Aaron Sanderford
LINCOLN — The Legal Marijuana Now Party has decided it will put no name on the November ballot against Republican U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer and nonpartisan candidate Dan Osborn.
The close of business Tuesday was the party’s deadline to offer a name after its original nominee resigned. No replacement form was filed with the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office.
Mark Elworth Jr., who chairs the party, said Tuesday that the group chose not to run someone because supporters of Osborn and Kerry Eddy, the former nominee, threatened to sue.
“We don’t want to deal with it,” Elworth said. “We don’t fundraise. We have every right to run a candidate. We think Dan Osborn is dishonest.”
The party considered backing Ed Williams after Eddy, who won the party nomination in May, followed through on her pledge to quit the race and back Osborn if she thought he could win.
Some party members knew Williams from his work gathering signatures for the medical marijuana ballot initiatives.
Questions about party involvement
Some longer-tenured members of the Legal Marijuana Now Party argued that Eddy and a group of Osborn supporters took over their party to clear the ballot for him in his run against Fischer.
Fewer names on the ballot consolidate protest votes against incumbents, giving challengers a better chance to secure more votes.
Eddy has denied she ran for that reason. But she posted online during the primary that she might step aside for Osborn. She cited July polling as her reason for resigning.
Dustin Wahl, an Osborn campaign spokesman, said the campaign made no threats. He said the person who advised the party it couldn’t run another candidate was Eddy’s campaign treasurer.
Focus on letter
In a letter Elworth shared with the Examiner, Eddy treasurer John Cartier argued the party had flubbed how it handled a convention Aug. 14 to weigh whether to replace Eddy.
He wrote that the party had illegally kicked out 19 people who voted against adding a new candidate. Elworth said the party had adopted a rule disallowing Osborn and Eddy supporters to participate in the convention, sharing a party Facebook post from before the gathering as evidence.
Cartier wrote that the party or its members could face a lawsuit and possible prosecution for potentially falsifying election-related documents if it replaced Eddy on the ballot. In a follow-up call, Cartier said he was not threatening the group.
“Due to not receiving the proper amount of votes and illegally kicking off multiple party members … filing for Mr. Williams to replace Kerry Eddy would be invalid,” Cartier wrote.
The party’s decision leaves only Fischer and Osborn on the ballot, since the Nebraska Democratic Party also decided not to run a write-in candidate.
Fischer criticized Osborn during an interview Tuesday for “playing games” with the Legal Marijuana Now Party and the Democratic Party.
Elworth, in a follow-up text, said he is so angry at Osborn and his supporters for what happened to his party that he plans to vote for Fischer, who opposes legalizing marijuana.