Indiana Senate candidate wants to keep 2 party nominations

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - A state Senate candidate wants to challenge an Indiana law that prevents him from appearing on the November ballot as the nominee of two political parties.

Gerard Arthus of Mishawaka won this month's Republican primary for the Senate District 10 seat after winning the Libertarian nomination during that party's state convention in April.

Brad King, Republican co-director of the Indiana Election Division, said state law requires Arthus to decide by July 15 under which party affiliation he wants to be listed. Otherwise, he will be listed as the Republican candidate since that nomination was decided by primary voters, King told the South Bend Tribune (http://bit.ly/1ONKkqL ).

A federal appeals court upheld Indiana's ballot law in 1997, King said. The lawsuit was filed after Marion County election officials restricted a man to one party affiliation after he won both the Republican and Libertarian nominations for a township board seat.

Arthus said he deliberately sought both nominations in order to challenge what he believes is the bias in state law toward the Republican and Democratic parties over Libertarian and other parties.

"For me, this is a whole process for me to expose the system for what it is," he said. "This is a way for the moneyed interests and two political parties to control the process. They're so deathly afraid that insiders are going to get knocked out, they're doing everything they can do to knock out people who don't toe the party line."

Democratic state Rep. David Niezgodski of South Bend is his party's nominee in the heavily Democratic district, which covers much of South Bend and Mishawaka.

Arthus said he will act as his own attorney and intends to file a lawsuit in federal court as soon as the Indiana Election Division takes action to drop his Libertarian Party line from the ballot.

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Information from: South Bend Tribune, http://www.southbendtribune.com