This may be of interest to the Californians on the
list.  California's Republican Secretary of State,
Bruce McPherson, seems on the verge of re-interpreting
the California law defining "qualified political
party", to eliminate the state's Peace & Freedom
Party.

The basic structure of the California definition of
"political party" has not changed since 1929. 
California lets a party qualify for the ballot by
either submitting a petition, or by registration
voters equal to 1% of the last gubernatorial vote
cast.

Although the law isn't clear (sec. 5100), it has
consistenly been interpreted, since 1929, to mean that
once a party qualifies, it remains qualified until it
fails either one of the two retention tests.  The two
tests are (1) polling 2% of the vote for any statewide
office in a gubernatorial election year; (2) keeping
its registration above one-fifteenth of 1%.

The idea that a party, once qualified, remains
qualified until it fails either test, was applied in
1934 to leave the Liberty Party on the ballot; in 1950
to leave the Progressive Party on the ballot; in 1970
to leave the Peace & Freedom Party on the ballot; and
in 1998 to leave the Natural Law Party on the ballot.

Peace & Freedom was qualified 1968-1998.  It went off
in 1998 because it failed the 2% vote test.  It came
back on in 2003 by a registration drive, but since
then its registration has sagged again, although it is
well above the one-fifteenth of 1%.

McPherson seems to have made up his mind that since
PFP doesn't have enough registrants to qualify as a
new party, and since it didn't poll 2% for any
statewide race in 2002 (an obvious point, since it
wasn't on the ballot in 2002), therefore it is
disqualified.  His tentative ruling is unfair because
it reverses 75 years of precedent.  If the party had
known he was going to reverse those old precedents,
earlier, it could have increased its registration up
to the level needed by a new party.

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