Yesterday (Wednesday 6/23/2010) a federal judge ruled against independent candidates for office in Colorado. What that means for me is that I am running as a write-in candidate. While I am disappointed in the ruling, I very much respect the court and its decision and will move forward accordingly.

Independent candidates for office in Colorado must be registered as unaffiliated at least 17 months before the general election in order to petition on to the ballot. This is the most stringent requirement in the entire nation (yes even more restrictive than California).

Last fall, La Plata County Commissioner Joelle Riddle filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the fact that unaffiliated candidates are treated differently than affiliated candidates and that Colorado’s state law violated the fourteenth amendment to the U.S. constitution.

I joined the lawsuit this past spring because I agree that the two types of candidates are not being treated equally given that major and minor parties can set their own registration requirements by rule, thereby allowing potential candidates to seek a party nomination regardless of how long they have been registered in that party.

The judge in this case did not agree with these arguments and found that “The presence of independent candidates in an election has distinct benefits, but if it is totally unregulated, in can increase voter confusion and distraction, political opportunism, and obscure rather than clarify the differences between policy positions.”

In this case we were not seeking to “totally unregulate” the presence of independent candidates because if the court had ruled in our favor, unaffiliated candidates would still have to petition on and their registration status would have been declared at least seven months before the election.

I don’t see the presence of independent candidates as “causing confusion” or “as a distraction for voters”. Independent candidates offer an option for the over one-third of Colorado voters that have chosen not to participate in the two-party system .

Regardless of my opinion though – I knew what the process was for gaining ballot access when I decided to become an independent, and will continue moving forward with my write-in campaign. We will be educating the voters as to how the process works and we will be working hard to get my message out there.

As the saying goes – It Is All Good! Thanks for your interest.

Sincerely,