Shades of Arlen Specter or "Jumpin' Jim" Jeffords.

With the number of candidates for the U.S. Senate nomination on the GOP side climbing over a dozen, perennial candidate Corrogan Vaughn made a surprise move to bypass a primary by dropping out of the crowded U.S. Senate field and perhaps securing the Green Party nod - for Governor.

Obviously the Green Party will have to allow him the nomination, and whether they can reconcile their views with some of Vaughn's platform planks like "drilling our own oil & gas, on and off-shore, for energy independence" and "building safe nuclear energy plants" remains to be seen.

But Vaughn's meager vote-gathering within the Republican Party could be enough to keep the Green Party viable for another cycle. If he can get more than 1% of the vote for Governor the Greens would qualify for another cycle, and perhaps the Green Party may be banking on the appeal Vaughn has to certain conservatives and sheer name recognition from frequent ballot appearances for the Faustian bargain of avoiding the petitioning process for at least part of the 2011-14 cycle.

(Under "Retention of Status" Maryland election law states, "if the political party has nominated a candidate for the highest office on the ballot in a statewide general election, and the candidate receives at least 1% of the total vote for that office, the political party shall retain its status through December 31 in the year of the next following general election.")

It's another chapter in the history of this perennial candidate, and we'll see if ballot access is a "Proven Deal" for the Greens come November.