COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two Libertarian candidates for
statewide office were tossed from Ohio’s primary ballot on Friday in a
state election chief’s ruling that sparked immediate plans for a legal
challenge.
Secretary of State Jon Husted issued a brief statement
in disqualifying gubernatorial candidate Charlie Earl and attorney
general candidate Steven Linnabary from the May 6 primary, saying he had
adopted a hearing officer’s recommendations.
The candidates’
nominating petitions were challenged on two grounds: that signature
gatherers failed to comply with Ohio laws requiring them to be either
Libertarian or political independent and another requiring them to
disclose their employer.
Mark Brown, an attorney for the Libertarian Party of Ohio, said the party will challenge the decision in
federal court.
"The
Secretary’s requirement that circulators disclose the source of their
funding, whether they are employed or independent contractors, violates
the First and Fourteenth Amendments," he said in an email. "We will seek
immediate relief enjoining implementation of this interpretation, which
clearly represents a marked change in Ohio’s law and past practices."
Brown
had argued before hearing officer Bradley Smith, a fellow Capital
University law professor, that the ballot protests were an extension of
Republican efforts to keep third parties off the state’s ballot.
Earl
could draw votes from Republican Gov. John Kasich in his re-election
bid this fall. GOP state chairman Matthew Borges recently told reporters
the party helped mount the challenge to Earl’s signatures.
Protests
to the Libertarian candidates asserted Democrats were involved on the
other side, managing and carrying out Earl’s signature-gathering effort.
One
petition circulator told Smith during Tuesday’s hearing he’d turned in
10,000 part-petitions over the years in Ohio w and never disclosed an
employer, because he was an "independent contractor," without incident.
Smith
concluded in his 18-page report that the disclosure law must be applied
to formal employees as well as independent contractors, in order to
protect against fraud.
"To exempt independent contractors from the
disclosure provisions would allow disclosure of paid petitioning to be
avoided by the simple expedient of using independent contractors rather
than employees," he wrote.
On the partisanship argument, Smith declared all Earl’s signature-gatherers were legally qualified.
Kasich,
ahead in polls against likely Democratic challenger Ed FitzGerald, has
faced criticism from tea party activists and other conservatives within
the GOP for some of his policy decisions, including backing Medicaid
expansion and drilling tax increases.
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