation on earth has all political parties and independent candidates on general election ballots.  That is called freedom.  Republicans appear to be having a difficult time understanding this basic concept. 

(Missoula Independent)  -  For most Montanans, the last session of our state legislature is a distant memory. We've had better than half the year to heal from any lasting political injury, and the parade of newspaper headlines about partisan hardball in Helena won't begin marching again until January 2015.

But for Mike Fellows, chairman of Montana's Libertarian Party, forgetting hasn't been so easy. Although the session ended more than seven months ago, he hasn't been able to stop worrying about Senate Bill 408, a top legislative priority for Republicans, which passed on a party-line vote during the final week of the session.

The bill placed Legislative Referendum 127 on the 2014 ballot. The referendum asks voters to replace Montana's open primary election with a top-two primary. An open primary requires citizens to vote on a single-party ballot of their choosing and allows the top vote-getter from each political party, including third parties, to advance to the general election. A top-two primary lumps all candidates into a single primary regardless of party affiliation and allows only the top-two vote-getters to advance to the general election.

Montana U.S. Senate Election 2012
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Jon Tester (incumbent)	233,064	48.45	-1.8
	Republican	Denny Rehberg	216,507	45.01
	Libertarian	Dan Cox	31,476	6.54

Welcome to Fascism The Montana GOP lost an election.  Boo hoo.  Gee, that has never happened before in the history of the world.  So rather than finding a better way to attract voters, the GOP's plan is to ban independent candidates and smaller political parties from all future general election ballots.

Republicans have defended the measure as an effort to ensure that candidates who win the general election receive a majority of the vote instead of a plurality of the vote, which is sometimes the case in a three-way race between candidates from three different parties. However, if LR 127 were approved, it would likely prevent third party candidates and independents from reaching a general election. Fellows believes that this is the true motive behind the Republican push for a top-two primary.

"The independent view is going to be wiped out because they'll never make it out of the primary," Fellows told me over coffee in downtown Missoula, where he's lived since 1983.

He points out that Washington state hasn't had a third party candidate for statewide office on the general election ballot since it moved to a top-two primary in 2008. Fellows predicts that a top-two primary would have the same effect in Montana, reducing the choices available to voters in the general election. "LR 127 is designed to get rid of the competition," Fellows argues, "namely Libertarians."

At first blush, this seems like a questionable argument. After all, the Montana Libertarian Party doesn't appear to represent much of a political threat. Between 1998 and 2010, Libertarians ran in 14 statewide races and averaged just 3.2 percent of the vote. According to Fellows, the party has approximately 500 members and an email list of about 1,000 people. These aren't numbers generally associated with a political powerhouse.

Yet, a closer look reveals that the party has lately had an outsized impact on Montana's elections. In 2006, perennial Libertarian candidate Stan Jones ran for U.S. Senate and received 10,377 votes, about 3,000 more than the gap between incumbent Republican Sen. Conrad Burns and Democratic challenger Jon Tester.

Part of the post-election narrative that year was that Jones' supporters were disgruntled Republicans who thought Burns was too cozy with lobbyists. A spoiler scenario seemed unlikely to happen again. Then came the Tea Party surge in 2010 with its accompanying anti-tax narrative, which at a basic level was consistent with Libertarian values. That year, Fellows' share of the electorate in the U.S. House race nearly doubled from his previous average to 5.7 percent, foreshadowing a historic year for Libertarians in 2012.

Last year, Sen. Jon Tester beat Congressman Dennis Rehberg in the race for U.S. Senate by 18,072 votes. Dan Cox, a Libertarian newcomer, received 31,892 votes or 6.6 percent of the vote. To make matters worse for the GOP, Montana's Democratic Attorney General Steve Bullock beat former Republican Congressman Rick Hill by 7,572 votes in the race for governor. Libertarian Ron Vandevender, another first-time candidate, received 18,160 votes.

Montana Libertarian Party

Following that election, Montana Republican Party Chairman Will Deschamps decried Libertarians as the spoilers in both races, implying that Libertarian candidates have more in common with Republicans than Democrats. But Fellows questions this assumption, saying it's unclear who would have won these races if Libertarian candidates hadn't been on the general election ballot.

He bolsters his argument by citing this year's race for governor in Virginia, where exit polls revealed Libertarian voters as younger, white, pro-choice individuals who do not identify with Democrats or Republicans. This profile also reflects a national Libertarian Party platform that shares key planks with both major parties, including a woman's right to choose and an absolute right to bear arms.

While it remains unclear which of the two major political parties has the most in common with Libertarian voters, Montana Republicans have placed a bet that a top-two primary will result in more Republicans getting elected in Montana. They're also betting that Montana voters will give them this advantage by passing LR 127 and decreasing the choices available to voters in future general elections.

Fellows, who has run for office in the last eight election cycles, is willing to take that bet. "Voters want the free market of ideas," he says. "I think Montanans are going to look past the Republican rhetoric and they're going to say 'we do want choices' in November."

These Are Called Free Elections

Voters having many real choices on their November ballot.  Freedom.  What a concept.

