If Fox News anchors are right (they're not) and Barack Obama is secretly a socialist (he isn't), the president sure is doing a pretty shitty job spreading his collectivist creed in the Sunshine State. On Friday, for instance, Florida's Secretary of State informed the Socialist Workers Party that it would not be on the ballot for the first time in 16 years.
But all is not lost, comrades. SWP senatorial candidate Naomi Craine is holding a rally tomorrow to protest the decision. "This is an attack on the democratic right of working people in this state," she says. "My campaign demands the state reverse its decision."
Craine says she learned of the decision to block the party from the ballot on Friday. She wasn't actually going to be on the ballot (Craine is a write-in candidate), but the decision did scratch the SWP's national ticket of James Harris and Maura DeLuca.
Riptide left a message with Florida's Elections Division. If we hear back from them, we will update.
Craine blames Rick Scott for ballot-blocking her party. Aside from unconstitutionally restricting voter registration and curtailing early voting, Scott's 2011 election law narrowed the definition of "a national political party" (like the SWP) to one that is registered with the Federal Elections Commission as a "national committee."
The SWP doesn't meet the new criteria, and so was dropped from Florida ballots.
Craine is holding a meeting Saturday night at 5 p.m. at SWP headquarters (719 NE 79th Street) to denounce the decision.
"We are consulting our attorneys about any legal steps we can take on this," she says. "We're not a frivolous party."
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