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Constitution Party Gains an Alabama Elected Public Official

By Jed Ziggler on January 15, 2015 11:19 AM

From Richard Winger at Ballot Access News:

William Cantley, a city councilman in Riverside, Alabama, has left the Republican Party and joined the Constitution Party. Riverside has a population of 2,000 and is in St. Clair County, in the northeast part of the state. Alabama does not have registration by party, so party membership is largely a matter of declarations by individuals. Riverside has non-partisan city elections. Thanks to Frank Fluckiger for this news.

Jed Ziggler

Jed Ziggler is a Libertarian and alternative party activist from Pennsylvania. Email news tips to [email protected]

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12 Comments

  1. Martin Passoli January 19, 2015

    True, and you can also qualify by legislative or congressional district, or indeed any district that has a partisan race. But that would not help someone if he is, as speculated above, “angling for a statewide ticket spot.” He could at best qualify for county commission or a countywide office such as Coroner, Sheriff or Revenue Commissioner, and it would take the same number of signatures to qualify as a Constitution Party candidate for any of those offices as it would to qualify as an independent non-partisan candidate — as would be the case statewide as well.

  2. Peter Gemma January 19, 2015

    The Alabama ballot access roadblocks are made easier because you can qualify county by county.

  3. Martin Passoli January 18, 2015

    The Alabama CP, or at least its chair and some of the more active members, are a lot close to Libertarian than Riley Hood. Some of them could probably be pro-life Libertarians. They’re a lot more Chuck Baldwin/Darrell Castle than Virgil Goode or Michael Peroutka or even Howard Phillips types.

  5. paulie January 17, 2015

    Well, he’d better have a hundred grand or more he can spare then, or some very good friends or both, and that’s just to get on the ballot. If he thinks the CP will do it for him…good luck.

  6. mARS January 17, 2015

    That’s why I used the word angling. I don’t think it will happen, but they at least managed to get ballot access in Marshall County. In addition, this guy is a both a bit nuts and an opportunist (which I know from personal experience), so a bid for Governor/Lt.Governor/SoS/Treasurer/Auditor/Ag. Commissioner/PSC/whatever wouldn’t surprise me.

  7. paulie January 16, 2015

    And bear in mind this is one of their more active states…but still…it’s basically a pipe dream unless we get a break on the legislative front and a huge reach even if we do.

  8. Cody Quirk January 16, 2015

    “If the CP has six figures to blow on ballot access in Alabama, or the ability to get about 60,000 raw as volunteers, it’s news to me.”

    LMAO!

  9. paulie January 15, 2015

    For anyone who doesn’t know, Alabama has some of the hardest ballot access requirements, and by far the worrst retention, in the US. We do have a much easier method for presidential candidates only – without party label – so national parties don’t have much incentive to help our state parties get on for anything else.

    The LP did it once, in 2000. Other than that we have had no full party ballot status since the law was made worse for any alt party.

    If the CP has six figures to blow on ballot access in Alabama, or the ability to get about 60,000 raw as volunteers, it’s news to me.

  10. paulie January 15, 2015

    That’s a very, very big assumption.

  11. mARS January 15, 2015

    Wouldn’t surprise me if he is angling for a statewide ticket spot (assuming the ALCP’s statewide ballot access attempts are successful).

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