California Independent Gubernatorial Candidate To File Preliminary Paperwork

Ballot Access News:

Frederic von Anholt says he will file paperwork on February 18 with the California Secretary of State, in preparation for for his independent candidacy for Governor. The petitioning period does not begin until April and runs through August. He will need 173,041 valid signatures, due August 6. See this story.

As noted earlier, if he qualifies, he will be California’s first independent candidate for Governor to have his name printed on a government-printed ballot. Although two gubernatorial candidates have used the California independent procedures in the past, neither was a true independent. Ed Clark was the Libertarian nominee in 1978, and he used the independent procedure because the Libertarian Party wasn’t on the ballot. Theodore Bell used the independent procedure in 1918, but he was the Democratic Party’s nominee. The 1918 Democratic Party primary had left the party with no nominee, so the party backed Bell and used the independent procedure. The problem the Democrats had in 1918 was that the man who won the Democratic nomination was a registered Republican, but he had also run in the Republican primary and had lost that primary. California law at the time permitted fusion, but someone who lost his own primary but won the primary of another party was excluded from the general election ballot.