 Fair was a State Senator and his friend Marshall was a Republican Party activist.Reneau had been a registered Democrat until switching to Republican on June 13, 1994, one month before filing to run, even though state law requires candidates to be a member of their party for at least six months prior to declaring themselves candidate.However, the only provision to remove a candidate for failing to meet the registration requirement is for another candidate for the same office to file a challenge within the two day protest period following the candidate registration deadline, and no one did so.