Kucinich Sues To Get On Texas Ballot Claiming “Loyalty Oath” Unlawful
By Vince Leibowitz on Jan 3, 2008 in 2008 Presidential Race ![[Post to Twitter]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
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I haven’t seen this reported anywhere except on the Houston Chronicle’s Texas politics blog, but it does explain the strange absence of Dennis Kucinich from the 2008 Democratic Primary Ballot in Texas, given the number of his supporters who were quite vocal at the 2004 convention:
State Democratic Party spokeswoman Amber Moon said the party didn’t accept presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich’s filing to be on the party ballot because he had altered the oath that that is on the application.
The oath, in part, requires a presidential candidate to pledge to support the Democratic nominee, “whoever that shall be.”
Kucinich scratched through that part.
Moon said that Kucinich’s campaign, when contacted, indicated that he would sign it on the condition that the nominee pledge not to use war as part of foreign relations.
Moon said the chairman doesn’t have authority to allow such a change, since the application is approved by the State Democratic Executive Committee and the Democratic National Committee. She said Kucinich didn’t resubmit his filing by the deadline.
“We want to open the political process to as many people as possible. … but we also have to follow the party rules,” Moon said.
But that’s not the end of it.
Kucinich, joined by supporter Willie Nelson, went to federal district court in Austin to challenge the requirement that candidates sign what the legal complaint calls “a loyalty oath.”
I’m just guessing here, but if the “oath” is unique to Texas (and I don’t know if it is), then it probably dates back to the days when Alan Shivers was splintering the Democratic Party for Eisenhower over the Tidelands issue.
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