Columbus resident Damon Bingman will toss his bid in as the Libertarian Party candidate for Ohio Secretary of State in 2002.
“As Secretary of State, within the law, I will make it as easy as possible for minor political parties to get their party affiliation recognized by the state of Ohio,” Bingman said.
Bingman’s decision came in the wake of the recent lawsuit filed Sept. 21 in the 8th District Court of Appeals in Cleveland by the Libertarian Party of Ohio and John Hartman against Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.
The lawsuit disputes a one-year grace period which allows minor parties from polling the needed 5 percent of the total vote in the last general election of 2000 to keep their minor party status. The Libertarian Party of Ohio believes it falls into the one-year grace period because it filed its party petition less than a year before the 2000 election, allowing its ballot status to be determined by the next gubernatorial (governor) election in 2002.
“Fundamentally, I think it would open the door for the Libertarian Party and other minor parties by creating more competition,” Hartman said in defense to Blackwell’s attempts to keep him off the Lakewood City Council ballot as a Libertarian.
Three hearings have been held in the past month by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in order to decide whether Hartman can be placed on the ballot as a Libertarian.
The second hearing on Sept. 5 ended with a unanimous vote in favor of Hartman.
A third hearing was held on Sept. 12 after Blackwell wrote to the board and urged them to reconsider their decision. The vote ended in a 2-2 tie.
Blackwell holds constitutional authority in all tie-breakers because he serves as the fifth member on the Board of Elections in the event of a tie.
There was not a representative from the Secretary of State’s office present at any of the hearings.
James Lee, a spokesman from the Secretary of State’s office, said that because Libertarian Presidential candidate Harry Brown only polled 0.3 percent of the vote in the 2000 election, the Libertarian Party lost its minor party status.
“If candidates want the label of their party to appear next to their name on the ballot they have to have major or minor party status,” Lee said.
According to Lee, the Libertarian Party would have to circulate petitions and collect enough valid signatures which equals 1 percent of the total votes cast in the last gubernatorial election of 1998.
“It doesn’t make any sense to deal with the issue statewide. If I can collect enough signatures in the city of Lakewood, I should be able to run as a Libertarian on the ballot,” Hartman said.
At least 33,542 valid signatures would be needed for the Libertarian Party to regain their minor party status for the 2002 election.
“Even if our case wasn’t so obvious, that the Libertarian Party should be on the ballot in 2002, it’s despicable that the Secretary of State wants to work so hard to keep active informed citizens from becoming politically involved,” Bingman said.
Bingman, 29, originally from Marysville, earned an MBA from the University of Arkansas and a J.D. from Capital University Law School.
Before becoming a Libertarian in the spring of 2000, Bingman proclaimed himself to be an “apathetic Republican.”
“I realized that not everybody in this world was a white guy without any disabilities and we need to do something to help them. I’ve always been a person that believes in the Constitution and I discovered the Libertarian movement. The more I learned about it the more I got interested it,” Bingman said.
The Libertarian Party was founded in 1971 by David Nolan and is now the third largest political party in the country. The Libertarian Party is an organization that believes in the American heritage of freedom, enterprise and personal responsibility.
“Libertarianism is basically classical liberalism. It believes in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We believe that life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of property is all you need and the government oversteps its bounds and interferes,” Bingman said.
Bingman believes that it is important that all minor parties be recognized and he will seek support from the Green Party, Natural Law and Democratic Socialists.
“As your Secretary of State I won’t work to keep people and issues off the ballot. I’ll work hard to increase democracy and people’s involvement,” Bingman said.
