On February 28, Secretary of State Debra Bowen added Stephen Durham to the list of generally recognized candidates in the June 5 presidential primary. Now Peta Lindsay is the only candidate still excluded from the Peace and Freedom Party ballot.
Referring to the joint press conference and rally scheduled for February 29, Peace and Freedom Party State Chair C. T. Weber wrote:
… the Secretary of State added Stephen Durham to the list of generally recognized candidates. He was sent a letter today announcing Debra Bowen’s ruling. That will change the focus of the demonstration to putting Peta Lindsay on the ballot. I still think that we need to move forward with the media alert. FSP [Freedom Socialist Party] can claim victory but won’t be satisfied until Peta Lindsay is placed on the ballot. I think PSL [Party for Socialism and Liberation] must pursue a writ of mandate or other legal actions as possibly the only way to force Debra Bowen to put Peta Lindsay on the ballot.
Earlier in the afternoon a staff member in the Secretary of State’s office gave this explanation in an email to a reporter:
Since the list of generally recognized candidates was released on February 6, Stephen Durham mailed a Statement of Candidacy to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) postmarked on February 6, which was received by the FEC on February 10. Therefore, his name has been added to the list of generally recognized candidates: generally-recognized-president-2012.pdf.