TR

Rhode Island gubernatorial election, 2010
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Lincoln Chafee	123,571	36.10%	+36.10%
	Republican	John Robitaille	114,911	33.57%	-17.44%
	Democratic	Frank Caprio	78,896	23.05%	-25.94%
	Moderate	Ken Block	22,146	6.47%
	Independent	Joeseph Lusi	1,091	0.32%
	Independent	Todd Giroux	882	0.26%
	Independent	Ronald Algieri	793	0.23%
Majority			8,660	2.53%	+0.51%
Turnout			342,290
	Independent gain from Republican		Swing

See

Texas Gubernatorial Election 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Rick Perry (Incumbent)	1,716,792	39.02	-19.08
	Democratic	Chris Bell	1,310,337	29.78	-10.52
	Independent	Carole Keeton Strayhorn	796,851	18.11
	Independent	Richard “Kinky” Friedman	547,674	12.44
	Libertarian	James Werner	26,749	0.60



Bipartisan California Corruption
Under GOP Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger the Democrats and Republicans cut a corrupt back room midnight deal without any public hearings to abolish party primaries and institute a top two system for the general election.
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TRANSLATION  -  It was a naked power grab where all five of the smaller opposition parties in the state and all independent candidates would effectively be banned from all future general election ballots.  Even your write-in vote was made illegal and would not be counted.
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Backed by a bottomless pit of corrupt special interest campaign money, the Democrats and Republicans want only their parties to be on a November ballot.  Voters having real choices will simply not be tolerated.

Purple PAC makes a media buy for Libertarian in Virginia Governor's race

A Libertarian With Campaign Money

• The Purple PAC plans to spend at least $300,000 promoting Sarvis’s candidacy with TV ads.
• The Purple PAC was launched in 2013 to promote "purple" candidates - "red" when it comes to economic policy, "blue" when it comes to social policy.

The Purple PAC, a ”Super PAC” launched earlier this year, announced that it is making a significant ad buy promoting Libertarian Party candidate Robert Sarvis for governor of Virginia.  The ad will run from Thursday, October 24th, through the end of the election in media outlets across the state.

“Both the Republican and Democratic candidates are right about each other,” said Edward H. Crane, president of the Purple PAC.  “Ken Cuccinelli is a socially intolerant, hard-right conservative with little respect for civil liberties.  Terry McAuliffe is a big government liberal with little respect for economic liberties.  Both have been engulfed in scandal.  Fortunately, Robert Sarvis offers an alternative, an agenda grounded in free markets and social tolerance,” reports Uncovered Politics.

In a press release announcing the media purchase, Crane noted that a majority of Virginians — 59 percent, according to a recent poll — describe themselves as fiscally conservative and socially tolerant.

“It’s time that the two major parties made room for those voters — a majority of the electorate — or risk losing them altogether,” he said.

“Robert Sarvis is running surprisingly well in Virginia despite having little money to spend and no exposure in the gubernatorial debates,” continued Crane, a former national chairman of the Libertarian Party and founder and president emeritus of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank.

“A strong showing by Sarvis will tell the political class that purple voters cannot be ignored or taken for granted lest campaigns be put at risk.  And there’s no better set of campaigns to put at risk than the desultory campaigns of Ken Cuccinelli and Terry McAuliffe.”

Crane, who serves on the board of the Center for Competitive Politics, told the Washington Post that Purple PAC plans to spend at least $300,000 promoting Sarvis’s candidacy.

The 30-second television spot can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/77629652

According to its latest filings with the Federal Election Commission, the Purple PAC had raised $575,000 as of June 30th.  Its two largest contributors were Kentucky horse breeder Richard Masson and CATO board member and options trader Jeffrey S. Yass, managing director of the Philadelphia-based Susquehanna International Group.  Masson and Yass, a longtime libertarian financier, had each contributed $250,000 as of that semi-annual filing.



 Terry McAuliffe (D) and Ken Cuccinelli (R)
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The voters like real choices on their ballot.  But the big money business and union supporters of the two major Virginia candidates for governor have spent almost $50,000,000 to tell the voters that they have only two choices.  Nobody gives huge contributions for nothing.  Naturally these big money backers will want pay back in one form or another from the state treasury.
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In recent history some voters have bucked the big money trend to buy politicians and elected third party and independent governors in states such as Alaska (see below), Connecticut, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Maine.
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See more at Third Party Officeholders in the United States.

 

William F. Buckley
Conservative Party Candidate for New York Mayor

Cuccinelli is far from the best choice for Virginia



office.
Columnist George Will supports Cuccinelli but he also understands Libertarian Sarvis.

Here is some of Will's column:


When William F. Buckley, running as the Conservative Party’s candidate for mayor of New York in 1965, was asked what he would do if he won, he replied: “Demand a recount.”

Robert Sarvis, Libertarian Party candidate for governor of Virginia, will not need to do this.

William Buckley won only 13.4 percent of the 1965 mayoralty vote, but he energized a growing constituency and legitimized the practice of voting outside the confines of traditional political choices.

Five years later, the New York Conservative Party’s U.S. Senate candidate — Buckley’s brother Jim — was elected with 38.8 percent of the vote in a three-way race.

Third-party candidacies are said to be like bees — they sting, then die. Still, Sarvis is enabling voters to register dissatisfaction with the prevailing political duopoly.

For the full George Will column go to:  Washington Post

The Eternal Question

Every two years it is the same question.  Do I vote for what I believe in?  or do I cast my vote for someone I don't like in order to stop another guy that I dislike even more?
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In 1965 not enough people voted for 3rd party William F. Buckley.  But only five years later piss off voters elected Conservative Party candidate Jim Buckley as a New York Senator.

Results  -  1970 New York Race for U.S. Senate

US Senate - New York - General election results
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Lane Buckley	2,288,190	38.95
	Democratic	Richard Lawrence Ottinger	2,171,232	36.96
	Republican	Charles Goodell	1,178,679
	Liberal	Charles Goodell	225,793
	total	Charles Goodell	1,404,472	23.91
	Communist	Arnold Johnson	4,097	0.07
	Socialist Workers	Kipp Dawson	3,549	0.06
	Socialist Labor	John Emanuel	3,204	0.06

See more at:  Senate election in New York, 1970