Published: October 09, 2008 06:18 pm            

Seeking change — 10/11/08

Like Hoby Anderson, Kucinich hopeless race to challenge rule

As a Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich never had any realistic chance of winning his party’s nomination. Nevertheless, as a candidate who was on the Texas primary ballot, he may be able to achieve something he could never accomplish as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives: End in court a requirement by the Texas Democratic Party that he considers an unconstitutional violation of his First Amendment rights.

If Kucinich is successful, he will be following in the footsteps of another long-shot candidate: Former State Rep. Hoby Anderson of Greenup County. Anderson used his 1999 write-in candidacy for governor of Kentucky to successfully challenge in federal court Kentucky election laws he considered unconstitutional. Indeed, Anderson brought more change in Kentucky with that suit than he ever did as a minority member of the Kentucky House of Representatives.

Kucinich, who was mostly ignored during the hotly contested Democratic primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, is challenging the Texas Democratic Party’s requirement that all of its candidates sign a “loyalty oath” pledging to “fully support” the party’s eventual nominee for whatever office they are seeking. Kucinich, a former mayor of Cleveland, claims the rule violates his First Amendment right to free speech and says it shouldn’t be a requirement for qualifying for the ballot.

We agree. While unity among both the winners and losers in the primary certainly helps the party’s success in November, we can’t see how any party can dictate in advance who a candidate supports in November. Thus, the courts should overturn the requirement as an unconstitutional infringement of an individual’s freedom of speech.

Although Kucinich received few votes for president in the Texas primary, his presence on the ballot gives him the standing he needs to challenge the party’s requirements.

Anderson received only a few hundred votes in the 1999 gubernatorial race won by former Gov. Paul Patton in a landslide over Republican nominee Peppy Martin. But then he knew when he filed as a write-in candidate that he had no chance of winning.

However, his candidacy gave Anderson the legal standing he needed to successfully challenge Kentucky laws dictating the minimum distance from a polling place supporters must be on election day and determining when and how much money a candidate can raise in the month before an election. We’re convinced Anderson ran for governor that year just to challenge those election laws. After all, as a House member, his concerns about the constitutionality of those laws were ignored by his fellow legislators.

Anderson proved that even minority candidates can sometimes bring significant and needed changes. We expect Kucinich’s challenge ultimately will assign the Texas Democratic Party’s “loyalty oath” to the history books.

        

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