Buchanan on California Ballot as Reform Choice

Pat Buchanan is back to stay on California’s presidential ballot as the Reform Party’s nominee, the secretary of state decided Thursday. His name had been removed while election officials sorted out the conflict between Buchanan and his rival, John Hagelin.

Hagelin will still appear on California’s ballot but as the Natural Law Party’s candidate. On Thursday at Natural Law’s convention in Alexandria, Va., Hagelin accepted the nomination of that party, which is now allied with the Reform faction that backed him over Buchanan.

Other states’ election officials are still deciding how Buchanan and Hagelin will appear on their November ballots, if at all.

In Colorado, Hagelin will be the Reform Party nominee, with Buchanan as the Colorado Freedom Party nominee, the state decided Wednesday. Buchanan’s supporters have promised an appeal.

Michigan’s secretary of state rejected both candidates because of “discrepancies” over who is the rightful chairman of the state’s Reform Party.

In South Carolina, the election commission said Buchanan would be listed. In North Carolina, the state Reform Party sued to stop the Board of Elections from printing ballots with Buchanan as the Reform nominee. A hearing is scheduled for today.

Buchanan won a drawing last week to appear on Iowa’s ballot and he challenged a drawing that Hagelin won in Montana. On Thursday, a judge approved a settlement that places Buchanan on Montana’s ballot as the Reform nominee and Hagelin as Natural Law’s nominee.

Hagelin, a physicist from Iowa, sought the Reform nomination in early August at the party’s convention in Long Beach. Buchanan, formerly a Republican, defeated him by a nearly 2-to-1 margin in a primary ballot count, but the anti-Buchanan delegates declared the process fraudulent and stormed out. They then held their own convention across the street and nominated Hagelin.