Fresh off its designation last year as Colorado’s newest minor political party, the Unity Party of Colorado has set the date of its inaugural state assembly, where party members – they call themselves “Uniters” – plan to nominate candidates for the fall ballot.

So far, the party has candidates lined up for governor, Congress, the University of Colorado Board of Regents and the state House of Representatives.

After passing 1,000 members in Colorado last summer, the party joined the Libertarians, the Greens and the American Constitution Party as minor parties in the state and won the right to nominate candidates to the ballot instead of having to petition on. (The Democrats and Republicans are the state’s major parties, a status achieved because their gubernatorial nominees received at least 10 percent of the vote in the last election.)

The announced candidates include Bill Hammons, the party’s founder and chair of the state and national party, running for governor; Gary Swing, a former Green Party congressional candidate, running in the 1st Congressional District; Chris Otwell, running for CU regent at-large; and Scott Wagner, running for House District 43 in Douglas County.

In order to run on the Unity Party ticket in November, Colorado voters have to have registered with the party by Jan. 2. At the end of January, the party had 1,131 members on state voter rolls.

The party’s state assembly is scheduled 2-5 p.m. on Saturday, March 24, at the Lone Tree Library in Lone Tree. The agenda includes electing a treasurer for the party.

Founded in 2004, the party considers itself a centrist organization and supports a balanced federal budget, term limits for federal officials and judges and an end to gerrymandering. Its national platform also supports replacing the federal income tax with a tax “based on the carbon content of fossil fuels,” dropping the voting age to 16 and statehood for the District of Columbia. It operates in 37 states.