Will Don Blankenship make the ballot despite WV’s sore loser law?

Blankenship launches third-party bid for West Virginia Senate seat, faces likely legal challenge to candidacy Blankenship launches third-party bid for West Virginia Senate seat, faces likely legal challenge to candidacy Former coal baron Don Blankenship, who came in third in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in West Virginia with 20 percent of the vote, announced yesterday he would run in the general election as the Constitution Party nominee. He will likely have to fight for his candidacy in the courts before he faces Patrick Morrisey (R) and incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin (D) in November. West Virginia has a "sore loser law" which prohibits a candidate who lost a major party primary from running for the same seat again as a third-party or independent candidate. Blankenship said, "Although the establishment will likely begin their efforts against us by mounting a legal challenge to my candidacy, we are confident that — if challenged — our legal position will prevail, absent a politically motivated decision by the courts." Richard Winger, noted ballot access expert, commented over the weekend that the new “sore loser law” that was signed into law in March will not take effect until June, 90 days after it was signed. “Whether the old law would block him is not clear,” said Winger. He foreshadowed his run in a web video criticizing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who he accused of improperly intervening in the election during the primary. "As for Mitch's thanking Don Blankenship for playing in what Mitch considers his Senate sandbox, Don has not quit playing in it, yet," the narrator says. [Learn more]( [Forward This](mailto:?&cc=info@Ballotpedia.org&subject=Check out this info I found from Ballotpedia&body= [blank][Tweet This]( [blank][blank][Send to Facebook]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [blank] St. Louis Park, Minn., adopts ranked-choice voting for municipal elections The St. Louis Park City Council voted unanimously to approve a city charter amendment earlier this month that establishes a system of ranked-choice voting (RCV) for municipal elections, making St. Louis Park the third city in Minnesota to enact RCV for municipal elections (after Minneapolis and St. Paul). Implementation is expected to occur in the November 2019 municipal election. The amendment provides for the use of RCV in elections for mayor and city council members. In 2017, the city council voted to eliminate primary elections in municipal races, paving the way for the implementation of RCV. [Seven states contain cities that have implemented RCV in municipal elections. Another three states contain cities that have adopted but not yet implemented RCV in municipal elections.] In 2016, Maine voters approved a ballot initiative providing for the use of RCV in primary and general elections for federal and state offices, making Maine the first state to adopt RCV at the state level. Stay tuned for Maine’s first statewide primary with RCV on June 12. [Learn more→]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Election Day: Texas primary runoffs & primaries in Arkansas, Georgia, and Kentucky Here are some races we paying close attention to tonight: - [Texas’ 7th Congressional District D primary→]( - [Texas’ 21st Congressional District R primary→]( - [Georgia’s gubernatorial primaries](→ - [Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District D primary→]( [We will be tracking results all evening here]( → See you tonight! Ballotpedia depends on the support of our readers. The Lucy Burns Institute, publisher of Ballotpedia, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible to the extent of the law. Donations to the Lucy Burns Institute or Ballotpedia do not support any candidates or campaigns. [Please click here to support our work→]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Follow on Twitter]( [Friend on Facebook]( Copyright © 2018, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Ballotpedia 8383 Greenway Blvd Suite 600 Middleton, WI 53562 Decide which emails you want from Ballotpedia. [Unsubscribe]( or [update subscription preferences](.