The Constitutional Right to Duopoly
In the fall of 2002, Robert Torricelli was the Democratic candidate for US Senator from New Jersey, and didn’t have a prayer of winning. So the party decided to replace him with the veteran Frank Lautenberg. The problem was that under state election law, they had missed the deadline for such a switch by 16 days.
The New Jersey state Supreme Court sided with the Democrats, ruling, essentially, that the right of the two major parties to field a candidate in every election trumps all election law. Where in the state Constitution the court found such a right, or any special privileges for the two major parties, remained a mystery.
This month, the same thing happened in Florida. Bush’s campaign missed the filing deadline, and they got to file the next day. As Running Scared writes, it’s good to be the king. The difference between Florida 2004 and New Jersey 2002 is that in Jersey, the Republicans had the cojones to protest. The Florida Democrats are looking the other way.
I look forward to seeing the Democrats apply the same flexibility when Ralph Nader’s campaign makes a mistake getting on the ballot.