This article was originally published in Partisan issue no. 25, printed May 2008.

The Peace and Freedom Party’s California State Convention in Sacramento on August 2 and 3 [2008] will decide who goes on the ballot as the party’s nominees for President and Vice President. The delegates will be the members of the incoming State Central Committee elected in the June 3 primary election.

It appears that between 80 and 90 Central Committee members will be elected. A hot write-in contest has developed in nine districts statewide between candidates who favor different potential nominees. For further information on the candidates, and lists of write-in candidates for Central Committee, go to the party’s state webside at www.peaceandfreedom.org.

As write-in votes are counted slowly, many winners of Central Committee races may not be known until early July.

Other candidates may be nominated at the convention, but all the pre-convention speculation has revolved around the four candidates who present their cases here.

The results of the presidential preference primary, held in February this year, are not binding on the convention. In that primary the vote percentages, rounded off to the nearest whole number, were 41% for Nader, 21% for Mckinney, 20% for La Riva, and 11% combined for Moore and Alexander, with 6% for John Crockford and less than 2% for Stanley Hetz.