Could It Be The End for the Constitution Party?

Ballot Access News is reporting:

On May 5, Ed Noonan, state chair of the American Independent Party of California, changed the state party’s webpage to show that Chuck Baldwin is the party’s presidential nominee. The AIP is the California affiliate of the Constitution Party, which nominated Baldwin last month in Kansas City.However, Noonan told me on the telephone on May 7 that he still will work to nominate Alan Keyes as the presidential candidate of the American Independent Party. Noonan feels that Keyes would run a more vigorous campaign than Baldwin will. The AIP state convention will make the decision in Sacramento in June.

For the uninformed, what makes the Constitution Party different is that its party is not known by the same name from state to State, particularly in regards to its Presidential Candidate. For example, in Alaska, the Constitution Party nominee is the nominee of the Alaska Independence Party. Anyway, the American Independent Party has been around since 1967 and it makes up most of the Constitution Party’s claimed membership.

According to Wikipedia, many people theorize the way the AIP achieved its 315,000 person membership is that many people accidentally register with the party thinking they’re registering as Independents. There appears to be the case, as its Gubernatorial candidate got less than 70,000 votes. If AIP of California chooses to back Keyes over Baldwin, it’s a huge blow. The Constitution Party will not be able to meet California’s ballot access requirements and will be left off California’s ballot, where Michael Peroutka won 26,000 of his 150,000 votes.

On top of this, Alan Keyes supporters are trying to start their own third party , which will sap the CP effort and many traditional supporters who aren’t Ron Paul people.

That the Constitution Party has for the last four elections survived with a candidate on enough ballots to win the President with 1) next to no money, 2) limited state and national organization, 3)never gaining more than 1/4 of a percent of the vote nationwide, and 4) leadership that could best be described as “no talent hacks” with a penchant for intolerance, splits, and throwing people under the bus suggests that getting a third party started and on the ballot is not nearly as complicated as finding someone competent to run it.