Arizona Daily Sun from Flagstaff, Arizona • 3

I ARIZONA Arizona Daily Sun www.azdailysun.com Sunday, Sj)UmlMr 24, 2(KH) A3 Libertarian candidate kicked off ballot Rare-plant conference convenes Monday the necessary nominating papers 10 days after the September primary. Now, however, they have to file and submit petitions with nearly 10,000 names for statewide office 90 days before the primary, a date that this year fell on June 14. Chris Raboin, who represents Browne and supporters, acknowledged Browne knew in June about the schism within the Arizona Libertarian Party and the possibility the, local organization would reject the official nominee. Raboin said, though, Browne saw no reason to begin circulating nominating petitions to run as an independent because the Libertarians had not held their own national convention and Browne was far from a shoo-in to get the nomination. After the convention Browne submitted nominating petitions here on Aug.

17, which were rejected. Raboin told Broomfield a filing deadline of 146 days before the general election is an unconstitutional and unnecessary restriction on access to the ballot. He cited in 1983 U.S. Supreme Court decision, voiding an early filing deadline in another state. He also pointed out that the parties do not yet have their nominees by June 14 but only a slate of electoral delegates.

Yet the state lets them add the names of their standard-bearers later. Assistant Attorney General Joseph Kanefield the change is because larger counties use optical scanning devices, which note where voters place their marks on the page to correspond to the names of candidates. Kanefield said these ballots need to be printed as early as posable, especially with a large number of Arizonans voting by mail, arguing it is virtually impossible to insert a new candidate after the ballot has been laid out. In fact, Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne testified it would be physically impossible now to have ballots be reprinted and have them ready for the start of early voting on Oct. 5.

Broomfield agreed. He also noted that Raboin had filed a similar unsuccessful lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court. John Buttrick, a long-time member of the Arizona Libertarian Party, said the spat with the national party has its roots in a 5-year-old schism within two elements of the state party. A judge here has recognized the traditional group as the rightful owners of the party name and resources. The national party, however, chose last year to back the splinter faction and the delegates from the state-recognized party were not seated at the convention this year in Anaheim, Calif.

In turn, the party here, with its right to determine who is the legal presidential nominee, listed Smith instead of Browne. Its bad blood piled upon bad blood, said Buttrick, with the state recognizing one entity while the national Libertarian Party recognizes another. By HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services PHOENIX Voters across the nation will be able to cast ballots on Nov. 7 for Libertarian Party nominee Harry Browne everywhere but Arizona, that is. A federal judge has rejected efforts by Browne and his supporters to have his name on the ballot here.

Judge Robert C. Broomfield said Brownes challenge to Arizona election laws came too late, what with ballots already being printed in some counties. But Broomfield sidestepped the thornier legal question of whether a June 14 filing deadline, set by Arizona lawmakers for those who want to run as independents, is illegal discrimination. That date comes a month before the major political parties have their conventions and choose their candidates, making a challenge in reaction to those options impossible here. The reason Browne needs to run as an independent here is the state Libertarian Party, in a snit with its national organization, refused to put Brownes name into its slot on the Arizona ballot.

Instead, the official Libertarian candidate for president here will be science fiction writer L. Neil Smith, someone not on the ballot 1 anywhere else in the country. At the heart of the lawsuit is a change made by Arizona lawmakers in 1993. Until then, anyone who wanted to' run as an independent could file ing current research on genetics, ecology, distribution, population monitoring and strategies for protecting rare and endangered plants in the Southwest. The conference is sponsored by The Arboretum at Flagstaff, Northern Arizona University, the U.S.

Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experimental Station. On Sept. 28, four field trips to see rare plans will be offered to the following locations: the West Fork of Oak Creek; Marble Canyon Rim, Navajo Nation; Sunset Crater and Wupatki; and the Verde Valley. All trips depart from the duBois Conference Center at noon.

Pre-payment and pre-registration is required. More information is available by calling The Arboretum at Flagstaff at (520) 774-1442. On the Net: www.thea rb.org The Third Southwestern Rare and Endangered Plant Conference will begin Monday Sept. 25-Sept. 28 at the duBois Conference Center at Northern Arizona University.

Two keynote addresses, will be open to the public as part of the annual Flagstaff Festival of Science. Nancy Morin, executive director of The Arboretum at Flagstaff, will address Regional, National and International Plant Conservation What do they mean for the Southwest? at 5 p.m. Monday in the duBois conference center ballroom. Don Falk, of the Society for Ecological Restoration and Science and Policy Office at the University of Arizona will speak on Beyond Conservation: the Future of Plant Diversity in a Crowded World at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the conference center ballroom.

The conference will feature more than 50 oral and poster presentations detail pNEWSBriefs Highway closures Traffic near the Interstate 40 and 17 interchange will be disrupted this week as construction of a new interchange bridge continues. Arizona Department of Transportation reported the following temporary closures: The northbound lanes of 1-17 will be closed Monday from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Motorists northbound on 1-17 should take Exit 337, the Pulliam Airport exit, where they can take State Route 89A into Flagstaff. Exit 340A, northbound 1-17 to east-bound 1-40, will stay open.

The 1-17 southbound to 1-40 eastbound loop ramp will be closed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. Signs will provide detour directions. Southbound 1-17 lanes at the 1-40 interchange will be closed i a.m.

to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Southbound motorists can take 1-40 westbound to Flagstaff Ranch Road, then get on 1-40 east-bound to reach southbound 1-17 lanes. Detours will be clearly marked. Will Rogers grandson found dead CLAREMORE, Okla.

(AP) The grandson of Oklahoma humorist Will Rogers was found dead in his Tucson, home Saturday, officials with the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore said. Family members discovered Clem Adair Rogers when they went over to his house to pick him up for his sons 19th birthday party, said Michelle Lafebvre, a Will Rogers Memorial spokeswoman. Rogers is believed to have been dead since Thursday. Authorities have not determined a time or cause of death, Lafebvre said. Rogers was bom Shazzie Endischee on Dec.

22, 1938, on a remote Navajo reservation in northern Arizona. His teen-age parents, Paul and Linda Endischee, both died of tuberculosis shortly after the birth of Rogers sister. Rogers was living at an American Indian school when Will Rogers and his wife, Collier, adopted him and changed his name to Clem Rogers. Will Rogers Jr. moved his family to California, where Clem Rogers spent the rest of his childhood living on an estate in Culver City.

He graduated from 29 Palms High School in 29 Palms, in 1958, and later attended the University of Arizona. I "For good value in car insurance unth invaluable good neighbor service, see. me." See State Farm Agent: Allen Edgar 520774-0657 1515 Cedar Avenue Suite A-4 ORE! iXil, Career Opportunities Are Available! Check Dillanjt.com tor great oba, or check your local Dillard' atore location. fMl Oppyrhtnir, Employ, tlo eerie byttorClImi adjustment wM hfrixm aaeaonet tKoept phone or nl order mtcie Sue Farm Muoa! Aummnbile Insurance Company (not in NJ) Sue fam Indemnity Company iNJ) Home Offices: Btoomrofon. lumon rtitefann.com Shop Monday-Saturday 10-9 and Sunday 12-6 in Flagstaff at Flagstaff Mall.

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