[EL] Party and candidate rights in state-funded primary elections

[Salvador Peralta]

Greetings,
I am the Secretary of the Independent Party of Oregon, a ballot qualified major political party in the state of Oregon.  (read history here: http://ivn.us/2015/09/14/grassroots-movement-major-party-brief-history-independent-party-oregon/ )
In Oregon, the distinction between major and minor party is that it is essentially the demarcation point for determining whether political parties are obliged to conduct their own nominating process (minor parties) or whether they are obliged to participate in the state primary election (major parties).
Since the Independent Party of Oregon has no national affiliation, I do not see a meaningful way for the party to participate in the Presidential nominating process.  Additionally, the party is narrowly focused on state-level issues rather than federal issues and its model is to recruit candidates for the state legislature and local office rather than for federal offices such as US Congress, Senate and President.
In Oregon, major party candidates running for any partisan office are required to file an application with the Secretary of State, which has the administrative responsibility for determining whether the candidate is qualified to run for office in the district she is seeking, for ensuring the completeness and timeliness of candidate applications, and for enforcing the rules surrounding candidate placement on the ballot for elections that are administered by Oregon's county clerks.
My question is whether there is any federally recognized legal right for a political party to choose not to field *any* candidates for certain public offices?  Alternately, can a state force a political party to run candidates in certain offices?  
Assuming that a political party bylaws or rules states that it will not field candidates for some set of offices (President or all federal offices, for example), is there any associational right or other constitutional or statutory basis for a political party to instruct the Secretary of State that it is declining to participate in the Presidential election or all federal offices.
All of this assumes that no candidate is currently filed to run for these offices.

Any thoughts, suggestions, relevant case history would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards,
Sal Peralta
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