Posted on 10/28/2003 6:17:03 PM PST by yonif
A congressional candidate who took a "political vow of poverty" tried to convince a federal appeals court Tuesday that Delaware's $3,000 fee to run in the Democratic primary allows only the rich, or those who accept campaign contributions, to seek political office. Democrat Steve Biener sued the state and the party in June, arguing that the fee _ the second highest in the nation for a congressional race _ is too high a hurdle for low-budget candidates.
"That fee is there to discourage people from challenging incumbents," Biener said.
Lawyers for the state defended the fee in Philadelphia on Tuesday before a three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
Under Delaware's system, filing fees are set and collected by political parties, and only apply to people who run in a party primary. The state waives all fees for candidates poor enough to qualify for federal aid programs, like Medicaid.
Candidates may also bypass the fee by skipping the primary and running as an unaffiliated candidate in the general election. In that case, the fee is replaced by a requirement that the candidate collect nominating signatures from 1 percent of all registered voters.
Those procedures assure that someone will not be excluded from the ballot because of their income, Deputy Attorney General C. Drue Chichi said.
"Nobody is requiring that Mr. Biener have $3,000, or any money at all," Chichi said.
Biener's ability to pay isn't at issue. An attorney by trade, he earned more than $176,000 last year and lives in a $430,000 home in Wilmington. He ultimately paid the fee and is now seeking to have it reimbursed.
But Biener, who was narrowly defeated in the primary in September, said he objected on principal. He said he should not have to quit the Democratic party or be forced to accept money from donors to run for office.
His attorney, Charles Wampold, argued that while the state has a legitimate interest in limiting access to the ballot, high fees are not the best way to weed out frivolous candidates.
The 3rd Circuit did not announce when it might decide the case.
In a similar suit, the court ruled in September that Pennsylvania's practice of charging all candidates fees to get on the ballot in a general election is unconstitutional.
In that case, the court said Pennsylvania had not provided two Green Party candidates an alternative way to get on the ballot when they could not afford the $100 and $200 fees to run for state representative and attorney general.
Both the Delaware and Pennsylvania suits were supported by the National Voting Rights Institute, which has been involved in a number of cases seeking to make it easier for people to run for elective office without the backing of a major party.
I'm glad this loon is their loon.
Might be a reflection on the success of his law practice. I would also wonder how he could afford to go to Law School?
In my opinion it should be higher. In California, we charged a $3,500.00 filing fee in the recall, and we still got about 200 looney tunes to sign up. We should have made it $35,000 and really made them think if they wanted to be on the ballot.
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