A retired University of Maryland faculty member is at the heart of an effort to get a new “socialistic” party, called Bread and Roses, on the November ballot to run against longtime Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin.
Jerome Segal, 74, ran as a Democrat against Cardin in the June primary. He received 20,027 votes compared to Cardin’s 477,441.
Segal wants to get his name on the general election ballot for November as the Bread and Roses nominee, but he faces an uphill legal battle.
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A state law, often referred to as the “sore loser law,” bars candidates who lose in the primary from filing to run in the general with a different party or as an independent.
Meanwhile, the party itself is 227 signatures short of making the ballot, with state officials rejecting more than 1,000 signatures because they lacked middle name information. The party must collect 10,000 signatures to be listed on ballots.
Earlier this month, Segal filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging both the middle name requirement and the sore loser law. He said the standard “serves no purpose,” and the law “denies voters their constitutional right to vote for the candidate that reflects their views.”
Segal filed a preliminary injunction aiming for a court order to get him a slot on the ballot while the case is being decided. His motion was denied, though, setting up an emergency motion in the fourth circuit court of appeals.
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He’s working against a tight timeline. The state board of elections schedule says that ballot printing could have begun Sept. 17.
Segal’s court filings also address the financial harm he’d face if his candidacy isn’t reconsidered.
“If Segal does not appear on the ballot for the November election, Segal For Senate is a defunct organization, with no opportunity to raise money and no opportunity to repay its financial debt to Dr. Segal,” court documents read.
Segal donated $1,163,189 of his own funds to his campaign for the primary election, and he received $13,442 from individual donations, according to campaign finance reports tracked by Open Secrets, an independent and nonprofit research group.
Segal is challenging Cardin largely for his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Segal said he’s against Cardin’s alliance with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Cardin sparked controversy last year when he sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which would prohibit American companies from participating in the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions campaign against Israel. AIPAC welcomed the bill, along with officials from the Anti-Defamation League, but the ACLU argued it would violate the First Amendment and threatened to sue if it became law.
“[Cardin] takes [AIPAC’s] priorities and turns them into legislation, or they work it out together, and his bills become … one of their top three lobbying items,” Segal said. “No one has ever picked out an AIPAC lieutenant before and said, ‘Hold it! We’re going to show there is a price. We’re going to run against you.'”
Cardin said in a statement from spokesperson Sue Walitsky that he’s running on behalf of all Marylanders.
“I am proud of my record of success and I continue to fight every day on behalf of my fellow Marylanders, promoting policies, legislation and programs that help our local and regional economy, encouraging public safety and supporting public health.
The Bread and Roses party ideals include focusing on beauty, gratefulness, cultural transformation, and the humanities.
“It’s really the first simple living party … in 50 years,” he said.
Sydney Poretsky, the president of this university’s College Democrats chapter, said the party’s close call when it comes to making the ballot could reflect dissatisfaction among Marylanders.
“Ben Cardin’s pretty popular, and I think that he’s going to win this re-election, but … [Segal] only needs a couple hundred signatures to get to the point where he could get on the ballot,” Poretsky said. “I think that shows how people are feeling.”
Ben Colebrook, the president of the university’s College Republicans chapter, said he thinks the Bread and Roses party is “a little bit unrealistic for America.”
“Unfortunately, we have a two-party system,” he said. “I commend … the idea of having more parties, I think it’s a stride that we should take, but I don’t think there’s really any realistic chances of the Bread and Roses Party being a popular party.”
